Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator, and teacher. The creator of the comic strip that was syndicated in alternative weeklies for two decades, Ernie Pook's Comeek, she has also authored eighteen books including One! Hundred! Demons!; The! Greatest! of! Marlys!, Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel; Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! and The Good Times are Killing Me, which was adapted as an off-Broadway play. Her creative writing-how to-graphic novel, What It Is (2008), won the Eisner Award for Best Reality Based Graphic Novel. What It Is and Picture This (2010), explores creation and imagination, where play can be serious, monsters have purpose, and not knowing is an answer unto itself.

Established with the generous support of UM School of Art and Design alumna Penny W. Stamps, the Stamps Speaker Series brings respected emerging and established artists/designers from a broad spectrum of media to the School to conduct a public lecture and engage with students, faculty, and the larger University and Ann Arbor communities. Additional support is provided by our media sponsor, Michigan Radio.

With support from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Institute for the Humanities, and the Chelsea River Gallery.