Skylight Books Podcast Series

Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Melville House)

Acclaimed anthropologist and author David Graeber Direct Action) visits Skylight Books to discuss and sign his fascinating new book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, a timely study of the ancient origins of our system of credit and debt. Praise for David Graeber: "I consider him the best anthropological theorist of his generation from anywhere in the world."  —Maurice Bloch, professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics "A scholar whose books and articles are used in college classrooms around the world and an anarchist who is a card-carrying member of the Industrial Workers of the World." —The New York Times Praise for Debt: The First 5,000 Years: "[A]n engaging book. Part anthropological history and part provocative political argument, it's a useful corrective to what passes for contemporary conversation about debt and the economy."  —Jesse Singal, Boston Globe "Graeber's book is not just thought-provoking, but also exceedingly timely." — Financial Times (London) David Graeber teaches anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the author of Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value, Lost People, and Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire. He has written for Harper's, The Nation, Mute, and The New Left Review.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS FEBRUARY 2, 2012.

The Marbled Swarm (HarperCollins)

Cult-favorite writer Dennis Cooper (Ugly Man; God, Jr.) returns to Skylight to read and sign his new novel, The Marbled Swarm! "Disquieting, humbling, and sadly beautiful in the way only Dennis Cooper can be, The Marbled Swarm is a mystifying and courageous novel that represents his finest work to date." —Patrick deWitt, author of The Sisters Brothers and Ablutions "The Marbled Swarm is a mindbending masterpiece from one of my all-time favorite writers. It is vivid, slippery, ferocious, and rich with secrets. Nobody else could have written this novel and nothing else like it exists." —Justin Taylor, author of The Gospel of Anarchy and Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever Dennis Cooper is the author of the George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels: Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period. His other works include My Loose Thread; The Sluts, winner of France’s Prix Sade and the Lambda Literary Award; God, Jr.; Wrong; The Dream Police; Ugly Man; and Smothered in Hugs. His plays “Jerk” and “Them” are performed all over Europe and the United States. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS NOVEMBER 17, 2011. Photo of the author by Yuri Smirnov.

Send Me Work: Stories (Triquarterly Books)

Katerine Karlin will read and sign her new collection, Send Me Work: Stories (Triquarterly Books). Karlin has worked in oil refineries in Pennsylvania and Texas, a New Orleans shipyard, and a New York printshop, and she draws on her experiences to give voice to the unique experiences of women in the trades. Her narrators, who must daily negotiate the "man's world" of blue collar work, are keenly observant and attuned to the humor that arises when life doesn't turn out as planned. But even more remarkable is the fullness with which she renders characters who make us wonder how they've escaped the notice of other writers. In unadorned prose that evokes complete worlds with deceptive ease, Karlin shows us people immersed in the negotiations of survival, just at the edge of being able to make sense of their lives. "Karlin's stories are rich and deep, so fully lived you would think that each of her characters walks and breathes among us. A truly remarkable achievement."  --T. C. Boyle "These are such beautifully crafted stories, so satisfyingly nailed to time and place they begin to form like memories to a reader; Karlin's prose has hints of Philip Roth and Grace Paley, but the ringing specificity is all her own."  --Aimee Bender Katherine Karlin's stories have appeared in One Story, North American Review, ZYZZYVA, Alaska Quarterly Review, L.A. Weekly, and elsewhere. Her work has been selected for the Pushcart Prize and New Stories from the South. Her short story "Muscle Memory" was read as part of the "Stories on Stage" series at the Denver Performing Arts Center, and her essay "Corn" appears in One Word from Sarabande Press. Karlin currently lives in Manhattan, Kansas, with her dog, Rusty, and her husband, Chris. She teaches creative writing and literature at Kansas State University. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS NOVEMBER 16, 2011.

Pulphead (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Sullivan; House of Prayer No. 2 (Nan A. Talese) by Richard

Fans of kick-ass, can't-put-it-down nonfiction, take note: This event combines the funny, probing, insightful cultural musings of John Jeremiah Sullivan with the riveting Gothic-styled memoir of Mark Richard.

"Pulphead is upsettingly good. It’s the most inspired book of essays since David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. John Jeremiah Sullivan perceives the world with so much original wit and energy that when I put this book down, the roll of duct tape on my desk suddenly seemed like it might be full of funny secrets. I'm grateful that Sullivan is doing such outlandishly brilliant, enlivening stuff." —Wells Tower

"Read Richard's amazing memoir House of Prayer No. 2 -- read it as soon as you can, you'll barrel through it -- and you'll know after just two pages of his effortlessly killer prose that he's special all right ... Narrating, mostly, through the best use of second-person urgency since Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, he describes being a disc jockey, a deckhand, a private eye, a ditchdigger. The man can tell a full story in the flick of a phrase ... Hallelujah. A"  —Entertainment Weekly

John Jeremiah Sullivan is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and the southern editor of The Paris Review. He has written for GQ, Harper’s Magazine, and Oxford American, and is the author of Blood Horses. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, two National Magazine Awards for feature writing, and a Pushcart Prize. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he currently lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, with his wife and two daughters and, most weeks, his wife’s entire family.

