We’re very excited to welcome to Skylark Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Kali White VanBaale - two wonderful authors who Skylark regulars may know as both have done events with us in the past. Their stunning new collections of stories have just been published (on the same day!) and both books have their roots in the Midwest. We look forward to a lively reading and conversation!
Neon Steel: Set in Pittsburgh, PA, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Neon Steel is acclaimed writer Jennifer Maritza McCauley's love letter to millennial nerd culture. Anime fans, vampires, indie rappers, robots, comic book fans, and thrill seekers find their way through the Steel City's neighborhoods and haunts. A young girl discovers an underground world of Afro Otaku who change the way she sees the city; a high school student discovers a kindred spirit in a Bomba girl; The Terminator is reimagined as a josei story featuring a purple loc'd robot; and a secret coven of vampires who hide out in Pittsburgh steel mills risk being discovered after they lose one of their own. Magical realist and neon-lit, Neon Steel faithfully follows a group of nerds and the magic that excites them, bringing to life a city and a state of being.
Release of Information: A doctor attends a weekend medical convention in St. Louis; a new mother shops at a Minneapolis suburban Target with her newborn and indulges in a secret habit; two rural southern Iowa brothers hunt a rare mountain lion; a teenage girl attends the ten-year anniversary of her dramatic rescue from a deep pipe on her uncle's farm in rural Missouri; a young woman comes across shocking information while working in a Des Moines hospital records department. Midwesterners reveal secrets at pivotal moments in their lives in Release of Information, award-winning writer Kali White VanBaale's radiantly gripping story collection. Exploring marital roles, complex family legacies, abuse, and generational trauma, the interconnected characters and stories move through time and space, as VanBaale catches ordinary people in extraordinary moments of revelation.
Jennifer Maritza McCauley is the author of the cross-genre collection SCAR ON/SCAR OFF (Stalking Horse Press), the short story collections When Trying to Return Home (Counterpoint), and Recognition (U. Wisconsin Press, ‘27), the poetry collections Kinds of Grace (Flower Song) , VERSUS (Texas Review Press, ‘27) and Tumbao (Texas Review Press, ‘29) and the speculative collection NEON STEEL (Feb ‘26) (Cornerstone). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kimbilio and CantoMundo and her work has been a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Best Short Fiction Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews and a Must-Read by Elle, Latinx in Publishing, Ms. Magazine and Bookshop. She is an assistant professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Kali White VanBaale is the author of three novels, a linked short story collection, and numerous short stories, essays, and articles. She’s the recipient of an American Book Award and 2025 Iowa Author Award among others, serves as editor-at-large for the Past Ten journal and book, and is a core faculty member of the Lindenwood University MFA in writing program. She lives in Iowa.
