Skylight Books Podcast Series

LOUISA HALL discusses her new novel SPEAK, together with IVY POCHODA

Speak (Ecco Press)

 A thoughtful, poignant novel that explores the creation of Artificial Intelligence--illuminating the very human need for communication, connection, and understanding. In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the seventeenth century, to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human, and what it means to be less than fully alive.

A young Puritan woman travels to the New World with her unwanted new husband. Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and code breaker, writes letters to his best friend's mother. A Jewish refugee and professor of computer science struggles to reconnect with his increasingly detached wife. An isolated and traumatized young girl exchanges messages with an intelligent software program. A former Silicon Valley Wunderkind is imprisoned for creating illegal lifelike dolls. Each of these characters is attempting to communicate across gaps--to estranged spouses, lost friends, future readers, or a computer program that may or may not understand them. In dazzling and electrifying prose, Louisa Hallexplores how the chasm between computer and human--shrinking rapidly with today's technological advances--echoes the gaps that exist between ordinary people. Though each speaks from a distinct place and moment in time, all five characters share the need to express themselves while simultaneously wondering if they will ever be heard, or understood.

Praise for Speak

"Speak reads like a hybrid of David Mitchell and Margaret Atwood; a literary page turner that spans four centuries and examines the idea of who and what we define as human. Louisa Hall has written a brilliant novel."—Philipp Meyer, author of New York Times bestseller The Son

"Speak is that rarest of finds: a novel that doesn't remind me of any other book I've ever read. A complex, nuanced, and beautifully written meditation on language, immortality, the nature of memory, the ethical problems of artificial intelligence, and what it means to be human."—Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven

“Louisa Hall’s Speak is a deeply original and intelligent novel. It’s also riveting. I wouldn’t have thought artificial intelligence, as a subject, would make for such a warm and human and psychologically astute novel. I’ll be thinking about Babybots and Hall’s quietly chilling and all-too-plausible vision of the near-future for a long time to come.”—Adelle Waldman, author ofThe Love Affairs of Nathaniel P

“Speak is a triumph. With a poet's voice, Louisa Hall reaches into the past and imagines the future to weave a beautifully complex novel about our human need to communicate. The result is a transcendent story about artificial intelligence that heartbreaking and very, very real.”—Ivy Pochoda, author of Visitation Street

Louisa Hall grew up in Philadelphia. After graduating from Harvard, she played squash professionally while finishing her pre-medical coursework and working in a research lab at the Albert Einstein Hospital. She holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where she currently teaches literature and creative writing, and supervises a poetry workshop at the Austin State Psychiatric Hospital. She is the author of the novel The Carriage House, and her poems have been published in The New Republic, Southwest Review, Ellipsis, and other journals.
 
Ivy Pochoda is the author of Visitation Street and The Art of Disappearing and has a BA from Harvard University in English and Classical Greek with a focus on dramatic literature and a MFA from Bennington College in fiction. She is a former professional squash player and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

KAROLINA WACLAWIAK discusses her new novel THE INVADERS, together with ANTONIA CRANE

The Invaders (Regan Arts)

 Please welcome back to Skylight one of our favorite local authors, Karolina Waclawiak! 

 A searing follow-up to Karolina Waclawiak’s critically acclaimed debut novel, How to Get Into the Twin Palms, The Invaders casts a harsh light on the glossy sheen of even the most “perfect” lives in America’s exclusive beach communities. The novel centers around Cheryl who has never been the right kind of country-club wife and has always felt like an outsider. Now in her mid-forties—facing the harsh realities of aging and a disintegrating marriage—she feels cast adrift by the sparkling seaside community of Little Neck Cove, Connecticut. When her troubled stepson Teddy moves back home after being kicked out of college, she joins him in an epic downward spiral, just as a storm brewing off the coast threatens to destroy the precarious safe haven crashing down around them. With sharp wit and dark humor, The Invaders exposes the lies and insecurities that run like fault lines through our culture, threatening to pitch bored housewives, pill-popping children, and suspicious neighbors headlong into the suburban abyss.

Praise for The Invaders

“The Invaders, by the glorious Karolina Waclawiak, is an elegant, ominous book. It’s a sharp, witty novel of manners of the most sinister kind. In Waclawiak’s expert hands, this novel will have you holding your breath and your heart until the very last word.” —Roxanne Gay, Bad Feminist and An Untamed State

“Karolina Waclawiak’s The Invaders is the stiffest of literary drinks—it’ll jolt your system, and make the world around you glow a little differently when you’re done with it. Witty, dark, and honest, this novel tells the hard—but hilarious—truths about aging in America, dysfunctional relationships, and suburban vices.” —Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

“The Invaders is as crisp as they come, hilarious and alarming in equal measure. This book is a time bomb in madras shorts, ready for golf, sex, and natural disasters.” —Emma Straub, The Vacationers and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures

“Karolina Waclawiak’s The Invaders is a blazing wonder of a novel. So long limited to satire and parody, the pristine world of the American suburbs become, in Waclawiak’s skillful hands, places of tumult, hunger, loneliness and menace. Her heroes are outsiders-on-the-inside and we watch them struggle amid the confinements of their environment and their own complicated histories. As whip-smart and cunning as it is poignant and mysterious The Invaders demonstrates that Waclawiak’s masterful debut novel, How to Get into the Twin Palms, was just the beginning.” —Megan Abbott, author ofDare Me

