Skylight Books Podcast Series

The Underbelly by Phillips; The Chieu Hoi Saloon by Harris (both published by PM Press) Two writers on PM Press's hardboiled fiction imprint Switchblade will read from and sign their new novels.  Gary Phillips (The Jook) returns with The Underbelly, and Michael Harris presents his debut novel, The Chieu Hoi Saloon. A noirish good time! Gary Phillips writes tales of mayhem and menace. In other pursuits he's been a union rep, run a nonprofit begun as a response to the '92 L.A. riots, taught incarcerated youth, was a community organizer in South Central Los Angeles where he was born and raised, toiled as a printer, worked for one of those shadowy 527s, and delivered dog cages. Michael Harris grew up in a little railroad town in Northern California, in the loom of Mt. Shasta, whose mystic influence shadowed him from the University of Oregon to Harvard to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. An Army veteran of Vietnam, he has worked as a Forest Service aide, a janitor and an English conversation teacher in Tokyo. For 30 years, he was a reporter, editor and book reviewer for West Coast newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. Like his alter ego, Harry Hudson, he stutters and is a gloomy cuss. He lives with his wife in Long Beach; they have a grown son. The Chieu Hoi Saloon is his first novel. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS NOVEMBER 5, 2010.

Kind of Blue (Oceanview Publishing) Miles Corwin returns to Skylight to read from and sign his fourth book (and his first novel) Kind of Blue.  Special guest Marcella Winn, the LAPD detective Corwin wrote about in The Killing Season, will give the introduction! Miles Corwin spent the first years of his life living with his family in the Rosslyn Hotel, which his grandfather owned, located at 5th and Main streets in downtown Los Angeles, at the edge of Skid Row. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara and received an M.A. at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He spent more than 5 years as a Los Angeles County beach lifeguard. Corwin, a former crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, is the author of three non-fiction books:  The Killing Season, a national bestseller; And Still We Rise, the winner of the PEN West award for nonfiction and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year; and Homicide Special, a Los Angeles Times bestseller.  Kind of Blue is his first novel. Corwin lives in Altadena with his family and teaches at the University of California, Irvine. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS NOVEMBER 4, 2010.

Air Kissing on Mars (Red Hen Press) Local poet Kim Dower will read and sign her new collection, Air Kissing on Mars. "Kim Dower writes jazzy, sassy, sexy poems that move fast, are full of surprise and tweak the heartstrings like Arkhipovsky tweaks the balalaika.: --Stephen Dobyns "Kim Dower's poetry is absolutely charming and compelling. She combines humor and heartbreak, while exploring the personal and universal. Her poems are both accessible and profound. What I love most is that the poet herself is so present in her images and emotions. What a big, beautiful, generous, and funny heart she has!" --Lisa See Kim Dower grew up in New York on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and received a BFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston. Upon graduating, Kim stayed at Emerson where she taught Introduction to Creative Writing: Poetry for two years before moving to Los Angeles where she pursued other writing projects and began her own literary publicity company called Kim-from-L.A., the name for which she has become famous in the world of book publishing. Kim’s poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, The Seneca Review, and in the on-line video magazine, Guerilla Reads. She lives with her family in West Hollywood, California.

The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Are So Important in a Distracted Time (Sasquatch Books) Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin will discuss and sign his new boook on the importance of reading in a digital culture, The Lost Art of Reading. Reading is a revolutionary act, an act of engagement in a culture that wants us to disengage. In The Lost Art of Reading, David L. Ulin asks a number of timely questions — why is literature important? What does it offer, especially now? Blending commentary with memoir, Ulin addresses the importance of the simple act of reading in an increasingly digital culture. Reading a book, flipping through hard pages, or shuffling them on screen — it doesn’t matter. The key is the act of reading, the seriousness and depth. Ulin emphasizes the importance of reflection and pause allowed by stopping to read a book, and the focus required to let the mind run free in a world that is not one's own. Far from preaching to the choir, The Lost Art of Reading is a call to arms, or rather, pages. David L. Ulin was book editor of the Los Angeles Times from 2005–2010. He is the author of The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith (Viking, 2004; Penguin, 2005), selected as a Best Book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. He has edited two anthologies of Southern California literature: Another City: Writing from Los Angeles (City Lights, 2001), a Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of 2001; and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology (Library of America, 2002), which received a California Book Award from the Commonwealth Club of California, and was selected by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as a Best of the Best for 2002. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, LA Weekly, Los Angeles, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered; his essay "The Half-Birthday of the Apocalypse" was nominated for a 2004 Pushcart Prize. For the 2008–2009 academic year, he was a visiting professor in the MFA in creative writing program at the California Institute of the Arts. Currently, he teaches in USC's Masters of Professional Writing program, and in the low residency MFA in creative writing program at the University of California, Riverside's Palm Desert Graduate Center. Photo of the author by Noah Ulin. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 27, 2010.

