Checking In / Checking Out by Christopher Schaberg and Mark Yakich

Fascinated by airports? Terrified of flying? Do you ponder the relative merits of window seats and aisle seats? Have you ever wondered how often aircraft lavatories are cleaned?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book is for you.

Checking In / Checking Out is a two-sided, reversible book that aims to rejuvenate airplane reading. Bringing together the stories of an ex-airline employee and an aerophobe, Schaberg & Yakich’s Checking In / Checking Out is a sincere, witty, and irreverent take on the routines and misadventures of modern flight.

Checking In relates behind-the-scenes stories of an ex-employee of United Airlines (2001- 2003) at the Gallatin Field Airport outside Bozeman, Montana. Checking Out tells the story of one man’s lifelong efforts to cure a fear of flying. Taken together, these two tales wrestle with issues of travel, work, technology, security, faith, reading, writing, and parenthood. Ultimately, the book opens up a space between the two sides, like a parallax, in which readers can become more mindful of their own experiences of air travel.

CHRISTOPHER SCHABERG is a cultural critic and assistant professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans. His scholarly monograph The Textual Life of Airports: Reading the Culture of Flight is being released from Continuum.

MARK YAKICH is a poet and associate professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans. He is the author of Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross (National Poetry Series, Penguin 2004), The Making of Collateral Beauty (Snowbound Chapbook Award, Tupelo 2006), and The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine (Penguin 2008). His collection Poetry for Planes is forthcoming with Penguin, and his first novel, A Meaning for Wife, has been released from Ig Publishing.