Chino is navigating a new beginning, relying on the support of his closest friends in Tomas Moniz’s All Friends Are Necessary. Theron and Jake are two lonely boys with a shared love of music, recklessness, and self-destruction in August Thompson’s Anyone’s Ghost. These authors will discuss grief, music, and queer stories.
Photo Credit: P. R. Brown
August Thompson was born and raised in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire, before he attended middle school in West Los Angeles. After surviving California optimism, he moved to New York City for university, studied in Berlin, and taught English in Spain. He recently received his MFA at New York University’s Creative Writing program as a Goldwater Fellow. Anyone’s Ghost is his debut novel.
Photo Credit: Ella Moniz
Tomas Moniz is a Latinx writer living in East Oakland, CA. His debut novel, Big Familia, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the Lambda Literary Award. He teaches at Berkeley City College and the Antioch University’s Master of Fine Arts program. He has stuff on the internet but loves pen pals: PO Box 3555, Berkeley CA 94703. He promises to write back. His new novel, All Friends Are Necessary was named a finalist for the California Golden Poppy Award.
Aaron H. Aceves (he/him) is a bisexual, Mexican-American writer born and raised in East L.A. He graduated from Harvard College and received his MFA from Columbia University. His fiction has appeared in or is forthcoming from Passages North, Epiphany, and The Iowa Review, among other places. He currently lives in Texas, where he serves as an Early Career Provost Fellow at UT Austin, and his debut novel, This Is Why They Hate Us, was released by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. It received multiple starred reviews and was named a Best Young Adult Book of 2022 by Kirkus Reviews.
