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.
_______________________________________________
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 FROM CROWDCAST: Miranda Tacchia, ”UNIMPRESSED” w/ Aminder Dhaliwal
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Karl Ove Knausgaard, ”THE MORNING STAR” w/ Brandon Taylor
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Amanda Montell, ”CULTISH” w/ Owin Pierson
LIVE FROM CROWDCAST: Yoon Choi, ”SKINSHIP” w/ Steph Cha
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Richard Lange, ”ROVERS”w/ Jonathan Ames
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Jim Terry, ”COME HOME, INDIO” w/ Ezra Claytan Daniels
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Rosecrans Baldwin, ”EVERYTHING NOW” w/ Charles Yu
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Kristen Arnett, ”WITH TEETH” w/ Esme Weijun Wang
SKYLIT: Joan Nockels Wilson, ”THE BOOK OF TIMOTHY”
SKYLIT: Mariam Rahmani, ”IN CASE OF EMERGENCY” w/ Justin Torres
SKYLIT: Robin J. Hayes, ”LOVE FOR LIBERATION”
SKYLIT: SUMMERTIME: ODES TO LA w/ Carlos López Estrada
SKYLIT: Jon McGregor, ”LEAN FALL STAND” w/ Julia Phillips
SKYLIT: West Moss, ”FLESH & BLOOD” w/ David Ebenbach
SKYLIT: Teresa K. Miller, ”BORDERLINE FORTUNE,” and Amanda Moore, ”REQUEENING”
SKYLIT: Stephen Van Dyck, ”PEOPLE I‘VE MET FROM THE INTERNET”
SKYLIT: Farah Ali, ”PEOPLE WANT TO LIVE” w/ Ahsan Butt
SKYLIT: Molly Peacock, ”FLOWER DIARY” w/ Donna Bailey Nurse
SKYLIT: Jan Beatty, ”AMERICAN BASTARD” w/ Elena Karina Byrne
SKYLIT: Mina Seckin, ”FOUR HUMORS” w/ Hilary Leichter
Join Podbean Ads Marketplace and connect with engaged listeners.
Advertise Today
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends