Lamps Without Shades
A Memoir of Mystical & Irreverent Incidents
By David E Moreno
Book Information
Title: Lamps Without Shades - A Memoir of Mystical & Irreverent Incidents
Author: David E Moreno
Publisher: Ananta Books
Publication Date: October 1, 2026
Formats: Hardcover, Trade Paperback, Kindle eBook, Audiobook.
ISBN: Hardcover ISBN: 979-8-9946286-0-7
Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9946286-1-4
Ebook ISBN: 979-8-9946286-2-1
Page Count: 393
Retail Price: $27.95 (hardbound) $17.95 (Trade Paperback); $8.99 (Kindle), Audiobook, $14.95
Returnable: Yes
Trade Discount: 55%
Distribution: IngramSpark
Availability: Available worldwide, October 1, 2026
Short Description (89)
David E. Moreno’s life was never lived on a straight path. From a childhood marked by dyslexia, a violent father, and a secret refuge of self-discovery, he learned to navigate by signs others overlooked—omens in song lyrics, visions in art, moments of synchronicity that bent time and shaped fate. Lamps Without Shades is his lyrical, deeply sensory memoir of survival, reinvention, and the invisible choreography that guides us when reason fails, revealing how identity is pieced together from the fragments of a life both broken and beautifully arranged.
Full Summary (182)
Some lives are mapped in neat lines and tidy chapters. David E. Moreno’s was etched in lightning—shifting, unpredictable, and charged with strange coincidence. Lamps Without Shades is his memoir of navigating a world by mystical signs: omens tucked inside song lyrics, visions buried in art, whispers from a future not yet written. From the shadows of a childhood shaped by dyslexia, a violent father, and a secret refuge of self-invention, Moreno emerges through dance, design, and spirituality with a queer sensibility—crossing paths with cultural icons like Tom Ford and Joni Mitchell whose presence felt less like chance and more like destiny.
This is a story about perception: about letting intuition replace the map when roads disappear, about time bending back on itself in loops both haunting and liberating, about building an identity from the fragments of a broken past. Told with the precision of an artist and the gaze of a mystic, Moreno’s deeply sensory narrative slips between memoir, poetry and dreamscape, pulling the reader into a meditation on resilience, reinvention, and the invisible threads that weave our lives together.
Book Design Note: Why Guyot?
"The typeface chosen for Lamps Without Shades is Guyot, named after a sixteenth-century punchcutter whose work remained largely forgotten for 477 years before finding its moment. It mirrors the memoir's central question: What becomes possible when we recognize what others have overlooked? As the book reminds us, "Everything in its own time." The typeface that carries this story was always going to be his.”
— Xavier Comas, Book Designer, Coverkitchen
Audiobook
The memoir is narrated by award-winning audiobook narrator Daniel Henning (The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Tuxedo Society…), with the poems and selected sections read by the author. Henning is also the founder of the new Audiobook platform AudiobookRush.com – the central hub for all things audiobooks.
