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.
THE HANDSELL: Lucy Yu, YU AND ME BOOKS
SKYLIT: Paul Haddad, ”FREEWAYTOPIA” w/ Steve DeVorkin
SKYLIT: Juneau Black, ”A SHADY HOLLOW MYSTERY”
ARTS ANNEX: Rob Sevier
SKYLIT: Kelly O’Connor McNees, ”THE MYTH OF SURRENDER”
SKYLIT: Neema Avashia, ”ANOTHER APPALACHIA” w/ Sejal Shah
THE HANDSELL: Jess Williamson
SKYLIT: Marlon B. Ross, ”SISSY INSURGENCIES”
Sasha LaPointe, ”RED PAINT”
SKYLIT: Irene Solá & Mara Faye Lethem,
SKYLIT: Namrata Poddar, ”BORDER LESS”
SKYLIT: Jeff Yang, Philip Wang, Phil Yu: ”RISE”
SKYLIT: Missouri Williams, ”THE DOLORIAD”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Marlon James
SKYLIT: Lauren Oyler, ”FAKE ACCOUNTS”
SKYLIT: Antoine Wilson, ”MOUTH TO MOUTH”
SKYLIT: Maya Stovall, ”LIQUOR STORE THEATER”
SKYLIT: SJ Sindu, ”BLUE SKINNED GODS”
ARTS ANNEX: Golden Collier
SKYLIT: Safari Blake, ”LORD, EXPOSE ME”
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