Full Frontal Nudity: The Making of an Accidental Actor (Scribner) Actor Harry Hamlin (LA Law) will discuss and sign his highly entertaining new memoir Full Frontal Nudity. "Hamlin’s life has been filled with drama in more ways than one, and his skill at colorful, vibrant storytelling makes this a rewarding read." —Publishers Weekly Harry Hamlin is an American film and television actor. Born in Pasadena, California, he attended the University of California at Berkeley, Yale University, and the American Conservatory Theater. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Lisa Rinna, and their children, all of whom appear in the new reality show Harry Loves Lisa, which debuts on TV Land in October 2010. Photo of the author by Dana Patrick. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 24, 2010.

The Reversal (Little, Brown & Co.) Michael Connelly returns to Skylight to read from and sign his new novel The Reversal, in which lawyer Mickey Haller and LAPD detective Harry Bosch reunite for another case! Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of the Harry Bosch mystery novels as well as the recent #1 bestsellers The Lincoln Lawyer, The Brass Verdict, and The Scarecrow. He is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels. He divides his time between California and Florida. Photo of the author by Miriam Berkley. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 18, 2010.

By Wronsky: So Quick Bright Things; A Giant Claw (foreword) By Rosenthal: Coyote O'Donohughe's History of Texas By Partnoy: So Quick Bright Things (translator), A Giant Claw (translator) By Garcia: Other Countries By Gronk: A Giant Claw (All books published by What Books Press) A launch party for four new titles from What Books Press' fall list! Gail Wronsky, Chuck Rosenthal, Alicia Partnoy, Ramon Garcia, and Gronk will all read from and discuss their recent publications. Gail Wronsky is the author of Poems for Infidels (Red Hen Press); Dying for Beauty (Copper Canyon), a finalist for the Western Arts Federation Poetry Award; The Love-talkers (Hollyridge Press); Again the Gemini are in the Orchard (New Poets Series); and Dogland (Alderman Press, University of Virginia). Her translation of Alicia Partnoy's poems Volando Bajito has been published by Red Hen, and she is the coauthor with Molly Bendall of two books of "cowgirl" poetry: Calamity and Belle, A Cowgirl Correspondence and Dear Calamity, Love Belle. Blue Shadow Behind Everything Dazzling, a chapbook of poems about India where she lived for several months in 2006, has been published recently by Hollyridge Press. She is Director of Creative Writing and Syntext (Synthesizing Textualities) at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She lives in Topanga, California. Chuck Rosenthal was born in Erie, Pennsylvania and has lived in the western U.S. since 1979. He's the author of seven published novels and a memoir. The novels: Loop's Progress, Experiments with Life and Deaf, Loop's End (the Loop Trilogy), Elena of the Stars, Avatar Angel: The Last Novel of Jack Kerouac, My Mistress Humanity, and The Heart of Mars. The memoir: Never Let Me Go. His work has been nominated for The National Book Award, The PEN West Award for Fiction, the PEN International Award for Fiction, the Critics Book Circle Award for Fiction, the American Library Association Most Notable Book Award, and for Best American Creative Non-fiction. He is a three time winner of the Utah Arts Council Award for Fiction. Rosenthal recently lived for four months in the Himalayas of northeast India, the setting for his new book: Are We Not There Yet? Travels in Nepal, North India, and Bhutan. He lives in Topanga Canyon, California, where he owns a horse and rides daily. He teaches at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Alicia Partnoy is a survivor from the secret detention camps where about 30,000 people "disappeared" in her country, Argentina. She is best known as the author of The Little School. Tales of Disappearance and Survival. A poet, translator, and scholar, Alicia Partnoy has published the poetry collection Little Low Flying/Volando bajito, translated by Gail Wronsky and illustrated by Raquel Partnoy. Poems from her Revenge of the Apple/Venganza de la manzana rode the metro in New York, Dallas, and Washington D.C., and have been set to music by Sweet Honey in the Rock. Partnoy edited You Can't Drown the Fire: Latin American Women Writing in Exile, and from 2003 to 2006, she was the co-editor of Chicana/Latina Studies: the journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. Her work has been twice a Pushcart Foundation Writer's Choice Selection (Tobias Wolff and Bobbie Ann Mason). Partnoy served on the boards of directors of PEN, Roadwork, and Amnesty International U.S.A. She is an associate professor at Loyola Marymount University. Ramón García was born in Colima and grew up in Modesto, California. He has a B.A. in Spanish Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Master's and Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, San Diego. He was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts residency fellowship from the MacDowell Colony and fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Ragdale Foundation. He is a recipient of a research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and pre-doctoral fellowships from the Humanities Research Institute at the University of California, Irvine, and The Getty Center in Los Angeles. Ramón García is an associate professor in the Chicana/o Studies Department at the California State University at Northridge. He lives in downtown Los Angeles. Chicano painter, printmaker, and performance artist Gronk contributes the cover art for What Books Press. Known for his murals, Gronk also has created stage design for the Latino Theater Company, the East West Players, the LA Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera. He's also collaborated on music composed for the Kronos Quartet. He has exhibited at or curated work for many museums, include the UCLA Hammer, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco, the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, the San Francisco Mexican Museum, the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, and the San Jose Museum of Art. He was given a career retrospective at the University of New Mexico, where he was in residence. He was a founding member of ASCO, a multimedia arts collective in the 1970s. Born in East Los Angeles, he now makes his home in downtown LA. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 15, 2010.

