Skylight Books Podcast Series

TINY CRIMES: Contributors

Tiny Crimes gathers leading and emerging literary voices to tell tales of villainy and intrigue in only a few hundred words. From the most hard-boiled of noirs to the coziest of mysteries, with diminutive double crosses, miniature murders, and crimes both real and imagined, Tiny Crimes rounds up all the usual suspects, and some unusual suspects, too. With illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook and flash fiction by Carmen Maria Machado, Benjamin Percy, Amelia Gray, Adam Sternbergh, Yuri Herrera, Julia Elliott, Elizabeth Hand, Brian Evenson, Charles Yu, Laura van den Berg, and more, Tiny Crimes scours the underbelly of modern life to expose the criminal, the illegal, and the depraved.

Joining us are contributors: Brian Evenson, Adam Hirsch, and Amelia Gray

Lucas Mann, "CAPTIVE AUDIENCE"

In Lucas Mann's trademark vein—fiercely intelligent, self-deprecating, brilliantly observed, idiosyncratic, personal, funny, and infuriating—Captive Audience is an appreciation of reality television wrapped inside a love letter to his wife, with whom he shares the guilty pleasure of watching "real" people bare their souls in search of celebrity.  Captive Audience resides at the intersection of popular culture with the personal; the exhibitionist impulse, with the schadenfreude of the vicarious, and in confronting some of our most suspect impulses achieves a heightened sense of what it means to live an authentic life and what it means to love a person.

Mann is in conversation with television critic Joy Press.

Marisha Pessl, "NEVERWORLD WAKE"

Once upon a time, back at Darrow-Harker School, Beatrice Hartley and her five best friends were the cool kids, the beautiful ones. Then the shocking death of Jim--their creative genius and Beatrice's boyfriend--changed everything.

One year after graduation, Beatrice is returning to Wincroft--the seaside estate where they spent so many nights sharing secrets, crushes, plans to change the world--hoping she'll get to the bottom of the dark questions gnawing at her about Jim's death. But as the night plays out in a haze of stilted jokes and unfathomable silence, Beatrice senses she's never going to know what really happened.

Then a mysterious man knocks on the door. Blithely, he announces the impossible: time for them has become stuck, snagged on a splinter that can only be removed if the former friends make the harshest of decisions. Now Beatrice has one last shot at answers...and at life.

And so begins Marisha Pessl's Neverworld Wake.

Elizabeth Gorcey, "READ, READ AND READ"

Read, Read and Read is the third book in the Liv On Life (LOL) Series. Liv’s love of books proves that a book can be a friend and make a friend! In Going to the Park (the first book in the series) Liv and Bowie (her Boxer doggie) convince their Mom and Dad to put down the technology and head out together for a fun day at the park! And in Green is Good (the second book) Liv and Bowie go on an adventure to an organic farm where they discover the best way to grow Liv’s favorite veggies, and the healthy benefits of eating ‘green’!

The Liv On Life Book Series was inspired by Elizabeth Gorcey’s daughter, Olivia, and the joy she has brought to the lives of her mother and others. In encouraging Olivia to embrace, cherish and use her authentic voice, Elizabeth has realized how much parents can, and must, learn from the purity and honesty of a child's perspective. 

Joshua Wheeler, "ACID WEST"

Acid West is a rollicking trip through the muck of American myths that have settled in our country’s underbelly. Following the footsteps of John Jeremiah Sullivan and Eula Biss, yet displaying an antic energy and freewheeling imagination entirely his own, Joshua Wheeler is a nonfiction virtuoso with a preternatural talent for dissecting the uncanniness of our cultural moment. The first collection of his sui generis essays, Acid West, is an outstanding debut that’s sure to become a cult classic.

Wheeler is in conversation with Brian Phillips, former staff writer for Grantland and a former senior writer for MTV News.

Aja Gabel, "THE ENSEMBLE"

Aja Gabel is a literary star on the rise. She holds both an MFA and Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing and was a Writing Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Center. Her essay, “The Sparrows in France,” earned her an honorable mention in Best American Essays 2015 and her short story “Necessary Animals” was named a Distinguished Story in Best American Short Stories 2017, edited by Meg Wolitzer.

Adding to this list of literary accomplishments, Gabel is a trained classical cellist who has performed with competitive quartets and chamber groups across the country. Gabel brilliantly marries her two artistic passions in The Ensemble, an entrancing debut novel about the enduring relationship between four extraordinary young musicians.

Joining Gabel in conversation is Maggie Shipstead, author of the novels Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements.

