Andrew Boryga and Ingrid Rojas Contreras on the trauma plot

Sunday, October 4, 2026, 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Local Economy, Oakland

Oakland readers have a sharp literary hour ahead at Local Economy, with Andrew Boryga sitting down with Ingrid Rojas Contreras for a conversation about trauma, identity, art, and the market that surrounds personal stories.

Boryga’s novel Victim landed on Best Book of the Year lists from NPR and BBC, and for good reason. It is funny, uncomfortable, and very aware of the way pain can get shaped into a story people want to buy. Expect a talk that gets into satire, ambition, and the messy question of who gets rewarded for telling which kind of truth.

Rojas Contreras brings her own deep lens to the conversation. Her memoir The Man Who Could Move Clouds was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and her work often sits close to memory, family, and the strange edges of the self.

Local Economy feels like the right Oakland room for this kind of exchange. Close, thoughtful, and more neighborly than formal. If you like books that make you argue with yourself on the walk home, this is a good one to catch.

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Andrew Boryga’s novel, Victim, was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and BBC. A satirical sendup of tear-jerking trauma plots, Victim asks what real diversity looks like and how far one man is willing to go to make his story hit the right notes.
Boryga will be in conversation with Pulitzer Prize finalist, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, the author of The Man Who Could Move Clouds. The two will discuss trauma, the contested spaces of self, art, and market.