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: Warren Zanes, DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE
Better Than the Movie, Ep. 5: JAWS w/ Kristen Lopez
SKYLIT: Artem Mozgovoy, SPRING IN SIBERIA
SKYLIT: Millie De Chirico & Quatoyiah Murray, TCM UNDERGROUND
SKYLIT: Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime
SKYLIT: Alex Pappademas, QUANTUM CRIMINALS
Better Than the Movie, Ep.4: ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET
SKYLIT: Kristen Lopez, ”But Have You Read the Book?”
Better Than the Movie, Ep. 3: THE SISTERS BROTHERS w/ Alena Saunders
Better Than the Movie, Ep. 2: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
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Better Than the Movie, Ep. 1: CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD/KNOCK AT THE CABIN
SKYLIT: Karen Han, ”Bong Joon Ho: Dissident Cinema”
SKYLIT: Jessica Johns, ”Bad Cree”
SKYLIT: Where Monsters Lurk & Magic Hides
SKYLIT: Dr. Clarence Lusane, ”TWENTY DOLLARS AND CHANGE” w/ Janell Hobson
SKYLIT: adrienne maree brown, ”FABLES AND SPELLS”
SKYLIT: Emil DeAndreis, ”TELL US WHEN TO GO” w/ Joseph Bien Kahn
SKYLIT: Anna Moschovakis, ”PARTICIPATION” w/ Amina Cain
SKYLIT: Colette Sartor, Gerda Govine Ituarte, Cassandra Lane, & Carla Rachel Sameth
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