Bay Area Book Festival Podcast
231 episodes - English - Latest episode: 20 days ago - ★★★★★ - 12 ratingsBetween 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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Episodes
Courts, COVID-19 & Voter Suppression
August 20, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 46 MBHow much can we rely on our courts as the last line of defense in our right to vote? Experts lead us through the role of the courts in ensuring access to absentee ballots and early voting, and show us how citizens can shape the judiciary. Featuring Richard Hasen, Alan Hirsch, and ACLU of Northern California director Abdi Soltani. Moderated by Lala Wu. Generously supported by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation, Guy & Jeanine Saperstein, & Mal Warwick...
Strange Hotel: Irish Literary Sensation Eimear McBride
August 18, 2020 11:00 - 52 minutes - 36 MBEimear McBride’s career is an underdog’s dream: she spent six months writing her debut novel, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, and nine years trying to sell it, only to take the literary scene by storm when it was finally published in 2013 to an avalanche of acclaim, awards, and rapturous comparisons to James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. Now, McBride joins Brooke Warner in celebration of her eagerly awaited new novel, Strange Hotel, which further cements her singular place in the contemporary ca...
Vote At Home with Amber McReynolds and Jesse Wegman
August 13, 2020 11:00 - 59 minutes - 41 MBThe election will be disrupted by COVID-19. There’s a secure solution: voting by mail, which would protect public health and our democracy’s integrity. What are the pathways to making vote-by-mail widely available? Jesse Wegman, author of Let the People Pick the President, is joined by Amber McReynolds, coauthor of When Women Vote. Moderated by Ian Haney Lopez. Supported by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation, Guy & Jeanine Saperstein, & Mal Warwick...
Sacred and Profane: Debut Novelist Chelsea Bieker on “Godshot”
August 11, 2020 11:00 - 59 minutes - 41 MBWe’re thrilled to welcome novelist Chelsea Bieker in conversation with Brooke Warner. Bieker’s literary debut Godshot is a hymn to the salvation found in hard-won personal rebirth. Stricken with drought, the community of Peaches, California clings to a cult leader for salvation, and 14-year-old Lacey is left to reap a revelatory harvest of her own. Godshot has won Bieker comparisons to Margaret Atwood and Emma Cline. The beauty lies in Lacey’s incomparable voice, who you’ll miss after turni...
No Place to Shelter: What COVID-19 Reveals About Inequality: A Conversation with Leading Journalists and Activists
August 06, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 44.2 MBHomelessness, income inequality, mass incarceration, wage stagnation, housing shortages: Experts on the front lines will discuss what we need to do to create a fairer future. Zach Norris, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, makes a strong case for the importance of collective accountability with We Keep Us Safe. He’s joined by New York Times reporter Conor Doughtery. We also welcome Joe Wilson, Executive Director of San Francisco’s Hospitality House. Moderated by H...
The Witness We Bear: Writer to Writer with Jericho Brown and Nikky Finney
August 04, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 42.4 MBIn this transcendent conversation, Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown and National Book Award winner Nikky Finney—two of the most prominent poets in America today—share their own responses to the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, address the protests against police brutality and white supremacy, and describe the revolutionary power of poetry to capture human experience. They offer us their own experiences of finding power and hope, even in the midst of heartbreak. Moderated by Ism...
Parenting in a Time of Crisis
July 31, 2020 00:14 - 1 hour - 46.5 MBParents all over the world are facing a dilemma: what do we tell children about threatening truths, from COVID to climate change? Christine Carter, Ph.D. draws on her own parenting experiences, as well as scientific research, to give advice for living and parenting with greater joy and meaning. In her recent book, Ready or Not, Madeline Levine seems to have anticipated the struggles of families during this crisis. Sarah Jaquette Ray’s A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety is an essential toolkit...
University of San Francisco MFA in Writing Presents: Impossible Choices and Unspeakable Acts
April 02, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 33 MBThese novelist-teachers from the University of San Francisco MFA in Writing program dig into the challenges of writing characters haunted by their pasts. They share the narrative tools they use to push their characters to the very edge and keep the reader turning the page. Sponsored by the University of San Francisco MFA in Writing program.
