Skylight Books Podcast Series

Helen Knode with James Ellroy

Wildcat Play (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Acclaimed novelist Helen Knode will discuss her new thriller Wildcat Play with her ex-husband and crime fiction writer extraordinaire James Ellroy. Praise for Wildcat Play: "I fell in love with the people, the place and most of all the words." —Michael Connelly "Drawing on her family's history in oil exploration, Helen Knode has created a riveting mystery that blends elements of Upton Sinclair and There Will Be Blood with a hard-edged heroine who isn't afraid to get grease under her fingernails. Best of all, Wildcat Play explores the literary terra incognita of East-Central California, a land of transplanted Okie roughnecks, blue-collar millionaires, wildcat rigs and the scheming, double-crossing and murder that seethes beneath the placid surface." —Denise Hamilton, author of Damage Control and the Eve Diamond mystery series Helen Knode put her experiences as a staff writer and film critic for the L.A. Weekly into her first novel, The Ticket Out. She was born in Calgary, Alberta, heart of the Canadian oil business, and Knodes have worked in oil since the nineteenth century, a history that inspired Wildcat Play. She lives in Austin, Texas. James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L.A. Quartet novels—The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz—were international bestsellers. His novel American Tabloid was Time magazine's Best Book (fiction) of 1995; his memoir, My Dark Places, was a Time Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book for 1996. His novel The Cold Six Thousand was a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book for 2001. Ellroy lives in Los Angeles. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MAY 2, 2012.

Ross Altman

Ross Altman

May Day is the international worker’s holiday, dating back to 1886 and the Haymarket Square strike in Chicago. This May Day, Skylight Books welcomes LA labor troubadour Ross Altman to lead a program of sing along labor songs, with a little history behind the songs, for t...hose who want to carry on the tradition of Joe Hill, the IWW and Woody Guthrie—now in his Centennial year. This is the closing activity in Skylight's show of support for worker's rights and a fair economy this May 1st - check out skylightbooks.com for updates in the next week to see how you can participate. Ross will tell the story of how May Day came to be and teach some of the classic labor songs going back to coal miner struggles in Harlan County, Kentucky and West Virginia, auto workers in Flint, Michigan, mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts that gave rise to the Bread and Roses strike of 1912, now in its Centennial, and the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union. Learn about the anthem of American labor, Solidarity Forever, the Internationale, Joe Hill, and more. Ross will have you singing these picket line classics in no time at all. Ross is a member of Local 47 of the Professional Musicians’ Union—AFL-CIO and writes for FolkWorks (www.folkworks.org). He recently performed in the Grammy Museum tribute to the legendary Ash Grove folk music club.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MAY 1, 2012.

Charles Yu

Sorry Please Thank You (Pantheon Books)

Skylight welcomes back Los Angeles author Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, to launch his new short story collection, Sorry Please Thank You. Praise for How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: "Glittering layers of gorgeous and playful meta-science-fiction . . . A complex, brainy, genre-hopping joyride of a story [that is] smart and tragic enough to engage all regions of the brain and body." —The New York Times Book Review “Compulsively rereadable . . . Hilarious." —Los Angeles Times Charles Yu is the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. He received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award for his story collection Third Class Superhero. He has also received the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award. Photo of the author by Michelle Jue. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS JULY 25, 2012.

Neal Stephenson

Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing (William Morrow & Company)

Neal Stephenson, the beloved and bestselling author of modern speculative fiction classics including Reamde, Anathem, and Snow Crash, will discuss and sign his brand-new collection of essays, Some Remarks. "Neal Stephenson has made a name for himself as a writer whose imagination knows no limits." —Salon Neal Stephenson is the author of Reamde; Anathem; the three-volume historical epic the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World); Cryptonomicon; The Diamond Age; Snow Crash, which was named one of Time magazine’s top one hundred all-time best English-language novels; and Zodiac.  He lives in Seattle, Washington. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS AUGUST 8, 2012.

Guy Delisle

Jerusalem (Drawn & Quarterly)

Acclaimed graphic memoirist Guy Delisle returns with his strongest work yet—a thoughtful and moving travelogue about life in the Holy City. Guy Delisle expertly lays the groundwork for a cultural road map of contemporary Jerusalem, utilizing the classic stranger in a strange land point of view that made his other books, Pyongyang, Shenzhen, and Burma Chronicles required reading for understanding what daily life is like in cities few are able to travel to. In Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Delisle explores the complexities of a city that represents so much to so many. He eloquently examines the impact of the conflict on the lives of people on both sides of the wall while drolly recounting the quotidian: checkpoints, traffic jams, and holidays. When observing the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim populations that call Jerusalem home, Delisle’s drawn line is both sensitive and fair, assuming nothing and drawing everything. Jerusalem showcases once more Delisle’s mastery of the travelogue. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS APRIL 28, 2012.

