Wednesday, July 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
 **A full-frontal confrontation of the ways we perform desire and shame—from the downright bizarre to the frighteningly relatable—by the award-winning author of A Sharp Endless Need** An employee at a hunting ground where people pay to act out hate crimes prepares to meet their girlfriend’s parents for the first time. A self-destructive client engages in an affair with their therapist, careening their relationship toward its inevitable breaking point. At a theme park where men pay to ogle women dressed as sirens, a mild-mannered boat attendant gets engaged to the star performer. And in the title story, a pregnant internet sex worker blackmails her clients into attending a disastrous party. Nothing is off limits for Mac Crane as they rework classic stories of rejection, isolation, and connection to suggest that the so-called pervert, by existing in the margins of society, may be the one who sees the world most clearly. Crane brings their keen eye for the unsavory to seventeen transgressive stories that are as tantalizing and addictive as the characters’ experiences. A provocative and uproarious collection about pleasure, performance, and pain, _Perverts_ is an exaltation of the awesome depravity of queer modernity. **Mac (Marisa) Crane** is a jock, sweatpants enthusiast, and the author of _I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself_, a _New York Times_ Editors’ Choice, Indie Next pick, and winner of a LAMBDA Literary Award, and _A Sharp Endless Need_. They have received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, American Short Fiction, and Vermont Studio Center, and their short work has appeared in _Literary Hub_, _The Sun_, _TriQuarterly_, _Prairie Schooner_, _Joyland_, and elsewhere. Originally from Allentown, Pennsylvania, they currently live in San Diego with their wife and two kids. _Perverts_ is their debut short story collection. **T Bambrick** is the author of _Intimacies, Received_ (_Copper Canyon Press_ 2022), and _Vantage_ (_American Poetry Review_/Honickman First Book Award 2019). Their work can be found in the _New Yorker_, _The Nation_, _American Poetry Review_, and elsewhere. A 2020 Wallace Stegner Fellow, they have received fellowships from the Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Community of Writers, Vermont Studio Center, and the Key West Literary Seminar, as well as scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference and the Bread Loaf Environmental Writer’s Conference. She was a Dornsife Fellow in the creative writing PhD program at the University of Southern California and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.