Comparable & Complementary Titles
Selected works whose readers may find resonance with the themes, sensibility, and artistic concerns explored throughout this memoir:
Song So Wild and Blue by Paul Lisicky
Sex Death Enlightenment by Mark Matousek
The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch
The Liars' Club by Mary Karr
The Boy Who Picked the Bullets Up by Charles Nelson
I Dream of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots by Henry Alford
Advance Praise
“A one-of-a-kind memoir—poetic, wise, and often crazy funny.” —Ali MacGraw
"Lamps Without Shades is a delight to read, the rollicking, tender, outrageous story of one man's search for love — and himself. Warm, irreverent, and self-deprecating, it's a book that leaves you with hope and good feeling."—Mark Matousek, author of Sex Death Enlightenment
What does it mean to be, as Joni Mitchell sings, unfettered and alive? This vital, electric story pulses with that question.” —Paul Lisicky author of Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell
“In Lamps Without Shades, Moreno transcends convention over and over again, in his life and his storytelling…this is an inspiring life told with gorgeous intensity.” —Jon Roemer, Outpost19
“Lamps Without Shades illuminates how art and mentors can help us reimagine ourselves beyond the limits of the past."—First Poet Laureate of West Hollywood Steven Reigns, author of A Quilt for David and Outliving Michael”
“A poignant ride through Moreno’s life and career.” —IndieWire
"The title alone tells us Moreno is a brilliant writer—unfiltered, honest, giving off the quality of light that readers, and the world, need.” —Angie Alban, author of The Happiness Tree
Lamps Without Shades reveals Moreno while grounding us in a world that has largely passed us by…Bravo!” —Michael Wade Simpson, CultureVulture
“"Near the very end, I just started crying, and I don't even understand why—but Moreno did something powerful. He has a voice that can share beauty with people who can't see it." — Karen Cadenhead, Ed.D.,Director of Art Therapy, Children's Medical Center
“David E Moreno is very specific about his serendipitous life, and yet this book will have a kind of universal appeal and resonance for many readers.” —Robin Lippincott, author of Blue Territory: A Meditation on the Life and Art of Joan Mitchell
"Both sensual and mystical, rooted in evocative detail yet expanding to cosmic reflection…I loved the poetry" —Leslie Larson, author of Breaking Out of Bedlam
About the Author
Short Bio (90)
David E. Moreno is a writer, poet, journalist, dance critic, and internationally recognized yoga teacher who has taught worldwide for more than thirty years. His journalism has appeared in CultureVulture, Berkeleyside, Yoga Journal, and Yoga International. His varied careers have been covered by the New York Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and The Advocate. Excerpts from Lamps Without Shades: A Memoir of Mystical & Irreverent Incidents, praised for “unflinching honesty and poetic lyricism,” appear in the Santa Fe Literary Review and Power Telling Magazine. Lamps Without Shades is his first book.
Full Bio (187)
David E. Moreno has taught yoga internationally for over thirty years, cultivating a dedicated student body worldwide. His career as a yoga teacher, art director, performing arts journalist, dance critic, and poet has been widely recognized, with features in The New York Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and The Advocate.
His commentaries on health and wellness have appeared in Yoga Journal, Yoga International, and LA Yoga Magazine, while his dance criticism and performing arts journalism have appeared in Berkeleyside and CultureVulture. Of Moreno’s dance writing, San Francisco Chronicle dance critic Rachel Howard wrote, “Moreno’s a superb writer with a voice that has a natural confidence and connection with the reader. His writing evokes dances so vividly.”
Excerpts and poems from Lamps Without Shades appeared in the Santa Fe Literary Review and Power Telling Magazine, where they were praised for their “unflinching honesty and poetic lyricism.”
David lives on the water in a floating home moored to the “dock of the bay.” When he’s not teaching, he can be found wandering the redwoods with his partner, paddleboarding, browsing local farmers’ markets, or consumed by a museum or dance concert.
Suggested Interview Topics
The making of Lamps Without Shades: writing a hybrid memoir of prose, poetry, and photographs
Memory, storytelling, and the art of nonlinear narrative
Mysticism, synchronicity, and the unexpected patterns that shape a life
Growing up dyslexic and discovering language through music, poetry, and art
Reinventing the self: identity, survival, and transformation
Queer life across generations: art, intimacy, community, and resilience
The intersections of yoga, creativity, spirituality, and daily life
A life in the arts: dance criticism, journalism, and the creative process
Los Angeles in the 1970s–90s: art, performance, and cultural history
Joni Mitchell—real and imagined. Her music, and the soundtrack of memory
The role of humor, irreverence, and vulnerability in memoir writing
Writing about real people: ethics, intimacy, and truth in memoir
Aging, meaning, and living a creative life
Living on the water: houseboat communities on “the dock of the bay.”
From spiritual discipline to social media: the commercialization of modern yoga.
Why Guyot? The mystical story behind the typeface.