Skylight Books Podcast Series

Wash Day Diaries tells the story of four best friends—Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie—through five connected short story comics that follow these young women through the ups and downs of their daily lives in the Bronx. The book takes its title from the wash day experience shared by Black women everywhere of setting aside all plans and responsibilities for a full day of washing, conditioning, and...

In the season finale of LIT ANGELES, Emily and Alena tackle Paul Beatty's classic novel The White Boy Shuffle. They discuss Beatty's poetry background and the book's consistent dark comedy, then invite esteemed novelist Steph Cha for further discussion.    Cha talks about the importance of LA in the 90s for people of color, how difficult it is for POC writers to pull off something as weird as Whit...

Bonnie Lincoln just wants to be left alone. To come home from work, shut out the voice that reminds her of some devastating losses, and unwind in front of the nostalgic, golden glow of her favorite TV show, Three’s Company. When Bonnie wins the lottery, a more grandiose vision—to completely shuck off her own troublesome identity—takes shape. She plans a drastic move to an isolated mountain retreat...

Maria Griffiths is almost thirty and works at a used bookstore in New York City while trying to stay true to her punk values. She’s in love with her bike but not with her girlfriend, Steph. She takes random pills and drinks more than is good for her, but doesn’t inject anything except, when she remembers, estrogen, because she’s trans. Everything is mostly fine until Maria and Steph break up, send...

What if the coolest girl you’ve ever met decided to be your friend? Art Barbara was so not cool. He was a seventeen-year-old high school loner in the late 1980s who listened to hair metal, had to wear a monstrous back-brace at night for his scoliosis, and started an extracurricular club for volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals. But his new friend thought the Pallbearers Club was cool....

After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home. They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe. Becky Chambers'...

Beginning in the 1920s, audiences around the globe were seduced not only by Hollywood films but also by lavish movie theaters that were owned and operated by the major American film companies. These theaters aimed to provide a quintessentially "American" experience. Outfitted with American technology and accoutrements, they allowed local audiences to watch American films in an American-owned cinem...

Emily and Alena take a break from the glitz of Hollywood to explore Oscar Zeta Acosta's Los Angeles in  The Revolt of the Cockroach People . Acosta, a friend and contemporary of Hunter S. Thompson, takes us behind the front lines of the militant Chicano movement of the late sixties and early seventies, a movement he served both in the courtroom and on the barricades.   Emily and Alena discuss the...

Sina Grace returns to writing and drawing for the first time in five years to deliver a frenzied story about two best friends and their antics in Hollyweird, CA.   Rockstar plans the greatest house party ever as a means of lifting roommate Softboy's spirits, but things take a gnarly turn when the dreaded PARTY ANIMAL shows up to make a mess of things... and dredge up long held secrets between two...

When Angeline Jackson was a child, she wondered if there was something wrong with her for wanting to kiss the other girls. But as her sexuality blossomed in her teens, she knew she wouldn't "grow out of it" and that her attraction to girls wasn't against God. In fact, she discovered that same-sex relationships were depicted in the Bible, which she read devoutly, even if the tight-knit evangelical...

For the second episode of Lit Angeles, Emily and Alena dive deep into the the City of Angels painted by Eve Babitz in her 1982 classic L.A. Woman. They discuss what makes the novel so special from a stylistic standpoint. Later, they're joined by Molly Lambert, writer and host of the new podcast HeidiWorld , to talk how writing about L.A.'s party culture from a woman's perspective makes a huge diff...

Visceral and astonishing, Paul Tran's debut poetry collection All the Flowers Kneeling  investigates intergenerational trauma, sexual violence, and U.S. imperialism in order to radically alter our understanding of freedom, power, and control. In poems of desire, gender, bodies, legacies, and imagined futures, Tran’s poems elucidate the complex and harrowing processes of reckoning and recovery, enh...

In Blaine for the Win , high school junior Blaine Bowers has it all—the perfect boyfriend, a pretty sweet gig as a muralist for local Windy City businesses, a loving family, and awesome, talented friends. And he is absolutely, 100% positive that aforementioned perfect boyfriend—senior student council president and Mr. Popular of Wicker West High School, Joey—is going to invite Blaine to spend spri...

