Molly Crabapple got her start drawing at underground burlesque shows, and became a journalist on the frontlines of Occupy Wall Street. She has reported with words and art from Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Greek refugee camps, the US-Mexican border, and Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, for places like The New York Times, New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker. Her work has been nominated for a National Book Award and three Emmys. She's done animations with AOC and Jay Z and her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Most recently, she was a 2024 Cullman Center fellow at the New York Public Library.