Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

Often 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.

Award-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.

One 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.

How 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.

Eliot 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.

Large-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.

Through 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.

Anger 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.

In “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.

Taking 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.