“The Invaders is a gut punch of a novel—a scathing look at privileged people trapped by their own choices, but unable to imagine an alternative to their misery. Karolina Waclawiak is a remarkable writer, able to channel the unflinching clarity of Richard Yates, the off-kilter tenderness of Cheever, and taut narrative energy of crime fiction in a voice that is all her own.” —Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Little Children

“Seamlessly blending literary and genre traditions, Karolina Waclawiak never fails to surprise, delight, and reveal secrets that lesser writers keep hidden. I love her work, and I'm already waiting for the next book.” —Sara Gran, author of Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

“Karolina Waclawiak’s The Invaders is a thrilling meditation on the explosive complexities of marriage, identity, and class—all set against the picturesque yet stultifying landscape of small-town Connecticut. Waclawiak is a master at illuminating the secret selves these characters long to keep hidden, and The Invaders is a wonderfully fierce novel, from a brilliant and essential talent.” —Laura van den Berg, author of The Isle of Youth and Find Me

“A witty, vicious, and entirely moving portrait of privilege, alienation, and sexual invisibility set in a Connecticut beach community.” —Kate Zambreno, author of Green Girl

“How To Get Into The Twin Palms was a mini-masterpiece of atmosphere and mood; a new book is a cause for celebration.” —Emily Gould, author of Friendship

Karolina Waclawiak received her BFA in Screenwriting from USC School of Cinematic Arts and her MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. Her first novel, How To Get Into The Twin Palms, was published by Two Dollar Radio in 2012. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, and The Believer (where she is also an editor). She lives in Los Angeles.

Antonia Crane is a writer, teacher and Moth Story Slam Winner in Los Angeles. She is the author of the memoir Spent(Barnacle Books/Rare Bird Lit March, 2014). She was featured on Lisa Ling’s documentary, “This is Life” recently on CNN. Her other work can be found in Playboy, Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Rumpus, Dame Magazine, Salon, PANK magazine, Black Clock, The Weeklings, The Believer, Frequencies, Slake, The Los Angeles Review, The New Black, The Heroin Chronicles and lots of other places. She the CNF editor at Word Riot. She is at work on another memoir about running wild in Bombay, India as a teenager.

JOSH KUN discusses his book TO LIVE AND DINE IN L.A., together with ROY CHOI

To Live and Dine in L.A. (Angel City Press)

 Note: This event was previously scheduled for Wed, July 8th, at 7:30 pm, and has now been moved to Friday, July 17th, at 7:30 pm. We apologize for any inconvenience.

 Tonight's event features the book To Live and Dine in L.A. by USC Professor Josh Kun with a Foreword by Chef Roy Choi.To Live and Dine in LA is a huge project of The Library Foundation of Los Angeles based on the Menu Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library. Central to the project are a major exhibition at the Central Library downtown and the book published by Angel City Press. Together, the exhibition and the book ask and address an important question: How did Los Angeles become the modern city the world watches? We know some of the answers all too well. Sunshine. Railroads. Hollywood. Freeways. But there’s another often overlooked but especially delicious and revealing factor: food. Think veggie tacos and designer pizzas, hot dogs on sticks and burgers from golden arches, Cobb Salads and chocolate topped ice cream sundaes, not to mention the healthiest dishes on the planet. Ask anyone who has eaten in L.A.—the city shapes the tastes that predict how America eats. And it always has. 

​With more than 200 menus—some dating back to the nineteenth century—culled from thousands in the Menu Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library, To Live and Dine in L.A. ​is a visual feast of a book. In his detailed history, author Josh Kun riffs on what the food of a foodie city says about place and time; how some people eat big while others go hungry, and what that says about the past and today. Kun turns to chefs and cultural observers for their take on modern: Chef Roy Choi sits down long enough to say why he writes “some weirdass menus.” Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Jonathan Gold looks at food as theater, and museum curator Staci Steinberger considers the design of classic menus like Lawry’s. Restaurateur Bricia Lopez follows a Oaxacan menu into the heart of Koreatown. The city’s leading chefs remix vintage menus with a 21st century spin: Joachim Splichal, Nancy Silverton, Susan Feniger, Ricardo Diaz, Jazz Singsanong, Cynthia Hawkins, Micah Wexler, Ramiro Arvizu and Jaime Martin del Campo cook up the past with new flavors. And, of course, the menus delight: Tick Tock Tea Room, Brown Derby, Trumps, Slapsy Maxie’s, Don the Beachcomber, and scores more. 

Kun tackles the timely and critically important topic of food justice, and shows how vintage menus teach us about more than just what’s tasty, and serve as guides to the politics, economics, and sociology of eating. To Live and Dine in L.A. ​is the first book of its kind—the definitive way to read a menu for more than just what to order. It’s about how to live. And how to dine. In L.A. Spread the word and join the conversation about Los Angeles’ food history online by tagging your tweets and posts with #ToLiveandDineLA.