Join us for a conversation with Will Clark and Katharine Milon, co-managers of  Philly AIDS Thrift at Giovanni's Room , the self-described "Oldest and Very Best LGBTQ and Feminist Bookstore in the Country."    Hosted by Lance Morgan. _______________________________________________   Produced by Nat Freeman, Lance Morgan, & Michael Kowaleski. Theme: "I Love All My Friends," an unreleased demo by Fr...

In this special edition of our Arts Annex series, we speak to  Elska Magazine 's editor and chief photographer, Liam Campbell, about working with his subjects and what it means to run a magazine by and for gay men.   Elska Magazine is a photography, culture and travel publication featuring images and stories from local men, giving a glimpse at the real lives of gay men.   Hosted by Lance Morgan. _...

Join us for a brand new series in the Skylight arsenal, Lit Angeles! In this soon-to-be-regular segment, our hosts Emily VanKoughnett and Alena Saunders take a deep dive into Angeleno's rich literary history, one book at a time, exploring select titles that they believe illustrate the City of Angels with depth and texture.  In the first episode, they tackle Raymond Chandler's proto-noir detective...

There are trans people here in the past, the present, and the future. H. Melt's writing centers the deep care, love, and joy within trans communities. This poetry collection describes moments of resistance in queer and trans history as catalysts for movements today. It honors trans ancestors and contemporary activists, artists, and writers fighting for trans liberation. There Are Trans People Here...

Join us for an amazing conversation with poet, podcaster, and TV writer  Tommy Pico , as he discusses his career and the delineating differences between his different creative pursuits.   Hosted by Lance Morgan. _______________________________________________   Produced by Nat Freeman, Lance Morgan, & Michael Kowaleski. Theme: "I Love All My Friends," an unreleased demo by Fragile Gang.

Breaking the global record for streams in a single day, nearly 10 million people around the world tuned in to hear Kendrick Lamar's sophomore album in the hours after its release. To Pimp a Butterfly was widely hailed as an instant classic, garnering laudatory album reviews, many awards, and even a canonized place in Harvard's W. E. B. Du Bois archive. Why did this strangely compelling record stim...

María Sánchez is obsessed with what she cannot see. As a field veterinarian following in the footsteps of generations before her, she travels the countryside of Spain bearing witness to a life eroding before her eyes--words, practices, and people slipping away because of depopulation, exploitation of natural resources, inadequate environmental policies, and development encroaching on farmland and...

In Desgraciado, Angel Dominguez navigates language and memory to illuminate the ongoing traumas of misremembered and missing histories and their lasting impacts. Dominguez unravels a critical and tender language of lived experience in letters addressed to their ancestral oppressor, Diego de Landa, (a Spanish friar who attempted to destroy the written Maya language in Mani Yucat n, on July 12th 156...

Despite an embarrassing, alcoholic mother, Noomi Wadia is loathe to change her own hard-partying ways simply because it's what's expected in Kamalpur high society. As her peers begin to marry and her social obligations become more fraught, she finds herself under constant scrutiny at summer parties of the city's upper crust.   With her options in her hometown growing increasingly limited, Noomi le...

Through a series of essays, poems, and comics, thirty creators give voice to moments that defined them and shed light on the immense diversity and complexity of the Asian American identity. Edited by CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) and with an introduction by renowned journalist SuChin Pak, My Life: Growing Up Asian in America is a celebration of community, a call to action, an...

Sixteen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers to be known for her killer eyeliner, not for being one of the only Mexican kids at her new, mostly white, very rich Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she’s gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way.  After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend before transferring to Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: keep her brother out of troubl...

After being separated from his mother at the US border, a young Guatemalan immigrant must learn to harness emerging superhuman abilities while being hunted by the Federal Government.   Join us for a conversation between Home writer Julio Anta and Pornsak Pichetshote, recorded live on our Crowdcast channel on February 22, 2022. _______________________________________________   Produced by Natalie F...