Tomas Moniz & Laleh Khadivi talk about their new books

Tomas Moniz and Laleh Khadivi at Local Economy

This Thursday, October 29, two Bay Area writers sit down at Local Economy in Oakland for a 6 pm conversation about fiction, family, memory, and the lives people carry quietly.

Oakland writer Tomas Moniz will be talking about The King of Aloe Vera, his new novel set around the Mission, friendship across generations, and the tender weight of later life. Laleh Khadivi joins him with Female Life on Planet Earth, a story about mothers, daughters, and the secrets that shape a family.

Both writers have deep roots in Bay Area literary life. Moniz lives in East Oakland, teaches at several local colleges, and is known for Big Familia, All Friends Are Necessary, and the Rad Dad books. Khadivi chairs the creative writing MFA at USF and has written four novels, with awards from the Whiting Foundation, the NEA, and more.

Local Economy should make a good setting for this kind of event. Small enough to feel personal, casual enough for a weeknight, and rooted in Oakland in a way that suits both authors. If you like book talks where the conversation can wander into real life, this one looks worth making time for.

The reading and talk runs from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. Details are at Planet Zoop.

We’ve got two beloved Bay Area writers in conversation for this event. Oakland’s own Tomas Moniz has a lovely new novel out, The King of Aloe Vera, about the Mission, intergenerational friendship, and last chapters. Laleh Khadivi’s new book is Female Life on Planet Earth, a novel about mothers and daughters and the secrets they keep (and expose).
Khadivi is chair of the creative writing MFA at USF. She’s the author of four novels, including The Age of Orphans, which received a Whiting Writers’ Award; The Walking; A Good Country, a New York Times Editors’ Choice. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and a Stein Fellowship at Stanford University
Moniz is a latinx writer living in East Oakland, CA. His debut novel, Big Familia, was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/ Hemingway and the LAMBDA. His second novel, All Friends Are Necessary, won the 2024 California Golden Poppy Award. He edited the popular Rad Dad and Rad Families anthologies, and he teaches at Berkeley City College, the Antioch MFA, St Mary’s College, and USF.