Josh Kun ​is an Associate Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. His previous collaboration with L.A. Public Library was the award­-winning book and exhibition Songs in the Key of Los Angeles. He has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. He is author and an editor of several books, including Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, Tijuana Dreaming: Life and Art at the Global Border, and Black and Brown Los Angeles: Beyond Conflict and Coalition. As a curator he has worked with the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Santa Monica Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Jewish History in Philadelphia. Kun curated Songs in the Key of L.A. in 2013 and To Live and Dine in L.A. in 2015, both exhibitions that originated at Los Angeles Central Library galleries.

Roy Choi was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and went on to cook at the internationally acclaimed Le Bernardin. He was named Best New Chef by Food and Wine in 2010. Choi is the co-owner, co-founder, and chef of Kogi BBQ, as well as the restaurants Chego!, A-Frame, Sunny Spot and POT. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

ANDI TERAN reads from her debut novel ANA OF CALIFORNIA

Ana of California (Penguin Paperback Original)

 Many a young reader has been charmed and transported by L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and its spunky, smart heroine, Anne Shirley. Debut novelist Andi Teran reworks this classic coming-of-age tale for the 21st century in Ana of California and gives us a new—and equally loquacious—underdog to root for in Ana Cortez. Teran introduces characters with modern sensibilities and issues while staying true to the heart and spirit of Montgomery’s bestselling series. Teran’s novel also reflects her own Mexican heritage, bringing much needed diversity to contemporary literature.

Fifteen-year-old orphan Ana Cortez (“one n, like fauna—not Anna, like ‘banana’”) has just blown it with another foster family. It’s a group home next—unless she agrees to attend a farm trainee program in Northern California, run by brother and sister Abbie and Emmett Garber. If she works hard, she’ll be allowed to stay on and file for emancipation when she turns sixteen. Having lived in East L.A. all her life, Ana doesn’t know a tomato plant from a blackberry bush, but she’s out of options. Despite being unskilled and unprepared for hard-working farm life, Ana quickly comes to love Garber Farm and the small town of Hadley. She makes friends with Rye, the daughter of Abbie’s best friend, finds a mentor in Manny, Garber Farm’s foreman, and keeps running into the cute but hard to read Cole Brannan. But when she inadvertently stirs up trouble in town, Ana is afraid she’s ruined her last chance at finding a place to belong. Where can she go once she’s used up all her options? In the grand tradition of Anne of Green Gables, The Three Weissmanns of Westport, and Clueless, Andi Teran’s captivating debut novel offers a contemporary twist on a beloved classic.

Praise for Ana of California

“Newcomers will find a smart-mouthed heroine, a small town populated by a cast of lovable characters, and zippy dialogue that keeps the plot trotting along. Anne of Green Gables fans will rejoice; . . . Ana's high jinks will leave both types of readers smiling and asking for more.”—Kirkus

“Andi Teran’s first novel is vivid and fully realized, an entire universe expertly condensed into the pages you hold in your hands. Ana herself is a complicated delight, and by the end of the book I wanted to scoop her up into my arms.” —New York Times bestselling author Emma Straub

“What is so memorable about this novel is the reminder that happiness is a choice, a courageous and daring opportunity to express love for the things we value. At the outset we learn that Ana Cortez is an orphan, but as we live with her during one particular summer on Garber Farm we witness the creation of family before our eyes, and admire the passion, humility and valor of one of the most tender-hearted characters in literature today—a jewel of a book.” —Mario Alberto Zambrano, author of Lotería

Andi Teran’s nonfiction has been published by Vanity Fair, Monocle, and the Paris Review Daily. Her interview subjects are varied and fascinating, including Miranda July, Juliette Lewis, Lenny Kravitz, and David Lynch. Other past projects include co-writing and starring in an Off-Broadway play, photographing rocks that look like monsters, and directing a short film. She’s a native of El Paso, Texas, and currently resides in Los Angeles.

JOSHUA MOHR discusses his novel ALL THIS LIFE, together with TOD GOLDBERG

All This Life (Soft Skull Press)

 Morning rush hour on the Golden Gate Bridge. Amidst the river of metal and glass a shocking event occurs, leaving those who witnessed it desperately looking for answers, most notably one man and his son Jake, who captured the event and uploaded it to the internet for all the world to experience. As the media swarms over the story, Jake will face the ramifications of his actions as he learns the perils of our modern disconnect between the real world and the world we create on line.

In land-locked Arizona, as the entire country learns of the event, Sara views Jake's video just before witnessing a horrible event of her own: her boyfriend's posting of their intimate sex tape. As word of the tape leaks out, making her an instant pariah, Sara needs to escape the small town's persecution of her careless action. Along with Rodney, an old boyfriend injured long ago in a freak accident that destroyed his parents' marriage, she must run faster than the internet trolls seeking to punish her for her indiscretions. Sara and Rodney will reunite with his estranged mother, Kat, now in danger from a new man in her life who may not be who he - or his online profiles - claim to be, a dangerous avatar in human form.

