The Stories We Tell: Exploring Exciting New Works of Fiction (Theater 2)
Foraging through outstanding new fiction in its many forms and subgenres.
Eduardo Santiago's first novel Tomorrow They Will Kiss was an Edmund White Debut Fiction Award finalist and won Latino Book Award for Best Historical Novel. His second book, Midnight Rumba, won the New England Book Award for Best Fiction. His short stories have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Slow Trains, The Caribbean Writer, and most recently in the acclaimed anthology, Palm Springs Noir. His nonfiction has been published in the Los Angeles Times, The Advocate, and Out Traveler Magazine, The Platt Valley Review, Amy Ephron’s One For The Table, and many others. His screenplay, Proof Sheet recently premiered at Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre. Mr. Santiago teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension. He is two-time PEN Fellow, the founder and curator of the Idyllwild Author’s Series and serves on the board of the Palm Springs Writers Guild.
Ryka Aoki is a poet, composer, teacher, and novelist. Her latest novel, Light From Uncommon Stars (Tor Books 2021) was an Alex, SCKA, and Otherwise Award winner, and was also a finalist for the Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte Awards. Ryka is a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist for her collections Seasonal Velocities, and Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul. She has been recognized by the California State Senate for “extraordinary commitment to the visibility and well-being of Transgender people,” and her work has appeared or been recognized in publications including Vogue, Elle, Bustle, Autostraddle, PopSugar, and Buzzfeed, as well as the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. She was also honored to work with the American Association of Hiroshima Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors, where two of her compositions were adopted as the organization’s “songs of peace.”
Byron Lane is author of the novels Big Gay Wedding and A Star Is Bored. The New York Times Book Review calls his writing "wildly funny and irreverent." He's also a playwright, screenwriter, Emmy-winning journalist, and former assistant to actress and writer Carrie Fisher. He's originally from New Orleans and lives in Palm Springs, California, with his husband, author Steven Rowley, and their rescue dogs, Raindrop and Shirley.
Rasheed Newson is a television drama writer, producer, and novelist. Along with his television writing partner, T.J. Brady, he co-developed and is an executive producer of the drama series Bel-Air. Rasheed and T.J. have also worked on The Chi, Animal Kingdom, and Narcos, among other drama series. In addition to his career in television, Rasheed is the author of My Government Means to Kill Me, which examines the political and sexual coming of age of a young, gay, Black man in New York City in the mid-1980s. The novel was a 2023 Lambda Literary finalist for Gay Fiction and was named one of the “The 100 Notable Books of 2022” by The New York Times. Rasheed lives with his husband and their two children in Pasadena.
Lisa Teasley’s new story collection Fluid publishes this September on Cune Press. Teasley is the author of the award-winning story collection Glow in the Dark (also Cune Press), and the critically acclaimed novels, Dive and Heat Signature (Bloomsbury). Her writings have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Arabic. Lisa Teasley’s stories and essays have been much anthologized including in the W.W. Norton anthology Flash Fiction America, 2023 and Europa Editions The Passenger: California, 2022. She is the writer and presenter of the BBC television documentary High School Prom, which was in longterm rotation in the UK, and she is currently working on a commissioned opera libretto.
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