Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

How 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 Donordigital.

Eimear 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 canon.

The 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 Donordigital.

We'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 turning the last page.

Homelessness, 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 Heather Knight.

In 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 Ismail Muhammad.

Parents 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 as we confront the greatest environmental threat of our time. Moderated by Dacher Keltner. Sponsored by Bayer.

These 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.

These 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.

These 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.