With a wide cast of characters and an exciting pace that mimics the speed of our modern, all-too-connected lives, All This Life examines the dangerous intersection of reality and the imaginary, where coding and technology seek to highlight and augment our already flawed human connections. Using his trademark talent for creating memorable characters, with a deep insight into language and how it can be twisted to alter reality, Joshua Mohr returns with his most contemporary and insightful novel yet.

Joshua Mohr is the author of the novels Termite Parade (a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice selection), Some Things That Meant the World to Me (one of O magazine's Top 10 Reads of 2009 and a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller), Damascus, and Fight Song, all published to much critical acclaim. Mohr teaches in the MFA program at the University of San Francisco.

Tod Goldberg is the author of the crime-tinged novels Living Dead Girl (a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize),Fake Liar Cheat, and the popular Burn Notice series. His essay "When They Let Them Bleed," first published by Hobart, was selected by Cheryl Strayed for inclusion in The Best American Essays 2013. He is also the author of the story collectionsSimplify, a 2006 finalist for the SCIBA Award for Fiction and winner of the Other Voices Short Story Collection Prize.

TAO LIN and MIRA GONZALEZ discuss their new book SELECTED TWEETS

Selected Tweets (Short Flight/Long Drive Books)

 Selected Tweets—as the name suggests—is a book comprised of selected tweets from both Tao and Mira. The book operates as a sort of flip book, with Tao’s tweets on one side and Mira’s on the other. The tweets are organized by account (both writers have multiple), and then chronologically within each account, if that makes sense.

SHEILA HETI: How do you imagine people read twitter?

TAO LIN: On their phones I think mostly. I think I’ve read the most Twitter while laying in bed or on my back, or just laying in places, like in parks or in airports. Maybe not the most, but a lot. I’ve dropped my phone on my face many times. I think other people must too, but I rarely hear about this.

--

SHEILA HETI: What do you think about before you tweet? You once told me that you tweet what makes you feel uncomfortable. So which tweets do you reject, which do you accept?

MIRA GONZALEZ: I wouldn’t necessarily say that I tweet what makes me feel uncomfortable, I think it’s more that I feel comfortable tweeting things that I would never feel comfortable saying in a real life conversation, or even in other places on the internet. For reasons that I don’t fully understand, Twitter is a place where I don’t feel ashamed to say my most shameful thoughts...

Praise for Selected Tweets

“Selected Tweets” features a selection of bleak, depressed, disturbing, funny, and personal tweets that create a fragmented narrative and show how Twitter can serve as a platform for art, storytelling, and connection." - Columbia Spectator

"Mira's tweets are self-deprecating to the point of hilarity, and Tao's are more neurotic—still 'funny' but, like, in the way people sometimes use that word to describe a thing that's behaving oddly, like ''My air conditioner is acting funny.' They both tweet the word 'Xanax' a lot. Get it in May." - The FADER

"Mostly, Twitter resembles a diary that is being written publicly and in real time. To Lin and Gonzalez, twitter is also a tool for writing. Like a director Lin and Gonzalez exhibit their creative power by picking and choosing which tweets to include in the overarching narrative." - The State Press

Tao Lin is the author of the novels Taipei, Richard Yates, Eeeee Eee Eeee, the novella Shoplifting from American Apparel, the story-collection Bed, and other books. He edits Muumuu House and lives in New York.

Mira Gonzalez is from Los Angeles, California. She is the author of I Will Never Be Beautiful Enough to Make Us Beautiful Together, which was nominated for The Believer Poetry Award and The Goodreads Choice Award. Her work has been published widely in print and online.

JEFF POLMAN reads from his new novel MYSTERY BALL '58 in conversation with DAN EPSTEIN

Mystery Ball '58 (Grassy Gutter Press)

 It’s 1958, the Giants have just moved to San Francisco, and Snappy Drake, ex-minor league pitcher turned Seals Stadium usher, finds a dead body in his grandstand section on Opening Day. With someone apparently out to frame him, Snappy probes deeper and deeper into the mystery, encountering shady local officials, a smart, fetching female reporter from L.A., and a cast of colorful Bay Area characters who just may or may not be involved. As the pennant battles tighten, the race to identify and stop a murderous madman is running out of time...

Praise for Mystery Ball '58

“Jeff Polman’s latest combines the Golden Era of Baseball with the Golden Era of Pulp to produce a page-turner and must read...” --Joe Sheehan, Sports Illustrated

“Smart and funny, foggy and frightening, Polman reminds us of something we’d somehow forgotten: fiction is fun.” --Scott Simkus, author of Outsider Baseball: The Weird World of Hardball on the Fringe

"Where else could Jack Kerouac and Hammerin' Hank Aaron come together so enjoyably but in the irrepressible mind of Jeff Polman? In Mystery Ball, Polman, master of breathing life into history by playing with it, ventures back into 1958 to create a page-turning whodunit that bubbles over with crackling dialogue, baseball, beatniks, adventure, murder, and the grisly, joyous mess of this random dice roll called life." --Josh Wilker, author of Cardboard Gods

"Mystery Ball '58 just sparkles, full of Polman's signature wit, snappy dialogue, and page-turning storytelling."--Peter J. Schilling, author of The End of Baseball and Carl Barks' Duck: Average American

Former film critic and screenwriter Jeff Polman writes about baseball and culture for the Huffington Post and many other Web sites.MYSTERY BALL ‘58 is his third unique "baseball replay" novel. A New England native and UMass graduate, he lives in Culver City and watches as many games as his wife and son will allow him.

