The Bay Area Book Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary with its traditional weekend-long event June 1-2, turning downtown Berkeley into a haven for readers and writers. The festival kicks off Saturday, May 4, with a Family Day at Berkeley Public Library’s main branch downtown.
The theme of this year’s festival is Bay Area and California writers, but as usual, the speakers come from all over the country. This year’s lineup includes authors Viet Thanh Nguyen, R.O. Kwan, Steve Phillips, Jane Hirshfeld, Nikki Grimes, Dani Trujillo and Joan Baez.
For the first time in its history, the festival will feature a Native California stage dedicated to Indigenous authors in partnership with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, based in Rohnert Park. Native author Tommy Orange, a former Oakland resident whose new book, Wandering Stars, is a sequel to his best-selling There There, will participate in two panels on that stage on June 2.
Also new this year: designating the first day of the festival, June 1, as a Writer’s Day for both aspiring and published writers, which will include a publishing panel, two pitch sessions and free writing workshops sponsored by Bay Area MFA programs.
“It’s a pivot we’re excited about,” said Brooke Warner, publisher of She Writes Press and chairwoman of the festival’s board of directors. “There are so many writers in the Bay Area. This is a day for them.”
This year the configuration of the stages will also be different, allowing for more interaction with participants afterward, according to Samee Roberts, the festival’s managing director.
This is also the first year the festival will operate without founder Cherilyn Parsons at its helm. Parsons stepped down last June and has not been replaced, though she continues to work with organizers as an emeritus board member and adviser. She’s now living in Paris and has three books in development. Warner described Parsons as a “fundraising powerhouse.”
“She really did a lot. You don’t see that until you take on the work she was once doing,” Warner said.
As a result, this year’s festival became “a staff and board-led event,” Warner said. “That’s why we feel so proud about accomplishing what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
From then to now
Since its founding, BABF has hosted more than 125,000 book lovers of all ages and showcased more than 1,500 speakers from all over the world. Over the years, such writers have included the Irish author Colin Barrett, Mexican essayist Jazmina Barrera and Japanese novelist Masatsugo Ono.
Many memorable moments have occurred over the decade, but one stands out among staff, board members and the public.
In 2018, Edith Eger, an Auschwitz survivor and trauma psychologist promoting her international best-seller, The Choice, was asked by Berkeley author Elizabeth Rosner if she would end the talk in her traditional fashion by doing a ballet extension. Without hesitation, the 92-year-old sprung from her chair and lifted her foot above her head, eliciting applause from the packed house. The talk — and Eger’s limber move — were captured on a YouTube video that’s attracted some 43,000 views.
Inspired by the L.A. Times Festival of Books, Parsons started the event because she considered the Bay Area a literary mecca. At the time, she was working at the Center for Investigative Reporting as the director of development and strategic initiatives.
“I envisioned a festival that was international as well as local, featured many other forms of diversity (such as race, class, gender identity, ability), presented top award-winning authors (Nobel, Booker, Pulitzer, many more) alongside today’s best-emerging talent and prioritized books and authors concerned with social justice and human rights,” she wrote in an email.
Over the years, the festival’s programming has become increasingly diverse. Parsons said such efforts were mostly in response to current events.
“After the 2016 election, we built a new focus on activism,” Parsons said. “Around 2017, we started a year-round program featuring authors who identified as female, and then #MeToo hit, greatly catalyzing the program that came to be known as Women Lit.”
Warner added that the festival’s more diverse lineup also reflects changes in the publishing industry, which has increasingly opened its doors to more writers of color and Indigenous authors.
Highlights, happenings and how
to attend the Bay Area Book Festival
The Bay Area Book Festival will take place on June 1-2. It will feature 100 authors across seven stages in three downtown Berkeley venues: Freight & Salvage, Berkeley Public Library’s main branch, and Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park.
The festival starts on May 4 with a Family Day at Berkeley Public Library’s main branch, featuring dozens of children’s and Y.A. authors and workshops from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Most events are free and do not require registration, except for the Writer’s Day events on opening day, June 1: two pitch sessions and writers’ workshops. Admission is also free for the June 2 Outdoor Fair at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, which will feature over 100 exhibitors, a food court and live performances on four outdoor stages.
Ticketed evening events are $20 and will be held at Freight & Salvage:
- Saturday, June 1, 5:30 p.m.: Joan Baez, who has a new poetry book out, and tribal leader and author Greg Sarris will discuss “Identity and Remembering: Vulnerability in Creating Across Genres.”
- Saturday, June 1, 7:30 p.m.: Author Naomi Klein, whose latest book is Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, will chat with Brooke Warner, publisher of She Writes Press and Book Festival board chair, on the topic of “Navigating the Mirror World: Misinformation, Conspiracies, and Why It’s Time to Wake Up.”
- Sunday, June 2, 5:30 p.m.: Authors Alka Joshi, Piper Kerman and Viet Thanh Nguyen will be on a panel about “Page to Screen: A Dance Between Words and Images.”
Online purchase is recommended. At-the-door tickets are subject to availability. (Last year’s events sold out in advance.)
