Skylight Books Podcast Series

TOM ZIMMERMAN AND J. ERIC LYNXWILER PRESENT THEIR BOOK SPECTACULAR ILLUMINATION

Spectacular Illumination: Neon Los Angeles 1925-1965 (Angel City Press)

Spectacular Illumination: Neon Los Angeles, 1925-1965 is a unique, and indeed, spectacular collection of vintage photos that showcases the glowing neon heritage of the City of Angels. L.A. has long been recognized as the most vibrant city in the U.S., with part of its radiance coming from the signs lining its streets during the Golden Age of neon from 1925 to 1965. Photographer and historian Tom Zimmerman shows images depicting, in both color and black-and-white, what Raymond Chandler, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and countless other writers have tried to put into words.

More than 200 stunning images fill its pages, mostly in the era’s predominant black-and-white photography —  photos that attest to the amazing communicative power of neon, the light that was revered for its dramatic color. An historic black-and-white view of Broadway, with thousands of neon tubes and flourescent bulbs beaming, captured by photographer J. Howard Mott, instantly expresses why L.A. gained the reputation as a city where everything is new, everything is exciting, and everything is for show. The image of ’Wich Stand that adorns the cover of Spectacular Illumination juxtaposes vivid neon lights with the other classic symbols of the city, a palm tree and a drive-in eatery. And without doubt the neon steals the show. Photographers such as Mott, John Swope, and Will Connell and their work are featured in the pages of Spectacular Illumination, a book meticulously designed and edited by neon historian and graphic designer J. Eric Lynxwiler.
Spectacular Illumination tells a story of a city that has glowed, now glows, and, thanks to institutions such as Southern California’s Museum of Neon Art that preserve the art form, will glow forever.

Tom Zimmerman is a native of Los Angeles and shares a birthday with the city. His prose has been published in Southern California Quarterly, California History, and Los Angeles Times Magazine. His photography has appeared in many magazines and newspapers, as well as in several books on Los Angeles history and architecture. His photos have been exhibited across the country and are in several permanent collections including the Library of Congress, California State Library, and the Los Angeles Public Library. Three books of his photographs have been published: A Day in the Season of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Wednesday at the Pier, and Downtown in Detail. A catalog of his photographic series Neon Noir was published by the Museum of Neon Art, where it was first exhibited. He has also written three historical books. Light and Illusion: The Hollywood Portraits of Ray Jones;Paradise Promoted: The Selling of Los Angeles 1870–1930, and El Camino Real, Highway 101 and the Route of the Daylight.

J. Eric Lynxwiler grew up in Southern California and earned his degree in urban anthropology at UCLA. Popular host of the Museum of Neon Art’s renowned Neon Cruise, he also serves on the museum’s board of directors and has saved dozens of neon signs. Lynxwiler is a graphic designer and co-authored the celebrated book Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles as well as Knott’s Preserved: From Boysenberry to Theme Park, the History of Knott’s Berry Farm.

KEITH MORRIS PRESENTS HIS BOOK MY DAMAGE WITH JIM RULAND

My Damage: The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor (Da Capo Press)

Keith Morris is a true punk icon. No one else embodies the sound of Southern Californian hardcore. Short and sporting waist–length dreadlocks, Morris is known the world over for his take–no–prisoners approach on the stage and his integrity off of it. Over the course of his forty–year career, he’s battled diabetes, drug and alcohol addiction, and the record industry.

My Damage is more than a book about the highs and lows of a punk rock legend, however. It’s also a look at rock ’n’ roll through the lens of someone who has shared the stage with just about every major figure in the music industry and appeared in cult films like The Decline of Western Civilization and Repo Man. It’s a Hollywood story from a native’s perspective. My Damage is Morris’s streets, his scene, his music—as only he can tell it.

Keith Morris is an icon of American hardcore music. He is a co-founding member of Black Flag, the most recognizable name in West Coast punk rock, and the Circle Jerks, which cemented his reputation at the forefront of hardcore vocalists. He has recorded over fifteen albums, appeared on countless albums and compilations, and has a half-dozen film credits to his name. The intensity of the music produced by his latest bands OFF! and FLAG are equal to his best work from the 70s, 80s, and 90s and add to a legendary career that is still being carved out one gig at a time. A native of California, he has lived in Los Feliz for over twenty years. 

photo by Geoff Moore

Jim Ruland caught the punk rock virus when his mom took him to see the Ramones when he was 15. He has been writing for punk rock zines like "Flipside" since the early 90s and has written for every issue of "Razorcake," America s only non-profit independent music fanzine. He is the author of the award-winning novel "Forest of Fortune" and the short story collection "Big Lonesome." He is the curator of the Southern California-based irreverent reading series Vermin on the Mount. He lives in San Diego.

GRAHAM MOORE DISCUSSES HIS NEW NOVEL THE LAST DAYS OF NIGHT, WITH SAM WASSON

The Last Days of Night (Random House)

From Graham Moore, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian, comes a thrilling historical novel—based on actual events—about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America.