Dan Epstein is an award-winning journalist who covers baseball, music and pop culture for Rolling Stone, Fox Sports, Revolver, Guitar World and several other publications. He's the author of two acclaimed books about baseball in the 1970s, Big Hair and Plastic Grass and Stars and Strikes. He lives in Los Angeles.

DANI KLEIN MODISETT discusses her new book TAKE MY SPOUSE, PLEASE, together with JOHANNA STEIN

Take My Spouse, Please (Trumpeter Books)

In love as in comedy, timing is everything. One bad night doesn’t mean it’s time to quit. Have patience: great marriages, like a successful comedy career, take time. Turns out the cardinal rules of comedy have an uncanny resemblance to the “rules” of building a strong marriage. With humor and grace, writer and comedian Dani Klein Modisett shares a map for navigating your marriage through rough patches, bad jokes, and even nights when you bomb.

Take My Spouse, Please shows how thirteen tried-and-true rules of comedy, when applied to marriage, keep you and your spouse connected, enjoying each other, and getting through those inevitable tough times. Bottom line: there is (almost) always room to laugh at a trying situation and, more important, with each other.

Along with anecdotes from well-known comedians, comedy writers, marriage counselors, and long-term spouses, Dani delivers the core premise: humor matters.

Praise for Take My Spouse, Please

“This book makes you realize how valuable laughter is in a marriage. Buy it for your spouse and add years to your relationship.”—Ben Stiller

“A wonderful, humorous read for anyone in a marriage or thinking of being in one. My wife, Estelle, and I had the good fortune of being married for sixty-five years. When anyone asked her about making a marriage last, she always replied, ‘Marry someone who can stand being with you.’”—Carl Reiner

“My wife and I are either killing or bombing in our marriage, and Dani Modisett’s book explains how that’s actually a good thing. Finally, some validation that a marriage between two insane people can be a beautiful thing.”—Jim Gaffigan, comedian

“Having been married for twenty-seven years and writing about relationships for thirty-five years, I can see that Dani Modisett has captured the straight truth in this book. If you aren’t laughing through the years, you aren’t sticking together through the years. Sustaining a marriage is tough stuff, and this book, crammed with stories of resilience and humor, is proof that it is possible.”—Iris Krasnow, best-selling author of The Secret Lives of Wives

“In her quest to get more humor into her family life, Modisett has written a book with great passion and huge heart. A delight for anyone who is, was, or might ever be married.”—Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and Treasure

“Filled with humor, aspirational stories, and practical tips, Take My Spouse, Please helped me reflect on my most cherished relationship: my marriage. It made me feel hopeful about what it takes to stay connected, to grow, and most important, to keep laughing together—always.”—Mallika Chopra, author of Living with Intent

“A welcome relief from typical how-to marriage manuals. Highly recommended for everyone who wants more joy and more love in their relationship.”—Ken Page, author of Deeper Dating

“Other than having sex, I can’t think of anything better for two people who love each to do than to laugh together. Modisett knows this and delivers a book with inspiring stories of happy marriages and highly doable advice to help couples of all kinds.”—Jill Soloway, writer and comedian

“For many Irish Catholics, the idea of leaving a marriage after vowing to stay is an idea that if acted upon will lead to eternal damnation. In Dani Modisett’s funny, insightful book, she provides wonderful examples of many marriages that last because of shared happiness and understanding rather than fear of a forever spent in hell.”—Mike O’Malley, producer, writer, and actor

“My life’s work is all about comedy, love, and laughter. Dani manages to look at the most important love relationship we have—our marriage—and see it through the lens of a comedian, coming up with meaningful ideas that can’t help but provide results. What a book!”—Yakov Smirnoff, stand-up comedian and actor

“I got married six months to the day after I met my now-husband. Best and most irrational thing I have ever done. People laughed at me. Now I know why my marriage works so well—it’s because we were two physicians inadvertently following the rules of comedy. Dani nails it, prescribing strategies to keep relationships healthy, honest, and fun. Doctor’s orders: read this book!”—Dr. Cara Natterson, New York Times best-selling author of the American Girl advice book The Care and Keeping of You 

Dani Klein Modisett is a comedian and writer who has been working in the comedy world for the past twenty years. She created and produced several live shows, most notably “Afterbirth . . . Stories You Won’t Read in a Parenting Magazine,” which ran for ten years in Los Angeles and several major U.S. cities. In addition, Dani has written and produced a variety of online video content, including a series for Deepak Chopra, and a short video that is also titled “Take My Spouse, Please,” which was featured in the New York Times. Dani is the editor of the anthology Afterbirth: Stories You Won’t Read in a Parenting Magazine. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Parents Magazine, LA Parent Magazine, Mom.me and the Huffington Post. Dani lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her two sons. 

Johanna Stein is a writer/director/author/forward/slash/abuser whose work has been on Comedy Central, CBS, HBO, The Disney Channel, and recently in the viral video, "MomHead". Her comedic essays can be seen in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Parents Magazine and in her book, How Not to Calm a Child on a Plane (and Other Lessons in Parenting from a Highly Questionable Source). For more info: www.johannastein.com.

REBECCA DINERSTEIN discusses her debut novel THE SUNLIT NIGHT, in conversation with MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD

The Sunlit Night (Bloomsbury Publishing)

 From an exhilarating new voice comes a stunning debut novel which Jonathan Safran Foer calls as "lyrical as a poem, psychologically rich as a thriller."

In the beautiful, barren landscape of the Far North, under the ever-present midnight sun, Frances and Yasha are surprised to find refuge in each other. Their lives have been upended-Frances has fled heartbreak and claustrophobic Manhattan for an isolated artist colony; Yasha arrives from Brooklyn to fulfill his beloved father's last wish: to be buried "at the top of the world." They have come to learn how to be alone. But in Lofoten, an archipelago of six tiny islands in the Norwegian Sea, ninety-five miles north of the Arctic Circle, they form a bond that fortifies them against the turmoil of their distant homes, offering solace amidst great uncertainty. With nimble and sure-footed prose, Rebecca Dinerstein reveals that no matter how far we travel to claim our own territory, it is ultimately love that gives us our place in the world.

Praise for The Sunlit Night:

Praise for The Sunlit Night
"Lyrical as a poem, psychologically rich as a thriller, funny, dark, warm, and as knowing of place as any travel book or memoir, The Sunlit Night marks the appearance of a brave talent." --Jonathan Safran Foer

"By turns ravishing and hilarious, The Sunlit Night is more than a shining debut--it's the work of a young master. Dinerstein writes of her two lovers with sensitivity and chutzpah: human drama, a nightless summer, the transformative power of nature. Here's an exciting new voice that sings perfectly in key." --Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life

"[A] captivating debut novel . . . [Dinerstein] writes . . . with humor and compassion. Her prose is lyrical and silky, but it's also specific, with acute observations and precise detail, and she evokes the sun-stroked, barren Norwegian landscape with a striking sense of place. . . With provocative insights about the cruelty of abandonment, the concept of home, and the limits of parental and filial love, Dinerstein's novel is a rich reading experience." --Publishers Weekly, starred and boxed review

"Dinerstein's much buzzed-about debut novel is a fanciful Arctic Circle romance between a Russian immigrant raised in a Brighton Beach bakery and a Manhattanite seeking refuge from family problems in a Norwegian artists' colony." --The Forward"

Rebecca Dinerstein is the author of Lofoten, a bilingual English-Norwegian collection of poems. She received her B.A. from Yale and her M.F.A. in Fiction from New York University, where she was a Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellow. She lives in Brooklyn. Follow her on Twitter @beckydinerstein. For more information on Rebecca and the book, please visit:www.rebeccadinerstein.com

Maggie Shipstead is the author of two novels: Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements, which was a New York Times bestseller and the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction. She is a graduate of Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Her writing has appeared in many publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, The New Republic, and The Best American Short Stories.

KATHERINE TAYLOR reads from her newest novel VALLEY FEVER in conversation with MATTHEW SPECKTOR

Valley Fever (Farrar Strauss Giroux)

 A razor-sharp, cross-generational tragicomedy set in California's wine-soaked Central Valley.

 Ingrid Palamede never returns to places she's lived in the past. For her, "whole neighborhoods, whole cities, can be ruined by the reasons you left." But when a breakup leaves her heartbroken and homeless, she's forced to return to her childhood home of Fresno, California. Back in the "real" wine country, where grapes are grown for mass producers like Gallo and Kendall-Jackson, Ingrid must confront her aging parents and their financial woes, soured friendships, and blissfully bad decisions. But along the way, she rediscovers her love for the land, her talent for harvesting grapes, and a deep fondness and forgiveness for the very first place she ever left.

With all the sharp-tongued wit of her first novel, Rules for Saying Goodbye, Katherine Taylor examines high-class, small-town life among the grapes--on the vine or soaked in vodka--in Valley Fever, a blisteringly funny, ferociously intelligent, and deeply moving novel of self-discovery.

Praise for Valley Fever:

“Valley Fever goes straight to the heart of it: How are we supposed to live? How to jump through those hoops of fire known as love and work and family, and hopefully emerge with body and soul more or less intact. Or even--dare I say it?--to come through with some measure of peace in ourselves. Katherine Taylor's unflinching novel takes on the big stuff, and does so with an empathy and insight that reward the closest reading. This superb book succeeds on every level."
– Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

“In Katherine Taylor’s stirring and sneakily capacious novel, what begins as a family romance widens out to be nothing less than a portrait of the knotty, complicated relationship between land and the people who make it their life’s work to nurture and sometimes exploit it. Heartbreak comes in the form of relentless heat, ravaging dust, and a perfect grape left to wither on the vine, and the undoing of a once proud family vineyard becomes as potent a tale of love and betrayal as any I’ve recently read. Taylor’s prose is sharp, rueful, hilarious and crackling with life. Her characters' raw, unsentimental affairs with one another and with the earth they till will stay with you long after you’ve left the book’s pages behind.” – Marisa Silver, author of Mary Coin

Katherine Taylor is the author of the novels Valley Fever and Rules for Saying Goodbye. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Elle, Town & Country, ZYZZYVA, The Southwest Review and Ploughshares, among other publications. She has won a Pushcart Prize and the McGinnis Ritchie Award for Fiction. She has a B.A. from University of Southern California and a master’s degree from Columbia University, where she was a Graduate Writing Fellow. Katherine lives in Los Angeles.

