Skylight Books Author Reading Series

Black Clock 13

An amazing lineup of writers -- Aimee Bender, Janet Fitch, Jonathan Lethem, Susan Straight, and Lisa Teasley --  will read from their pieces in Black Clock 13, the latest issue of this great literary journal.  Author Steve Erickson, Black Clock's editor, will moderate.

Aimee Bender is the author of four books; the most recent is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, winner of the SCIBA award. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, Harper's, The Paris Review, Tin House, Black Clock and more, as well as heard on "This American Life" and "Selected Shorts."

Janet Fitch is the author of Paint it Black and White Oleander, an Oprah's Book Club selection from which a 2002 motion picture was made starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Her fourth novel will be published next year. Fitch teaches writing at the University of Southern California.

Jonathan Lethem has written eight novels, including Girl in Landscape and Chronic City, and four collections of stories and essays, including the forthcoming The Ecstacy of Influence. His monograph on John Carpenter's They Live was published in November last year. He's lived in New York, Vermont, Oakland, Toronto, and now Los Angeles.

Susan Straight’s new novel is Take One Candle Light a Room, named one of the best novels of 2010 by The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Kirkus. Highwire Moon was a Finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and A Million Nightingales was a 2006 Finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. Her short story "The Golden Gopher," a chapter in the novel, won the 2008 Edgar Award for best Mystery Story. She has published stories and essays in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, Salon, Zoetrope, McSweeneys, The Believer, Black Clock, and elsewhere. She was born in Riverside, California, where she lives with her family, whose history is featured on susanstraight.com.

Lisa Teasley is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Heat Signature and Dive, and the award-winning story collection, Glow in the Dark, all published by Bloomsbury. Lisa Teasley is writer and presenter of the BBC television documentary "High School Prom," and currently teaches poetry and fiction at UC Riverside.

Steve Erickson is the Editor of Black Clock. He is the author of eight novels, receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007. In 2010 he was nominated for the National Magazine Award for his film criticism and was the recipient of one of seven awards in literature given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His novel novel These Dreams of You will be published in early 2012 by Europa.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS FEBRUARY 13, 2011.

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Caribou Island (Harper)

David Vann, whose short story collection Legend of a Suicide is a staff favorite, returns to Skylight to read from and sign his debut novel, Caribou Island.

"Vann . . .  renders luminous prose in this haunting tale of hardened hearts and broken dreams." --Booklist

"Vann delivers an authentic story, even lyrical at times. He is a writer headed for notable accomplishments. Enthusiastically recommended." --Library Journal

David Vann, 43, is a professor at the University of San Francisco. He is a contributor to Esquire, The Atlantic, Men’s Journal, National Geographic Adventure, The Sunday Times (London), and Outside, and the author of the bestselling memoir A Mile Down: The True Story of a Disastrous Career at Sea and Last Day on Earth: A Portrait of the NIU School Shooter, Steve Kazmierczak, winner of the AWP Nonfiction Prize. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and Wallace Stegner Fellowship. His website is www.davidvann.com.

Photo of the author by Diana Matar.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS FEBRUARY 11, 2011.

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Special Exits (Fantagraphics)

Joyce Farmer discusses and signs her graphic novel Special Exits, a memoir in the vein of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home or Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, and Frank Stack’s Our Cancer Year, about caring for her dying father and stepmother.

"One of the best long-narrative comics I've ever read, right up there with Maus... I actually found myself moved to tears." –R. Crumb

One of Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best Graphic Novels and Comics of 2010

Named one of "The Most Memorable Comics & Graphic Novels of 2010" by NPR's Glen Weldon

Joyce Farmer, together with Lyn Chevely, was the creator of Tits & Clits Comix in 1975. They had formed their own publishing company, Nanny Goat Productions, to counter the sexism they saw in male-produced underground comix of that time. Apart from Tits 'n Clits, they also produced a comic about abortion, 'Abortion Eve', in 1973. Joyce also contributed to the other all-woman comix publication, Wimmen's Comix. In 2000, Joyce Farmer published her work in magazine Zero-Zero. For the last decade-plus, Joyce has been working on her first long-form work, SPECIAL EXITS, a graphic memoir chronicling the decline of the author’s elderly parents’ health, their relationship with one another and with their their daughter, and how they cope with the day-to-day fragility of the most taxing time of their lives. She lives in Laguna Beach, CA.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS FEBRUARY 5, 2011.

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Injuring Eternity (World Nouveau)

Millicent Borges Accardi will read and sign her most recent poetry collection, Injuring Eternity.

Millicent Borges Accardi, a Portuguese-American poet, is the author of two books: Woman on a Shaky Bridge (Finishing Line Press chapbook) and Injuring Eternity (World Nouveau). She has received literary fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the California Arts Council, Barbara Deming Foundation, and was a Formby Fellow at Texas Tech, researching the work of writer-activist Kay Boyle.  Millicent’s work has appeared in Nimrod, Tampa Review, New Letters, and Wallace Stevens Journal, as well as in Boomer Girls (Iowa Press) and Chopin with Cherries (Moonrise Press) anthologies. Residencies include Yaddo, Jentel, Vermont Studio, Fundación Valparaíso in Mojacar, and Milkwood in Cesky Krumlov. She received degrees in English and writing from CSULB, holds an MPW (1993) from USC and works as a freelance writer (theater reviews, grants and instructional design).

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS FEBRUARY 10, 2011.

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