Aunt Lute Books and Medicine for Nighstmares Bookstore and Galería hosted the last event of my ”Naming the Body: A Queer Woman’s Restorative Mapping of the Self” PRIDE MONTH TOUR. I have no idea how this happened, but I ended up sharing a wonderful community space with so many writers whose work I admire. It was truly special to share the mic with Kim Shuck, Ajuan Mance, Ginny Berson, and Antmen Pimentel Mendoza. We brought THE LIT 📚 and MCs Charlie Jane Sanders and Baruch Porras Hernandez, THE LAUGHS 🤪. Feeling grateful 🥹🙏🏼.
Hubo duende and a lot of xingonería at the QUEEREST.LIBRARY.EVER: the Hormel LGBTQI+ Center at the San Francisco Public Library. Our event TU PALABRA Y MI CUERPO DE LENCHA / YOUR WORD AND MY DYKE BODY was everything we had hoped for, and then some 😊. We might be taking this show on the road Maribel Martinezx y Liliana Hueso. The naming of ourselves is barely getting started 🔥🔥🔥
We are incredible grateful for everyone who showed up and shared such a beautiful space and conversation with us. We are specially thankful to librarian and program manager Cristina Mitra for her flawless support and logistics, to the Friends of the SFPL NiebleSF for their sponsorship, and to NieblaSF bookstore for their vending.
Banter Bookstore put together a lovely setting and family, friends, and new faces from the community showed up. That was truly special. I felt at home, because I was 🫣. It was magical to finally be able to share “Naming the Body: A Queer Woman’s Restorative Mapping of the Self” (Mouthfeel Press, 2026) with my English speaking community. Books sold out 🫢. Thank you! Gracias! Obrigada! Me voy a dormir con el corazón colmado ❤️🥹
One for the books as Hannah Moushabeck told Cynthia Leitich Smith! PUBLISHING THE FUTURE at the 2026 Bay Area Book Festival was pretty damn good. MC’d by poet Hanan Masri and opened with a song specially composed for the occasion by Tristan Marcelle from Bushwick Book Club Oakland, a musical book club where Bay Area artists perform original songs inspired by a book. Her singing “Where do I go to see my story told” was the perfect launch pad for our conversation.
Kate Gale from Red Hen Press, Cynthia Leitich Smith from Heartdrum, Phoebe Robinson from Tiny Reparation Books, and Hannah Moushabeck from Interlink Books spoke with me about the work towards representation and equity in the literary landscape, inspiring readers in such fucked up times, the AI disruption in the production of art, and working at the crossroads between publishing and authorship.
The Bay Area Book Festival organization was phenomenal, from Deputy Director of Programming Dora la Flora, who was there at all times; and the stage manager at The Freight; to Linda holding up the 1min left, time for Q&A signs and would not let me get lost in time!, and the two ASL interpreters who showed phenomenal stamina, specially keeping up with Phoebe Robinson’s fast, intelligent, and witty remarks on AI, a subject that managed to fire all of us 🔥
Signing my first copy of Naming the Body: A Queer Woman’s Restorative Mapping of the Self!
maría mínguez arias 