Join local author Tomas Moniz & Friends for a conversation about his newly released novel, All Friends are Necessary, as well as a panel discussion on the themes of friendship and the Bay Area. Tomas will be joined by his friends Lauren Parker, K Switzer and who are all local writers, zinesters and creatives.
Author Bios
Tomas Moniz is a latinx writer living in Oakland, CA. His debut novel, Big Familia, was a FINALIST for the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel 2020 Award, a FINALIST for a LAMBDA 2020 award for Bisexual Fiction and a FINALIST for the Foreword Review Indies Award. He teaches at Berkeley City College and the Antioch MFA program.
Lauren Parker is a writer, zinemaker, and visual artist in Oakland, California. She’s written for the Toast, Catapult, and Autostraddle. She is the author of the poetry collection We Are Now the Thing in the Woods (Bottlecap Press, 2023), the Dark Way Down (2025), and Spells for Success (Simon Element, 2025).
K Switzer is a Berkeley letterpress printer who has being printing the perzine Ker-bloom! Every other month since the summer of 1996. She also parents a tween and attempts adventurous vegan baking.
Ariel Gore makes books, zines, coloring books, and tarot cards. She is the founding editor & publisher of the Alternative Press Award-winning magazine Hip Mama and the author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction. Her latest, Hexing the Patriarchy, is out from from Seal Press. Her shameless novel/memoir, We Were Witches, was published by The Feminist Press. Her memoir, The End of Eve, has been called “Terms of Endearment meets Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? She teaches writing online a Ariel’s Gore’s School for Wayward Writers at the Literary Kitchen.