Shortly before her thirtyth birthday, Ellen Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She published Eisner Award-nominated comic books I Love Led Zeppelin and Monkey Food: The Complete I Was Seven in '75 Collection, and collaborated with Sherman Alexie on the National Book Award-winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. She is an instructor at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, where she teaches comics.