Join us on Thursday, 6/26 at 6:00 p.m. for Mike Curato, author of Gaysians, in conversation with Cat Huang. For more information or to preorder books, visit Books on the Square.

Cat Huang is a cartoonist, educator, and art director based in Providence, Rhode Island. She is currently working on Nostalgia, a middle grade graphic novel set in a magical antique shop, where a nameless protagonist searches for their identity. She is also an Adjunct Professor at RISD, her alma mater, and a Teaching Artist at Artprof.org, a free, accessible, and comprehensive online educational platform for visual arts. She was formerly an Associate Art Director at Airbnb.

Please RSVP to let us know you're coming! Depending on the volume of responses, an RSVP may be required for entrance to the event. You will also be alerted to important details about the program, including safety requirements, cancellations, and book signing updates. In the event that we reach capacity and have to close RSVPs, there will not be a waiting list. Please register here.

Malinda Lo is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, including most recently A Scatter of Light. Her novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club won the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a Michael L. Printz Honor, and was an LA Times Book Prize finalist. Her books have received 15 starred reviews and have been finalists for multiple awards, including the Andre Norton Award and the Lambda Literary Award. She has been honored by the Carnegie Corporation as a Great Immigrant. Malinda’s short fiction and nonfiction has been published by The New York Times, NPR, Autostraddle, The Horn Book, and multiple anthologies. She lives in Massachusetts with her wife and their dog.

Lunch and Learn returns with special guest Mike Curato in conversation with the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George's County Memorial Library System discussing his new book, "Gaysians."

“I've been hunting for books like this my whole life; this story broke my heart and healed it." - Maia Kobabe, author of "Genderqueer."

Registration not required. Click on the YouTube video linked below to stream the program live or watch the recording later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWx65zTlg9A

Please join Mike at BOMBYX for a celebration with High Five Books! Mike will be speaking about why he wrote Gaysians and signing books. Come see art from the book hanging on the wall, have some appetizers, and warm up your vocal cords for karaoke!! There will even be a quiet room for those who prefer to chillll (with puzzles!). This event is ticketed, so please RSVP.

doors at 7:00PM
toast and talk at 7:45PM
karaoke and signing 8:00-10:00PM

Join the West End Neighborhood Library and Loyalty Bookstores for a conversation with writer and illustrator Michael Curato. In conversation with poet Regie Cabico, Michael will discuss his new graphic novel Gaysians, a gorgeous, heart-warming story following four gay Asians as they navigate love, identity, and friendship in Seattle during the early aughts. Michael will show slides from the book and discuss with the audience. This event is free and open to the public at the DC West End Neighborhood Library! Please RSVP.

Regie Cabico is the first Asian American Poet and openly Queer Poet to win the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam and is a three-time National Poetry Slam Finalist. He is the author of A Rabbit in Search of a Rolex ( Day Eight, 2023)

Join children's author and illustrator Mike Curato for an evening at Queer/Bar celebrating his debut adult graphic novel, Gaysians, a heartwarming story following four gay Asians navigating love, identity, and friendship—a celebration of queer chosen family.​ He will be joined alongside local Seattle activist and icon Aleksa Manila. 

To help Queer/Bar anticipate audience size, please RSVP here! 
You can also pre order your copies for the event from Elliott Bay Book Co.

Aleksa Manila is Seattle's sweetheart of fundraising and everything fabulous! She's a former Miss Gay Filipino, Miss Gay Seattle and Empress of Seattle among many of her crowns. She's recognized for her social activism and community leadership by Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, The Greater Seattle Business Association, Seattle Women's Pride, Public Health - Seattle & King County, The Filipino Community of Seattle and so on. She is featured in GLAAD and Emmy nominated PBS documentary, Caretakers. ​Follow her journey at ALEKSAMANILA.com and all social media platforms via @ALEKSAMANILA

ABOUT THIS EVENT

• This event will be hosted by Book Passage at our SF Ferry Building store.

• Free Admission / Open Seating

• Books will be available for purchase at the event

• There will be a signing line or meet and greet following the presentation.

