Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

The Center for ArtEsteem (ArtEsteem) presents "Unleashing the Super Hero Within," a panel exploring Executive Director Amana Harris's curriculum Self As Super Hero: Handbook on Creating the Life-Size Self-Portrait .ArtEsteem students and teachers will engage in dialogue about today's youth, their creative needs, and the Self As Super Hero curriculum as a critical catalyst of self-reflection, famil...

In this digital age, young people are not only eager to learn about and discuss the realities of media ownership, production, and distribution, they also deserve to understand the differential power structures in how media influences our culture. Professor of media studies and founding member of the Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas, Nolan Higdon brings expertise in podcasting, di...

In this triumphant and revelatory return of the award-winning novelist and Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Greg Sarris , The Last Human Bear is an epic story about a Pomo woman who is haunted by an inescapable tradition that has been passed down from her stepmother. She has inherited the ability to shapeshift into a Human Bear who can menace and poison enemies. A mystery even...

Join the Creative Writing professors of San Jose State University for a combined panel and workshop where the professors will discuss the ins and outs of MFA programs and lead attendees in a series of writing exercises for prose writers and poets. SJSU MFA program coordinator Nick Taylor and faculty members Keenan Norris, J. Michael Martinez and Brook McClurg have guided numerous aspiring writers...

To write an inclusive future, we must publish diverse voices who represent our collective interests and stories. The publishers and imprints represented in this headliner panel will discuss the implications of the current political climate on the future of publishing and put forward creative solutions to the lack of opportunities for publishing underrepresented stories. Tiny Reparations Press, fou...

What makes Californian literature shine? Writer Kathleen Alcott suggests that the diversity of California's landscape has gifted a unique sense of time and change to its inhabitants, who are "used to the colors out the window turning over entirely, and to stop seeing trees and to start seeing water" within a few hours' drive. In California Rewritten , editor, author, and host of Alta 's California...

In times of danger and despair, kid-friendly stories and symbols can help families approach heavy topics, such as the ones in this panel. Touching on the difficult experiences of Japanese-Americans during the Japanese Incarceration in Hawai'i during World War II, Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson 's Shell Song tells ofthe true story of her grandfather's detainment in an island prison, where he collected, la...

Being a writer means coming up against self-doubt. But what if it doesn't have to be so scary? What if the blank page felt more like an invitation than a cliff? Does it sometimes seem like your novel is trying to kill you? Have you considered divorcing a story? Me too. In this gathering we will work through a few exercises designed to bring joy and a sense of possibility and invention so that you...

Where is the boundary between a dream and a lie? The award-winning authors of this panel write about the elusive and deceptive dreams—of assimilation, of youth, of success— that impact their Asian American communities. In Lisa Lee 's American Han, the Kim family dutifully embodies the model minority myth in 1980s San Francisco, until their son goes missing, and they are forced to confront the faca...

What is it like to stand up for our beliefs as members of universities in today's social and political climate? UC Davis free speech and equity law scholar Brian Soucek argues that institutional neutrality is a myth in The Opinionated University, which takes a deep dive into prominent campus controversies that demonstrate how those pushing for neutrality are only preventing universities from stand...

Providing stellar examples of excellence in youth literature, the acclaimed authors of this panel pave the way for Native youth readers to see their own cultures reflected in stories that are written by authors with similar backgrounds. In her picture book I Love Salmon and Lampreys , Brook M. Thompson draws from her experiences growing up in the Yurok and Karuk Tribes to tell an inspiring story a...

From a Tennessee farm to California's Central Coast, the action-packed road trips of this panel navigate the complicated, winding paths of familial connection with heart, humor, and sincerity. Kevin Wilson's Run for the Hills takes off with an unexpected road trip across America when Madeleine's long-lost half brother asks her to leave home to join him on a crazy road trip to track down every sing...

Drawing from real-life situations that kids may face, the graphic novels of this panel combine art and words to tell meaningful stories. In Marshmallow & Jordan,Alina Chau depicts a young basketball player's experience after an accident leaves her paralyzed from the waist down, whose encounter with a mysterious elephant helps her discover a brand new sport. It can be hard to feel different from ou...