Michelle Tea, "AGAINST MEMOIR"

The razor-sharp but damaged Valerie Solanas, a doomed lesbian gang, recovering alcoholics, and teenagers barely surviving at an ice creamery: these are some of the larger-than-life, yet all-too-human, figures populating America’s fringes. Rife with never-ending fights and failures, theirs are the stories we often try to forget. In the process of excavating and documenting these lives, Michelle Tea also reveals herself in unexpected and heartbreaking ways.

Delivered with her signature honesty and dark humor, Tea blurs the line between telling other people’s stories and her own in Against Memoir. She turns an investigative eye to the genre that’s nurtured her entire career—memoir—and considers the extent to which art preys on life.

Tea is in conversation with Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts.

UC RIVERSIDE: Students and Professors

Join us as professors and students from UC Riverside’s Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts MFA read from their work. Readers include: Allison Benis White, Steve Erickson, Nora Woolley, Aleksandra Krzywicka, Kate Burns, Carissa Atallah, Carley Besl.

Jeff Sweat, "MAYFLY"

Jemma has spent her life scavenging tools and supplies for her tribe in the their small enclave outside what used to be a big city. Now she’s a teen, and old enough to become a Mama. Making babies is how her people survive—in Jemma’s world, life ends at age seventeen.

Survival has eclipsed love ever since the Parents died of a mysterious plague. But Jemma’s connection to a boy named Apple is stronger than her duty as a Mama. Forced to leave, Jemma and Apple are joined in exile by a mysterious boy who claims to know what is causing them to die. The world is crumbling around them, and their time is running out. Life is short. Can they outlive it?

 

Mayfly author James Sweat is joined in conversation by Story Worthy Media producer Christine Blackburn.

Julia Dixon Evans, "HOW TO SET YOURSELF ON FIRE"

Threaded with wry humor and the ache of love lost or left behind, How to Set Yourself on Fire establishes Julia Dixon Evans as a rising talent in the vein of Shirley Jackson and Lindsay Hunter.

Evans is in conversation with Jim Ruland, author of the novel Forest of Fortune and the short story collection Big Lonesome.

Francisca Lia Block, "THE THORN NECKLACE"

In this long-anticipated guide to the craft of writing, Francisca Lia Block offers an intimate glimpse of an artist at work and a detailed guide to help readers channel their own experiences and creative energy. Sharing visceral insights and powerful exercises, she gently guides us down the write-to-heal path, revealing at each turn the intrinsic value of channeling our experiences onto the page.

Named for the painting by Frida Kahlo, who famously transformed her own personal suffering into art, The Thorn Necklace offers lessons on life, love, and the creative process.

Block is in conversation with Elgin James,a writer and director best known for the film Little Birds.

Sheila Heti, "MOTHERHOOD"

In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation.

In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti’s intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home.

Heti is in conversation with Sarah Manguso, author of four book-length essays, a story collection, and two poetry collections.

Hallie Bateman and Suzy Hopkins, "WHAT TO DO WHEN I'M GONE"

What to Do when I'm Gone is an instruction manual for getting through life without a mom. The death of one’s mother, is one of life’s key turning points. Combining Suzy Hopkin's wit and heartfelt advice with Hallie Bateman's quirky and colorful style, What to Do when I'm Gone is the illustrated instruction manual for getting through life without one's mom. It's also a poignant look at loss, love, and taking things one moment at a time. By turns whimsical, funny, touching, and above all pragmatic, it will leave readers laughing and teary-eyed. And it will spur conversations that enrich family members' understanding of one another.

MariNaomi, "LOSING THE GIRL"

In Losing the Girl, the first book in the Life on Earth trilogy, Eisner-nominated cartoonist MariNaomi looks at life through the eyes of four suburban teenagers: early romance, fraying friendships, and the traces of a mysterious—maybe otherworldly—disappearance. Different chapters focus on different characters, each with a unique visual approach.

Jamel Brinkley, "A LUCKY MAN"

In the nine expansive, searching stories of A Lucky Man, fathers and sons attempt to salvage relationships with friends and family members, and confront mistakes made in the past. An imaginative young boy from the Bronx goes swimming with his group from day camp at a backyard pool in the suburbs, and faces the effects of power and privilege in ways he can barely grasp. A teen intent on proving himself a man through the all-night revel of J’Ouvert can’t help but look out for his impressionable younger brother. And at a capoeira conference, two brothers grapple with how to tell the story of their family, caught in the dance of their painful, fractured history. This stunning debut by Jamel Brinkley reflects the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them, especially in a world shaped by race, gender, and class—where luck may be the greatest fiction of all.

Brinkley is in conversation with Justin Torres, author of We the Animals.