Skylight Books Podcast Series

Johanna Hedva, "ON HELL" w/ Asher Hartman

On Hell transcribes a body broken by American empire, that of ex-con Rafael Luis Estrada Requena, hacking itself away from contemporary society. Johanna Hedva, author of Sick Woman Theory, takes the ferocious compulsion to escape (from capitalism, from the limits of the body-machine, from Earth) and channels it into an evisceration of oppression and authority. Equal parts tender and brutal, romantic and furious, On Hell is a novel about myths that trick and resist totalitarianism.

Hedva is joined in conversation by Asher Hartman, an interdisciplinary artist, writer, director, and intuitive practitioner.

Rabeah Ghaffari, "TO KEEP THE SUN ALIVE"

The year is 1979. The Iranian Revolution is just around the corner, as is a once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse. Meanwhile, in the northeastern city of Naishapur, a retired judge and his wife, Bibi, run an ancient orchard, growing apples, plums, peaches, and sour cherries, and looking after several generations of family members. The days here are marked by long, elaborate lunches on the terrace and arguments about government corruption and the rise of religious fundamentalism, peppered with tales of ancient Persia that foreshadow the seismic political changes to come.

And yet life continues. Bibi, the matriarch, struggles to keep her family together. Her young nephew goes to university, hoping to lead the fight for a new Iran and marry his childhood sweetheart. Another nephew surrenders to opium, while his father longs for a life in Europe. Her brother-in-law evolves into a powerful Islamic cleric while her husband retreats into intellectual reflection. Told through a host of vivid, unforgettable characters, ranging from children to servants to friends of the family, Rabeah Ghaffari's To Keep the Sun Alive is the kind of compelling, rich story that not only informs the past, but also reminds us of the human aspirations that animate historical events.

Tosh Berman, "TOSH" w/ Jason Schwartzman

TOSH is a memoir of growing up as the son of an enigmatic, much-admired, hermetic, and ruthlessly bohemian artist during the waning years of the Beat Generation and the heyday of hippie counterculture. A critical figure in the history of postwar American culture, Tosh Berman's father, Wallace Berman, was known as the "father of assemblage art," and was the creator of the legendary mail-art publication Semina. Wallace Berman and his wife, famed beauty and artist's muse Shirley Berman, raised Tosh between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and their home life was a heady atmosphere of art, music, and literature, with local and international luminaries regularly passing through.

Tosh's unconventional childhood and peculiar journey to adulthood features an array of famous characters, from George Herms and Marcel Duchamp, to Michael McClure and William S. Burroughs, to Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell, to the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and Toni Basil.

Tosh is joined by actor, screenwriter, and musician Jason Schwartzman.

Ingrid Rojas Contreras, "FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE" w/ Lilliam Rivera

Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation. 

When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona's mysterious ways. But Petrona's unusual behavior belies more than shyness. She is a young woman crumbling under the burden of providing for her family as the rip tide of first love pulls her in the opposite direction. As both girls' families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal. 

Inspired by the author's own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricably linked coming-of-age stories. In lush prose, Ingrid Rojas Contreras has written a powerful testament to the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.

Rojas Contreras is in conversation with Lilliam Rivera, an award-winning writer and author of The Education of Margot Sanchez and the upcoming YA novel Dealing in Dreams.

Tommy Pico, "JUNK" w/ Joseph Osmundson

The third book in Tommy Pico’s Teebs trilogy, Junk is a breakup poem in couplets: ice floe and hot lava, a tribute to Janet Jackson and nacho cheese. In the static that follows the loss of a job or an apartment or a boyfriend, what can you grab onto for orientation? The narrator wonders what happens to the sense of self when the illusion of security has been stripped away. And for an indigenous person, how do these lost markers of identity echo larger cultural losses and erasures in a changing political landscape? In part taking its cue from A.R. Ammons’s Garbage, Teebs names this liminal space “Junk,” in the sense that a junk shop is full of old things waiting for their next use; different items that collectively become indistinct. But can there be a comfort outside the anxiety of utility? An appreciation of “being” for the sake of being? And will there be Chili Cheese Fritos?

Pico is in conversation with Joseph Osmundson, a scientist and writer based in New York City.

