Spend an hour with three brilliant female authors, writing from and about multiple corners of the globe—India, the Middle East, North Africa, South America, the United States—with woman-focused stories. Meet Dubai-based Indian author Avni Doshi, Ethiopian-American novelist Maaza Mengiste and Chilean author Alia Trabucco Zerán. The event is co-presented by Words Without Borders and moderated by Karen Phillips, its executive director.

Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

Splitting the World Open: An International Roundtable of Dangerous Women Writers

Gina Frangello’s new memoir, Blow Your House Down, was met with wide acclaim, impassioned support, and also the judgments and criticisms that people love to lob at women who write about their authentic, messy lives. She writes about adultery, a longtime affair, and eventually breaking up her family, with repercussions to all concerned, including her children. At the center of this conversation, moderated by Brooke Warner, are questions about how women are encouraged to be silent, or get silenced.

What Happens When a Woman Tells Her Whole Truth w/Gina Frangello, Brooke Warner

How to describe The Confession of Copeland Cane, the explosive new novel by Oakland-based author Keenan Norris? According to MacArthur Fellow Mike Davis, like “Thomas Pynchon, Nathaniel West and Ralph Ellison going into a bar where they decide to write a novel about the gentrification wars in the East Bay.” And yet Keenan Norris’s prose is all his own: dexterously lyrical, sharp, and skillful in reflecting our own moment. Keenan is in conversation with polymath Dr. Michael Datcher.

Book Launch Event: The Confession of Copeland Cane, with author Keenan Norris in conversation with Dr. Michael Datcher

A powerful conversation between renowned psychiatrist Irvin Yalom & one of the most honored authors in American letters, Joyce Carol Oates. This heartfelt talk explores universal questions of intimacy, love, and grief.

Love, Loss, and Meaning in Life: World-Renowned Therapist Irvin Yalom & Joyce Carol Oates

Meet two literary pioneers we need now: Novelist and Marvel Comics scribe Nnedi Okorafor, whose groundbreaking Africanfuturism demands big-screen renderings (fittingly, two of her books are being adapted as series by HBO & Hulu). Nebula Award winner Jeff VanderMeer, author of the bestselling Southern Reach trilogy (adapted into the film Annihilation) also is no stranger to meeting (and anticipating) the moment: Esquire called him “the prophet of climate fiction.”

How to Dream the World You Want: Nnedi Okorafor & Jeff VanderMeer with Isabel Yap

Douglas Stuart enraptured readers worldwide in 2020 when his debut novel, Shuggie Bain, took the world’s top literary award, the Booker Prize. Shuggie Bain was a labor of love that drew from his own history of childhood poverty, hardship, and devotion to a mother whose addiction struggles were intensified by a broken system. Stuart is interviewed by Casey Gerald, who gained fame with a viral TED talk, “The Gospel of Doubt.” Like Stuart, Gerald grew up queer, shaped by poverty and parental addiction.

Lager and Love Can’t Pay the Bills: 2020 Booker Prize Winner Douglas Stuart on his Masterpiece, Shuggie Bain

Hear from two highly respected journalists who also happen to be speculative fiction writers. Annalee Newitz is an award-winning novelist (The Future of Another Timeline) and a science, technology and culture writer whose fascinating new book, Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, explores the rise and fall of four urban-centered civilizations, from medieval Angkor in Cambodia to the indigenous metropolis Cahokia in present-day Missouri. Moderated by Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim.

Green Rabbits Glowing at the End of the World

A journalist and renowned expert on China, Schell has penned his first novel, drawing on his knowledge of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution and on his conviction that art and love can outlive brutality. Joining him is MacArthur “genius” and award-winning writer Yiyun Li, who came of age during the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, emigrated to the U.S. at 23 as a young scientist, and eventually took the literary world by storm with her fiction, memoir and essays. This talk is moderated by Adam Hochschild.

When Everything Falls Apart, How Does the Heart Survive? Orville Schell and Yiyun Li on China, Tolstoy, and the Power of Art, with Adam Hochschild

The power of words to spark change and detonate oppression has never been more needed than it is today. Join U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, award-winning poet Reginald Dwayne Betts, and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Camille Dungy as they discuss their writings in response to our tumultuous time in history. Guiding the conversation is Ismail Muhummad, story editor for the New York Times Magazine and a member of the Festival’s program committee.

There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love

 Having enriched the creative journeys of millions with her Artist’s Way program and books, Julia Cameron will show us how to harness that spirit of renewal with her latest guide to attunement and fulfillment, The Listening Path. Joining Julia is Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Judy Collins, a national treasure whose artistry is timeless. You won’t want to miss these two legendary creatives in conversation, talking about all things art, life, inspiration, and how to truly listen.

Create, Connect, and Inspire: Julia Cameron on The Listening Path

 Ann Patchett’s novels hit that sweet spot where literary prestige meets blockbuster success. With The Dutch House, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Patchett is at her peak. This “engrossing, warmhearted book” (NPR) tells the story of a brother and sister whose deep bond and secret-filled past is haunted by the legacy of an ornate mansion, the “Dutch house,” that was the site of childhood, and later, of their exile. Patchett is known for speaking her mind with refreshing and down-to-earth brilliance.

The Ties that Bind: Ann Patchett on Family, Fortune, and the Search for Self

 Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley was determined to release her latest novel in 2020. Why? She knew we all could use an escape. And Perestroika in Paris is just that, as praised by Publishers Weekly: “the perfect book for those for whom the real world, wracked with pandemic and politics, has become something to avoid.” Imagine a Parisian fairytale for adults starring a runaway racehorse who finds friendship and freedom in getting splendidly off-track in the City of Light. In conversation with Brooke Warner.

Racing Towards Wonder with bestselling novelist Jane Smiley

 After a tumultuous year of protest, Hong Kong’s streets are quiet again following the adoption of the national security law. Join four experts for this indispensable analysis of the protest movement and its significance for freedom globally: Hong Kong-based lawyer and writer Antony Dapiran; Jeffrey Wasserstrom, one of America’s leading China specialists; and the Financial Times’ Nicolle Liu, who reported from the streets throughout the protests. Conversation moderated by Orville Schell and Arthur Ross.

Power of Protest: Lessons from Hong Kong

 Two-time Grammy winner and Oakland native Fantastic Negrito (blues and Black roots music) meets multiracial, eight-time Swedish Grammy-winning rapper and debut author Timbuktu — and each discovers a brother. In a highly personal conversation, these two extraordinary artists, each with a huge fan base, share their experiences of racism, fatherhood, ancestors, and what it means to be an “elder.” They talk especially about gratitude, joy, and of course the power of music.

Meaning in the Music: A Conversational Duet with Fantastic Negrito and Timbuktu

 Helen Macdonald is setting our imaginations soaring again with Vesper Flights, a collection of her best-loved essays, illuminating everything from mushroom-hunting to the poignant particulars of birds’ nests. As Helen wrote, “animals don’t exist in order to teach us things,” but her live conversation with American Book Award-winning poet Camille T. Dungy will show us how much we can learn by letting nature keep its secrets.

Women Lit #UNBOUND: Poised to Soar: Nature-Writing Sensation Helen Macdonald with Vesper Flights

Between audio books? Curious about the writers themselves? Listen to full-length sessions from the Bay Area Book Festival, where readers and writers meet each year in Berkeley, CA, to engage with their favorite authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners, chefs, and activists, to discuss writing, race, love, mystery, and more.

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Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

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