Mark Richard is the author of two award-winning short story collections, The Ice at the Bottom of the World and Charity, and the novel Fishboy. His short stories and journalism have appeared in a number of publications, including the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, Vogue, GQ, the Paris Review, Vogue, and The Oxford American. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Whiting Foundation Writer’s Award, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. He has been visiting writer in residence at Texas Tech University, the University of California Irvine, Arizona State University, the University of Mississippi, Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, and the Writer’s Voice in New York. His television credits include Party of Five, Chicago Hope, and Huff, and movies for CBS, Showtime, and Turner Network Television.  He is the screenwriter of the film Stop-Loss. Richard is a lecturer at the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.  He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Jennifer Allen and their three sons.

Photo of Sullivan (left) by John Taylor. Photo of Richard by Jeff Vespa.

Beck (Chronicle Books)

Photographer Autumn de Wilde (Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie) will discuss and sign her brand-new collection of photographs of Beck, based on a 15-year collaboration between the two, and including portraits, photo sessions, and images from recording sessions and live performances. Autumn de Wilde is a photographer and a director best known for her portrait and documentary work in music, fashion and film. Some of her album covers include The White Stripes, Elliott Smith, Beck, Wilco, Norah Jones, and The Decemberists. Documenting the life and work of Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte has been an ongoing project since the designer's explosive beginning. Her portraits of actors, directors, designers, musicians and artists have been featured in Vogue, L'Uomo Vogue, Lula, Zoetrope All-Story, Interview, Elle, Flash-Art, Purple, Paper, Nylon, Black Book, Tar, The Lab, Spin, and Rolling Stone. She lives in Los Angeles. See more of her work at autumndewilde.tumblr.com. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS NOVEMBER 11, 2011.

Los Angeles Stories (City Lights Books)

Musician Ry Cooder will discuss and sign his new short story collection, Los Angeles Stories, in a conversation with Los Angeles Times book reviewer and author David L. Ulin!

Los Angeles Stories is a collection of loosely linked tales that evoke a bygone era in one of America's most iconic cities. In post-World War II Los Angeles, as power was concentrating and fortunes were being made, a do-it-yourself culture of cool cats, outsiders and oddballs populated the old downtown neighborhoods of Bunker Hill and Chavez Ravine. Ordinary working folks rubbed elbows with petty criminals, grifters and all sorts of women at foggy end-of-the-line outposts in Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Rich with the essence and character of the times, suffused with patois of the city's underclass, these are stories about the common people of Los Angeles, "a sunny place for shady people," and the strange things that happen to them.

Ry Cooder is a world-famous guitarist, singer and composer, known for his slide guitar work, interest in roots music, and more recently for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries, including The Buena Vista Social Club. He has composed soundtracks for more than twenty films, including Paris, Texas. In September, Nonesuch Records will release his latest album Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down. Two recent albums were accompanied by stories Cooder wrote to accompany the music. And, in October, City Lights will publish his first book, Los Angeles Stories, a collection of loosely linked tales that evoke a bygone era in one of America's most iconic cities.

Photo of Ry Cooder by Vincent Valdez.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS NOVEMBER 6, 2011.

Green Girl (Emergency Press) by Zambreno; E! Entertianment (Insert Press) by Durbin

Kate Zambreno and Kate Durbin join forces for an event launching Zambreno's new novel Green Girl and Durbin's new chapbook, E! Entertainment. Kate Zambreno's novel O Fallen Angel won Chiasmus Press' "Undoing the Novel" contest. Her novel Green Girl was published by Emergency Press in October 2011. A book of essays called Heroines, revolving around and obsessing over the wives and mistresses of modernism, will be published by Semiotext(e)'s Active Agents series in Fall 2012. She is an editor at Nightboat Books. Kate Durbin is a Los Angeles-based writer and artist. She is author of The Ravenous Audience (Akashic Books, 2009), E! Entertainment (Blanc Press, diamond edition, forthcoming), ABRA (Zg Press, forthcoming w/ Amarant Borsuk), as well as the conceptual fashion magazine The Fashion Issue (Zg Press, forthcoming), and five chapbooks: Fragments Found in a 1937 Aviator's Boot (Dancing Girl Press, 2009), FASHIONWHORE (Legacy Pictures, 2010), The Polished You, as part of Vanessa Place's Factory Series (oodpress, 2010), and Kept Women (Insert Press, forthcoming). She is founding editor of Gaga Stigmata, which will be published as a book from Zg Press in 2012.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS NOVEMBER 5, 2011.