Unlikely Alliances and Other Surprises in Historical Fiction
March 26, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 50.9 MBThese historical novels transport us to worlds full of surprising connections that cross divisions of class, race and more. These authors explore power dynamics and tricky relationships from 1930s colonial Malaysia, to pre-Civil War Ohio, to the streets of Paris and the vineyards of Midi in the Victorian era.
A Unique Feminine Mystique: The Female Detective
March 19, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBThese writers are as fierce as their female crime fighters. Their protagonists confront corrupt cops, solve mysterious deaths while juggling personal woes, quash terrorism and try to stay alive while doling out justice. With support from the Norway House Foundation, NORLA, the Consulate General of Sweden in San Francisco, SWEA San Francisco and the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation.
The Uninhabitable Earth
March 12, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 52.2 MBOne New York Times reviewer called journalist David Wallace Wells’ “The Uninhabitable Earth” ”the most terrifying book I have ever read.” It also is one of the most important. Both literary and science-based, the book is a chilling account of the ticking clock looming over humanity as climate change threatens to render the earth unfit for human life.
The Unbreakable Human Spirit: Albert Woodfox on Survival in Solitary
March 05, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 52.8 MBOne of the “Angola 3,” Albert Woodfox endured four decades of solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit. In our closing keynote session, Woodfox will be interviewed by Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer, author of “American Prison” and himself a survivor of solitary confinement.
A Conversation with Tayari Jones
February 27, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 48.2 MBTayari Jones can “touch us soul to soul with her words,” said Oprah, who dubbed Jones’ newest novel a Book Club pick for 2018. In her work, Jones takes the scars of the American South, including traumas around wrongful incarceration, and rubs them raw. She is interviewed by Brooke Warner of She Writes Press. Sponsored by She Writes Press; also with the support of Women Lit members.
A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity, and Craft
February 20, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 56.1 MBTo write race and ethnicity well, we need the right tools and the right reading list. Join four writer-teachers of color as they unpack the questions of identity that drive their writing, mark the pitfalls of self-exotification and weigh the rewards of penning richer, riskier work.
Let The World Move: Speculative Fiction From the Periphery
February 13, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 51.7 MBThese masterful storytellers tackle the mysterious, the wild,the terrifying and the magical in their speculative fiction. With enthralling work that defies convention, they are creating a cultural shift in the literary landscape. Presented by the UC Berkeley English Department and the Peripheral Futures Working Group; also with the support of Women Lit members.
San Francisco State University MFA Program Presents: Who’s Got The Power?
February 06, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 43.3 MBLet’s talk about power: who has it, how it flows and how it shapes the stories we write in overt and hidden ways. Novelists from the San Francisco State University MFA program investigate how power shows up in their work and in their own writing practices. Sponsored by the San Francisco State University MFA Program.
What Does It Mean to Be Human? Rethinking Belonging at the Frontier of Genetic Engineering
January 30, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 52.5 MBNew biomedical technologies — from prenatal testing to gene editing techniques — raise questions about how far we should go in retooling the human genome. Two leading thinkers, George Estreich (“Fables and Futures: Biotechnology, Disability, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves,”) and Jamie Metzl (“Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity”) explore these new frontiers — and their limits. Sponsored by Berkeleyside.
Queer Poetics
January 23, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 33.9 MBFranny Choi (“Soft Science”), Tommy Pico (“Junk”), Brenda Shaughnessy (“The Octopus Museum”) and Sam Sax (“Bury It”) bring us genre-bending work as playful as it is subversive. Bursting with questions and contradictions that resist hegemony at every turn, these poets are queering the canon one poem at a time.
Prophet of Freedom: Frederick Douglass
January 16, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 45.8 MBJoin David Blight, 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner, American history scholar and author of the new, definitive biography “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” a Top Ten Book of 2018 by the New York Times. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. interviews Blight and helps uncover this towering figure that Blight calls “thoroughly and beautifully human.”
