Cartoonist/writer Lynda Barry discusses her new book, Picture This: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book, on Tuesday, January 25 at 7:30 pm at Unity Temple, 875 Lake Street in Oak Park. Admission is $10 - each ticket can be redeemed for $10 off the cover price of Picture This at the event. Tickets can be purchased at The Book Table, 1045 Lake Street in Oak Park or online at www.booktable.net.

Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator, and teacher and found they are very much alike. She is the inimitable creator behind the seminal comic strip that was syndicated across North America in alternative weeklies for two decades, Ernie Pook's Comeek featuring the incomparable Marlys and Freddy. Barry is also the author of numerous books, including One! Hundred! Demons!, The! Greatest! of! Marlys!, Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies!, and Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel. The Good Times are Killing Me was adapted as an off-Broadway play and won the Washington State Governor's Award.

Lynda Barry single-handedly created a literary genre all her own, the graphic memoir/how-to, otherwise known as the bestselling, the acclaimed, but most important, the adored and the inspirational What It Is. The award-winning book posed, explored, and answered the question: "Do you wish you could write?" Now with Picture This, Barry asks: "Do you wish you could draw?" It features the return of Barry's most beloved character, Marlys, and introduces a new one, the Near-sighted Monkey. Like What It Is, Picture This is an inspirational, take-home extension of Barry's traveling, continually sold-out, and sought-after workshop, "Writing the Unthinkable." "Writing the Unthinkable" is based on a tried-and-true creative method that is playful, powerful, and accessible to anyone with an inquisitive wish to write or remember. Lynda explores the depths of the inner and outer realms of creation and imagination, where play can be serious, monsters have purpose, and not knowing is an answer unto itself.

This special event with Lynda Barry on January 25 is co-sponsored by The Friends of the Oak Park Public Library, Unity Temple Restoration Foundation, The Book Table, and Midwest Media.