In 1888 New York, gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but electric light is in its infancy. The person who can harness this miracle and bring it to the masses, to forever change people’s relationship with night, will make history—and a vast fortune. An untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul’s client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country?

The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society—the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done behind closed doors. The task facing him is beyond daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal—private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P. Morgan himself. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it?

In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.

Praise for The Last Days of Night

“In The Last Days of Night, Graham Moore takes us back to the dawn of light—electric light—into a world of invention and skullduggery, populated by the likes of Edison, Westinghouse, Tesla, and the novel’s hero, a young lawyer named Paul Cravath (a name that will resonate with ambitious law students everywhere). It’s part legal thriller, part tour of a magical time—the age of wonder—and once you’ve finished it, you’ll find it hard to return to the world of now.”—Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City

“Mesmerizing, clever, and absolutely crackling, The Last Days of Night is a triumph of imagination. Graham Moore has chosen Gilded Age New York as his playground, with outsized characters—Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse—as his players. The result is a beautifully researched, endlessly entertaining novel that will leave you buzzing.” —Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

“The Last Days of Night is a wonder, a riveting historical novel that is part legal thriller, part techno-suspense. This fast-paced story about the personal and legal clash over the invention of the light bulb is a tale of larger-than- life characters and devious doings, and a significant meditation on the price we as a society pay for new technology. Thoughtful and hugely entertaining.” —Scott Turow

“The author of The Sherlockian presents another twisty historical novel set at the end of the gaslight era. This time the story takes place in a New York City perched on the very precipice of electricity. The book’s central focus is on American ingenuity as the basis for commercial success and the so-called ‘war of currents’ waged between Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla over the creation of the lightbulb. Paul Cravath, the brilliant but inexperienced lawyer hired by Westinghouse to countersue the pugnacious Edison for copyright infringement, unscrupulous behavior, and even violence, provides a first person perspective. Legal battles and the rancor between scientists drive the pace, while a curious romance unmasks yet another underhanded charade. Woven into this complex drama is a philosophical question about invention: Who is the inventor: the one with the idea, the one who makes a working model, or the one to obtain the patent? Who really did invent the lightbulb? A thought-provoking, suspenseful novel, surprising in its focus…illuminative of character…[with] keen biographical insights.” —Booklist

“Moore, again turning to historical events for the basis of a thrilling plot, tackles the ‘war of the currents,’…Amid the bickering of the iconic characters, Paul [Cravath] ends up emerging as the emotional center, trying to hold strands of the case together and stay true to his own moral standards…Moore’s extensive research is apparent, and readers are likely to walk away from the book feeling as informed as they are entertained.” —Publishers Weekly

Graham Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian and the Academy Award–winning screenwriter for The Imitation Game, which also won a Writers Guild of America Award for best adapted screenplay. Moore was born in Chicago, received a B.A. in religious history from Columbia University in 2003, and now lives in Los Angeles.

Sam Wasson is the author of the New York Times bestseller Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M .: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman and two works of film criticism. His latest book is Fosse, a full-scale biography of the legendary director-choreographer. You can visit Sam at www.samwasson.com

JESSICA WINTER DISCUSSES HER NEW BOOK BREAK IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, WITH DOREE SHAFRIR

Break in Case of Emergency (Knopf)

Jessica Winter's ferociously intelligent debut novel is a wry satire of celebrity do-goodism as well as an exploration of the difficulty of navigating friendships as they shift to accommodate marriage and family, and the unspoken tensions that can strain even the strongest bonds.

Jen has reached her early thirties and has all but abandoned a once-promising painting career when, spurred by the 2008 economic crisis, she takes a poorly defined job at a feminist nonprofit. The foundation's ostensible aim is to empower women, but staffers spend all their time devising acronyms for imaginary programs, ruthlessly undermining one another, and stroking the ego of their boss, the larger-than-life celebrity philanthropist Leora Infinitas. Jen's complicity in this passive-aggressive hellscape only intensifies her feelings of inferiority compared to her two best friends one a wealthy attorney with a picture-perfect family, the other a passionately committed artist, as does Jen's apparent inability to have a baby, a source of existential panic that begins to affect her marriage and her already precarious status at the office. As Break in Case of Emergency unfolds, a fateful art exhibition, a surreal boondoggle adventure in Belize, and a devastating personal loss conspire to force Jen to reckon with some hard truths about herself and the people she loves most. 

