Skyhorse’s debut novel, The Madonnas of Echo Park (Simon & Schuster, 2010), received the 2011 PEN/Hemingway Award, and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The book was also a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. Take This Man: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster, 2014) was an Amazon Best Book of the Month selection and named by Kirkus Reviews as one the Best Nonfiction Books of the year. Skyhorse has also co-edited an anthology, We Wear The Mask: 15 True Stories Of Passing in America (Beacon Press, 2017). He has been awarded fellowships at Ucross Foundation, the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, and was the 2014-2015 Jenny McKean Moore Writer-In-Washington at George Washington University. Skyhorse is an Associate Professor of English at Indiana University in Bloomington.
A wickedly compelling account of a dysfunctional childhood. By turns funny and wrenching, the narrative is an unforgettable tour de force of memory, love and imagination.
-- Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
By turns darkly comical and moving, this powerful memori of a family in flux will stick with readers well after they've put it down.
-- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
A beautiful, compassionate, but also hilarious and hair-raising tale of one boy's life, the lies and truths his mother told, and the damage and the magic she created. Brando Skyhorse is an irresistible writer with an incredible story.
-- Jeanette Walls, author of The Glass Castle
Reviews of The Madonnas of Echo Park
Skyhorse maps in his vivid debut the spirit of L.A.'s Echo Park, where Mexican-Americans define themselves either in alignment with or in opposition to their barrio. ... Skyhorse excels at building a vibrant community and presenting several perspectives on what it means to be Mexican in America, from those who wonder how can you lose something that never belonged to you? to those who miraculously find it.
-- Publishers Weekly,
Brando Skyhorse brings a chronically invisible community to sizzling, beguiling life... With this debut novel, Skyhorse has earned comparison to Sherman Alexie, Junot Diaz and Sandra Cisneros... In The Madonnas of Echo Park, Skyhorse claims the disparate elements of his life and spins them into gold.
-- The Oregonian,
Videos featuring Brando Skyhorse
Brando Skyhorse: 2014 National Book Festival
Pasadena City College One Book, One College Series: Madonnas of Echo Park: Brando Skyhorse
Who are THE MADONNAS OF ECHO PARK? Brando Skyhorse knows....
Growing Up a Native American Imposter: A Boy's Search for Identity
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