Early Man Was a Woman

Ulli Lust, born in Vienna in 1967, is an award-winning comic artist and illustrator. The German edition of this book, published in 2025, won that year’s €25,000 German Nonfiction Prize, awarded by Germany’s publishers and booksellers association—the first time a graphic-format book was awarded the prize.Ulli Lust’s graphic memoir Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life garnered international acclaim and won the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Ignatz Award. Her subsequent books include How I Tried to Be a Good Person and Voices in the Dark, based on the novel by Marcel Beyer.She teaches drawing and comics at the Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Elizabeth Lauffer is a German-English literary translator based in the US. She has also translated Does My Child Need Me to Lead or to Follow? by Claudia Schwarzlmüller for The Experiment.

"International BestsellerWinner of the 2025 German Nonfiction PrizePublished in More Than 10 LanguagesPraise for the German edition of Early Man Was a Woman"The time has long since arrived when such books must be written. Ulli Lust captivates readers and draws them deeply into the social life of early humans . . . [creating] a compelling mix for reflection on our understanding of ‘womanhood.’"

• The ShameSocial Behavior in Great ApesDaughters and Sons of the First HumansToday Everything is DifferentA Snake in ParadiseThe Human ColorCold GrasslandThe First SculptorsHuman BonesMammothsHuntersTide