We’re so excited to welcome so many incredible table hosts to Red Hen’s 32nd Benefit Gala! Viet Thanh Nguyen, Luke Goebel, and DC Frost are three of the incredible authors whose tables are still available for purchase at this year’s event on November 8, 2026 at the Palladio Banquet Hall in Glendale. To inquire about purchasing a table, please reach out to development@redhen.org. For individual tickets, information, and our full list of remarkable table hosts (so far!), head over to redhen.org/events/benef…. 

Read on to learn more about these hosts!

VIET THANH NGUYEN is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE SYMPATHIZER and its sequel, THE COMMITTED. He also wrote TO SAVE AND TO DESTROY: WRITING AS AN OTHER, shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and NOTHING EVER DIES: VIETNAM AND THE MEMORY OF WAR, shortlisted for the National Book Award in Nonfiction. Other books include A MAN OF TWO FACES: A MEMOIR, A HISTORY, A MEMORIAL; THE REFUGEES; and two children's books, SIMONE and CHICKEN OF THE SEA.

LUKE B. GOEBEL is an American novelist and screenwriter whose work moves between fiction, memoir, and cinema with a restless, intimate energy. He is the author of FOURTEEN STORIES, NONE OF THEM ARE YOURS, winner of the Ronald Sukenick Prize for Innovative Fiction, and the forthcoming novel KILL DICK (Red Hen Press). His screenwriting credits include CAUSEWAY and EILEEN, and his writing has been appreciated in numerous literary journals. Goebel’s work is known for its formal daring and emotional precision, often exploring grief, identity, and the porous boundary between lived experience and art.

DC FROST is a second-generation Angelino. Her first novel, A PUNISHING BREED, published by Red Hen Press in 2024, received a New York Times recommendation. DC has published several literary short stories in various journals including UCLA’s WESTWIND. She had a long career in nonprofit fundraising before turning to writing full time. DC appreciates California’s melting pot of class, culture, and natural beauty. Frost lives in Los Angeles with her husband and a pack of rescue dogs. DC and her husband have an adult son.