Praise for Break in Case of Emergency:

“Jessica Winter is so insanely whip-smart and her novel, which I could not stop reading, made me see the world differently whenever I lifted my eyes from the pages.  Winter possesses that magical ability to render the familiar absurd and the absurd familiar, and to create characters that break your heart. Break in Case of Emergency is one of those books I considered my companion, and I missed it when it was over.” —Heidi Julavits
 
“Break in Case of Emergency is compelling, funny, sad, moving, and ultimately uplifting. Winter is one of the best satirists of the workplace I've read in years; she has a deadly ear for the belief-defying hypocrisies of the office and the art world. But she's also a tender portraitist of the bonds of love, family, and friendship, and of the thousand little (and not so little) ways a person can defeat herself in the search for happiness. I couldn't put this book down.” —Paul La Farge, author of Luminous Airplanes
 
“Break In Case of Emergency is brimming with sharp, bitingly funny commentary on the absurdities that abound in the world of celebrity philanthropy, and the seeming impossibilities of modern adulthood, but it also gives us smart, lovable characters to guide us through the maze.” —Caroline Zancan, author of Local Girls
 
“Jessica Winter nails the moment in your life when you go from “young” to “no longer young”—that see-saw teetering point between your 20s and 30s, and its specific mix of ignorance you’ll be embarrassed by later, and confidence you’ll someday wish you could have back.  If you’re wondering what it’s like to live in New York when you’re young, just buy Jessica Winter’s book.  It’s funny, satirical, and deftly written. And it’s much cheaper than a 2-bedroom in Brooklyn.” —Mike Schur, co-creator of Parks and Recreation

Jessica Winter is features editor at Slate and the former culture editor ofTime. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Bookforum, The Believer, and many other publications. She lives in Brooklyn.

Doree Shafrir is a culture writer for BuzzFeed News and the author of the novel Startup, forthcoming from Little, Brown in spring/summer 2017. She lives in Los Angeles.

MEGAN ABBOTT LAUNCHES HER NEW NOVEL YOU WILL KNOW ME

You Will Know Me (Little Brown and Company)

The audacious new novel about family and ambition from "one of the best living mystery writers" ("Grantland") and bestselling, award-winning author of The Fever, Megan Abbott. 

How far will you go to achieve a dream? That's the question a celebrated coach poses to Katie and Eric Knox after he sees their daughter Devon, a gymnastics prodigy and Olympic hopeful, compete. For the Knoxes there are no limits--until a violent death rocks their close-knit gymnastics community and everything they have worked so hard for is suddenly at risk. As rumors swirl among the other parents, Katie tries frantically to hold her family together while also finding herself irresistibly drawn to the crime itself. What she uncovers--about her daughter's fears, her own marriage, and herself--forces Katie to consider whether there's any price she isn't willing to pay to achieve Devon's dream. 

From a writer with "exceptional gifts for making nerves jangle and skin crawl" (Janet Maslin), You Will Know Me is a breathless rollercoaster of a novel about the desperate limits of parental sacrifice, furtive desire, and the staggering force of ambition. 

Praise for You Will Know Me:

“Almost unbearably tense, chilling and addictive, You Will Know Me deftly transports the reader to the hyper-competitive arena of gymnastics where the dreams and aspirations of not just families but entire communities rest on the slender shoulders of one teenage girl. Exceptional."–Paula Hawkins, author of the #1 bestseller The Girl on the Train

"Is there anything Megan Abbott can't do? We will have to wait for the answer to that question because You Will Know Me continues her formidable winning streak. This story of an ordinary family with an extraordinary child is gorgeously written, psychologically astute, a page-turner that forces you to slow down and savor every word... And, yes -- please forgive me -- she totally sticks the landing."–Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of Hush Hush

“Megan Abbott’s latest thriller plunges readers into the shockingly realistic life of young, female gymnasts whose severely regulated lives come with unthinkable consequences. Gritty, graphic, and yet beautiful and dreamlike in the way the story unfolds, You Will Know Me comes barreling at you with all the power and urgency of a high-speed train, as Abbott asserts herself as one of the greatest crime writers of our time.”–Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl

“That rarefied sweet spot between unnerving psychological suspense and a family drama with heart, You Will Know Me induces equal parts dread and unease, empathy and warmth. The pages couldn't turn fast enough as I dug deeper into the peculiar and fascinating Knox-family world, trying to figure out who was lying, who was telling the truth, and who was dangerous. Luscious writing, a timely and unique premise, and an ending that will haunt you all summer long.”–Jessica Knoll, author of the New York Times bestseller Luckiest Girl Alive

“You Will Know Me takes you into the dark heart of family, a journey that feels more menacing with every page. Abbott cranks the tension up in this disturbing tale of exactly what we are prepared to do for our children - I was reading compulsively into the night. A beautifully written, gripping read that feels unshakeably real.”–Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat

Megan Abbott is the award-winning author of eight novels, including The Fever and Dare Me. She received her Ph.D. in English and American literature from New York University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Salon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, and the Guardian. Megan is currently a staff writer on HBO's forthcoming David Simon show, The Deuce. She lives in New York City. 

SELFISH LAUNCHES ISSUE FOUR: HOT AND BOTHERED

Selfish Issue Four: Hot and Bothered

Selfish, the feminist memoir magazine, is back with its fourth and boldest issue yet. Join us for a night of wine and the sweaty tension that comes from trying to become and trying to be. You know the one, don't you? Come hear six of the 30 contributors read about what has them feeling hot and bothered. Guaranteed to make you warm in some regard or another. And seriously, don't forget that we'll have wine. 