Shards (Grove Press)

Debut novelist Ismet Prcic will read and sign Shards, based on his experiences leaving war-torn Bosnia. "Ismet Prcic has taken apart the complexities of war, love, family and home and scattered them across a novel that is as heartbreaking as it is beautiful. Shards is an original work of art, brutal and honest, and absolutely unforgettable." --Dinaw Mengestu, author of How to Read the Air "Ismet Prcic's prose is a gleaming pinball kept in inexhaustible play, kinetically suspended in time and space, endlessly flung away from its inevitable ending, colliding with memory and invention. This is writing fed by skill, inertia, horror, and sorrow, a survivor's story of triumph and guilt. Yet Prcic's sensibility is at once brutally and tenderly comic. Humanity seems to run deepest among those who have survived its near-absence in the world." --Brad Watson, author of The Heaven of Mercury and Aliens in the Prime of their Lives

Ismet Prcic (ISS-met PER-sick) was born in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1977 and immigrated to America in 1996. He holds an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, and was the recipient of a 2010 NEA Award for fiction. He is also a 2011 Sundance Screenwriting Lab fellow. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 27, 2011.

First Day on Earth (Scholastic)

Young adult author (and Skylight favorite!) Cecil Castellucci returns to Skylight Books to launch her new young adult novel First Day on Earth.  This isn't just a launch party -- it's also Cecil's birthday, so expect a party! "A simple, tender work that speaks to the alien in all of us." --Kirkus Reviews Mal lives on the fringes of high school. Angry. Misunderstood. Quiet, but with a lot of words underneath. Seven years ago, Mal disappeared for three days. Everyone tells him it was a breakdown, a seizure, something medical. He thinks it was something different. An alien abduction. But there's no way for him to know for sure. Then, at an abductee support group, he meets Hooper, who has some otherworldly secrets of his own. And suddenly the truth is closer than Mal ever imagined it could be. Cecil Castellucci grew up in New York City and is the author of the young adult novels Rose Sees Red, Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool, and Beige, the children's picture book Grandma's Gloves, and the comic books The Plain Janes and Janes in Love. Currently, Cecil Castellucci lives in Los Angeles. You can learn more about her at www.misscecil.com and via her blog, castellucci.livejournal.com. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 25M 2011.

Touch and Go by Nodine

Hick by Portes (both books published by Unbridled Books)

Thad Nodine will read and sign his debut novel, Touch and Go, joined by special guest Andrea Portes, whose novel Hick has just been adapted into a film, appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival! "Nodine’s cinematic novel deserves to be hailed as one of the year’s finest fiction debuts."  -- Publisher's Weekly “Touch and Go is a strong debut—a high-velocity vision quest that keeps surprising and surprising.” — Jonathan Franzen Thad Nodine is a novelist and writer who grew up in Florida and now lives in California, in a brown house with a red door not far from the Pacific. He has written for a living since graduating from college -- as a legislative correspondent, speech writer, journalist, publishing director, writing instructor, university lecturer, grant writer, editor, communications director, researcher, vice president, and education policy specialist. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and UC Santa Cruz. Touch and Go is his first novel. Andrea Portes grew up in rural Nebraska, later shuffling between Illinois, Texas, Brazil, North Dakota and North Carolina before attending Bryn Mawr College. She received her MFA from UC San Diego and became a script reader for Paramount Pictures. She now lives in Los Angeles and is a nightlife columnist for several websites. Hick is her first novel. A film version of Hick was shot in early 2011, staring Chloe Grave Moritz, Blake Lively, Alec Baldwin, Juliette Lewis and Eddie Redmayne. Directed by Derek Martini and adapted by Martini and Andea Portes, the film debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2011. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 21, 2011.

The Marriage Plot (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux)

We're thrilled to announce that Jeffrey Eugenides, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides, will be coming to Skylight to read and sign his new novel, The Marriage Plot!

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published by FSG to great acclaim in 1993, and he has received numerous awards for his work. In 2003, Eugenides received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (FSG, 2002), which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and France’s Prix Médicis. Photo of the author by Karen Yamauchi. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 13, 2011.