Brittany Ackerman, "THE PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE" w/ Davy Rothbart

When my brother was in high school he attempted to build a perpetual motion machine to save the world. That machine was my brother's experiment; this book is mine. It is in the text where I dissect our relationship and try to understand myself. In undertaking this project, I had to research, which meant looking at photo albums, interviewing my brother and parents, asking friends and family what I was like when I was little, etc. Like my brother once said after reading my work, "We color these memories differently," I knew that in order to methodically calculate the moments I had to meticulously plot out what it was I was trying to say. In this way, the collection is like a science project. This book is how I will try to save my brother, or more largely how I will attempt to save the world by making people understand the pain we've all been through, the visceral pain that accompanies longing for some past impossibility. My preparation has been "in the field" and living through it, gathering notes, experiences, and findings; it has all been one giant experiment--to see if we could make it out alive.

Ackerman is in conversation with Davy Rothbart, a bestselling author, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, creator of Found Magazine, and contributor to public radio's This American Life.

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, "SKETCHTASY"

Sketchtasy takes place in that late-night moment when everything comes together, and everything falls apart: it's an urgent, glittering, devastating novel about the perils of queer world-making in the mid-'90s.

This is Boston in 1995, a city defined by a rabid fear of difference. Alexa, an incisive twenty-one-year-old queen, faces everyday brutality with determined nonchalance. Rejecting middle-class pretensions, she negotiates past and present traumas with a scathing critique of the world. Drawn to the ecstasy of drugged-out escapades, Alexa searches for nourishment in a gay culture bonded by clubs and conformity, willful apathy, and the spectre of AIDS. Is there any hope for communal care?

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore brings 1990s gay culture startlingly back to life, as Alexa and her friends grapple with the impact of growing up at a time when desire and death are intertwined. With an intoxicating voice and unruly cadence, this is a shattering, incandescent novel that conjures the pain and pageantry of struggling to imagine a future.

Randy Shaw, "GENERATION PRICED OUT"

Generation Priced Out calls for action on one of the most talked-about issues of our time: how skyrocketing rents and home values are pricing the working and middle classes out of urban America. Telling the stories of tenants, developers, politicians, homeowner groups, and housing activists from over a dozen cities impacted by the national housing crisis, Generation Priced Out criticizes cities for advancing policies that increase economic and racial inequality. Shaw also exposes how boomer homeowners restrict millennials’ access to housing in big cities, a generational divide that increasingly dominates city politics. Defying conventional wisdom, Randy Shaw demonstrates that neighborhood gentrification is not inevitable and presents proven measures for cities to preserve and expand their working- and middle-class populations and achieve more equitable and inclusive outcomes. Generation Priced Out is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of urban America.

Yesika Salgado, "TESORO"

Tesoro is a story of family, survival, and the formative power of the women in Yesika Salgado’s life. It is a telling of the balance between love and perseverance. Tesoro is an unearthing of the sacred connections that make a person whole; the treasure we forever keep with us when we learn from those we love, when we mourn those we’ve lost, and what grows in between.

Barry Glassner, "THE CULTURE OF FEAR"

In the age of Trump, our society is defined by fear. Indeed, three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today than they did only a couple decades ago. But are we living in exceptionally perilous times? In his bestselling book The Culture of Fear, sociologist Barry Glassner demonstrates that it is our perception of danger that has increased, not the actual level of risk. Glassner exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our fears: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as rates for both are declining; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; TV shows that create a new scare every week to garner ratings. Glassner spells out the prices we pay for social panics: the huge sums of money that go to waste on unnecessary programs and products as well as time and energy spent worrying about our fears.

All the while, we are distracted from the true threats, from climate change to worsening inequality. In this updated edition of a modern classic, Glassner examines the current panics over vaccination and "political correctness" and reveals why Donald Trump's fearmongering is so dangerously effective. 

Jackie MacMullan and Rafe Bartholomew, "BASKETBALL: A LOVE STORY" w/ Bill Plaschke

In an effort to tell the comprehensive story of basketball in all its fascinating dimensions, two of the most well-respected basketball journalists working today, Jackie MacMullan and Rafe Bartholomew, collaborated with award-winning director, Dan Klores, to produce a groundbreaking book based on interviews with more than 170 of the sport’s all-time greats. The interviews, conducted by Klores and his team of producers for a multi-part ESPN Films series to be released in fall 2018, include legendary players, such as Bill Russell, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Magic Johnson; renowned coaches like Phil Jackson and Coach K; and numerous executives, commissioners, and journalists.

Combing through nearly a thousand hours of conversations, MacMullan and Bartholomew compiled the candid stories and shaped them into what may become one of the most important basketball books ever written, Basketball: A Love Story. The book, which shares its title with the forthcoming ESPN Films series, surpasses other compilations in sheer volume and depth.