Our readers will include: 

Allison Noelle Conner is a writer and zine-maker of Haitian descent. Currently she is at work on her first book, a prose project exploring institutionalization, possessions, and unbecoming from the perspective of an anxious young woman. She lives in Los Angeles.

Bonnilee Kaufman attended the Lambda Literary Foundation writing retreat for emerging voices (2012) and is an active member of the QueerWise senior writing collective. She has been published in the anthologies: Ghosts of the Holocaust; Milk and Honey--A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry; on-line at BayLaurel; L50+; & journals; River's Voices; Conceptions Southwest & Sinister Wisdom.

A. Nicole Kelly is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow who received an MFA from the Programs in Writing at UC Irvine. Her essays have been published byEntreMundos and yr an adult, and her fiction has appeared in Drunken Boat,ZYZZYVA, Fiction Southeast, and The Carolina Quarterly. She is a host ofBitchface, a feminist podcast featuring the words, sounds, and stories of dope women. Raised in the south and based in LA, she is working on a novel in New York City and a collection of short stories that take place around the world. 

Dacy Lim is a writer and photographer with a tendency to make bad drawings. She is about to start an MFA program for Creative Writing at Kingston University where she hopes to indulge in her obsession with the mouth. If she's not making a fool of herself with her friends, she's sitting at home making a fool of herself in front of her dog. Currently she is trying to figure out what to figure out next. Follow her on IG: @lacydim or read some occasionally inspired words at her blog www.yourbroad.weebly.com.

Kelsey Nolan is a writer, editor, professional book-slinger, and bottom-shelf wine extraordinaire. She received her Masters in Professional Writing from USC and spends her time asking people if they know what that is. Other interests include dealing with inbox anxiety, hyping LA, and binging on literature. 

Chloe Isabella Parks is an LA-based art director and co-founder of the bi-annual magazine, Object Journal (objectjournal.com). Her background lies in design, and has spent her formative years working for fashion tech companies in Los Angeles. Always keeping humor as a focus of her work, she aims to create optimistic designs that create playful conversations. She doesn’t usually write poems, but she did for this project and she might very well do it again!!

WRITEGIRL STUDENTS READ THEIR ORIGINAL WORK

Join WriteGirl at 5pm to hear new creative voices by teen girls! Get inspired as WriteGirl teens speak their minds and read their original work. The reading will be the culmination of a series of five summer workshops that WriteGirl is holding July 20 through August 6 at The Huntington in Pasadena. Please RSVP at rsvp@writegirl.org or (213) 253-2655. For information about WriteGirl, visit www.writegirl.org.

WriteGirl is a creative writing and mentoring organization that promotes creativity, critical thinking and leadership skills to empower teen girls.

JESSE REKLAW DISCUSSES HIS NEW BOOK LOVF

LOVF (Fantagraphics)

LOVF is the sketchbook companion of a man literally losing his mind. Homeless and broke after giving all his stuff to punk rock heroin dealers, he ends up off his meds and on a secret quest from Portland to Brooklyn, DC, LA, San Francisco, and Seattle. He throws himself into every experience like it was his last; like it should be his last. With wild energy, promiscuity, criminal activity, and substance abuse, this becomes a full-blown manic episode... all of it captured by LOVF, the trusty sidekick. Jammed with cartoons, mad schemes, psychedelic portraits, and notes from the road, LOVF is a travel journal, and a mirror of the post-traumatic dreamworld its author can’t escape from. After losing his house, his job, his partner, and his best friend, he is triple-diagnosed with bipolar mood disorder, PTSD, and crippling chronic pain. As a self-professed over-achiever, he made sure things only got worse from there. Getting beat up in the street, running from the law, getting dragged out of a creek and into a mental hospital… it’s a Kerouacian meltdown of cross-hatching, spattered marker, crayons, glitter, tape, nail polish, white-out, fingerpainting, rain, wine, stickers, and word balloons, like the found diary of a homeless crazyman, turned into a comic book.

"Equal parts confounding, bleak, psychedelic, and beautiful. I'm ever grateful to Jesse and Fantagraphics for preserving and sharing such intimate vulnerabilities with the world."
--Craig Thompson [Blankets, Habibi]

Jesse Reklaw grew up in Sacramento, studied at UC Santa Cruz, and completed a master’s degree in computer science at Yale University. In 1995, while pursuing a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, he began self-publishing comics and dropped out of Yale to be a cartoonist. His other books includeCouch Tag, Applicant, and The Night of Your Life.

