Book cover art inspired by the book, Running with Scissors, the (2003) memoir by Augusten Burroughs. This visual interpretation and creative exploration was based on various themes, cultural topics and historical references mentioned in the book.
Official Book Information: Macmillan Publishers
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Official Book Description:
Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead-ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules, there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs....
Running with Scissors is at turns foul and harrowing, compelling and maniacally funny. But above all, it chronicles an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.
Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead-ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules, there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs....
Running with Scissors is at turns foul and harrowing, compelling and maniacally funny. But above all, it chronicles an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.
Audio book version of Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob The Drag Queen
This visual direction is a bit more literal with the visualization of abstract scissors with a bit of an omnimous environment. The book features a darkly comic, sardonic, and unapologetically honest tone, transforming a traumatic, chaotic childhood into a gripping narrative.
About the Author:
Augusten Burroughs is one of the most widely-read and critically-acclaimed memoirists in the world. His works are published in more than 30 countries and have sold over 10 million copies, making him one of the best-selling LGBTQ+ authors of all time.
The #1 bestselling author has written eight memoirs, one novel, a self-help book and a children's picture book. His memoir Running with Scissors was a publishing phenomenon; over two years on the New York Times bestseller list and exploding the memoir genre wide open. Augusten's follow-up memoir, Dry, details the story of his recovery from alcohol use disorder and remains -over 20 years after its publication- a staple literature in the recovery community. His writing has appeared in leading magazines, newspapers and online venues worldwide.
Augusten and his husband, Christopher, live with their dogs in rural Western Massachusetts where they own an eccentric, luxurious curiosity shop called, THE SHINY BLACK DOOR.
Praise for Running with Scissors
“I just finished reading the most amazing book. Running with Scissors is hilarious, freaky-deaky, berserk, controlled, transcendent, touching, affectionate, vengeful, all-embracing....It makes a good run at blowing every other [memoir] out of the water.” —Carolyn See, The Washington Post
“Funny and rich with child's eye details of adults who have gone off the rails.” —The New York Times Book Review
“It is as funny as it is twisted.” —GQ
“A hilarious and horrifying memoir.” —Los Angeles Times
“Harrowing and hilarious. I haven't laughed this much since David Sedaris's last book.” —Haven Kimmel, author of A Girl Named Zippy
“Running with Scissors is a cut above...compelling...the book celebrates Burroughs' resilient, upbeat spirit, which helps him surmount one of the weirder childhoods on record.” —USA Today
“The anecdotes can be so flippant, and so insanely funny (quite literally), that the effect is that of a William Burroughs situation comedy.” —The New York Times
“Burroughs defies the ‘woe is me' stigma of modern memoir with a raucous recounting of his loony teenage years.” —Entertainment Weekly
“I was reminded of Roald Dahl's Boy and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Augusten Burroughs has produced a memoir that's funny and sharp but also humane, as charming as it is revealing.” —Kurt Andersen, author of Turn of the Century
“A memoir that is both horrifying and mordantly funny.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Burroughs has memorialized his bizarre childhood showing off a dark wit that often rivals that 0of David Sedaris--while telling a true story that would make even Sedaris cringe.” —New York Magazine
“Burroughs tempers the pathos with sharp riotous humor... Edgier, but reminiscent of Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, this is a survival story readers won't forget.” —Booklist
“Funny and rich with child's eye details of adults who have gone off the rails.” —The New York Times Book Review
“It is as funny as it is twisted.” —GQ
“A hilarious and horrifying memoir.” —Los Angeles Times
“Harrowing and hilarious. I haven't laughed this much since David Sedaris's last book.” —Haven Kimmel, author of A Girl Named Zippy
“Running with Scissors is a cut above...compelling...the book celebrates Burroughs' resilient, upbeat spirit, which helps him surmount one of the weirder childhoods on record.” —USA Today
“The anecdotes can be so flippant, and so insanely funny (quite literally), that the effect is that of a William Burroughs situation comedy.” —The New York Times
“Burroughs defies the ‘woe is me' stigma of modern memoir with a raucous recounting of his loony teenage years.” —Entertainment Weekly
“I was reminded of Roald Dahl's Boy and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Augusten Burroughs has produced a memoir that's funny and sharp but also humane, as charming as it is revealing.” —Kurt Andersen, author of Turn of the Century
“A memoir that is both horrifying and mordantly funny.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Burroughs has memorialized his bizarre childhood showing off a dark wit that often rivals that 0of David Sedaris--while telling a true story that would make even Sedaris cringe.” —New York Magazine
“Burroughs tempers the pathos with sharp riotous humor... Edgier, but reminiscent of Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, this is a survival story readers won't forget.” —Booklist
Comparison with original edition of Running with Scissors book.
Photo Credits: Unknown