With a narrative that is raw and intimate and digging deep into the vast web of basketball mystique, this engrossing portrait weaves together diverse tales of the sport’s remarkable rise from humble roots and sheds light on its unparalleled growth, transforming our understanding of the game.

MacMullan and Bartholomew are in conversation with Bill Plaschke, sports columnist for The Los Angeles Times.

Karina Longworth, "SEDUCTION" w/ Mark Olsen

In recent months, the media has reported on scores of entertainment figures who used their power and money in Hollywood to sexually harass and coerce some of the most talented women in cinema and television. But as Karina Longworth reminds us, long before the Harvey Weinsteins there was Howard Hughes--the Texas millionaire, pilot, and filmmaker whose reputation as a cinematic provocateur was matched only by that as a prolific womanizer.

His supposed conquests between his first divorce in the late 1920s and his marriage to actress Jean Peters in 1957 included many of Hollywood's most famous actresses, among them Billie Dove, Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and Lana Turner. From promoting bombshells like Jean Harlow and Jane Russell to his contentious battles with the censors, Hughes--perhaps more than any other filmmaker of his era--commoditized male desire as he objectified and sexualized women. Yet there were also numerous women pulled into Hughes's grasp who never made it to the screen, sometimes virtually imprisoned by an increasingly paranoid and disturbed Hughes, who retained multitudes of private investigators, security personnel, and informers to make certain these actresses would not escape his clutches.

Vivid, perceptive, timely, and ridiculously entertaining, Seduction is a landmark work that examines women, sex, and male power in Hollywood during its golden age--a legacy that endures nearly a century later.

Longworth is in conversation with Mark Olsen, who writes about all kinds of movies for the Los Angeles Times.

Elliott Kalan, "HORSE MEETS DOG"

From television comedy writer Elliott Kalan (The Daily Show) and acclaimed illustrator Tim Miller comes a clever and fast-paced comedy of mistaken species identity: Horse Meets Dog.

According to Dog, Horse is just an oversize dog…with funny paws. And Dog… just a tiny, baby horse with a weird tail. That’s what Horse thinks, anyway. Will Dog take a bottle of hay? Why does Horse have such weird paws? Here is what ensues when a Horse and a Dog meet and attempt to figure what the other is all about. The hijinks of these two whimsical characters will have both children and their parents in stitches, and the book’s inherent message of accepting others, differences and all, will resonate long after the last page is turned.

Andrea Portes, "HENRY & EVA AND THE CASTLE ON THE CLIFF"

The Graveyard Book meets The Goonies in author Andrea Portes’s spooky, timeless middle grade debut .

Prominent Environmentalist and Oceanographer Die in Boating Accident 

This is the headline that changes Henry’s and Eva’s lives. Their parents, prominent environmentalist William Billings (age 43) and his oceanographer wife, Margo Billings (age 39), disappear mysteriously at sea.

That day is a very, very bad day indeed.

But for Henry and Eva, things are about to go from bad to worse. Their jerk-face uncle (nickname Claude the Clod) and his awful girlfriend (Terri the Terrible) have moved into their big house on the cliff to “take care of them,” but Eva has her doubts about their intentions. All she wants is to put a smile back on Henry’s face, but with Claude skulking around, she can barely come up with a halfway decent joke or song to cheer Henry up (even though that’s her particular specialty).

What Henry and Eva don’t know yet is that they aren’t the only ones in their house who want Claude out of the picture—and when some spooky visitors appear with a message, they realize that their parents’ deaths might not have been as cut-and-dried as everyone thinks.

It’s up to Henry and Eva to discover the truth—but can they do it before the Clod catches them in the act?

Wayétu Moore, "SHE WOULD BE KING" w/ Allison Noelle Conner

In She Would Be King, Wayétu Moore reimagines the dramatic story of the formation of Liberia through the eyes of three unforgettable characters. Gbessa, exiled on suspicion of being a witch from the West African village of Lai, is bitten by a viper and left for dead, but miraculously survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon is the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, and can fade from sight at will, just as his mother could. When they meet in the settlement of Monrovia, their gifts help them salvage the tense relationship between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes. Their storylines are brilliantly intertwined by the all-seeing spirit of the wind, who embodies an ancient wisdom.

A spectacular blend of history and magical realism, She Would Be King is a novel of profound depth set against a rich, unexpected canvas. Moore illuminates with radiant prose the tumultuous roots of a unique African country—one whose history is inextricably bound to the United States.

Moore is in conversation with Allison Noelle Conner, whose writing has appeared in Bitch, Jacket2, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.