TOM LUTZ DISCUSSES HIS NEW BOOK DRINKING MARE'S MILK ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD

Drinking Mare's Milk on the Roof of the World: Wandering the Globe from Azerbaijan to Zanzibar (OR Books)

Tom Lutz is addicted to journeying. Sometimes he stops at the end of the road, sometimes he travels further. In this richly packed portmanteau of traveler’s tales, we accompany him as he drives beyond the blacktop in Morocco, to the Saharan dunes on the Algerian border, and east of Ankara into the Hittite ruins of Boğazkale. We ride alongside as he hitches across Uzbekistan and the high mountain passes of Kyrgyzstan into western China. We catch up with him as he traverses the shores of a lake in Malawi, and disappear with him into the disputed areas of the Ukraine and Moldova. We follow his footsteps through the swamps of Sri Lanka, the wilds of Azerbaijan, the plains of Tibet, the casinos of Tanzania, the peasant hinterlands of Romania and Albania, and the center of Swaziland, where we join him in watching the king pick his next wife. All along the way, we witness his perplexity in trying to understand a compulsion to keep moving, ever onward, to the ends of the earth.

Praise for Tom Lutz

“Move over Pico Iyer: Tom Lutz has returned to town with an irresistible book of true stories about accidental intimacies in unexpected places. His encounters on the road, described in gorgeous prose, are brief but intense. Lighting out for the territories has never seemed so enthralling.”—Jon Wiener

“Highly intelligent, stimulatingly eclectic, and impressively learned.” —Salon on Lutz's Doing Nothing

“In these provocative and personal travel essays, Tom Lutz walks the seam between memory and landcape, finding traces in the physical that illuminate the inner life. Smart, pointed, funny, and surprising, Lutz's journeys reveal both the writer and the world he navigates, offering not epiphany so much as engagement, which is, of course, the only thing that counts.” —David L. Ulin

Tom Lutz is Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books and teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. His previous books include Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums and Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears.

MEHNAZ SAHIBZADA READS FROM HER NEW CHAPBOOK SUMMER FORGETS TO WEAR A PETTICOAT

Summer Forgets to Wear a Petticoat (Finishing Line Press)

Summer Forgets to Wear a Petticoat explores the author's passions & obsessions. These include subjects as varied as cooking, religion, fashion, and mystery novels. Set against the backdrop of Los Angeles, the poems in this chapbook suggest that to embrace the mystery of existence, one must play detective.

Mehnaz Sahibzada was born in Pakistan and raised in Los Angeles. She holds an M.A. in Religious Studies from UC Santa Barbara, and she is a 2009 PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellow in Poetry. Her short story, "The Alphabet Workbook," appeared in the August 2010 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Her poetry chapbook, Tongue-Tied: A Memoir in Poems, was published in 2012 by Finishing Line Press, and her second chapbook, Summer Forgets to Wear a Petticoat, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Her work has appeared in publications such as Asia Writes, The Rattling Wall,Wide Awake and Pedestal Magazine. An English teacher, she lives in southern California.

DANIEL LISI DISCUSSES HIS NEW BOOK WORLD OF WARCRAFT, WITH JARETT KOBEK, GABE DURHAM, AND BROCK WILBUR

World of Warcraft (Boss Fight Books)

At more than 100 million user accounts created and over $10 billion made, it is not only the most-subscribed MMORPG in the world, but the highest-grossing video game of all time. Ten years after its launch, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft is less a game and more a world unto itself, and it's a world Daniel Lisi knows well. More time in his high school years was spent in Azeroth than in his hometown of Irvine, CA—a home he happened to share with Blizzard itself.

Now that Lisi has founded his own game development studio, WoW remains his most powerful example of just how immersive and consuming a game can be. Based on research, interviews, and the author's own experience in a hardcore raiding guild, Lisi's book examines WoW's origins, the addictive power of its gameplay loop, the romances WoW has both cemented and shattered, the enabling power of anonymity, and the thrill of conquering BlizzCon with guildmates you've known for years and just met for the first time.

Daniel Lisi is the CEO and co-founder of Game Over, a video game development studio based in Los Angeles, CA. He's a member of Art Share LA's board of directors and facilitates an incubator for individual artists and their projects.

Jarett Kobek is a Turkish-American writer living in California. His novellaATTA was called “highly interesting,” by the Times Literary Supplement, has appeared in Spanish translation, been the subject of much academic writing, and was a recent and unexplained bestseller in parts of Canada. His most recent book is I Hate the Internet. Presently, he's working on a book about Ol' Dirty Bastard's first album for Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 series. 

Gabe Durham is the founder, editor, and publisher of Boss Fight Books. His novel FUN CAMP was one of BuzzFeed's 17 Books We Loved in 2013. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Brock Wilbur is a nightmare man with a heart of solid gold. Born in Salina, Kansas and booklearn'd at the Northwestern University in Chicago, Brock is a 6'7" writer slash comedian now living in Los Angeles. He has some books and standup albums and films that you might enjoy, and you can track them all down on the internetwebs. He accepts tributes in the form of video games and gin -- like an adult.