It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing (Touchstone)

Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Always Running and Republic of East L.A., launches his new book It Calls You Back! "Rodriguez’s life story is astonishing . . . It takes a heart broken open by a lifetime of sorrows to write with this wisdom and compassion. It takes a visionary to use this knowledge in service to those the world despises—troubled youth, the homeless, the incarcerated, the poor, the migrant—to be called back for those you love." —Sandra Cisneros, author of Caramelo and The House on Mango Street The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis Rodriguez began writing in his early teens and has won national recognition as a poet, journalist, fiction writer, children’s book writer, and critic. He has emerged as one of the leading Chicano writers in the country with fourteen published books. Luis is best known for the 1993 memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. Now selling more than 300,000 copies, this book garnered a Carl Sandburg Literary Award, a Chicago Sun-Times Book Award, and was designated a New York Times Notable Book. Rodriguez co-founded Tia Chucha Press and Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore, a cultural center in Northeast San Fernando Valley. He is currently working as a peacemaker among gangs on a national and international level. Photo of the author by D. Zapa Media.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 11, 2011.

The Barbarian Nurseries (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

Los Angeles Times columnist, Pulitzer-winning journalist, and acclaimed novelist Hector Tobar will read and sign his highly-anticipated new novel, The Barbarian Nurseries. "Tobar is both inventive and relentless in pricking the pretentious social consciences of his entitled Americans, though he also casts a sober look on the foibles of the Mexicans who serve them. His sharp eye for Southern California culture, spiraling plot twists, ecological awareness, and ample willingness to dole out come-uppance to the nauseatingly privileged may put readers in mind of T.C. Boyle." --Publishers Weekly Hector Tobar, now a weekly columnist for the "Los Angeles Times", is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and a novelist. He is the author of "Translation Nation" and "The Tattooed Soldier". The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he is a native of the city of Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and three children. Photo of the author by Doug Knutson. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 4, 2011.

Childish Loves (W. W. Norton)

Novelist Ben Markovits will read and sign the third and final entry is his critically acclaimed trilogy of novels surrounding the life of Lord Byron. "This story-within-a-story-within-a-story poses questions about the very nature of fiction." --Booklist "I've been a keen reader of this unfolding trilogy, in its totality a work of high intelligence and canny storytelling. . . . With Childish Loves, his concluding novel, Markovits reaches well beyond the usual confines of historical fiction, breaking the boundaries of the genre, in a moving finale that raises this trilogy to a level of artfulness that deserves a wide audience and deep appreciation." --Jay Parini, author of The Last Station and The Passages of H.M. Benjamin Markovits grew up in Texas, London and Berlin. He left an unpromising career as a professional basketball player to study the Romantics. Since then he has taught high-school English, edited a left-wing cultural magazine, and written essays, stories and reviews for, among other publications, the New York Times, the Guardian, the London Review of Books and the Paris Review. His novels include The Syme Papers, Either Side of Winter, Imposture, and A Quiet Adjustment. Markovits has lived in London since 2000 and is married with a daughter and a son. He teaches creative writing at the Royal Holloway, University of London.

Kippenberger: The Artist and His Families (J&L Books) Kippenberger. Der Künstler und seine Familien (Berlin Verlag) Skylight Books and Villa Aurora present Susanne Kippenberger, discussing her biography of her late brother, the artist Martin Kippenberger. The event will feature film clips, images, and audio from Martin's career, and should not be missed! Susanne's book will become available in English in December, but we didn't want to miss the chance to have this fascinating presentation in our store while the author is in the country.  We're hoping to have copies of the German edition of her book available for sale, and will take preorders of the English edition. Over the course of his 20-year career, Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) cast himself alternately as hard-drinking carouser and confrontational art-world jester, thrusting these personae to the forefront of his prodigious creativity. He was also very much a player in the international art world of the 1970s right up until his death in 1997, commissioning work from artists such as Jeff Koons and Mike Kelley, and acting as unofficial ringleader to a generation of German artists. Written by the artist's sister, Susanne Kippenberger, this first English-language biography draws both from personal memories of their shared childhood and exhaustive interviews with Kippenberger's extended family of friends and colleagues in the art world. Kippenberger gives insight into the psychology and drive behind this playful and provocative artist. Susanne Kippenberger, editor at Tagesspiegel Berlin and author of Kippenberger: Der Künstler und seine Familien and Am Tisch, is an accomplished journalist who has been awarded a number of prestigious journalistic awards.  She studied German, English, and American literature in Tübingen and at the Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and film at NYU. She is currently working on a biography of Jessica Mitford, daughter of the 2nd Baron Redesdale, who, unlike the rest of her family, developed left-wing political opinions, became involved in the struggle against the British Union of Fascists and moved to the United States in 1939 where she joined the American Communist Party and was active in the Civil Rights movement. Kippenberger is currently a writer in residence at Villa Aurora in  Pacific Palisades. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 24,2011.