Skylight Books Podcast Series

FREE READING FOR NATIONAL POETRY MONTH Poetry is meant to be heard as well as read.  Join us on Sunday, April 14 at 5 p.m. as we hear the delightful and provocative poems of Poets At Work members Kim Dower, Yvonne M. Estrada, Steven Fleet, Dylan Cameron Gailey, Brett Guitar Hofer, Eric Howard, Sharon Venezio, Terry Wolverton and Helen Yeoman.  They will be joined by a dynamic group of next generat...

Partially Kept (Nightboat Books) Skylight welcomes back Martha Ronk, an acclaimed poet and short story writer, to read and sign her latest book of poetry, Partially Kept. Martha Ronk is the author of 9 books of poetry, a collection of short fiction, and a fictional memoir; her most recent poetic work includes Partially Kept from Nightboat Books, Vertigo, a National Poetry Series selection, from Co...

Miss Maple's Seeds (Nancy Paulsen Books) Fans of Miss Rumphius will adore this gorgeous picture book which introduces the kind, nature-loving Miss Maple, who celebrates the miracle in each seed. Miss Maple gathers lost seeds that haven't yet found a place to sprout. She takes them on field trips to explore places to grow. In her cozy maple tree house, she nurtures them; keeping them safe and warm...

MARY COIN (Blue Rider Press) In her first novel since "The God of War, " critically acclaimed author Marisa Silver takes Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" photograph as inspiration for a breathtaking reinvention--a story of two women, one famous and one forgotten, and of the remarkable legacy of their singular encounter. In 1936, a young mother resting by the side of a road in Central California i...

BY THE BALLS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION (Akashic Books) The LA-Based crime fiction outfit UGLYTOWN is back. It's been 15 years since BY THE BALLS introduced hard-boiled detective Ben Drake to the world and Akashic books is celebrating by releasing BY THE BALLS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION.   Join Skylight Books for the exciting reintroduction of UGYLYTOWN. Jim Pascoe is a writer, designer, and an Emmy A...

Skylight Staff Showcase A visual, aural, literary, and olfactory treat guaranteed to make your mind, heart, and groin explode with joy or melt with empathy! The hard working and talented staff of Skylight Books will provide readings, music, artwork, and other performances for an experience of a lifetime. Zines, cds, and other objects of art will be available. Come down and soak in our pool of inte...

THE FLAMETHROWERS (Scribner Book Company) Skylight Books is thrilled to be hosting the book launch for National Book Award Finalists Rachel Kushner's hot new novel THE FLAMETHROWERS. The year is 1977 and Reno--so-called because of the place of her birth--has come to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity i...

I DREAMED I WAS A VERY CLEAN TRAMP (Ecco) How this legendary downtown artist went from an ordinary childhood in the idyllic Kentucky foothills to igniting the “punk” movement that would take over New York and London’s restless youth culture—and spawn the careers of not only Hell himself, but a cohort of friends such as Tom Verlaine, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, and the Ramones—is just part of the fa...

Young adult author extraordinaire Cecil Castellucci presents a panel on dystopian young adult novels, featuring authors Jennifer Bosworth, Chris Howard, and Sherri L. Smith. Cecil Castellucci is the author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, First Day on Earth, The Year of the Beasts and Odd Duck. Her picture book, Grandma’s Gloves, won the California...

Reclamation Artist Kristin Posehn will discuss her new book Reclamation, about her public artwork of the same name, with Frieze contributing editor and art critic Jonathan Griffin. Reclamation is both a novella and an exhibition catalogue. The book tells the story of an ephemeral public artwork through the experiences of a fictional narrator. The artwork Reclamation was an elaborate reproduction o...

The Carriage House (Scribner Book Company) A gorgeous debut novel from an award-winning poet and world ranked squash player about an old moneyed family, facing the loss of the youthful talent and storied history that defined them. After suffering a stroke, patriarch William Adair wakes up in his hospital bed and realizes that his family has changed: they are less extraordinary than he had remember...

Author (and frequent Skylight Books event host!) Noel Alumit presents a panel on getting published, featuring author Dana Johnson, book critic and author David L. Ulin, editor Daniel Smetanka, and agent B.J. Robbins. Dana Johnson is the author of Elsewhere, California and Break Any Woman Down. She is an associate professor of English at the University of Southern California where she teaches liter...

Exploding the Phone (Grove Press) In EXPLODING THE PHONE, Phil Lapsley illuminates the forgotten history of the proto-hackers, tinkerers, and pranksters who turned AT&T’s telephone system into their electronic playground. Before smartphones and iPads, before the Internet or the personal computer, a misfit group of technophiles, blind teenagers, hippies, and outlaws figured out how to hack the worl...