NATASHIA DEON READS FROM HER DEBUT NOVEL GRACE WITH DAVID ULIN

Grace (Counterpoint Press)

For a runaway slave in the 1840s south, life on the run can be just as dangerous as life under a sadistic Massa. That’s what fifteen-year-old Naomi learns after she escapes the brutal confines of life on an Alabama plantation. In Natashia Deón’s debut Grace: A Novel Naomi must leave behind her beloved Momma and sister Hazel and take refuge in a Georgia brothel run by a freewheeling, gun-toting Jewish madam named Cynthia. There, amidst a revolving door of gamblers, prostitutes, and drunks, Naomi falls into a star-crossed love affair with a smooth-talking white man named Jeremy who frequents the brothel’s dice tables too often.

The product of Naomi and Jeremy’s union is Josey, whose white skin and blonde hair mark her as different from the other slave children on the plantation. Having been taken in as an infant by a free slave named Charles, Josey has never known her mother, who was murdered at her birth. Josey soon becomes caught in the tide of history when news of the Emancipation Proclamation reaches the declining estate and a day of supposed freedom quickly turns into a day of unfathomable violence that will define Josey—and her lost mother—for years to come.

Deftly weaving together the stories of Josey and Naomi—who narrates the entire novel unable to leave her daughter alone in the land of the living—Grace is a sweeping, intergenerational saga featuring a group of outcast women during one of the most compelling eras in American history. 

It is a universal story of freedom, love, and motherhood, told in a dazzling and original voice set against a rich and transporting historical backdrop.

Praise for Grace

“Deón’s powerful debut is a moving, mystical family saga . . . The book provides penetrating insight into how confusing, violent, and treacherous life remained in the South after the Emancipation Proclamation, and how little life improved for freed slaves, even after the war. The omnipresences of Naomi’s ghost renders the story wide-angled, vast, and magical. Deón is a writer of great talent, using lyrical language and convincing, unobtrusive dialect to build portraits of each tragic individual as the sprawling story moves to its redemptive end.”—Publishers Weekly Starred Review

“[T]his is a brave story, necessary and poignant; it is a story that demands to be heard. This is the violent, terrifying world of the antebellum South, where African-American women were prey and their babies sold like livestock. This is the story of mothers and daughters—of violence, absence, love, and legacies. Deón's vivid imagery, deft characterization, and spellbinding language carry the reader through this suspenseful tale. A haunting, visceral novel that heralds the birth of a powerful new voice in American fiction.” —Kirkus Starred Review

 “In her gripping debut novel, Deón, awarded a PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellowship, among other honors, dramatizes alliances formed by women in a violent place and time with adroit characterizations, a powerful narrative voice, and the propulsive plotting of a suspense novel… Deón stays in control of her complex material, from its clever parallel structure to the women’s psychological reactions to relentless tension. Readers will ache for these strong characters and yearn for them to find freedom and peace.” —Booklist Starred Review

“There are moments of love in this harsh, affecting first novel, but the story mostly conveys the taking of personal freedom and human dignity. The presence of the apparition is fanciful, but it works well in bringing resolution to an imbalanced set of happenings.”—Library Journal

“One of those rare novels so assured, so beautiful and so singular in voice that it almost seems besides the point to say it's a debut (and yet it is). Natashia Deón's Grace is a powerfully telling tale of two generations of women and those in their lives over a nation-defining period of American history. This is when slavery was fought for and ended on this very ground. This is also when tribulation and hardship did not just end because slavery finally did. The sparks of determination, resilience, aspiration, hope, and, grace (yes), all burn, even against great odds, helping light the way. Set 150 years and more ago, Grace carries resonance and meaning for us today. I can't wait to put this in readers' hands.”—Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company

 “Natashia Deón’s gorgeous debut is not only a piercing and unwavering exploration of slavery and its legacy, but also a fierce insistence that we honor and acknowledge the ghosts that haunt our America today. Like all important, classic books, Grace makes a story we think we know, the story of our country and its people, dazzling and new. This is not a book anyone is going to be able to put down—or forget.” —Dana Johnson, author ofElsewhere, California, nominee for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award

"The ghost narrator in Grace articulates how she feels when she falls in love: filled. It is precisely how this flawlessly constructed novel will leave you. With muscular prose whose poetry is unforced, Deón lights a fire under the feet of her characters, women and men consumed by their fidelity to each other and untamed by their circumstances, who charge through history at the speed of thought. Deón makes the case anew that the facts of the past can only be understood by training an unflinching gaze upon the human beings who survived its horrors and proves on every page that only a consummate writer is equal to the task." —Ru Freeman, author of A Disobedient Girl and On Sal Mal Lane

“Natashia Deón’s superlative, gorgeously written debut grips you by the throat, exploring a teeming, post-Civil War world where the emancipation of slaves can be anything but freedom, violence is as casual as a cough, and love between a mother and a daughter can transcend even death. Scorchingly brilliant, this is one novel that already feels like a classic.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times Bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You

“People will compare this book to Twelve Years a Slave, Cold Mountain, andBeloved, and those are fair comparisons for the kind of time and place here, and the evocation of the south 150 years ago. But reading it, I thought of murder ballads, those songs of melancholy and injustice. Natashia Deón’s genius lies, in part, in writing a book that sustains a murder ballad’s intensity for hundreds of pages and gets into your bones like a song.”—Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me and The Faraway Nearby

Natashia Deón is the recipient of a PEN Center US Emerging Voices Fellowship and has been awarded fellowships and residencies at Yale, Bread Loaf, Dickinson House in Belgium, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Named one of 2013’s Most Fascinating People by LA Weekly, she has a MFA from UC Riverside and is the creator of the popular LA-based reading series, Dirty Laundry Lit. A practicing lawyer, she currently teaches law at Trinity Law School and Mount Saint Mary’s College.

