Anthologies#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| We Wear the Mask |
2017 |
Buy |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Take This Man |
2014 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Madonnas of Echo Park |
2010 |
Buy |
| My Name Is Iris |
2023 |
Buy |
Brando Skyhorse was born Brandon Kelly Ulloa in Echo Park, Los Angeles. When his Mexican father left the family, his mother reinvented herself and her three-year-old son as American Indian, renaming them after Paul Skyhorse Johnson, a stranger she had been writing to in prison. Skyhorse grew up under that identity and did not learn the truth until he was a teenager.
He attended Stanford, earned an MFA from UC Irvine, and spent about ten years as an editor at Grove Atlantic before publishing his first novel. The Madonnas of Echo Park (2010) follows eight Mexican-American characters in his old neighborhood and won both the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. His memoir Take This Man (2014) sorts through the layers of fabrication his mother built. We Wear the Mask (2017), co-edited with Lisa Page, collects essays from fifteen writers on the subject of passing. His second novel, My Name Is Iris (2023), uses a speculative premise to explore immigration, identity documents, and the fragility of citizenship. He teaches creative writing at Indiana University Bloomington.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Brando Skyhorse written?
Brando Skyhorse has written four books across three series.
What was Brando Skyhorse's first book?
Brando Skyhorse’s first book is The Madonnas of Echo Park, published in 2010.
What is Take This Man about?
Take This Man (2014) is a memoir about growing up in Echo Park, Los Angeles, with five stepfathers and a mother who reinvented their family as American Indian after his Mexican father left. It traces over thirty years of fabricated identity before Skyhorse begins to uncover his real past.