Near-sighted Monkeys

How do you beat writer's block? Do you thrash your head against the wall? Down a fifth of Jack and start muttering atonal Bob Dylan songs? Do you give up and start selling insurance? Next time a blank page inspires a panic attack, try doodling. That's the advice of famed writer/cartoonist Lynda Barry, who appears this Sunday at the Miami Book Fair. In her latest graphic memoir, Picture This: The Near-Sighted Monkey Book, Barry writes: "The worst thing I can do when I'm stuck is to start thinking and stop moving my hands." The book, published by Montreal-based Drawn & Quarterly, is the story of two monkeys, one of which -- the Near-Sighted Monkey -- is Barry's alter-ego. Barry is such a believer that the visual part of you brain also holds the keys to sussing out narratives, she holds fiction workshops called "Writing the Unthinkable" throughout the country. The cartoonist, who's been described as equal parts Dalai Lama and Gilda Radner, is acclaimed for her Ernie Pook's Comeek series, which ran in weekly papers in the '80s and catalogs the day-to-day struggles of lonely, snarky pre-teens. Her book The Good Times Are Killing Me, which was adapted as an off-Broadway play, won the Washington State Governor's Award, and her bestselling creative writing-how to-graphic novel, What It Is, won the 2009 Eisner Award for Best Reality Based Graphic Novel as well as an R.R. Donnelly Award.
Sun., Nov. 21, 11:30 a.m., 2010