• For more information or to preorder books, please visit Book Passage.

Brontez Purnell is the author of several books, most recently 100 Boyfriends, which won the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Fiction, was longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, and was named an Editors' Choice by the New York Times Book Review. The recipient of a 2018 Whiting Writers' Award for Fiction and the 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award, he was named one of the thirty-two Black Male Writers of Our Time by T: The New York Times Style Magazine in 2018. Purnell is also the frontman for the band the Younger Lovers and a renowned dancer, performance artist, and zine-maker. Born in Triana, Alabama, he's lived in Oakland, California, for two decades.

Join us at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore on Thursday, June 12 at 7:00 PM when Mike Curato, author of Flamer, comes to share his new graphic novel Gaysians. Mike will be joined in conversation by Randy Ribay and will sign copies of his book after the presentation.

This event is FREE, but please RSVP.

RANDY RIBAY is a Filipino American author of young adult fiction. His most recent novel, Patron Saints of Nothing, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the LA Times Book Prize. Randy was also a contributor to the Printz Award–winning anthology The Collectors, edited by A. S. King. His other works include An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes, After the Shot Drops, and Chronicles of the Avatar: The Reckoning of Roku. Born in the Philippines and raised in the Midwest, Randy currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, son, and cat-like dog.

Bel Canto Books is delighted to celebrate GAYSIANS, a new adult graphic novel by Filipinx author and illustrator Mike Curato (GAYSIANS). Please RSVP.

Rasheed Newson is the author of the national bestseller My Government Means to Kill Me. The novel was a Lambda Literary finalist for Gay Fiction and was named one of the “The 100 Notable Books of 2022” by The New York Times. His forthcoming novel, There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood, is slated for publication by Flatiron in 2026.

Rasheed is also a television drama writer, producer, and showrunner. Along with his screenplay writing partner, T.J. Brady, he co-developed and is an executive producer of Bel-Air. The drama series has won three NAACP Image Awards and has been nominated several times for Best Drama Series. Additionally, Rasheed has worked on The Chi, Animal Kingdom, and Narcos, among other drama series. Rasheed was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a graduate of Georgetown University. He currently lives with his husband and their two children in Pasadena.

This event is free! For more information, or to preorder books, please visit Book Soup.

REX OGLE is an award-winning author of more than a hundred books, comics, graphic novels, and memoirs—most notably Free Lunch (winner of the ALA/YALSA award for Excellence in Non-Fiction), Abuela Don’t Forget Me (ALA/YALSA award for Excellence in Non-Fiction finalist), Road Home (a Micheal Printz Honor and Stonewall Honor book), and middle grade graphic novels Four Eyes and Pizza Face.  

Under his pseudonym REY TERCIERO, he also re-imagines classics as modern and diverse graphic novels, including Meg, Jo, Beth, & Amy, Northranger (nominated for both Harvey and GLAAD Media Awards), and Dan in Green Gables (coming in June 2025). 

Pre-purchase your copy of the featured title to guarantee your signed copy! This helps ensure that everyone who wants a book goes home with one, in case we sell out at the event. Please RSVP.

ALEXANDER CHEE is the best-selling author of the novels The Queen of the Night and Edinburgh, and the essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. He is a contributing editor at the New Republic, and an editor at large at Virginia Quarterly Review. His work has appeared in The Best American Essays 2016, the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, the New Yorker, T Magazine, Slate, Vulture, among others. He is winner of a 2003 Whiting Award, a 2004 NEA Fellowship in prose and a 2010 MCCA Fellowship, and residency fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the VCCA, Civitella Ranieri and Amtrak. He is an associate professor of English at Dartmouth College. His novel Other People’s Husbands is forthcoming from Mariner Books.

Join Mike Curato as he reads excerpts from his critically acclaimed (and unfortunately banned) young adult graphic novel, Flamer (12PM). NCAC will be distributing copies to attendees! He’ll also be reading from his debut adult graphic novel, Gaysians (2PM). This event is free, but please RSVP.