Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

Welcome to the Bay Area Book Festival Short Cuts. This is a podcast meant to introduce our audience to some of our featured authors of the festival, prior to the 2025 Festival.  Meet Wahab Algarmi, one of the festival speakers who you can see on June 1st in Downtown Berkeley. For more information, go to our website. The full schedule is now live!!!! baybookfest.org

Welcome to the Bay Area Book Festival Short Cuts. This is a podcast meant to introduce our audience to some of our featured authors of the festival, prior to the 2025 Festival.  Meet Kinsale Drake, one of the festival speakers who you can see on June 1st in Downtown Berkeley. For more information, go to our website. The full schedule is now live!!!! baybookfest.org

Welcome to the Bay Area Book Festival Short Cuts. This is a podcast meant to introduce our audience to some of our featured authors of the festival, prior to the 2025 Festival.  Meet Susan Lieu, one of the festival speakers who you can see on June 1st in Downtown Berkeley. For more information, go to our website. The full schedule will be live April 5.

Welcome to the Bay Area Book Festival Short Cuts. This is a podcast meant to introduce our audience to some of our featured authors of the festival, prior to the 2025 Festival.  Meet micha cárdenas, one of the festival speakers who you can see on June 1st in Downtown Berkeley. For more information, go to our website. The full schedule will be live April 5.

Welcome to the Bay Area Book Festival Short Cuts. This is a podcast meant to introduce our audience to some of our featured authors of the festival, prior to the 2025 Festival.  Meet Jon Hickey, one of the festival speakers who you can see on June 1st in Downtown Berkeley. For more information, go to our website. The full schedule will be live April 5.

Welcome to the Bay Area Book Festival Short Cuts. This is a podcast meant to introduce our audience to some of our featured authors of the festival, prior to the 2025 Festival.  Meet Seema Yasmin, one of the festival speakers who you can see on May 31st at the Berkeley Public Library in Downtown Berkeley. For more information, go to our website. The full schedule will be live April 5.

A.H. Kim, Emily B Rose, Taleen Voskuni, Dani Trujillo, Anita Gail Jones, moderated by Jeneé Darden Join an engaging discussion on the art of crafting love stories with a diverse panel of acclaimed authors, whether their novels are shelved with literary fiction or romance. Panelists A.H. Kim (Relative Strangers, a contemporary Korean retelling of Sense and Sensibility), Emily B Rose (Call of the Sea, a genderbent, body-positive retelling of The Little Mermaid), Taleen Voskuni (Lavash at First Sight, an Armenian-American lesbian rom-com), Dani Trujillo (Lizards Hold the Sun, an Indigenous Rez romance), and Anita Gail Jones (The Peach Seed, celebrating 60+ Black love in Georgia) each bring their unique perspectives and storytelling prowess to the table, delving into the intricacies of writing love stories that reach beyond traditional narratives. Moderated by award-winning journalist, author, public speaker, and mental health advocate Jeneé Darden, this panel looks expansively at romance writing, from traditional tropes to contemporary narratives that reflect the complexities of modern relationships. This conversation considers romance and romance writing from multiple angles, including the meaning love stories hold for readers when we see representation, diversity of experience, and ways of writing about love that resonate with readers across genres and cultures.

Traci Chee, Sarah Lariviere, Darcie Little Badger, Sandra Proudman, Brittany Williams, moderated by Laura Gao Daniel Sometimes, the darkness can illuminate the imagination—especially in these beautifully wrought novels for teen readers. New York Times bestselling author Traci Chee’s gut-wrenching fantasy Kindling tells the tale of postwar “kindlings,” a corps of elite, magic-wielding warriors whose devastating power comes at the cost of their own young lives. Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth, longlisted for the National Book Award and winner of the Newbery Award, is a breathtaking saga of Indigenous futurism that draws from the author’s knowledge of Lipan Apache storytelling. Sarah Lariviere’s Riot Act is an alternate history set in 1991 in which theatre kids fight for freedom of expression, while Brittany N. Williams (That Self-Same Metal) melds the world of fae with the grit and excitement of Shakespeare’s London acting troupe; and Sandra Proudman’s anthology Relit, featuring sixteen award-winning and bestselling YA authors, reimagines classic tales through fantasy and science fiction, anchored by a Latinx point of view. Moderated by Laura Gao.

Faith Adiele, Bill Hing, Tessa Hulls, Lauren Markham, moderated by Tasneem Raja   Immigrant narratives span time, place, and genre to reach deeper universal truths. Four writers join in conversation to explore the many facets of immigrant narratives. Migration and immigration narratives are foundational to how we understand and celebrate culture, and these four panelists grapple with this central theme through various lenses—from Lauren Markham’s exploration of the criminalization of migration, to Tessa Hulls’ depiction of the immigrant experience through multiple generations of Chinese women, to Bill Hing’s analysis of the racial justice implications within the U.S. immigration system, to Faith Adiele’s personal reflections on identity and belonging as an immigrant. Moderated by Tasneem Raja (Berkeleyside), the conversation will venture into intergenerational trauma, social justice and adversity, and narrative form and genre-bending. This event highlights the deepest reflections on identity and belonging, and also celebrates the lasting meaning and social impact of representing immigrant experiences in literature.

Greg Sarris in conversation with Jane Ciabattari Join Greg Sarris, acclaimed author and tribal leader, in an engaging conversation with literary critic and interviewer Jane Ciabattari as they explore his latest work, The Forgetters. Don’t miss this insightful conversation between two literary luminaries about a book that is as thought-provoking as it is unforgettable.