Saturday Salon at Skylight

It probably comes as no surprise that the staff of Skylight Books likes to read. As booksellers, they get to read lots of stuff that comes from all quarters.

And the folks who run this Los Feliz neighborhood haunt want to call your attention to some smaller presses, many of which operate as nonprofits and have limited advertising budgets.

The idea is to share their small-press passion with you, salon-style, over wine and hors d'oeuvres. The debut salon will be at the Vermont Avenue bookstore this Saturday, April 19, at 4 p.m. (For you Map-Questers, the address is 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027. Finger-walkers should try [323] 660-1175.) Vont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
: (323) 660-1175
Up for discussion are the literary fiction press Dzanc, out of Michigan, which is publishing work by Roy Kesey and Yannick Murphy; Santa Monica's Red Hen Press, which publishes lots of poetry, some fiction and nonfiction, and is home to Eloise Klein Healy's Arktoi imprint; and Archipelago Books, which focuses on fiction and poetry in translation -- much from Eastern Europe -- and counts among its titles Elias Khoury's "Gate of the Sun" and "Sarajevo Marlboro" by Miljenko Jergovic.

Monica Carter, who came up with the idea for the salon series, says that since the staff has wide-ranging tastes, there are many more areas to explore, including nonfiction and graphic novels. Next month's salon is already planned -- but I don't want to spoil the surprise. They'll tell you all about it on Saturday.

Carolyn Kellogg