David L. Ulin is the author or editor of eight previous books, including The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time and the Library of America’s Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, he is book critic of the Los Angeles Times.

WENONAH HAUTER DISCUSSES FRACKOPOLY WITH ED BEGLEY

Frackolopy: the Battle for the Future of Energy and the Enviornment (New Press)

Over the past decade, a new and controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has rocketed to the forefront of U.S. energy production. With fracking, millions of gallons of water, dangerous chemicals, and sand are injected under high pressure deep into the earth, fracturing hard rock to release oil and gas.

A history of the fracking industry, Frackopoly exposes how more than 100 years of political influence peddling facilitated the control of our energy system by a handful of corporations and financial institutions. It provides the public policy backstory and the history of deregulation that has turned our communities into sacrifice zones.

The book also examines the powerful interests that have supported fracking, including leading environmental groups, and looks at the growing movement to ban fracking and keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Praise for Frackopoly

“At this critical juncture in human history, Frackopoly is a must-read. Rich in history and science, it allows us to understand how we’ve got to this point and gives us the courage to continue the fight. Wenonah Hauter and Food & Water Watch were essential in legitimizing the call to ‘ban fracking’ across the United States. Her book is a powerful account of that vital necessary struggle and where we have to go from here.”—Josh Fox, director of Gasland and How to Let Go of the World (and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change)

“Real life anti-fracking superhero Wenonah Hauter delivers the definitive story on how big oil and gas corporations captured our political system and schemed to frack America—and the growing grassroots movement to retake our democracy and protect our planet.”—Mark Ruffalo, actor, director, and advisory board member of Americans Against Fracking

“Even though I have lived every chapter of this book, from beginning to end, I couldn’t, as a reader, put it down. What makes Frackopoly so riveting is not the economic evidence, public health data, and the political analysis—although that’s all here, too—but the brilliance of the author as the teller of this tragic-yet-hopeful tale. Wenonah Hauter is that rare narrator—a gifted writer and an environmental leader with a box seat in the public arena. A must-read for all who care about climate change, democracy, clean water, breathable air, and energy policy. Which is to say, all of us. Read this book and let your eyes be opened to the hoodwinking of America by the fracking industry.”—Sandra Steingraber, biologist and author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment

“A truly powerful manifesto about one of the greatest environmental fights on our planet today—from one of its greatest champions!”—Bill McKibben, environmentalist and author of Oil and Honey

“A gripping and encyclopedic survey of the fracking menace, from the rise of a fossil-fueled U.S. oligarchy to the growing global wave of hard-won fracking bans. Hauter skillfully reveals fracking’s twin legacy: ghost towns, poisoned and quaking landscapes, and a scorching atmosphere on the one hand—and a remarkable wave of courage, resistance, and rising community power on the other.””—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything andThe Shock Doctrine
Reviews

“Hauter delivers a passionate history and critique of the energy industry, from Standard Oil to Enron … [A] journalistic exposé of fracking outrages in which aggressive entrepreneurs in pursuit of profits wreak havoc on the land and poison the water.”– Kirkus Reviews

“If Hauter had written this as a novel using the same characters, countries and global intrigue, it would quickly become an international bestseller and a miniseries would soon follow. She describes bigger-than-life captains of industry and colorful small-time scoundrels who play the system for their own gain. There are secret meetings and global conspiracies…a page turner.”—National Catholic Reporter

Wenonah Hauter is an activist, author and progressive policy advocate. She is the founder and executive director of Food & Water Watch, an organization that, under her leadership, has fundamentally transformed the national debate about hydraulic fracturing (fracking), energy and the environment.

Inspired by the works of his Academy Award-winning father, Ed Begley Jr.became an actor. He first came to audiences’ attention for his portrayal of Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the long-running hit television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six Emmy nominations. Since then, Ed has moved easily among feature, television and theatre projects.

Ed co-starred in the Woody Allen movie Whatever Works with Larry David, as well as the Seth Rogan/Judd Apatow film Pineapple Express, and a number of Christopher Guest films, including A Mighty Wind, Best In Show and For Your Consideration. Other feature film credits include Batman Forever, The Accidental Tourist and The In-Laws.

