Skylight Books Podcast Series

Half Upon a Time (Aladdin) A launch party for local author James Riley and his first book, a middle readers fairy tale mash-up called Half Upon a Time! Life's no fairy tale for Jack. After all, his father's been missing ever since that incident with the beanstalk and the giant, and his grandfather keeps pushing him to get out and find a princess to rescue. Who'd want to rescue a snobby, entitled princess anyway? Especially one that falls out of the sky wearing a shirt that says "Punk Princess," and still denies she's royalty. In fact, May doesn't even believe in magic. Yeah, what's that about? May does need help though -- a huntsman is chasing her, her grandmother has been kidnapped, and Jack thinks it's all because of the Wicked Queen . . . mostly because May's grandmother might just be the long-lost Snow White. Jack and May's thrillingly hilarious adventure combines all the classic stories -- fractured as a broken magic mirror -- into one epic novel for the ages. Photo of the author by Maarten de Boer. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 11, 2010,

So Late, So Soon: New and Selected Poems by Moldaw (Etruscan Press); Masque by Byrne (Tupelo Press) Poet Carol Moldaw will read and sign her recent poetry collection Carol Moldaw’s most recent book, So Late, So Soon: New and Selected Poems was published in the spring of 2010 by Etruscan Press. She is the author of four other books of poetry, The Lightning Field, which won the 2002 FIELD Poetry Prize, Through the Window, Chalkmarks on Stone, and Taken from the River, as well as a novel, The Widening. Her work is published widely in journals, including AGNI, Antioch Review, Boston Review, Chicago Review, Conjunctions, Denver Quarterly, FIELD, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Parnassus, Threepenny Review, and Triquarterly. It has also been anthologized in many venues, including Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, and Under 35: A New Generation of American Poets. A recipient of a Lannan Foundation Marfa Writer’s Residency, an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize, Moldaw lives outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband and daughter. In the spring of 2011 she will be the Louis D. Rubin, Jr., Writer-in-Residence at Hollins University. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 10, 2010.

Termite Parade by Mohr; The Orange Eats Creeps by Krilanovich (both published by Two Dollar Radio) Joshua Mohr, whose last novel (Some Things That Meant the World to Me) was a staff favorite, and Grace Krilanovich, whose debut novel (The Orange Eats Creeps) is the only one to be excerpted twice in Black Clock, will read from and sign their new novels! Praise for Termite Parade: "The book is similar to Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment': the most crucial action serves as a portal to and wellspring for the various psychologies of its characters. But Mohr's storytelling is so absorbing that Termite Parade does not read like an analytical rumination; if he is examining the very nature of these characters under a microscope, he at least lets the specimens speak for themselves." --San Francisco Chronicle Praise for The Orange Eats Creeps: "A 'vampire' novel as Celine might have written, with dashes of Blake and Burroughs: hallucinatory, poetic, passionate, excessive, sexually charged, hardcore in all the best senses of the word. Twilight this is not." --Steve Erickson Grace Krilanovich has been a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and a finalist for the Starcherone Prize. Her first book, The Orange Eats Creeps, is the only novel to be excerpted twice in Black Clock. Joshua Mohr is the author of the novel Some Things that Meant the World to Me, which was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and one of Oprah Magazine's Top 10 reads of 2009. His second novel, the newly released Termite Parade, has been called "No small achievement" by The New York Times Book Review. He has an MFA from the University of San Francisco and has published numerous short stories and essays in publications such as 7×7, the Bay Guardian, Zyzzyva, The Rumpus, Other Voices, the Cimarron Review, Gulf Coast and Pleiades, among many others. He lives in San Francisco and teaches fiction writing. Please visit him at joshuamohr.net. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 9, 2010.

Citrus County (McSweeney's) by Brandon; The People of Paper (McSweeney's hardcover, Houghton Mifflin paperback) by Plascencia John Brandon will read from and sign his acclaimed new novel, Citrus County, with special guest Salvador Plascencia, author of The People of Paper! "With Citrus County John Brandon joins the ranks of writers like Denis Johnson, Joy Williams, Mary Robison and Tom Drury, writers whose wild flights feel more likely than a heap of what we’ve come to expect from literature, by calmly reminding us that the world is far more startling than most fiction is.”  —New York Times Book Review (cover review) John Brandon was raised on the Gulf Coast of Florida. During the writing of this book he worked at a Frito-Lay warehouse and a Sysco warehouse. During the revising he was the John & Renee Grisham Fellow in Creative Writing at University of Mississippi. His favorite recreational activity is watching college football. His first book was Arkansas, a novel. Salvador Plascencia is the author of the novel The People of Paper, which was named a best book of the year by San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, and Boldtype. The novel  has been translated into a dozen languages. His fiction and reviews have appeared in McSweeney's, Tin House, and The Los Angeles Times. In 2010, Poets and Writers named Plascencia one of the Fifty of the Most Inspiring Authors in the World. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 8, 2010.

Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude (Harper Perennial) Neal Pollack, author of Never Mind the Pollacks and Alternadad, will discuss and sign his new memoir, Stretch. "Neal Pollack has a well documented history of putting himself into ridiculous positions, but never so literally… If Eat, Pray, Love had been written by a sweaty, aging, male smartass, then that book might be called Stretch, and Elizabeth Gilbert would be named Neal Pollack." —John Hodgman Neal Pollack is the author of the bestselling memoir Alternadad and several acclaimed books of satirical fiction, including the cult classic The Neal Pollack Anthology Of American Literature and the rock-n-roll novel Never Mind The Pollacks. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, GQ, Details, Men’s Journal, Maxim, Salon.com, Slate.com, and many other magazines and websites. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 7, 2010.

My Hollywood (Knopf) Acclaimed Los Angeles novelist Mona Simpson (Anywhere But Here) will read from and sign her long-awaited novel My Hollywood -- her first in ten years! "Funny, smart, and filled with razor sharp observations about life and parenthood, Simpson's latest is well worth the wait." --Publishers Weekly Mona Simpson is the author of Anywhere But Here, The Lost Father, A Regular Guy, and Off Keck Road, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and won the Heartland Prize of the Chicago Tribune. She has received a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Guggenheim grant, a Lila Wallace–Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, and, recently, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Santa Monica, California. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 2, 2010.

The Four Fingers of Death (Little, Brown & Co.) Rick Moody (The Diviners) will read and sign his sprawling new novel -- an "adaptation" of a (fictional) 1960s pulp horror movie. This one's for readers of Vonnegut and Pynchon, and we know there are a lot of you out there! "The book is entertaining and often poignant, probing the limits of technology, consciousness, and language in the face of grief." --The New Yorker "The Four Fingers of Death reads [...] like a 700-page Kurt Vonnegut book." --Time Out New York Rick Moody is the award-winning author of Black Veil, Demonology, The Diviners, Garden State, The Ice Storm, Purple America, and Right Livelihoods. Photo of the author by Thatcher Keats. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 1, 2010.

In This House (Turtle Point Press) Poet Howard Altmann will read and sign his new poetry collection, In This House. "Howard Altmann interrogates the sky, the light, the world, about their intentions. If he seldom finds reassuring answers, he finds something better: 'When all that consoled consoles no longer / loneliness finds a room inside the one it knows.' These poems are as essential as a glass of water." --John Ashbery Howard Altmann's work has appeared in many journals including most recently the New England Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry. In This House is his second book of poems. He is also the author of The Johnsons & The Thompsons (Playscripts 2008). Born and raised in Montreal, he has earned degrees from McGill and Stanford. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS JULY 30, 2010.

The Lovers (Ecco) Vendela Vida returns to Skylight Books to read from and sign her new novel, The Lovers. Vendela Vida is the author of Girls on the Verge, a non-fiction investigation of the rituals that help American girls develop their adult identities, and two novels, the New York Times Notable Book Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and And Now You Can Go. She is co-editor of The Believer magazine, and lives in Northern California with her husband and children. Photo of the author by Chloe Aftel. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS JULY 29,2010.

Sick City (Harper Perennial) Tony O'Neill will return to Skylight Books to read from and sign his newest novel, Sick City! "Sick City is fun, twisted and brutal. One of the best books written about LA in a long time. O’Neill could be our generation’s Jim Thompson." --James Frey (A Million Little Pieces, Bright Shining Morning) "Fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Warren Ellis will cherish this twisted tale." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Tony O'Neill writes about the Hollywood I know as well as any writer alive. His characters are a punch in the face, scorchingly real. His dialogue is note-perfect and could only have been lived in the moment-by-moment life of one who has sat on a curb and pondered his next jive and shuck while searching for cigarette butts." --Dan Fante (Chump Change, Mooch, Spitting Off Tall Buildings) Tony O'Neill’s books include Digging the Vein, Down and Out on Murder Mile, and the New York Times bestselling Hero of the Underground (which he co-authored).  He is also the co-author of Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway, by Cherie Currie.  O'Neill's essays, poems, and short stories have appeared extensively online and in print. He is a survivor of heroin addiction, crack abuse, rehab, fatherhood, and stints in the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Kenickie, and Marc Almond's band. He lives in New York with his wife and daughter. THIS EVENT TOOK PLACE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS ON JULY 28, 2010.