Matthew Specktor is the author of the novels American Dream Machine and That Summertime Sound. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, GQ, the Paris Review, Tin House, The Believer, and numerous other periodicals and anthologies. He is a founding editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books.

KARL TARO GREENFELD reads from his new novel THE SUBPRIMES

The Subprimes (Harper)

 A wickedly funny dystopian parody set in a financially apocalyptic future America, from the critically acclaimed author ofTriburbia. 

In a future America that feels increasingly familiar, you are your credit score. Extreme wealth inequality has created a class of have-nothings: Subprimes. Their bad credit ratings make them unemployable. Jobless and without assets, they've walked out on mortgages, been foreclosed upon, or can no longer afford a fixed address. Fugitives who must keep moving to avoid arrest, they wander the globally warmed American wasteland searching for day labor and a place to park their battered SUVs for the night. Karl Taro Greenfeld's trenchant satire follows the fortunes of two families whose lives reflect this new dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-financially-fittest America. Desperate for work and food, a Subprime family has been forced to migrate east, hoping for a better life. They are soon joined in their odyssey by a writer and his family--slightly better off, yet falling fast. Eventually, they discover a small settlement of Subprimes who have begun an agrarian utopia built on a foreclosed exurb. Soon, though, the little stability they have is threatened when their land is targeted by job creators for shale oil extraction. But all is not lost. A hero emerges, a woman on a motorcycle--suspiciously lacking a credit score--who just may save the world. In The Subprimes, Karl Taro Greenfeld turns his keen and unflinching eye to our country today--and where we may be headed. The result is a novel for the 99 percent: a darkly funny comedy about paradise lost and found, the value of credit, economic policy, and the meaning of family.

Praise for The Subprimes

"The Subprimes holds up a funhouse-mirror version of ourselves and our era. Karl Taro Greenfeld has written a masterful, viciously funny satire of our times, one that we ignore at our peril."--Ben Fountain

"Set in a meticulously, terrifyingly imagined all-too-near future, The Subprimes is a potent cocktail of North American myth, equal parts John Steinbeck and Margaret Atwood, with a dash of benzene."--William Gibson

"Greenfeld has a tendency to lean toward parody in his satiric style, but here he employs enough authenticity to terrify, enough black humor to disarm the story's inherent pessimism, and a surprising admiration for faith in its myriad forms."--Kirkus

"The Subprimes admirably -- amazingly -- superimposes all the populist instincts of The Grapes of Wrath onto a dystopian future that is all too visible from our current moment. Greenfeld's compassion and understanding -- this novel's beating heart -- are what grabbed me most."--Charles Bock

"A little Occupy, a little Ed Abbey, and a good deal of hope for solidarity in a screwed-up world -- The Subprimes is a superhero story for the rest of us."--Bill McKibben

"Greenfeld has produced a fascinating novel about life in the age of economic uncertainty. It's a colorful tale of characters living on the edge combined with sharp social insights."--Walter Isaacson

"Sharply observed and engrossing, The Subprimes depicts a future that is simultaneously absurd...and plausible. It would be too scary to read if it weren't so entertaining."--Edan Lepucki

Karl Taro Greenfeld is the author of six previous books: the much-acclaimed novel Triburbia. The memoir Boy Alone; NowTrends; China Syndrome; Standard Deviations; and Speed Tribes. His award-winning writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, The Paris Review, The Nation, , The New York Times Magazine, Best American Short Stories 2009 and 2013, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. Born in Kobe, Japan, he has lived in Paris, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He currently lives in California with his wife, Silka, and their daughters, Esmee and Lola.

ALEKSANDAR HEMON reads from his new novel THE MAKING OF ZOMBIE WARS

The Making of Zombie Wars (Farrar Strauss Giroux)

 Script idea #142: Aliens undercover as cabbies abduct the fiancee of the main character, who has to find a way to a remote planet to save her. Title: " Love Trek." 

Script idea #185: Teenager discovers his girlfriend's beloved grandfather was a guard in a Nazi death camp. The boy's grandparents are survivors, but he's tantalizingly close to achieving deflowerment, so when a Nazi hunter arrives in town in pursuit of Grandpa, he has to distract him long enough to get laid. A riotous Holocaust comedy. Title: " The Righteous Love." 

Script idea #196: Rock star high out of his mind freaks out during a show, runs offstage, and is lost in streets crowded with his hallucinations. The teenage fan who finds him keeps the rock star for himself for the night. Mishaps and adventures follow. This one could be a musical: " Singin' in the Brain."

