What It Is, the new book by super fantastic cartoonist and writer Lynda Barry, just hit the bookstores. The book is a combination of utterly down-to-earth writing exercises and Barry’s collages, both of which are well worth the price of the book. I used an excerpt from the book in my class last semester, and had my freshman students spend five minutes writing about other people’s mothers. Just think about it for a moment: Don’t five or six mothers spring to mind? The one you always thought was beautiful, the chainsmoker, the dead, the absent, the one you wanted for your own? What It Is reminds me of Miranda July’s ‘Learning to Love You More’ project, also, in that Barry asks you to recreate moments from the past, and in recreating them, make something new. Barry asks the big questions: What makes some meaningful? What is an image? And then she sits back patiently, and waits.