Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

From the very first contact, Indigenous people have been spoken about more than they have been heard. Early "autobiographies" of Native individuals were often penned by outsiders, distorting the essence of the genre by denying autonomy to the very subjects for whom autobiography—by definition—should uplift. In recent years, seminal works of First Nations storytelling have come to the forefront, and this panel features three recent additions to the Native voices now taking center stage to tell their own stories. Métis storyteller and Montana Poet Laureate Chris LaTray combines diligent research and compelling conversations in Becoming Little Shell, his story of discovery and embracing his Indigenous identity by joining the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians in their 158-year-long struggle for federal recognition. Essayist Terra Trevor turns to memoir in We Who Walk the Seven Ways, which recounts how a circle of Native women elders embraced and guided her through the seven cycles of life, lifting her from grief and instructing her in living following a difficult loss. Published poet and Mvskoke citizen Jennifer Foerster is one of the editors of This Music, a memoir written by—but not finished by—the late Janice Gould, who was a Koyunkowi poet and educator. Former Kansas poet laureate and founding board member of Indigenous Nations Poet Denise Low will moderate this insightful discussion featuring contemporary Indigenous perspectives on the importance of having your story told in your own voice.

The essay's subjective and fragmented nature enables writers to grapple with complexities without the restrictions of systematic, traditional approaches to writing (Theodor W. Adorno, "The Essay as Form"). It liberates the essayist to take a nuanced look at the world, as cultural essayist and social critic Steve Wasserman does in Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It's a Lie: A Memoir in Essays, an exhilarating account of the awakening of an empathetic sensibility and a lively mind, featuring personal reflections on politics, literature, influential figures, and the tumults of a world in upheaval. Award-winning author and "ethnographer on a skateboard" José Vadi turns to skateboarding as a lens to document the world in his latest memoir-in-essays, Chipped, which contemplates how skateboarding redefines space, curates culture, confronts mortality, and affords new perspectives on and off the board. Chi Boy: Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings by Keenan Norris employs the essay form to meld memoir, cultural criticism, and literary biography in a masterful and emotional depiction of the city of Chicago as both a cradle of Black intellect, art, and politics and a distillation of America's deepest tragedies. These essayists will be in conversation with Chino Lee Chung, who is currently working on a collection of essays that integrate his social activism with his intersectional identities as a recipient of the 2024–2025 San Jose State Steinbeck Fellowship. This enriching panel, moderated by writer and professor Faith Adiele, will explore the essay-writing process with authors who have published essays in diverse contexts.

Enter the liminal. In this portal, hybridity is power, and contradiction is poetry. Chimera Space brings together a group of poets whose work inhabits the monstrous, the beautiful, and the in-between—bodies, identities, and voices that resist categorization and embrace complexity. Cindy Juyoung Ok writes into multiplicity, turning silence into disruption and fragmentation into form. Her poems invite readers into nonlinear truths. Grayson Thompson conjures the poetic tenderness and fire, exploring queer embodiment and psychic rupture. Adela Najarro brings the force of nature and cultural inheritance to the page, her poetry fusing eco-consciousness with the surreal. Amanda Hawkins explores desire, disorientation, and liminality with language that glows from within. Her work vibrates with strange beauty and invites us into the sensual space of the unknowable. Mia Ayumi Malhotra writes from the rich interstices of lineage and displacement. Her lyric inquiries unfold slowly, like memory, threading together multiple inheritances and the ghosts that come with them. Join us as these poetic guides read us into the borderlands—offering a space where transformation is not only possible, but inevitable. A panel discussion will follow the reading.

Amidst current challenges like book bans in schools and libraries across the country, record numbers of legal restrictions on the human rights of immigrants and trans people, especially trans youth, in our community, creators play a crucial role when they come together in a unified voice of resistance. We have many models of people who resisted under the most repressive circumstances, including Maria van Lieshout's Song of a Blackbird, a historical graphic novel based on a true story about a collective of artists in the Dutch Resistance during WWII who used their creativity to save children and to support community resistance in heavily oppressive times.There are also many organizations pushing back now, today, demonstrating the pivotal role of the creative spirit in highlighting problems, providing possible solutions, and bringing us together to lift us up. Hear from Maggie Tokuda-Hall of Authors Against Book Bans, Rhonda Roumani of Story Sunbirds, and Robert Liu-Trujillo of the Social Justice Children's Book Fair on how they are pushing back against book bans, fighting for children in the face of war, and uplifting social justice children's books in their community. For everyone and anyone who cares about young humans, this panel, moderated by author and professor Tomas Moniz, will invite creatives and organizers to share what gives them hope, what they do, and how we can all get involved.

A sense of place is something we all deserve. For children whose roots lie in lands and cultures that are often under- or even mis-represented, the concept of home can be complex. When the politics of war propaganda and media stereotypes permeate our lives, children's books offer insight, better understanding, and for some a path home. From Iraq, Palestine, and Iran, three authors share their homeland journeys. Mona Damluji (I Want You to Know) and Maysa Odeh (A Map For Falasteen). Moderated by Khalil Bendib, host of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa on KPFA (94.1 FM).