Josh Levin is an aspiring screenwriter teaching ESL classes in Chicago. His laptop is full of ideas, but the only one to really take root is "Zombie Wars." When Josh comes home to discover his landlord, an unhinged army vet, rifling through his dirty laundry, he decides to move in with his girlfriend, Kimmy. It's domestic bliss for a moment, but Josh becomes entangled with a student, a Bosnian woman named Ana, whose husband is jealous and violent. Disaster ensues, and as Josh's choices move from silly to profoundly absurd, The Making of Zombie Wars takes on real consequence.

Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man, The Lazarus Project, Love and Obstacles, andThe Book of My Lives. When he lives, he lives in Chicago.

BRUCE McCULLOCH discusses his new memoir LET'S START A RIOT

Let's Start a Riot: How a Young Drunk Punk Became a Hollywood Dad (Harper)

 In his book, Let's Start a Riot: How a Young Drunk Punk Became a Hollywood Dad Bruce chronicles his journey from wild early days as a "young punk" in 1980s Alberta, to his flannel plaid days and futon nights in 1990s Toronto, to becoming a "pajama-clad dad" living in the Hollywood Hills. Taking us from scowling teenager to father of two, this biting, funny collection of personal stories, peppered with moments of surprising poignancy, proves that although this infamous Kid may be all grown up, his singular brand of humor and signature wit remain firmly intact.

Bruce McCulloch is a Canadian actor, writer, comedian and film director. He is known for his work as a member of the Kids in the Hall, the popular comedy troupe, and as a writer for Saturday Night Live. He directed the films Dog Park,Stealing Harvard and Superstar, and has made two acclaimed comedy/music albums, Shame-based Man and Drunk Baby Project. McCulloch has also recently acted in episodes of Workaholics and the new season of Arrested Development. McCulloch recently returned to TV with the series Death Comes to Town. He currently lives in the Hollywood Hills with his family and tours solo and with KITH for sold-out shows.

GREG PROOPS discusses his book THE SMARTEST BOOK IN THE WORLD

The Smartest Book in the World: A Lexicon of Literacy, a Rancorous Reportage, a Concise Curriculum of Cool (Touchstone Books)

 From Greg Proops, the beloved star of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the creator, voice, and general know-it-all behind The Smartest Man in the World podcast, comes a cultural dictionary as hilarious as the man himself, The Smartest Book in the World: A Lexicon of Literacy, a Rancorous Reportage, a Concise Curriculum of Cool. Greg Proops brings his “gift of gab” (Rolling Stone) and his “bold, never boring voice” (New York Times) to the printed word with this electrifying compendium of essential wisdom and obscure knowledge, ancient rulers and overlooked feminists, and more than one fantasy baseball team.  

The Smartest Book in the World unleashes Proops’s fascinating and far-reaching knowledge, and plenty of laughs too. He offers up a cultural guide to the must-see and must-have albums, riffs on the merits of poetry and proper punctuation, and jaunts through lessons on everything from the history of baseball to how to steal precious art. Filtered through his distinctive voice and Proopsian panache, the exploits of the Roman Emperors read like a gossip column and entire novels fly by in a single sentence. Illustrations throughout by Proops’s wife, the artist Jennifer Canaga, bring inspired visuals to his riotous writing.

Spanning genres and generations, Greg Proops gives readers a rollicking reference guide guaranteed to make anyone the smartest person in the room. This book is the perfect companion to The Smartest Man in the World and an uproarious introduction for the uninitiated.

Greg Proops is a revered stand-up comic from San Francisco, and he records his chart-topping podcast “The Smartest Man in the World” from live shows around the World as well as Cleveland. Mr. Proops has been a voice actor in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and played Bob in Bob the Builder. He has been a guest on @Midnight on Comedy Central; Red Eye; The Late, Late Show; and Chelsea Lately. He lives in Hollywood.

MARGRET ALDRICH and TODD BOL discuss THE LITTLE FREE LIBRARY BOOK

The Little Free Library Book (Coffee House Press)

 "Take a book. Return a book." In 2009, Todd Bol built the first Little Free Library as a memorial to his mom. Five years later, this simple idea to promote literacy and encourage community has become a movement. Little Free Libraries--freestanding front-yard book exchanges--now number twenty thousand in seventy countries. The Little Free Library Booktells the history of these charming libraries, gathers quirky and poignant firsthand stories from owners, provides a resource guide for how to best use your Little Free Library, and delights readers with color images of the most creative and inspired LFLs around.

Praise for The Little Free Library Book:

"The Little Free Library is a terrific example of placing books--poetry included--within reach of people in the course of their everyday lives. Free is always a good thing, and the project has a nice give-and-take feel to it. Here's hoping we bump into literature when we turn the next corner--before we have time to resist!"--Billy Collins

"Stewards across the globe can be found within the [Little Free Library Book's] pages, along with helpful how-to's for any question you can conjure, professional blueprints for building your own LFL, and photos of some of the coolest Libraries around."--Loft

“Little Free Library has turned into a worldwide book sharing and social movement--Huffington Post

Margret Aldrich is a freelance writer and editor. Her articles have appeared in the Utne Reader, Experience Life!, and elsewhere. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her family.