EMMA RATHBONE READS FROM HER NEW NOVEL LOSING IT

Losing It (Riverhead Books)

Losing It is the story of Julia Greenfield, a former collegiate swimming star who finds herself at age 26, stuck in a dead-end job, living in a city she hates, and, oh yeah, still a virgin. Determined to re-route herself from her stalled life – and lose that pesky V-card once and for all – Julia travels to spend the summer with her mysterious aunt Vivienne in a small town in North Carolina. Much to her dismay, she soon finds out that Vivienne, age 58, is a virgin, too. In a summer populated by an unforgettable cast of colorful characters, Julia attempts to solve the riddle of her aunt, all while trying to avoid the same fate. Let’s just say…hijinks ensue.

Losing It brilliantly explores the sort of madness that grows out of a single-minded obsession and the all-too-relatable feeling of looking up and realizing that life has moved forward – or hasn’t – in ways you hadn’t anticipated. Rathbone effortlessly captures the unique vernacular particular to women of her generation and to anyone exploring the differences between sex and love. Alongside the wry, subtle humor is a poignant look at the messiness of becoming a human adult. 

“A slightly neurotic and wholly hilarious meditation on the difference between love and lust, The One and close enough, Losing It is about so much more than a quest for sex: It's a confrontational narrative about all the other stuff that goes along with it, and the intimate decisions we make that shape our lives for better — and worse.”— Refinery29 “20 Books Perfect for Your Summer Vacay”

“A hilarious story…Rathbone’s novel is a wry look at relationships.”— Purewow “The Ultimate 2016 Summer Books Guide”

“A charming, truthful story about a lovably imperfect young woman whose virginity has overstayed its welcome; a witty and insightful novel about the mysteries of human connection.”—Maggie Shipstead, author of Seating Arrangements and Astonish Me

“Every single page of Emma Rathbone’s Losing It contains a line so funny, so awkward, so perfect, that you do not want this momentous summer to end. Rathbone’s writing feels effortless, but it detonates in such wonderful ways. An amazing book.”—Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang

“[A] charming second novel… [Losing It’s] distinct delight is the nimble dance its author plays with the somewhat frivolous conceit, embracing its pulpiness to entertain, and pushing it to surprising places.”—Publishers Weekly

“Amusing but also smart about people and unexpectedly sweet.”—Kirkus Reviews

Emma Rathbone is the author of the novel The Patterns of Paper Monsters. She is the recipient of a Christopher Isherwood Grant in Fiction, and her work can also be seen in the New Yorker and Virginia Quarterly Review . A graduate of the University of Virginia Creative Writing Program, she lives in Los Angeles and is on the writing staff for the forthcoming Jenji Kohan produced Netflix comedy series Glow.

ZYZZYVA ISSUE NO. 106 LAUNCH EVENT

Please welcome ZYZZYVA's Southern California All-Stars!

Though a San Francisco publication, ZYZZYVA has championed writers, poets, and artists from the Southland since its founding in 1985. Come hear recent contributors Lou Mathews, Melissa Yancy, Jim Gavin, David Hernandez, and special guest Dana Johnson read from their work, and find out whyZYZZYVA is considered one of the country's finest literary journals. Emceed by ZYZZYVA Contributing Editor David L. Ulin.

Issue No. 106 offers for your enjoyment more of the country’s finest stories, poetry, essays, and visual art.

Jim Gavin is the author of Middle Men, published by Simon & Schuster. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Zoetrope,Esquire, The Mississippi Review, and ZYZZYVA.

Dana Johnson is the author of the short story collection In the Not Quite Dark forthcoming from Counterpoint in August 2016. She is also the author of Break Any Woman Down, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the novel Elsewhere, California. Both books were nominees for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her work has appeared in the Paris Review, Callaloo, and the Iowa Review, among others. Born and raised in and around Los Angeles, she is a professor of English at the University of Southern California.

David Hernadez's most recent book of poetry is Dear, Sincerely. His other collections include Hoodwinked, Always Danger and A House Waiting for Music. He has been awarded an NEA Literature Fellowship and two Pushcart Prizes. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, AGNI, and The Best American Poetry. David teaches creative writing at California State University, Long Beach and is married to writer Lisa Glatt.

David L. Ulin is the author, most recently, of the novel Ear to the Ground, written with Paul Kolsby. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, his other books includeSidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay; The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time; and the Library of America's Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award.

Melissa Yancy is the recipient of a 2016 NEA Literature Fellowship, and winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press for her short fiction collection Dog Years, which will be published in late 2016. Her stories have appeared in Glimmer Train, One Story,Prairie Schooner, Zyzzyva, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles and works as a fundraiser for health care causes.

Lou Mathews has received a Pushcart Prize, a Katherine Anne Porter Prize, National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts Commission fellowships in fiction. His stories have been published in Black Clock, Tin House, New England Review, 40+ other literary magazines, ten fiction anthologies and several textbooks. His first novel, L.A. Breakdown was an L.A. Times Best book. This is his first appearance in ZYZZYVA.