Bad Sex on Speed (Barnacle Book/Rare Bird Books) and The Heroin Chronicles (Akashic Drug Chronicles) Bad Sex On Speed is a savage, careening, hyper-real nightmare of a novel, taking us to the depths of Amphetamine America. Told with no concession to traditional narrative, in the voices of those in the grips and on the fringes, the stories that emerge are at once devastating, hysterical, and--perha...

THE FIFTY YEAR SWORD (Pantheon Books) Author of HOUSE OF LEAVES and ONLY REVOLUTIONS will be reading, signing and discussing his third novel THE FIFTY YEAR SWORD. Skylight Books will be the final stop on his tour and has promised a "giveaway of some kind" at the event. Enigmatic and thrilling: classic Danielewski style. Mark Z. Danielewski was born in New York City and now lives in Los Angeles. He...

A Familiar Beast (Nouvella Books) In the wake of an affair that has cost him his marriage and career, Marcus is a lost man. Desperate for reprieve from his loneliness and regret, he accepts an invitation to go to the outskirts of North Carolina and visit Edgar, an old high school classmate burdened with mysterious troubles of his own. In Edgar’s beautiful, empty home, their separate sorrows draw M...

Sister Spit: Writings, Rants and Reminiscence from the Road (City Lights Books) Michelle Tea (Valencia, Rose of No Man's Land) presents readings from her new anthology of writing and artwork from the irreverent, flagrantly queer, hilariously feminist, tough-talking, genre-busting ruffians who have toured with the legendary Sister Spit. This event features Tara Jepsen, Myriam Gurba, Blake Nelson, H...

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Robin Sloan visits Skylight to read and sign his debut novel!  The fictitious Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore -- from Sloan's delightful book of the same name -- is pretty different from Skylight Books.  For one thing, most of the books are written in code; for another, no one ever buys anything (a thought that makes us shudder).  But it'...

IN BETWEEN DAYS (Knopf Publishing Group) The Theory of Light and Matter transfixed us and became a Skylight Staff Pick.   Porter joins us to read from his debut novel, a work just as impressive and moving as his short story collection. Andrew Porter is the author of the story collection The Theory of Light and Matter, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop,...

Barack Hussein Obama by Weissman; The Cartoon Utopia by Regé (both books published by Fantagraphics) L.A.-based graphic novelists Steven Weissman (Yikes!) and Ron Regé, Jr. (Against Pain and the band Lavender Diamond) will discuss and sign their respective graphic novels, Barack Hussein Obama and The Cartoon Utopia. "Steven Weissman is a cartoonist who is so good, so funny, and so original that he...

That's Not a Feeling (Soho Press) by Josefson Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation (McSweeney's) by Bissell Dan Josefson will discuss and sign his highly anticipated debut novel, That's Not a Feeling, with award-winning essayist and short story writer Tom Bissell (Magic Hours). "Dan Josefson is a writer of astounding promise and That's Not a Feeling is a bold, funny, mordant, and deeply in...

Panorama City (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Acclaimed local author Antoine Wilson (The Interloper) will read and sign his highly anticipated new novel, Panorama City.  Booksellers have been buzzing about this book since advance copies went out in the spring, and with its strong early reviews, it has all the earmarks of a hit in the making! "Wilson's second novel (after Interloper) is fresh and flawl...

The Fiddler on Pantico Run (Free Press) Award-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Mozingo will discuss and sign his book The Fiddler on Pantico Run, about his search for the history behind his African last name. Mozingo discovers that he is decended from a Jamestown slave who sued for his freedom, married a white woman, became a tobacco farmer, and fathered one of the country's first mixed-race...

Sammy Harkham: Everything Together (PictureBox) Comics artist and Kramers Ergot editor Sammy Harkham will discuss and sign the brand new anthology of his short story work, Everything Together. Sammy Harkham is regarded as one of the most influential cartoonist/editors of his generation. After a decade of work and groundbreaking anthologies, Everything Together collects his short stories. These com...

May We Be Forgiven (Viking Books) Highly acclaimed novelist, short story writer, and memoirist A.M. Homes (The End of Alice, The Mistress's Daughter, This Book Will Save Your Life) returns to Skylight to read and sign her first work of fiction in six years, May We Be Forgiven. Praise for The Mistress's Daughter: "To my generation of writers, Homes is a kind of hero, and The Mistress's Daughter is...