In This House (Turtle Point Press)

Poet Howard Altmann will read and sign his new poetry collection, In This House. Patricia Clarkson, who was schedule to appear, will not be able to make it.

"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.

A street fair celebrating your
neighborhood! Come and see the best that Los Feliz has to offer, with
locally owned businesses offering samples, specials, and a chance to get
to know their stores better.  Skylight will be participating -- check back for more details!

Back by popular demand! Skylight's Hot Summer Nights, in which we stay open until midnight
on Saturday nights during the summer, is back and better than ever. 
Saturday nights from July 17 through August 28, come by the store to
enjoy some snacks, some music (occasionally live), some art
(occasionally projected onto the walls), and some good summer times.
More details to come! 

Back by popular demand! Skylight's Hot Summer Nights, in which we stay open until midnight
on Saturday nights during the summer, is back and better than ever. 
Saturday nights from July 17 through August 28, come by the store to
enjoy some snacks, some music (occasionally live), some art
(occasionally projected onto the walls), and some good summer times.
More details to come! 

Bukowski turns 90! On the occasion of what would have been
his 90th birthday, Skylight Books in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles is throwing a party in celebration of poet, novelist, and
celebrated East Hollywood resident Charles Bukowski.
Special guests include: Sue Hodson, the manuscript curator of the
Bukowski Archive at the Huntington Library, and Bukowski's friend and
poet Gerald Locklin as well as other people from Bukowski's life to be
announced. There will be readings, screenings, giveaways, food, and of
course drink.

Mark your calendars now and stay tuned to this page for more details -- you won't want to miss this party!

Back by popular demand! Skylight's Hot Summer Nights, in which we stay open until midnight
on Saturday nights during the summer, is back and better than ever. 
Saturday nights from July 17 through August 28, come by the store to
enjoy some snacks, some music (occasionally live), some art
(occasionally projected onto the walls), and some good summer times.
More details to come!

Back by popular demand! Skylight's Hot Summer Nights, in which we stay open until midnight
on Saturday nights during the summer, is back and better than ever. 
Saturday nights from July 17 through August 28, come by the store to
enjoy some snacks, some music (occasionally live), some art
(occasionally projected onto the walls), and some good summer times.
More details to come! 

Back by popular demand! Skylight's Hot Summer Nights, in which we stay open until midnight
on Saturday nights during the summer, is back and better than ever. 
Saturday nights from July 17 through August 28, come by the store to
enjoy some snacks, some music (occasionally live), some art
(occasionally projected onto the walls), and some good summer times.
More details to come!

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women (Knopf)

James Ellroy returns to Skylight to discuss and sign his new memoir, The Hilliker Curse!

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L.A. quartet -- The
Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz -- were
international bestsellers. American Tabloid was Time's Novel of the Year
in 1995; his memoir My Dark Places was Time's Best Book and a New York
Times Notable book for 1996. His novel The Cold Six Thousand was a New
York Times Notable Book and Los Angeles Times Best Book for 2001. He
lives on the coast of California. 

Richard Yates (Melville House)

We're thrilled to have Tao Lin here for the first time, to read and sign his new novel, Richard Yates (yes, named after the famous author of Revolutionary Road). Several of his books have staff recommendations here, and we're really looking forward to this new one!

Tao Lin was born in 1983, and raised in Orlando, Florida. In 2007 Melville House published his first two works of fiction, the short story collection Bed, and the novel Eeeee Eee Eeee, simultaneously. And in 2008, published his poetry collection, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. It has been assigned
as a text book in several college-level psychology courses. In 2009,
Melville House published his novella Shoplifting From American
Apparel. His books have been translated into German, Spanish,
Japanese, Norwegian, and Serbian. He lives in Brooklyn.

Photo of the author by Noah Kalina.

Half a Life (McSweeney's)

Darin Strauss, author of More Than It Hurts You, will discuss and sign his heartbreaking memoir about how one outing in his father's Oldsmobile during his last month of high school resulted in the death of
a classmate and the beginning of a different, darker life for the author.