A Celebration of The Paris Review
January 09, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 43.8 MBKnown for promoting new talent alongside established voices, The Paris Review publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, graphic literature, interviews and more in its bound quarterly issues and online Paris Review Daily. We’re joined by its new editor in a roundtable led by the magazine’s West Coast editor along with contributors. Co-presented with The Paris Review.
On Not Mothering
January 02, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 52.5 MBOften regarded with pity or disdain, women who don’t mother are made to feel like failures. But what possibilities are opened by a child-free life? Brazen in their vulnerability, these authors break the silence on not mothering, addressing the assumptions, stigmas and rewards. With the support of the Consulate General of Canada, San Francisco/Silicon Valley; Culture Ireland; and Women Lit members.
Not So Polite After All: Canadian Writers Challenge the Status Quo
December 26, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 42.8 MBAward-winning Canadian writers converge on one stage to recount their adventures in literary risk-taking and rule-breaking. Hear from Esi Edugyan (“Washington Black”), Sheila Heti (“Motherhood”) and André Alexis (“Days By Moonlight”). With the support of the Consulate General of Canada, San Francisco/Silicon Valley.
Nordic Noir
December 19, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 36 MBOne of the Festival’s most popular sessions is back, featuring some of Scandinavia’s most scintillating mystery writers. With the support of Iceland Naturally, the Icelandic Literature Center, the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, the Consulate General of Sweden in San Francisco, SWEA San Francisco, the Norway House Foundation and NORLA. With ASL interpreter.
No Happy Endings, No Easy Answers: Seeking Truth Through Trauma
December 12, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 43.5 MBHow do we reckon with what haunts us most? These writers pick apart trauma to understand its source, pushing past reductive conclusions and condemnations in pursuit of a fuller truth. Moderated by associate professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and a facilitator of restorative justice. Sponsored by the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Mystery and Tragedy in Tibet: Interview with Bestselling Author Eliot Pattison
December 05, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 51.6 MBEliot Pattison’s work, which uses the lens of mystery fiction to illuminate the harsh treatment of Tibetans under Chinese rule, has earned him both literary and humanitarian honors. Pattison joins us upon the publication of the final book in the bestselling Inspector Shan Tao Yun series.
When Reality Meets Science Fiction
December 04, 2019 15:55 - 1 hour - 31 MBLarge-scale, far-in-the-future stories tend to get most the glory in the sci-fi canon. But what happens when reality already feels like science fiction? Like George Orwell’s ‘1984,’ near-future narratives exploit current technology, politics, and fears to explore what life could be like in 10 years, one year, or even a hour. Our panelists consider how to predict the tantalizing possibility of what might be.
The Lies That Bind: Kwame Anthony Appiah on Identity
November 28, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 55.6 MBThrough history and philosophy, Kwame Anthony Appiah, weekly columnist for The New York Times, explores the compulsion to define and gather around identity. How do groups struggling for justice use, or misuse, identity? Can a more nuanced understanding bring us together? Carlos Lozada, 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner and nonfiction book critic for The Washington Post, will interview.
Enough Is Enough: Fighting Economic Injustice
November 21, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 71.1 MBAnger about economic injustice drives political change. Anand Giridharadas (“Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World”) speaks with Robert Reich (“The Common Good”), to reveal how the uber wealthy are impoverishing you, yours and democracy itself. Moderated by the CEO and co-founder of Beneficial State Bank. Sponsored by Beneficial State Bank.
Facing the World Through Fantasy: An Interview with Justina Ireland
November 14, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 50.1 MBIn “Dread Nation,” Justina Ireland explores an alternate Civil War where zombie-slaying biracial teenager Jane McKeene finds herself in a desperate fight for her life. Ireland talks with author and YA librarian Alexandria Brown about how she employs planet-hopping Star Wars characters and half-god assassins to dig into complex questions about capitalism, science, racism and inequality.
Horizon: Interview with Barry Lopez
November 07, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 52.7 MBTaking us from pole to pole and across decades, “Horizon,” the latest by celebrated humanitarian Barry Lopez, glimmers with insights on our place in this world and on writing as a way of living and seeing. Lopez will be in conversation with John Freeman, writer, editor and prominent literary critic.
