We stare at our phones. We keep multiple tabs open. Our chats and conversations are full of the phrase “Did you see?” The feeling that we’re living in the worst of times seems to be intensifying, alongside a desire to know precisely how bad things have gotten—and each new catastrophe distracts us from the last.
The Unreality of Memory collects provocative, searching essays on disaster culture, climate anxiety, and our mounting collective sense of doom. In this new collection, acclaimed poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert explores our obsessions with disasters past and future, from the sinking of the Titanic to Chernobyl, from witch hunts to the plague. These deeply researched, prophetic meditations question how the world will end—if indeed it will—and why we can’t stop fantasizing about it.
Can we avoid repeating history? Can we understand our moment from inside the moment? With The Unreality of Memory, Gabbert offers a hauntingly perceptive analysis of our new ways of being and a means of reconciling ourselves to this unreal new world.
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Produced by Maddie Gobbo & Michael Kowaleski
Theme: "I Love All My Friends," a new, unreleased demo by Fragile Gang.
Visit https://www.skylightbooks.com/event for future offerings from the Skylight Books Events team.
Lydia Fitzpatrick, "LIGHTS ALL NIGHT LONG" w/ Aja Gabel
G. Willow Wilson, "THE BIRD KING"
William E. Jones, "I'M OPEN TO ANYTHING"
Samira Ahmed, "INTERNMENT" w/ Brandy Colbert
Aatif Rashid, "Portrait of Sebastian Khan"
Christopher Cantwell, "SHE COULD FLY" w/ Nick Dazé
Mark Doten, "TRUMP SKY ALPHA" w/ Nathan Deuel
Don Winslow, "The Border"
Ali Liebegott, "THE SUMMER OF DEAD THINGS"
Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, "CIRCLE"
Geoff Dyer, "BROADSWORD CALLING DANNY BOY"
Chris Cander, "THE WEIGHT OF A PIANO"
Hillary Frank, "WEIRD PARENTING WINS" w/ Jane Marie
UC Irvine MFA Student Reading
Elizabeth McCracken, "BOWLAWAY" w/ Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
Marlon James, "BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF"
Charlie Jane Anders, "THE CITY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT"
Chloe Aridjis, "SEA MONSTERS" w/ Merritt Tierce
Sophia Shalmiyev, "MOTHER WINTER" w/ Sara Benincasa
Sally Wen Mao, "OCULUS" w/ Muriel Leung
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