Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

Taken prisoner by the Kenyan government in 1977 because of artistic defiance of the regime, this Nobel Prize short-listed writer will recount this experience, its effect on his art and the freedom to write. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Arts + Design.

An absolute must-see: 92- year-old Auschwitz survivor and trauma psychologist comes to us to discuss one of the most compelling books we've read this year, which Desmond Tutu called "a gift to humanity." Sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay with the generous support of Eve Gordon-Ramek; in memory of Mayer Goldberg and Henry Ramek.

Interviewed by Dacher Keltner Zen Roshi (teacher) and anthropologist Joan Halifax ventures to answer the enduring question: How do we live well for ourselves and others at the same time? Emotion expert and director of UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center Dacher Keltner will interview. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Arts + Design.

What has happened to civility and civic responsibility? What makes a good citizen in today's America? Reich makes a heartfelt call to a nation on the brink as he shows us how to do our part in saving America's soul.

The former president of the American Civil Liberties Union presents her book "HATE: Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship" — released for the first time at the festival in the home of the Free Speech Movement. Interviewed by the dean of UC Berkeley Law. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Arts + Design.

Drawing upon his 32 years as a writer and his 44 years as a traveler, Iyer will close the festival with a keynote illuminating the power of literature to create a world beyond walls. Iyer will then be interviewed by renowned literary critic John Freeman.

Together these writers, who have plumbed the topic of sexual assault deeply (and personally), will deconstruct the movement and explore its future. Sponsored by Zoetic Press.

A call for authenticity in life and literature: The author of the award-winning speculative feminist novel "The Book of Joan" and the hypnotic memoir "The Chronology of Water" and selfproclaimed "misfit" has penned a book, enhanced by interviews, called "The Misfit's Manifesto."

Pulitzer Prize winning poet Snyder and renowned science fiction writer and environmentalist Robinson climbed a mountain in the Sierras to christen it Mt. Thoreau. With their editor and publisher, they talk about civil disobedience, nature writing, the environmental movement, poetry and naming the unnameable. Sponsored by the Journal of Alta California.

This Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur awardee talks about the role of the writer in society, the importance of art to politics and the power of the written word. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Arts + Design.

Border-crossers and novelists Lesley Nneka Arimah ("What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky"), Laleh Khadivi ("A Good Country") and Pajtim Statovci ("My Cat Yugoslavia") contemplate a life between the lines. Sponsored by the Center for the Art of Translation, the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, FILI - Finnish Literature Exchange, and Finlandia Foundation National.

Susan Griffin celebrates the 40th anniversary reissue of her feminist classic "Woman and Nature."

Jakobson Ramin ("Carved in Sand") took a look at the reality of spine medicine. The results were not pretty. She explains what works, what doesn't and how to get on the road to recovery.

In 1941, young Fred Korematsu refused to be forced into the United States' Japanese internment camps. Atkins and Yogi share Fred's courageous story, how he made the United States a fairer place for all and how you too can speak up for what matters. 

Marijuana expert Beau Kilmer and author Emily Brady will divulge the latest in pot policy and explore whether California's hopes for a smooth transition should remain, well, high. Moderated by David Downs, Cannabis editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Slimani, author of "The Perfect Nanny," is a bold, eloquent speaker on writing, women, and society today. She was born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1981 and now lives in Paris with her French husband and their two young children. Come see this extraordinary writer! She will be interviewed by Brooke Warner, Publisher, She Writes Press.

Debut novelist Krys Lee, in "How I Became A North Korean," focuses on individuals in desperate circumstances. Lee's characters, forced into exile, must find ways to retain their humanity in the midst of aching upheaval. Berkeley author Elizabeth Rosner talks with Lee, considering the multitude of ways that literature can address modern life's most urgent and painful challenges.

Money can't buy happiness. Except when these whip-smart, hilarious authors are writing about money, that is. Jonas Luscher (author of the German Book Award nominated 'Barbarian Spring'), Paul Murray ('The Mark and the Void,' which has been described as "probably the funniest novel ever written about a financial crisis"), and Doree Shafrir ('Startup', a novel about a $600 million idea) will talk tu...

There's a book in all of us, but what does it take to get it out into the world? Hear four successful authors give their expert advice on writing their first books and navigating the sometimes bumpy road to publication. They come from Ireland, Switzerland, Finland, and Mexico, and all saw publication in their home countries and recently in the United States. How was the process of writing, revisin...

You've no doubt heard the adage, "Write what you know," but what if you want to write about aliens, dragons, wizards, or people from an entirely different culture? Four writers debunk the myth that "knowing" trumps all, and how it's far more important to write what you imagine, what inspires you, and what story you want to tell.

The Summer of Love brought us sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, but it was also a decade of extremes and radical cultural change that, in many ways, mirrors what's going on today. A renewed interest in psychedelic drugs? Check. Women organizing for vast social change? Check. The back-to-the-land movement? You bet. Join historians, and journalists, for an explosive look at how counterculture meets cyb...

Behind appearances are stories — and sometimes they're complex, frightening stories that people hide. People milling through The Cheeseboard on Shattuck Avenue are harboring heart-stopping secrets in Shanthi Sekaran's page-turner, 'Lucky Boy.' That normal-looking guy at the Chinatown restaurant is actually fleeing a scandalous Hong Kong celebrity career, in 'Deceit and Other Possibilities' by Vane...

How do we process loss? What role does memory play in mourning? The novelists gathered here—from Iceland, Sweden, and the United States—all use extraordinary restraint and carefully structure their work in order to create great emotional impact. Why do they take this approach; how do they sustain it; and what it is like personally to write these stories? They also discuss the psychology of grief a...

Mentored by LGBT rights pioneer Harvey Milk, Cleve Jones is an activist and author whose new memoir, 'When We Rise,' inspired an ABC TV mini-series of the same title. Rebecca Solnit said, "You could read Cleve Jones's book because you should know about the struggle for gay, lesbian, and transgender rights from one of its key participants—but really, you should read it for pleasure and joy." Armist...

"Everyone is born once. I have been born many times," wrote Rumi, the beloved Persian poet, whose words often draw comparisons to Shakespeare. But who was the person behind the poems? And why does a fairly obscure 13th-century mystic continue to captivate contemporary audiences? Brad Gooch, formidable biographer and bestselling author of 'Smash Cut,' 'Flannery,' and 'City Poet,' brilliantly brings...