Community Conversation with author Randy Ribay

Please join us on Monday, March 23, 2026 for a community conversation with Randy Ribay, young adult fiction writer and National Book Award Finalist. During the event, Randy will discuss his recent novel, Everything We Never Had (2024), about four-generations of Filipino American men grappling with identity, masculinity, and father-son relationships. The characters’ stories traverse histories of Filipino America, including those of Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley. Randy conducted archival research using the Watsonville is in the Heart Community Digital Archive and other repositories to create intergenerational narratives of Filipino American migration, labor, and family.

Our conversation will take place in the Community Room located on the Fourth Floor of the Watsonville Civic Plaza. This event is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by Watsonville Public Library, UCSC’s Center for Labor and Community, Watsonville is in the Heart, The Tobera Project, and Pajaro Valley for Ethnic Studies and Justice.