As authoritarian assaults increasingly restrict our media, championing press freedom and critical media literacy is more important than ever. From The Censored Press editorial board member T.M. Scruggs is State of the Free Press 2026: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, a collection that highlights the year's most significant independent journalism—including original, investigative reports on ICE survei...

"The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house" (Audre Lorde), but the tools that have been used for dismantling in the past might just be the ones we use to build the future. For Octavia Butler, science fiction stories were her tools for speculating the devolution of the American empire and simultaneously offered cautionary tales about our propensity for violence and sanguine manifes...

Sometimes, being forced to work together on a project might not be so bad… especially when it leads to falling in love. At the Crooked Rock Urban Indian Center in Pamela Sanderson's Heartbeat Braves, Rayanne Larson's special project is unexpectedly handed over to the underachieving nephew of the Center's new leader, and she is determined to keep her distance until a crisis forces the two of them c...

What happens when visionary worldbuilding meets movement building? In this rare and unmissable conversation, acclaimed novelist Nnedi Okorafor, whose Africanfuturist fiction reshapes the boundaries of speculative literature, sits down with legendary organizer Marshall Ganz, architect of modern grassroots leadership models. Guided by co-founder of Wakanda Dream Lab Calvin Williams, the conversation...

Cartoonist Judd Winick's presentation surrounding his latest title, HILO PRESENTS: THE MIGHTY, involves a 17 question Q&A with himself as the creator. From answering questions about his artistic process and the process behind creating a HILO book, to sharing innumerable photos of his two cats (Troy and Abed), Judd's session will cover not only his unique career in the graphic novels/comics space b...

The Trump administration is terrorizing our communities with mass deportations, militarized raids, and brutal detainment, tearing families apart and unlawfully withholding immigrants in inhumane conditions. As historian Ana Raquel Minian points out, this is only the latest chapter in a saga in which immigrants to the United States have been held without recourse to their constitutional rights. Thi...

Eighty years of lessons from the Black freedom struggle, labor movements, and internationalism illuminate the path forward in our fight for democracy and never-ending commitment to building a better world. In a multi-generational conversation, legendary Civil Rights organizer Walter Riley andcommunity organizer, musician, and journalist Jesse Strauss will offer insights from their book, Civil Righ...

  Blurring the lines between journalism and memoir, the indigenous writers of this panel look outward at the people, cultures, and history around them to form a personal understanding of what it means to be a world citizen today. Terria Smith , who longed for adventure growing up on the Torres Martinez Reservation in Southern California, observed that travel is deeply rooted in Native traditions o...

Welcome to the library, the place where you will always belong! Join the Internet's favorite librarian and host of the relaunched Reading Rainbow Mychal Threets as he introduces his bright and exciting picture book, I'm So Happy You're Here: A Celebration of Library Joy . After a short read-aloud, Mychal and Supervising Librarian Shani B will talk about his experiences and inspiration for writing...

Drawing on the expertise of mindfulness educators, frontline organizers, and America's greatest literary voices, this panel provides guidance for navigating political burnout and civic despair. On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World is professor Jeremy David Engels' compact guide offering 27 powerful teachings of interdependence and how to show up for demo...

BABF Short Cuts is a Podcast of the Bay Area Book Festival where we introduce some of the authors and partners who will join us for the 2026 Festival in Berkeley from May 29–May 31.  This episodes features three BABF staff members who describe some of the events coming up, what to expect onsite at the festival, and some tips and tricks on how to get the most out of a jam packed weekend!  You can f...

BABF Short Cuts is a Podcast of the Bay Area Book Festival where we introduce some of the authors and partners who will join us for the 2026 Festival in Berkeley from May 29–May 31.  In this episode, you get to meet Bridgette Yang who talks to us about YouthSpeaks and the programs they are contributing to the Festival in 2026 Saturday, May 30th Teen Poetry Workshop - rsvp required Youth writer/poe...