Join us for a discussion featuring The Son s of El Rey by Alex Espinoza and Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura . These novels explore themes of identity\, legacy\, and self-acceptance. Espinoza&rsquo\;s book follows a family of luchadores navigating hidden se crets and forbidden love from Mexico City to Los Angeles. Villarreal-Moura &rsquo\;s debut delves into a young woman&rsquo\;s struggle with a past re lationship marked by power imbalances and gender dynamics. Discover how bo th authors address the complexities of queer Latine experiences
\nCo pies of Espinoza and Villareal-Moura's books will be available for sale an d signature by Loyalty Bookstores. \;
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\nAlex Espinoza (he/him/his/the y) is a queer writer with a disability. He was born in Tijuana\, Mexico&nd ash\;&ndash\;on Kumeyaay original lands&ndash\;&ndash\; \;to Purep&eac ute\;cha parents from the state of Michoacá\;n and raised in Souther n California\, on Gabrieliñ\;o-Tongva land. His debut novel\, \; Still Water Saints\, was published to wide critical acclaim. His second no vel\, \;The Five Acts of Diego Leó\;n\, was the winner of a 2014 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Other awards inc lude fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers&rsquo\; Conference\, the Nati onal Endowment for the Arts\, and Macdowell. He is the author of the nonfi ction book \;Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime \; and has written essays\, reviews\, and stories for the New York Times Sund ay Magazine\, Virginia Quarterly Review\, the Los Angeles Times\, LitHub\, and NPR. His short story &ldquo\;Detainment&rdquo\; was selected for incl usion in the 2022 Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories. Alex lives i n Los Angeles on Gabrieliñ\;o-Tongva land with his husband Kyle and teaches at the University of California\, Riverside&ndash\;&ndash\;within Tongva\, Cahuilla\, Luiseñ\;o &\; Serrano original lands&ndash\;& ndash\;where he serves as the Tomá\;s Rivera Endowed Chair and Profe ssor of Creative Writing. \;
\nUrsula Villarreal-Moura is the au thor of \;Math for the Self-Crippling (2022)\, selected by Zinzi Clemm ons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner\, and \;Like Happine ss \;(Celadon Books\, 2024). A graduate of Middlebury College\, she re ceived her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. H er stories\, essays\, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines incl uding Tin House\, Catapult\, Prairie Schooner\, Midnight Breakfast\,Washin gton Square\, Story\, Bennington Review\, Wigleaf Top 50\, and Gulf Coast. She contributed to Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction\, a flash antholog y by writers of color\, and in 2012\, she won the CutBank Big Fish Flash F iction/Prose Poetry Contest. Her writing has been nominated for Best of th e Net\, Best Small Fictions\, a Pushcart Prize\, and longlisted for Best A merican Short Stories 2015. \;
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