Tattered Cover is pleased to welcome Will Betke-Brunswick, who will be in conversation with Kelly Shortandqueer at our McGregor Square location on November 17th at 6pm. They will be discussing Betke-Brunswick's book A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings! This event is free and open to the public.
ABOUT THE BOOK
During Will Betke-Brunswick’s sophomore year of college, their beloved mother, Elizabeth, is diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. They only have ten more months together, which Will documents in evocative two-color illustrations. But as we follow Will and their mom through chemo and hospital visits, their time together is buoyed by laughter, jigsaw puzzles, modern art, and vegan BLTs. In a delightful twist, Will portrays their family as penguins, and their friends are cast as a menagerie of birds. In between therapy and bedside chats, they navigate uniquely human challenges, as Will prepares for math exams, comes out as genderqueer, and negotiates familial tension.
A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings is an act of loving others and loving oneself, offering a story of coming-of-age, illness, death, and life that announces the arrival of a talented storyteller in Will Betke-Brunswick. At its heart, Will’s story is a celebration of a mother-child relationship filled with unconditional devotion, humor, care, and openness.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Will Betke-Brunswick is a cartoonist and a recent graduate of the California College of the Arts MFA in Comics program. Will’s work has appeared in the new print edition of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves; How to Wait: An Anthology of Transition; and the websites INTO and Autostraddle. A former high school math teacher, Will lives in Boulder, Colorado.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Kelly Shortandqueer is one of the co-founders of the Denver Zine Library, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization that boasts over 20,000 zines in the lending collection. He has been publishing his zine series "Shortandqueer" since the early 2000s, with each issue focusing on a different theme through the lens of his queer and transgender identities. Kelly's live storytelling has been featured on The Narrators and Mortified podcasts.
