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DTSTART;TZID=UTC+0:20200420T180000
DTEND;TZID=UTC+0:20200420T200000
DTSTAMP:20260516T042945
CREATED:20200305T180932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200305T180932Z
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SUMMARY:Sarah Kurchack | Book Launch
DESCRIPTION:Join Douglas & McIntyre\, Toronto Lit Up and Ben McNally Books to celebrate Sarah Kurchak and the release of her new book I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder. \nWhen: \nMonday\, April 20\, 6 pm \nWhere: \nBen McNally Books\, 366 Bay St \nThis is a free event\, but you must RSVP to attend.  \nClick here to register. \n\n \nSarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer\, or to find love\, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly\, and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder\, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story\,” how the process almost ruined her life and how she is now trying to recover. \n            Growing up undiagnosed in small-town Ontario in the eighties and nineties\, Kurchak realized early that she was somehow different from her peers. She discovered an effective strategy to fend off bullying: she consciously altered nearly everything about herself—from her personality to her body language. She forced herself to wear the denim jeans that felt like being enclosed in a sandpaper iron maiden. Every day\, she dragged herself through the door with an elevated pulse and a churning stomach\, nearly crumbling under the effort of the performance. By the time she was finally diagnosed with autism at twenty-seven\, she struggled with depression and anxiety largely caused by the same strategy she had mastered precisely. She came to wonder\, were all those years of intensely pretending to be someone else really worth it? \nTackling everything from autism parenting culture to love\, sex\, alcohol\, obsessions and professional pillow fighting\, Kurchak’s enlightening memoir challenges  stereotypes and preconceptions about autism and considers what might really make the lives of autistic people healthier\, happier and more fulfilling. \n\n \nSarah Kurchak is a writer and retired professional pillow fighter living in Toronto. Her work as an autistic self-advocate and essayist has appeared in Hazlitt\, Catapult\, the Guardian\, CBC\, Vox and Electric Literature. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers\, and this is her first book. \n\n  \n000000
URL:https://benmcnallybooks.com/event/sarah-kurchack-book-launch/
LOCATION:Ben McNally Books\, 108 Queen Street East\, Toronto\, ON\, M5C1S6\, Canada
CATEGORIES:in-store event
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