Pride on the Page

The AIDS Epidemic Remembered in Fiction and Poetic Narrative

Moderator: Tony Valenzuela

Panelists: Michael Nava, Abdi Nazemian, Steven Reigns and K.M. Soehnlein

Tony Valenzuela is a longtime activist, writer, nonprofit executive, and consultant who has, most recently, served as Executive Director of the Foundation for The AIDS Monument and Lambda Literary. He has also served in management positions at Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (GLASS), LGBT Voices, and the LGBT Center in San Diego. Additionally, he has a long history in HIV/AIDS and gay men's health activism as an organizer and thought leader.

As a journalist and creative writer, he has published articles, essays, short stories, and wrote and produced a play which toured in 13 cities across the U.S.

Michael Nava is the author of an acclaimed series of eight novels featuring gay, Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios who The New Yorker, called “a detective unlike any previous protagonist in American noir.” He is the recipient of seven Lambda Literary Awards in the gay mystery category and the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement in LGBT Literature.

His most recent Rios novel, Lies With Man, was published in April 2021 by Amble Press, an LGBTQ press of which he is also managing editor. The Washington Post review of the novel called Nava “a master of the genre.”

Abdi Nazemian spent his childhood in a series of exciting locations (Tehran, Paris, Toronto, New York), but could usually be found in his bedroom watching old movies and reading. Abdi’s first novel, The Walk-In Closet, was awarded Best Debut at the Lambda Literary Awards. He has written three young adult novels, all published by Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins: The Authentics, Like a Love Story (a Stonewall Honor book and one of Time's 100 Best YA Books Of All Time), and The Chandler Legacies. Abdi has been an executive producer or associate producer on numerous films, including Call Me By Your Name, Little Woods, and Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband, their two children and their dog Disco.

Steven Reigns is a Los Angeles poet and educator and was appointed the first Poet Laureate of West Hollywood. Alongside over a dozen chapbooks, he has published the collections Inheritance and Your Dead Body is My Welcome Mat. He edited My Life is Poetry, showcasing his students’ work from the first-ever autobiographical poetry workshop for LGBT seniors. Reigns has lectured and taught writing workshops around the country to LGBT youth and people living with HIV. Currently he is touring The Gay Rub, an exhibition of rubbings from LGBT landmarks, and facilitates the monthly Lambda Lit Book Club. His newest collection A Quilt for David was published by City Lights in September 2021 and is the product of ten years of research regarding dentist David Acer’s life. 

K. M. Soehnlein is the author of the novels The World of Normal Boys, You Can Say You Knew Me When, and Robin and Ruby, along with essays and journalism in numerous publications. He is the recipient of the Lambda Literary Award, Henfield Prize, and SFFILM Rainin Grant in Screenwriting. He received an MFA from San Francisco State University and teaches at the University of San Francisco MFA in Writing Program.

Raised in New Jersey, he lived in New York City during the AIDS crisis, participating in direct action with ACT UP and cofounding Queer Nation. He currently lives in San Francisco.