Cambridge Public Library to Host Debut Author Ursula Villarreal-Moura to Celebrate the Release of Her Novel, "Like Happiness"

The Library will welcome Ursula Villarreal-Moura, debut author of Like Happiness, for a reading and conversation on Tuesday, April 2, from 6-7:30 p.m. Elizabeth Gonzalez James, author of The Bullet Swallower, will moderate the discussion. This is a hybrid event, and registration is required.

Like Happiness follows Tatum Vega as allegations against a famous author force her to reexamine her former relationship with him. Tatum must finally reckon with the power imbalance that governed their relationship and recognize the tenacity of its hold on her. The dual narrative, alternating between her present day and a letter to the famous author relaying the events of their relationship, unfolds as a reclamation of her past.

Like Happiness has been called "memorable and incisive" by Kirkus and "accomplished" by Publisher's Weekly, and, according to Xochitl Gonzalez, is the "perfect book to recommend for both Sunday reads and subway commutes."

Ursula Villarreal-Moura, a former bookseller at the Harvard Coop, was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, a flash fiction collection. Her writing has appeared in various outlets including Lit Hub, Electric Literature, Story, and Bennington Review and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories. Like Happiness is her first novel.

Elizabeth Gonzalez James is the author of the novels Mona at Sea and The Bullet Swallower (forthcoming Simon & Schuster, 2024), as well as the chapbook, Five Conversations About Peter Sellers. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Idaho Review, Southern Humanities Review, The Rumpus, StorySouth, PANK, and elsewhere, and have received numerous Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. She teaches at Grub Street in Boston. Originally from South Texas, Elizabeth now lives with her family in Massachusetts.

This event is co-sponsored by the Cambridge Public Library Foundation.

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