Skylight Books Author Reading Series

One and Only: The Untold Story of On the Road (Viva Editions)

In celebration of what would have been Jack Kerouac's 90th birthday, we're presenting biographer Gerald Nicosia (Memory Babe), who will be discussing and signing his new book One and Only, about the woman who started Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady on the journey that inspired On the Road.

"This is the missing back-story of the back-story of "On the Road," the mysterious missing woman a lot of us sensed was there but invisible and silent. Until now. Nicosia has given her voice and made her visible, and she's extraordinary. No wonder both Kerouac and Cassady loved her." —Russell Banks, author of Cloudsplitter

"One and Only is essential reading for anyone wishing to get the full picture of the Beat Generation. Lu Anne Henderson was Neal Cassady's life-long love and was responsible for the friendship with Kerouac that gave us On The Road. Gerald Nicosia was always a loyal advocate of the women of the Beat Generation, and his remarkable interview with Lu Anne fills in an enormous gap in the story. It shows the vulnerability and insecurities of the main characters, and reveals the chaos of their emotional lives so that Kerouac and company finally emerge as real people! A great book." —Barry Miles, author of Ginsberg: A Biography; Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats; and the forthcoming authorized biography of William S. Burroughs, Call Me Burroughs

Gerald Nicosia is a biographer, historian, poet, playwright and novelist. His biography of Jack Kerouac, Memory Babe, won the Distinguished Young Writer Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters and was called a “great book” by Allen Ginsberg and “by far the best of the many books published about Jack Kerouac’s life and work” by William Burroughs. It is still widely regarded as the definitive work on Kerouac.  His book Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement won numerous honors and was named one of the Los Angeles Times “Best Books of the Year” in 2001.  He is currently at work on a biography of Ntozake Shange. Nicosia lives in Corte Madera, California.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MARCH 12, 2012

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Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events (Harper)

Acclaimed short story writer Kevin Moffett (Permanent Visitors) will read and sign his new story collection, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events.

"Kevin Moffett's stories are stealth heartbreakers, as well as wonders of sly detail and perfect tone. He's writing some of the best short fiction around." --Sam Lipsyte

"The first thing you notice reading the stories in Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events is the author's extraordinary range--of expertise, technique, imagination and wit. There doesn't seem to be much Kevin Moffett can't do." --Richard Russo

Kevin Moffett’s stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, Tin House, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere, as well as in three editions of The Best American Short Stories. He is the winner of the Nelson Algren Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the 2010 National Magazine Award for “Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events.” He lives in Claremont, California.

Photo of the author by Erin McConnell.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS APRIL 12, 2012.

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Girlchild (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Debut novelist Tupelo Hassman will read and sign her novel Girlchild, which has already garnered rave reviews!

"This amazing debut spills over with love, but is still absolutely unflinching and real. That is no easy combo to pull off, and Tupelo Hassman does it repeatedly with precision and grace. Rory D. is ebulliently alive on the page; she’s really that kind of fresh new voice people talk about, leaving us with a completely memorable character." --Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

"I’m smitten by Tupelo Hassman’s debut. The beauty of this story is how it plays: great turns in language, humor that points to sadness, and a structure that is messy and tidy all at the same time. Girlchild is overwhelming in an engaging and beautiful way.” —Salvador Plascencia, author of The People of Paper

"If I were back on the staff of my high school yearbook I would vote Tupelo Hassman and her book Most Likely to Go Viral on Goodreads and Most Likely to Succeed in the Eyes of Critics." --Nicole Lamy, Boston Globe

Tupelo Hassman graduated from Columbia's MFA program. Her writing has been published in Paper Street Press, The Portland Review Literary Journal, Tantalum, We Still Like, ZYZZYVA, and by 100WordStory.org and FiveChapters.com. Tupelo is a contributing author to Heliography, Invisible City Audio Tours' first tour and is curating its fourth tour, The Landmark Revelation Society. Tupelo will be keeping a video journal of girlchild's book tour for the short documentary Hardbound: A Novel's Life on the Road.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MARCH 6, 2012.

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Snowflake/Different Streets (Wave Books)

Celebrated poet Eileen Myles visits Skylight Books to read and sign her highly anticipated new poetry collection Snowflake/Different Streets.

"One of the savviest and most restless intellects in contemporary literature—honest, jokey, paranoid, sentimental, mean, lyrical, tough, you name it." —Dennis Cooper

"[Myles' writing] comes across simultaneously as effortless and utterly gorgeous. . . . To be able to write with such gentleness and force all at the same time is such a gift, and Myles is completely generous in how she uses this." —Ron Silliman

Eileen Myles was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduated from U. Mass (Boston) in 1971, and moved to New York City in 1974 to be a poet. Snowflake/different streets, a double volume (of poems) will be out in 2012 from Wave Books. Eileen’s Inferno: a poet's novel (2010) which details a female writer’s coming of age was described by John Ashbery as "zingingly funny and melancholy." Alison Bechdel called Inferno "this shimmering document." She writes about books, art and culture for a wide variety of publications including Art Forum, Book Forum, and Parkett, and she blogs on Art in America and Harriet’s sites. Please visit her at eileenmyles.com.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MARCH 16, 2012.

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