James Kaelan

We're Getting On (Monster Meanman)

Author and filmmaker James Kaelan returns to Skylight Books to celebrate the re-release of his novella We're Getting On and, immediately following this event, the premiere of his documentary of the same name at the United Film Festival. In July 2010, Skylight hosted the launch party for the original editon of We're Getting On, a limited-edition novella with a seed-embedded cover.  The event was also the kick-off of the author's book tour -- entirely by bicycle -- which took him more than 1,000 miles from Los Angeles to Seattle, and which the documentary chronicles. Come hear a reading from this excellent novella, a harrowing tale of ideals taken to their extreme, then attend the screening, right next door at the Los Feliz 3 at 2 p.m.!

James Kaelan is the author of the novella We're Getting On, and the forthcoming novel, Brute. He is also a director and producer. His first documentary, We're Getting On, which he co-directed with Miles Kittredge, begins a tour of the festival circuit on April, making its premiere at the United Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Kaelan is also the writer/director of the highly controversial narrative feature Eel, which wrapped production in January, and the co-writer of the narrative feature Family Games, which wrapped last December in New York. His latest project, Premonitions of a Later Film, enters pre-production this summer.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS APRIL 28, 2012.

Poets at Work Reading

Poets At Work Celebrate National Poetry Month

Poems can make you laugh, cry, and think about your world in a completely new way.  Poets At Work members Kim Dower, Yvonne M. Estrada, Steven Fleet, Dylan C. Gailey, Brett Guitar Hofer, Eric Howard, Ronna Perrin, Sharon Venezio and Terry Wolverton will read poems that do all that and then some!

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS APRIL 15, 2012.

Allison Burnett

Death by Sunshine (Writers Tribe Books)

Novelist Allison Burnett (Christopher, The House Beautiful) visits Skylight to read and sign the third and final book in his B. K. Troop series, Death by Sunshine. "Like Truman Capote, Allison Burnett knows how to pull up a chair and whisper a juicy story into his lucky reader's ear. Death By Sunshine is a quickly paced tale inhabited by fascinating and funny creatures." --Nell Scovell, Vanity Fair "In this age when the genuine comic novel seems to be an extinct species, Allison Burnett gives us reason to rejoice. Death By Sunshine is a return trip to the world of B.K. Troop, one of the most appealing characters ever put on a page." --Charles Busch, author of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and Die, Mommie, Die! "Death by Sunshine is classic Burnett: hilarious, gut-wrenching, and entirely entertaining. He takes us on a journey across the country into the darkest recesses of the human psyche - with a few detours into the excesses of the human flesh along the way. A terrific read!" --Claire LaZebnik, author of Epic Fail and Families and Other Non-Returnable Gifts Allison Burnett’s first novel, Christopher, was a finalist for the 2004 PEN Center USA Literary Award in Fiction. His second novel, The House Beautiful, was published in October 2006. His third novel, Undiscovered Gyrl, was published by Vintage Books in October 2009. His new novel, set in Los Angeles, is Death By Sunshine. Allison also works in film, having written and directed the 1997 feature film, Red Meat, as well as written or co-written a dozen films, including Autumn in New York, Resurrecting the Champ, The Feast of Love, Underworld Awakening, and Gone. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS APRIL 11, 2012.

Peggy Dobreer and Eric Morago

In the Lake of Your Bones by Dobreer; What We Ache For by Morago (both books published by Moon Tide Press)

Los Angeles-based poet Peggy Dobreer presents her new poetry collection In the Lake of Your Bones, joined by award-winning slam poet Eric Morago, who will read and sign his 2010 collection What We Ache For. Peggy Dobreer is the author of In the Lake of Your Bones, the latest title from Moon Tide Press, and has had work published in Malpais Review, San Pedro River Review, WordWrights Magazine and elsewhere. She also founded the Horse of Another Color poetry series and has organized the Small Press Festival in Santa Monica.

Eric Morago is the poet-in-residence for the California Workforce Association and the host of the SHOUT! poetry series in Whittier. He has also taught poetry workshops to at-risk youth. His first book, What We Ache For, came out from Moon Tide Press in 2010.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS APRIL 10, 2012.

Leaves of Grass

Celebrate poetry month at Skylight Books with Los Angeles poets reading from Walt Whitman's magnificent Leaves of Grass on Sunday, April 1st from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

Walt Whitman began Leaves of Grass: "I celebrate myself,/ And what I assume you shall assume,/ For every atom belonging to me as good belong to you." Leaves of Grass celebrates the open road, camraderie, freedom, equality: "I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,/ and I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man,/ and I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men."

A diverse group of some of Los Angeles' finest poets will join us to celebrate National Poetry Month by reading from this groundbreaking form, including James Cushing, Pam Ward, Holly Prado Northup, Harry Northup, Phoebe MacAdams Ozuna, Fernando Castro, Eloise Klein Healy, and S.A. Griffin.