The talented woman sleuths of this panel have once again found themselves in unexpected conundrums that hit close to home. Join Parisian PI Aimée Leduc on her quest for innocence after being framed for the murder of her daughter's father in Murder at la Villette, the 21st installment of Cara Black's New York Times bestselling mystery series. Alternatively, travel from France back to California with The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard, in which the granddaughter of a suspected serial killer suddenly finds herself as the prime suspect for murder. Peaceful seaside town Haven, California is the setting for Rachel Howzell Hall's latest thriller, Fog and Fury, a town hiding more secrets than LAPD cop Sonny had anticipated when she first relocated there with her elderly mother. Family businesses take the stage in The Library Game, Book 4 of the Secret Staircase Mysteries by Gigi Pandian, which follows Tempest Raj and her family construction business's newest project to transform a home into a public library that celebrates history's greatest fictional detectives, but the mood quickly sours when their celebratory event, a murder mystery dinner and a literary-themed escape room, ends in murder and a vanished body. Speaking of libraries and detectives, this thrilling discussion will be moderated by the Curator of the California Detective Fiction Collection at the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library, Randal Brandt.

Whether in a comic panel or at a panel discussion, these earnest graphic novel stories are here to remind us to stay true to ourselves, our beliefs, and our passions! Follow Huda Fahmy's exhilarating and chaotic family vacation to Disney World, where self-conscious Huda quickly realizes that her family's public prayers make them stand out; and while she is proud of her religion and who she is, she sure wishes she could just think: Huda F Cares? Like the people Huda encounters in Florida, the students and teachers at Hassan's middle school are also particularly uninformed about the traditions of Ramadan in Wahab Algarmi's Almost Sunset, and Hassan must learn to balance it all during this hectic holy month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Time plays a mischievous role in You and Me On Repeat by Mary Shyne, a swoony and hilarious rom-com graphic novel about two former friends who are trapped in a time loop that repeats their high school graduation day over and over and over. Written by high school teacher and award-winning graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang, Dragon Hoops recounts his life-changing journey following the men's varsity basketball team as they shoot for their ultimate goal: the California State Championships. Celebrating both the comical and meaningful moments in life, this compelling panel, moderated by librarian and children's author Elaine Tai, offers an endearing and intimate look into the multidimensional lives of graphic novel protagonists.

This panel unites four transformative leaders pioneering the incorporation of healing into activism, demonstrating how personal transformation fuels collective liberation. Their work bridges social justice and healing, emphasizing the need for community care in the fight for a just future. Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, poet laureate of Oakland and founder of Lower Bottom Playaz and BAMBD CDC, uses poetry as a tool for Black liberation. In Sorrowland Oracle, she redefines healing and justice through a Black gaze, centering Black space as essential for universal liberation. Myisha T. Hill, writer, social entrepreneur, and healer, leads a revolution of heart, mind, and soul. Her book, Heal Your Way Forward, challenges us to envision an antiracist future for the next seven generations, offering practical guidance on healing and meaningful change. Kazu Haga, nonviolence and restorative justice educator, argues that activism and healing must be inseparable. His book, Fierce Vulnerability, calls for centering relationships and addressing trauma, reminding us that we cannot "shut down" injustice any more than we can "shut down" pain. Malaika Parker, Executive Director of Black Organizing Project, has worked toward a racially just SF Bay Area for 25 years, addressing police accountability, racial justice in education, and race-based inequities in the child welfare system. She is the founder of Hummingbirds Urban Farming Collective, which promotes food sovereignty and ecological justice for Black children and their communities. Moderated by Renata Moreira, trauma-informed social impact consultant and Reiki Master Teacher, this conversation will explore how embracing vulnerability, addressing trauma, and incorporating healing into activism can create lasting social change.

As we face increasing attacks on our bodily autonomy from our federal and state governments, these books provide essential resources and narratives that approach the topic with acuity and compassion. Award-winning author Zetta Elliott reflects the voices of Black women and girls for whom body policing has long been an issue in Say Her Name, a collection of poems that pays tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists championing the Black Lives Matter cause, revealing the beauty, danger, and magic found at the intersection of race and gender. In Seema Yasmin's Unbecoming, a near-speculative novel that has predicted our anti-abortion world with terrifying accuracy, two Muslim teens in Texas create an illegal guide to abortion that includes how to secure safe medications and navigate underground networks of clinics that sprung up in response to unfair laws that prohibit the right to choose. Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by bestselling author Maia Kobabe and Public Health Assistant Professor Sarah Peitzmeier, offers a real-life a graphic novel guide to chest binding as gender-affirming care not only for trans and nonbinary folks but also for anyone interested in what it means to be on a journey of expressing one's gender in ways that are joyful, healthy, and affirming. Screenwriter, poet, and educator Shia Shabazz Smith will moderate this panel, building from the crucial book Our Bodies, Ourselves, that advocates for bodily autonomy for all bodies, all selves.

Long before politicians weaponized book bans across the country, mainstream publishers have controlled which books get published, carrying out "soft book bans" through gatekeeping. For as long as books have been published (and censored), indie and alternative publishers have challenged these gatekeepers, who have often excluded and marginalized diverse voices. As these same institutions preemptively buckle to pressures from above, we must uplift true grassroots, community-based publishers that bring out books by and for their communities. Hear from Zetta Elliott (The Oracle's Door) of Rosetta Press, a self-publisher of children's books that reveal, explore and foster a Black feminist vision of the world; Robert Liu-Trujillo (Fresh Juice) of the Social Justice Children's Book Fair; and Maya Gonzalez (When a Bully Is President) and Matthew Smith of Reflection Press, a POC, queer, and trans-owned independent children's book publisher. This candid conversation, moderated by Laura Atkins of the Social Justice Children's Book Fair, will focus on envisioning and creating alternate pathways in order to bring underrepresented stories to life. With expertise in self-publishing, hybrid models, and micropresses, the creative minds of this panel will share about their work, the books they produce, the challenges they face, and how they find ways to thrive as they create important and meaningful books.