“Half a Life is the best anything I’ve read—novel, memoir, story—in a very long time. Incredibly, it’s also the most moving."  —David Lipsky, author of Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself

“This book will break your heart. It’s a great and moving book about a boy becoming a man, and it belongs on the shelf with just a precious few others—The Catcher in the Rye, The Moviegoer, Joe Gould’s Secret. It should be read and re-read. It’s a treasure.”  —Rich Cohen, author of Tough Jews and Sweet and Low

Darin Strauss is the best-selling author of Chang & Eng, The Real
McCoy, and More Than It Hurts You. The recipient of a 2006 Guggenheim
Fellowship in fiction writing and -numerous other awards, Strauss’s
work has been translated into fourteen langauges, and published in over
twenty countries. He is a Clinical Associate professor of Writing at
New York University.

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.

Her and Me and You (Simon Pulse)

A launch party for local young adult author Lauren Strasnick and her second YA novel, Her and Me and You!

Lauren Strasnick grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, now lives in
Los Angeles, and is a graduate of Emerson College and the California Institute of the Arts MFA Writing Program. She wrote her first short story, “Yours Truly, The Girls from Bunk Six,” in a cloth-bound 5x4 journal, in the
fifth grade. Simon Pulse published her first novel, Nothing Like You, in
October 2009.  Find out more at www.laurenstrasnick.com.

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 a former journalist and the author of over a dozen
bestselling books, including the Harry Bosch novels and Blood Work,
which was a major motion picture. He has won numerous awards for his
journalism, as well as an Edgar Award, a Nero Wolfe prize, a Macavity
Award, and an Anthony Award for his books. Michael Connelly lives in
Florida. 

Inferno (A Poet's Novel) (OR Books)

Eileen Myles will return to Skylight books to read from and sign her new novel, Inferno (A Poet's Novel). 

Set against the backdrop of New York in its punk heyday, Inferno is
the story of a female artist coming of age in the world of poetry, and
not only coming to terms with being an outsider, but embracing it, both
on a creative and sexual level.

"Eileen Myles debates her own self identity in a gruffly beautiful, sure voice of reason. Is she a 'hunk'? A 'dyke'? A 'female'? I’ll tell you what she is––damn smart! Inferno burns with humor, lust and a healthy dose of neurotic happiness." – John Waters

Eileen Myles came to New York from Boston in 1974 and soon began reading her poems publicly, taking workshops at St. Mark’s Poetry Project in New York’s East Village and publishing in little magazines, zines and larger journals such as Partisan Review and Paris Review. Her books of poems include Not Me, School of Fish and Sorry, Tree. With Liz Kotz, she co-edited the notorious The New Fuck You/adventures in lesbian reading, responding to the short-lived gay and lesbian publishing boom in the ’90s. Her first fiction was Chelsea Girls (1994), followed by Cool for You (a nonfiction novel) in 2000. She directed the writing program at the University of California at San Diego for five years, returning to New York in 2007. In San Diego she wrote the libretto for the opera Hell (composed by Michael Webster), performed in 2004-06. During that time she also wrote much of Inferno. For the last three decades she’s been writing reviews, articles, essays and blogs, most recently in Art Forum, Parkett, Vice, AnOther Magazine and the Brooklyn Rail. Her essays were collected in The Importance of Being Iceland (2009). In 2010, the Poetry Society of American awarded Myles the Shelley Memorial Award. In the same year, she was the Hugo Writer at the University of Montana at Missoula. She lives in New York.

Mary Ann in Autumn: A Tales of the City Novel (Harper)

Armistead Maupin, author of the Tales of the City novels, returns to Skylight to read from and sign his latest, Mary Ann in Autumn!

"Perhaps
the most sublime
piece of popular literature America has ever produced … As
with the Beatles, everyone seems to like Maupin's Tales
– and, really, why would you want to find someone who
didn't?"
--Laura
Miller, The Salon.com
Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Authors

Armistead Maupin is the
author of the Tales of the City series, of which Mary Ann in Autumn is the
eighth book and which includes Tales of the City, More Tales of the City,
Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You and
Michael Tolliver Lives. Three television miniseries starring Olympia Dukakis and
Laura Linney were made from the first three Tales novels. Maupin is also the
author of Maybe the Moon and The Night Listener, the latter of which became a
feature film starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette. A stage musical version
of Tales of the City will have its world premiere at San Francisco’s American
Conservatory Theater in May 2011. Maupin lives in San Francisco with his
husband, Christopher Turner.

Photo of the author by Christopher Turner.