Augusten Burroughs visits SCAD on Saturday to talk about his new self-help book with the very interesting title, "This is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterdom, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude and More. For Young and Old Alike."

Creative Loafing has an interview with the gay author who first became famous with his memoir "Running with Scissors" and the tales of his very, very crazy and disturbed family.

From the CL interview:
CL: Most readers are probably familiar with you as "that crazy guy who writes about his crazy family and all his crazy problems." What inspired you to write a self-help book, and a pretty serious one at that?

AB: It's something I've been wanting to do for a while. The more I went around the world with these memoirs, I've always been surprised by people's reactions.More than a story, people want to hear, "How did you survive this?" or "How do I survive this?" It becomes my favorite part when I actually have an answer.

So much time I totally know what the person is talking about when they bring up an issue or problem. I've experienced a lot from such an early age and I never had adults in my life to guide me. I never had school. I never had teachers. Fourth grade is all I did for school, and my family history is well-documented. Everytime I had a problem I had to solve it myself. The way I've solved every problem is just to try to nail through to what is the absolute truth of my circumstances. I wanted to write something that was advice from someone who was streetsmart, from someone who really did live through it, rather than from someone who has a terminal degree in their field, has studied it, and wrote some impressive papers. It's for people who want to fix themselves.

Read the entire interview, including his love for scars, here.

Burroughs will be at SCAD on Saturday, May 12, at 6:30 p.m. SCAD is located at 1600 Peachtree St. NW. The reading is on the fourth floor and cost of admission is $10.