Critic’s Choice: Three Young 21st Century Writers Rocking the Literary World
October 31, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 42.9 MBThe former president of the National Book Critics Circle talks with Bay Area authors you won’t want to miss: a National Book Award finalist for a poignant collection of short stories, a debut author who ignited the book world with her incendiary first book and another debut author who clinched the Caine Prize for African writing.
Candace Bushnell at the The Commonwealth Club
October 30, 2019 13:30 - 1 hour - 50 MBThe landscape of sex, love and romance in New York City has undergone dramatic changes in the 20 years since Candace Bushnell published the iconic Sex and the City, which broke down major barriers in cultural representations of single women and reshaped the landscape of pop culture. Now the trailblazing Bushnell is back to ask the vital question: Is there still sex in the city for women 50+?
The Business of Brutality: Slavery and the Foundations of Capitalism
October 24, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 44.4 MBLook around. How much of our infrastructure — from roads and bridges to factories and food supplies — was built on the backs of American slaves? Three writer-researchers examine how the brutal history of slavery laid the foundation of American capitalism and shaped today’s racial and economic inequality. Blight just won the the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Frederick Douglass. Sponsored by the Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation.
An evening with Terry Tempest Williams
October 23, 2019 19:34 - 1 hour - 52.7 MBTerry Tempest Williams, a woman whose writings are as lyrical and formidable as her name, has been heralded as an “activist laureate.” She’s best known for her classic Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, an astonishing meditation on grief and the landscape of the West, and she joined Women Lit in Berkeley on October 17 to discuss her newest book of essays, Erosion.
Bloodlines and Bestsellers: The Kellerman Family of Crime Writers
October 17, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 51.1 MBWhat do mega-bestselling crime writers talk about around the family dinner table? Perhaps they plot their next juicy thrillers. After all, they do some great work together: Jonathan and Jesse have a new book that Stephen King calls “brilliant, page-turning fiction,” and Faye and Jonathan co-wrote the New York Times bestseller “Double Homicide.” Meet this family of mystery masters.
A Bird’s Eye View: Attention, Observation, Birdwatching, and the Fine Art of Doing Nothing
October 10, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 35 MBIf we let them, natural spaces and creatures can help us slow down, notice and reflect on modern life. These authors come to us from England, Oakland and France to explore the wonders that acts of attention can bring. With the support of Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.
A Conversation with Literary Legend Ann Beattie
October 03, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 42 MBAnn Beattie is known for casting a gimlet eye on her generation’s ambivalence and ambition. “A Wonderful Stroke of Luck,” her 21st book, explores the complicated relationship between a charismatic teacher and his students and the secrets people keep from those they love. She’ll talk with her friend Carol Edgarian, author, publisher and cofounder of Narrative. With the support of Women Lit Members.
Courage in Publishing in an Age of Political Polarization
September 26, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBThis roundtable includes the New York Times Ethicist columnist, the former National Book Critics Circle president, the Freeman’s literary journal editor, a Washington Post book critic, the German secretary of culture and The Paris Review’s editor. With support from “Wunderbar Together,” initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
Human Face: Literature That Brings Human Rights To Life
September 19, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 34.5 MBStorytelling brings humanity to the headlines. Journalist Atia Abawi depicts a young boy who must escape from war-torn Syria. Aaron Bobrow-Strain follows an undocumented teen mom at a militarized border. Eliot Pattison concludes his mystery series set in Tibet, which he writes so readers can “understand what it feels like to witness an armed policeman assault a praying monk.” Moderated by Human Rights Watch researcher Clara Long.
Seeking Connection: Literature from Germany and Switzerland
September 12, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 35.7 MBFour distinct voices from Germany and Switzerland explore these questions in their work, all bestsellers in Europe. Discover these new voices in translation, one of the most exciting areas in literature today. With the support of the initiative "Wunderbar Together,“ initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe Institut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI); the Goethe-Institut San Francisco; Goethe-Institut’s translation support program "Books First"; a...
