Bay Area Book Festival Podcast

Mai Der Vang, Amanda Moore, Christine No, Maw Shein Win Three California poets navigate relationships, reckonings, and memory with unerring eyes. Join Mai Der Vang (“Yellow Rain”), Amanda Moore (“Requeening”), and Christine No (“Whatever Love Means”) for readings from their masterful new poetry collections followed by a Q&A. Hosted by El Cerrito’s inaugural poet laureate, Maw Shein Win (“Storage Unit for the Spirit House”).

Majora Carter, John Kamp, James Rojas, Mitchell Schwarzer, Alexis Madrigal Displacement, gentrification, the soaring cost of living: these issues have ravaged cities across the Bay and America. We need new visions of urban success. Mitchell Schwarzer (“Hella Town”) weighs in on Oakland’s past and future; James Rojas and John Kamp (“Dream Play Build”) discuss inclusive placemaking; and Majora Carter (“Reclaiming Your Community”) shows us how to take community accountability.

Aamina Ahmad, Uzma Aslam Khan, NoViolet Bulawayo, Lance Knobel Three supremely talented writers with a global perspective will open our eyes to historical and contemporary cycles of oppression and resistance. Booker Prize finalist NoViolet Bulawayo (“We Need New Names,” “Glory”) has constructed a postcolonial fable in which animals stand in for humans. Uzma Aslam Khan’s “The Miraculous History of Nomi Ali” is set in the Andaman Islands during the Japanese occupation of WWII. And Aamina Amhad (“The Return of Faraz Ali”) explores the social labyrinths of Lahore through the eyes of a displaced man.

Alexandra Kenin, Heather Knight, Peter Hartlaub Ever wonder where to find a hiker's rugged dream in the big bad city? Alexandra Kenin (“Urban Trails: San Francisco”) has meticulously tracked all 70 miles of hiking trails and 220 parks in mainland San Francisco, Alcatraz, and the islands. In this special in-person edition of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Total SF Book Club, get the scoop on our city’s best-kept hiking secrets.

Lily Anderson, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Rex Horner Read about powerful young women with a side of killer fun. In Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s graphic novel debut “Squad,” Becca longs to be popular at her new school, and winds up finding her place in a group of girls who also happen to be werewolves. Lily Anderson’s “Scout’s Honor” is filled with tons of high-octane action and adventure as protagonist Prudence Perry pursues her legacy as a monster hunter.

Dan Charnas, Adam Mansbach Discover a hidden genius—a man whom the greatest figures of contemporary pop call a “demigod” of music. J Dilla, who died in 2006 at the age of 32, never had a mainstream pop hit, but he created a new “time-feel” that forever changed the way musicians compose and play, whether they're contemporary jazz composers, hip-hop artists, or rappers. Find out why this unsung visionary is revered everywhere from conservatories to universities, his ideas present in the music of Kendrick Lamar and Robert Glasper. With the recent New York Times bestseller Dilla Time, Dan Charnas, a pioneer of hip-hop journalism, gives us “one of the few hip-hop sagas to take the music as seriously as its maker” (Publishers Weekly). Joined by #1 New York Times bestselling author and screenwriter Adam Mansbach (Go the F**k to Sleep; I Had a Brother Once), Charnas will show us why recent Oscar-winner QUESTLOVE called Dilla “an unexplainable genius”---one whose gift and legacy is revealed at last in the pages of Dilla Time.

Jessica Garrison, Tod Goldberg, Paul Holes, Megan Cassidy What do crimes, real or fictional, reveal about human nature? Shedding light are legendary cold-case investigator Paul Holes (who helped solve the Golden State Killer case); Los Angeles Times investigative journalist Jessica Garrison (“The Devil’s Harvest”) and bestselling fiction writer Tod Goldberg, with his collection of gangster tales, “The Low Desert.” In a conversation moderated by San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter Megan Cassidy, these authors will show us how scratching the surface of a crime uncovers an unforgettable story about ourselves.

Charlie Jane Anders, Mike Chen, John Scalzi, Danielle Venton These brilliant science fiction writers’ latest works find hope among the stars. In John Scalzi’s “The Kaiju Preservation Society,” a delivery driver gets a chance to escape a COVID-decimated New York City—by caring for giant endangered animals on an alternate Earth. The second volume of Charlie Jane Anders’s Unstoppable series, “Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak,” finds alien clone Tina and crew on a quest for love and fulfillment. And in Mike Chen’s “Light Years from Home,” earthbound family drama meets alien abduction.

Carol Edgarian, Vanessa Hua, Jenny Tinghui Zhang, Jasmin Darznik Chinese immigrants were instrumental in shaping California, despite prejudice and exploitation. The connection between the two places has been fodder for amazing works of art, including the latest novels by authors Jenny Tinghui Zhan (“Four Treasures of the Sky”), Carol Edgarian (“Vera”), and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Vanessa Hua (“Forbidden City”).

Danyel Smith, Mariecar Mendoza From formerly enslaved poet Phyllis Wheatley to Mahalia Jackson to Tina Turner, brilliant Black women have been instrumental—indeed, foundational—in creating America’s pop music. Former Billboard editor Danyel Smith’s “Shine Bright” is an ode to the songbird geniuses that have been hidden in plain sight. In this conversation between Smith and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mariecar Mendoza, we’ll celebrate a musical lineage as life-affirming as it is awe-inspiring.