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.
SKYLIT: Michelle Gallen, "BIG GIRL, SMALL TOWN"
SKYLIT: Jared Milrad & Jan West, "BELIEVE IN YOU"
SKYLIT: Nana-Ama Danquah, "ACCRA NOIR" w/ Anniwaa Buachie
SKYLIT: Tauno Biltsted, "THE ANATOMIST'S TALE" & Caitlin Chung, "SHIP OF FATES"
SKYLIT: Farrah Alexander, "RAISING THE RESISTANCE"
SKYLIT: Daniel Brook, "THE ACCIDENT OF COLOR" w/ Erin Aubry Kaplan & Guenveur Smith
SKYLIT: Frederick Kaufman, "THE MONEY PLOT" w/ Indrani Sen
SKYLIT: Riva Lehrer, "GOLEM GIRL: A MEMOIR" w/ Terry Myers
SKYLIT: Matthew Medney and John Connelly, "BEYOND KUIPER: THE GALACTIC STAR ALLIANCE"
SKYLIT: Unni Turrettini, "BETRAYING THE NOBEL" w/ Brian Keating
SKYLIT: Mauro Javier Cárdenas, "APHASIA" w/ Jeremy M. Davies
SKYLIT: Carmen Boullosa, "LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR WALL" w/ Juan Villoro
SKYLIT: Adam Goodman, "THE DEPORTATION MACHINE" w/ Romeo Guzmán
SKYLIT: Emily Schultz, "LITTLE THREATS"
SKYLIT: Stephanie LaCava, "THE SUPERRATIONALS" w/ Sasha Sagan
SKYLIT: Kevin Mattson, "WE'RE NOT HERE TO ENTERTAIN" w/ Mike Foley
SKYLIT: Carol Hay, "THINK LIKE A FEMINIST" w/ Samia Hesni
SKYLIT: Johnny Ray Huston & Bradford Nordeen, "BECAUSE HORROR"
SKYLIT: Jason Horton, "ABANDONED AND HISTORIC LOS ANGELES" w/ Rebecca Leib
SKYLIT: Jennifer L. Knox, "CRUSHING IT" w/ Sarah Manguso
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