Writing Irish
September 05, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 41.8 MBFrom the little island with the big reach: Hear from Mike McCormack with his acclaimed third novel “Solar Bones,” Catherine Ryan Howard and her debut propulsive thriller “Distress Signals” and Emilie Pine with her searching “Notes to Self.” With the support of Culture Ireland.
Writing Climate: Literature of the Anthropocene
August 29, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 53.9 MBThe 20th century brought us “1984” and “Brave New World” as harbingers of terrifying social and technological change. In the 21st century, we have bold and urgent climate literature. Hear from the talented authors bringing us these stories, moderated by the former deputy editor of The Paris Review.
Writer to Writer: Lacy Johnson and Carmen Maria Machado
August 22, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 53 MBCarmen Maria Machado, National Book Award finalist and author of “Her Body and Other Parties” and the forthcoming memoir “In the Dream House,” sits down with Lacy Johnson, author of “The Other Side” and “The Reckonings,” which was hailed by The Millions as “a collection that converses with itself and the reader, asking us to question our beliefs and our roles in a system that perpetuates violence.” The two discuss how they navigate their way through the thorny narrative terrain of abuse, dis...
What Women Want
August 15, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 51.9 MBAya de Leon’s women characters rob the rich and protect the exploited, Laura Lindstedt depicts seven women meeting after death, Lisa Locascio tells of a young woman discovering her sexual power and Tamsen Wolff traces the path of friendship, love and heartbreak between two women. With the support of FILI - Finnish Literature Exchange, the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation and Women Lit members.
Writer to Writer: Joyce Carol Oates and André Alexis
August 08, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 52.7 MBWinner of the prestigious Windham-Campbell prize for his body of work, Trinidad-born and Ottawa-raised André Alexis sits down with National Book Award and National Humanities Medal winner, and author of over 40 novels, Joyce Carol Oates. The pair will discuss genre-bending, world-building and their shared obsession with storytelling. With the support of the Consulate General of Canada, San Francisco/ Silicon Valley and Zoetic Press.
Writer to Writer: Ishmael Reed and Morgan Parker
August 01, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 50.1 MBJoin this cross-generational conversation between two dynamic Black American writers and cultural critics exploring the history and future of the American literary landscape. The legendary Ishmael Reed, Macarthur Genius Fellow, founder of the Before Columbus Foundation, and author of over 30 books including his newest “Conjugating Hindi,” sits down with rising literary star Morgan Parker, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Pushcart Prize winner, and author of the new poetry collection...
Writer to Writer: John Freeman and Geir Gulliksen
July 25, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 44.9 MBTwo bestselling authors who are also top editors and critics come together to discuss their writing, the editing process, the state of the publishing industry in the U.S. and Europe, and translation. Geir Gulliksen is among Norway’s leading novelists; his latest is “The Story of a Marriage,” a searing novel about a man who attempts to empathetically understand his wife’s infidelity. John Freeman is one of today’s preeminent literary critics who also publishes literary nonfiction, much of it ...
Writer to Writer: Esi Edugyan and Tayari Jones
July 18, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 51.4 MBThese novelists have received considerable praise, including a top ten nod from the New York Times and an Oprah’s Book Club pick. Edugyan’s magical realism explores slavery and freedom, and Jones depicts a modern marriage wrenched apart by a discriminatory American justice system. With the support of the Consulate General of Canada, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, She Writes Press and Zoetic Press.
Which Side Are You On? Loyalty in Fiction
July 11, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 51.8 MBThese authors create worlds where secrets bubble just under the surface and protagonists must ask themselves who to believe and who to blame. With the support of “Wunderbar Together,” initiated by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe Institut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI); the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and “Books First.”
Women Lit Presents: Eve Ensler at the First Congregational Church Berkely, June 13
July 08, 2019 16:00 - 1 hour - 53.9 MB"Vagina Monologues" creator Eve Ensler discusses her groundbreaking new book, "The Apology," in which she imagines an apology from her long-dead father who physically and sexually abused her as a child. Ensler is interviewed by Brooke Warner of SheWrites Press.