Lupita Aquino in conversation with Alex Espinoza and Ursula Villareal-Moura
Join us for a discussion featuring The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza and Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura. These novels explore themes of identity, legacy, and self-acceptance. Espinoza’s book follows a family of luchadores navigating hidden secrets and forbidden love from Mexico City to Los Angeles. Villarreal-Moura’s debut delves into a young woman’s struggle with a past relationship marked by power imbalances and gender dynamics. Discover how both authors address the complexities of queer Latine experiences
Copies of Espinoza and Villareal-Moura's books will be available for sale and signature by Loyalty Bookstores.
Alex Espinoza (he/him/his/they) is a queer writer with a disability. He was born in Tijuana, Mexico––on Kumeyaay original lands–– to Purepécha parents from the state of Michoacán and raised in Southern California, on Gabrieliño-Tongva land. His debut novel, Still Water Saints, was published to wide critical acclaim. His second novel, The Five Acts of Diego León, was the winner of a 2014 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Other awards include fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Macdowell. He is the author of the nonfiction book Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime and has written essays, reviews, and stories for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Times, LitHub, and NPR. His short story “Detainment” was selected for inclusion in the 2022 Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories. Alex lives in Los Angeles on Gabrieliño-Tongva land with his husband Kyle and teaches at the University of California, Riverside––within Tongva, Cahuilla, Luiseño & Serrano original lands––where he serves as the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair and Professor of Creative Writing.
Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (Celadon Books, 2024). A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines including Tin House, Catapult, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast,Washington Square, Story, Bennington Review, Wigleaf Top 50, and Gulf Coast. She contributed to Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction, a flash anthology by writers of color, and in 2012, she won the CutBank Big Fish Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry Contest. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories 2015.
AGE GROUP: | Seniors | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Author Talk |
