Juliana Delgado Lopera and Joseph Cassara: May 2, 2019

After a brief introduction by Steve Dickison, Juliana Delgado Lopera greets the audience and introduces herself, commenting on her experience as Mazza Writer in Residence, and as Director of Radar Productions, a Bay Area queer literary arts organization. Then, Delgado Lopera reads the first chapter, in manuscript, from her forthcoming novel Fiebre Tropical, to kick off the evening.

Joseph Cassara introduces himself and talks about winning the Edmund White Award for his first novel before reading an excerpt from the middle of his book, from a chapter named after the character "Angel." He gives a detailed anecdote about how an AIDS victim's personal experience inspired one of the last scenes in the novel, involving "Angel" on the subway, before reading it to the audience.

To begin the conversation, Delgado Lopera and Cassara share quotes they admired from each other's work. They discuss many conventions of process and how they affect the style and themes of their writing. Delgado Lopera recounts the stories from her mother's youth and how the little details of life, such as her grandmother watching the TV serial Caso Cerrado, feed her writing. Cassara focuses on character development and how he tried to interview the founding members of The House of Xtravaganza. Empathy and discovery are recurring themes throughout the conversation, which includes rituals related to writing, and the music that inspires their work.