Make Me a Woman (Drawn & Quarterly) Vanessa Davis will discuss and sign her new graphic novel, Make Me a Woman. "In fact, if you don’t like [Vanessa Davis], you don’t like anything good." —Vice "What distinguishes Davis's take is a reflective hunger for meaning and connection in the very mundane." —Bust "Vanessa Davis’s autobiographical slice-of-life drawings are both totally relatable and sweetly surreal." —Bitch Vanessa Davis is the award-winning cartoonist of the graphic novel and minicomic, Spaniel Rage. Her new Drawn & Quarterly book Make Me A Woman was serialized online for Tablet Magazine and will confirm Vanessa's spot as one of the leading cartoonist and humorists of her generation. Using beautiful watercolors, refreshing honesty and humor, her comics made an immediate impression and have appeared in such anthologies as Kramers Ergot, Best American Comics, Stuck in the Middle, Papercutter and An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 13, 2010.

Take One Candle Light a Room (Pantheon) Novelist Susan Straight (A Million Nightingales) returns to Skylight to read and sign her latest novel, Take One Candle Light a Room! "A searing, ultimately redemptive novel about America’s legacy of racial violence and a woman’s struggle to forge her own identity. . . . Deeply rooted in the African-American experience, yet filled with insights that resonate for anyone seeking to make a better life without disowning the past. Straight writes about the thorny subject of race with sensitivity and nuance." --Kirkus Reviews Susan Straight is the author of six novels, including A Million Nightingales and the National Book Award finalist Highwire Moon. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Magazine, and NPR’s All Things Considered. Her short stories have won an Edgar Award and an O. Henry Award. She teaches at the University of California, Riverside. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 12, 2010.

Take Me Home (Harper) Brian Leung, author of Lost Men and World Famous Love Acts will return to Skylight to read and sign his latest novel, Take Me Home. Praise for Lost Men: "This is a novel of enormous wisdom and emotional weight." --Dan Chaon Praise for World Famous Love Acts: "If it's possible to be dubbed a "master storyteller" this early in one's career, then Leung's enchanting debut short story collection most assuredly has earned him the title." --Booklist Brian Leung is the author of the novel Lost Men and the collection World Famous Love Acts. He was born and raised in San Diego County, and currently lives in Louisville, KY, where he is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Louisville. Photo of the author by John Nation. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 7, 2010.