bayareabookfestival

A powerful conversation between renowned psychiatrist Irvin Yalom & one of the most honored authors in American letters, Joyce Carol Oates. This heartfelt talk explores universal questions of intimacy, love, and grief.

A journalist and renowned expert on China, Schell has penned his first novel, drawing on his knowledge of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution and on his conviction that art and love can outlive brutality. Joining him is MacArthur “genius” and award-winning writer Yiyun Li, who came of age during the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, emigrated to the U.S. at 23 as a young scientist, and eventually took the literary world by storm with her fiction, memoir and essays. This talk is moderated by Adam Hochschild.

The power of words to spark change and detonate oppression has never been more needed than it is today. Join U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, award-winning poet Reginald Dwayne Betts, and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Camille Dungy as they discuss their writings in response to our tumultuous time in history. Guiding the conversation is Ismail Muhummad, story editor for the New York Times Magazine and a member of the Festival’s program committee.

Having enriched the creative journeys of millions with her Artist’s Way program and books, Julia Cameron will show us how to harness that spirit of renewal with her latest guide to attunement and fulfillment, The Listening Path. Joining Julia is Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Judy Collins, a national treasure whose artistry is timeless. You won’t want to miss these two legendary creatives in conversation, talking about all things art, life, inspiration, and how to truly listen.

Ann Patchett’s novels hit that sweet spot where literary prestige meets blockbuster success. With The Dutch House, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Patchett is at her peak. This “engrossing, warmhearted book” (NPR) tells the story of a brother and sister whose deep bond and secret-filled past is haunted by the legacy of an ornate mansion, the “Dutch house,” that was the site of childhood, and later, of their exile. Patchett is known for speaking her mind with refreshing and down-to-earth brilliance.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley was determined to release her latest novel in 2020. Why? She knew we all could use an escape. And Perestroika in Paris is just that, as praised by Publishers Weekly: “the perfect book for those for whom the real world, wracked with pandemic and politics, has become something to avoid.” Imagine a Parisian fairytale for adults starring a runaway racehorse who finds friendship and freedom in getting splendidly off-track in the City of Light. In conversation with Brooke Warner.

After a tumultuous year of protest, Hong Kong’s streets are quiet again following the adoption of the national security law. Join four experts for this indispensable analysis of the protest movement and its significance for freedom globally: Hong Kong-based lawyer and writer Antony Dapiran; Jeffrey Wasserstrom, one of America’s leading China specialists; and the Financial Times’ Nicolle Liu, who reported from the streets throughout the protests. Conversation moderated by Orville Schell and Arthur Ross.

Two-time Grammy winner and Oakland native Fantastic Negrito (blues and Black roots music) meets multiracial, eight-time Swedish Grammy-winning rapper and debut author Timbuktu — and each discovers a brother. In a highly personal conversation, these two extraordinary artists, each with a huge fan base, share their experiences of racism, fatherhood, ancestors, and what it means to be an “elder.” They talk especially about gratitude, joy, and of course the power of music.

Helen Macdonald is setting our imaginations soaring again with Vesper Flights, a collection of her best-loved essays, illuminating everything from mushroom-hunting to the poignant particulars of birds’ nests. As Helen wrote, “animals don’t exist in order to teach us things,” but her live conversation with American Book Award-winning poet Camille T. Dungy will show us how much we can learn by letting nature keep its secrets.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the future of the American republic hangs in the balance. There are few levers as powerful in tipping that balance as interpretations of the U.S. Constitution by the Supreme Court. One of the nation’s preeminent constitutional law scholars, Erwin Cherminsky, asserts that there has never been a more important time to adopt a progressive vision of the U.S. Constitution, a living blueprint that can ensure justice, equality, and opportunity for all.

Where can we turn for a scalable vision of a sustainable, equitable, and delicious future? Look no further than Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters, legendary maven of the “slow food movement,” and food labor activist Saru Jayaraman. