Skylight Books Podcast Series

Glen David Gold, "I WILL BE COMPLETE"

Glen David Gold was raised rich, briefly, in southern California at the end of the go-go 1960s. But his father's fortune disappears, his parents divorce, and Glen falls out of his well-curated life and into San Francisco at the epicenter of the Me Decade: the inimitable '70s. Gold grows up with his mother, among con men and get-rich schemes. Then, one afternoon when he's twelve, she moves to New York without telling him, leaving him to fend for himself. I Will Be Complete is the story of how Gold copes, honing a keen wit and learning how to fill in the emotional gap.

Recorded 6/28/18.

Lydia Millet, "FIGHT NO MORE" w/ Zandy Hartig

In her first story collection since Love in Infant Monkeys, which became a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lydia Millet explores what it means to be home. Nina, a lonely real-estate broker estranged from her only relative, is at the center of a web of stories connecting fractured communities and families. She moves through the houses of L.A.’s wealthy elite and finds men and women both crass and tender, vicious and desperate. With wit and intellect, Millet offers profound insight into human behavior from the ordinary to the bizarre: strong-minded girls are beset by the helpless, myopic executives are tormented by their employees, and beastly men do beastly things.

Millet is in conversation with Zandy Hartig, an actress known for her roles in Children's Hospital, Wanderlust, Role Models, and The Ten.

Pat Morrison, "DON'T STOP THE PRESSES!"

Real News on real paper. Newspapers—a free press—were the cornerstone of the Founding Fathers’ working model of democracy. And they remain so. Whether read at the kitchen table, in the boardroom, or on a laptop on the subway, newspapers—as has been said of them for more than a half century—are “the first draft of history.” Veteran journalist Pat Morrison proves it, and then some, in the pages of Don’t Stop the Presses! Truth, Justice, and the American Newspaper​.

Bryan Lee O'Malley and Leslie Hung, "SNOTGIRL"

Fashion! Murder! Allergies?! Snotgirl, the acclaimed comic book and graphic novel series from co-creators Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim) and acclaimed artist Leslie Hung returns with Snotgirl Volume 2: California Screaming. Snotgirl features the adventures of an LA-based fashion blogger whose glamorous life unravels due to severe allergies (and, to be fair, a possible murder for which she may be responsible).

O'Malley and Hung are joined by Jen Wang, a cartoonist, author and illustrator living in Los Angeles.

Clarice Lispector's "THE CHANDELIER" w/ Magdalena Edwards

Fresh from the enormous success of her debut novel Near to the Wild Heart, Clarice Lispector let loose something stormier with The Chandelier. In a body of work renowned for its potent idiosyncratic genius, The Chandelier in many ways has pride of place. While on one level simply the story of a woman’s life, The Chandelier’s real drama lies in Lispector’s attempt “to find the nucleus made of a single instant … the tenuous triumph and the defeat, perhaps nothing more than breathing.” The Chandelier pushes Lispector’s lifelong quest for that nucleus into deeper territories than any of her other amazing works.

Translator Magdalena Edwards stopped by Skylight to discuss Lispector's seminal work.

Porochista Khakpour, "SICK"

Sick is Porochista Khakpour’s arduous, emotional journey—as a woman, a writer, and a lifelong sufferer of undiagnosed health problems—through the chronic illness that perpetually left her a victim of anxiety, living a life stymied by an unknown condition. With candor and grace, she examines her subsequent struggles with mental illness, her addiction to the benzodiazepines prescribed by her psychiatrists, and her ever-deteriorating physical health. A story about survival, pain, and transformation, Sick is a candid, illuminating narrative of hope and uncertainty, boldly examining the deep impact of illness on one woman’s life.

Khakpour is in conversation with Mira Gonzalez, a writer and illustrator from Los Angeles.

"SANTA CRUZ NOIR" Contributors

Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.

Joining us are editor Susie Bright, Jon Bailiff, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Seana Graham, Naomi Hirahara, Lou Mathews, Liza Monroy, and Tommy Moore. 

PEN AMERICA MEET AND GREET

PEN America presents the 2018 Emerging Voices Fellows, alumni, and mentors in conversation for the 2019 application cycle at Skylight Books. 

The evening will include summer cocktails, short readings, a fellowship overview, and audience Q&A. Featuring Jubi Arriola-Headley, Ron Dowell, Natalie Mislang Mann, Angela M. Sanchez, Francisco Uribe, and more!

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.