The gripping, thought-provoking stories in Yxta Maya Murray’s latest collection find their inspiration in the headlines. Here, ordinary people negotiate tentative paths through wildfire, mass shootings, bureaucratic incompetence, and heedless government policies with vicious impacts on the innocent and helpless. A nurse volunteers to serve in catastrophe-stricken Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and discovers that her skill and compassion are useless in the face of stubborn governmental inertia. An Environmental Protection Agency employee, whose agricultural-worker parents died after long exposure to a deadly pesticide, finds herself forced to find justifications for reversing regulations that had earlier banned the chemical. A Department of Education employee in a dystopic future America visits a highly praised charter school and discovers the horrific consequences of academic failure. A transgender trainer of beauty pageant contestants takes on a beautiful Latina for the Miss USA pageant and brings her to perfection and the brink of victory, only to discover that she has a fatal secret.
The characters in The World Doesn't Work That Way, but it Could grapple with the consequences of frightening attitudes and policies pervasive in the United States today. The stories explore not only our distressing human capacity for moral numbness in the face of evil, but also reveal our surprising stores of compassion and forgiveness. These brilliantly conceived and beautifully written stories are troubling yet irresistible mirrors of our time.
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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.
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Megan Rosenbloom, "DARK ARCHIVES" w/ Caitlin Doughty
SKYLIT: Catie Disabato, "U UP?"
SKYLIT: Kim Young, "TIGERS" w/ Sandra Hunter
SKYLIT: Amelia Pang, "MADE IN CHINA" w/ Agnes Borinsky
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Eileen Myles, "FOR NOW" w/ Adam Fitzgerald
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Sarah Faith Gottesdiener, "THE MOON BOOK" w/ Pam Grossman
SKYLIT: Betto Arcos, "MUSIC STORIES FROM THE COSMIC BARRIO"
SKYLIT: David Leo Rice, "A ROOM IN DODGE CITY, VOL. 2" w/ Brian Evenson
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Chelsea G. Summers, "A CERTAIN ANGER" w/ Laurie Penny
SKYLIT: Bryan Washington, "MEMORIAL" w/ Lance Morgan
SKYLIT: Jim Gauer, "NOVEL EXPLOSIVES" w/ Greg Gerke
SKYLIT: Lory Bedikian, "THE BOOK OF LAMENTING" & Dorianne Laux, "ONLY AS THE DAY IS LONG"
SKYLIT: Mauro Gatti, "THE HAPPY BROADCAST" w/ Evan Spiridellis
SKYLIT: Mark de Silva, "POINTS OF ATTACK" w/ Rachel Allen
SKYLIT: Rebecca Fishow, "THE TROUBLE WITH LANGUAGE" w/ John Colasacco
SKYLIT: Nathan Elias, "THE REINCARNATIONS" w/ Alex Thurnher
SKYLIT: Susan Buttenwieser, "WE WERE LUCKY WITH THE RAIN" w/ Lyman Clayborn
SKYLIT: Abdellah Taïa, "A COUNTRY FOR DYING" w/ Colm Toíbín
SKYLIT: Ruth Gilligan, "THE BUTCHERS' BLESSING" w/ Amber Starks
SKYLIT: Sudeep Sen, "LITERATURES OF THE ATHROPOCENE" w/ Kiran Bhat
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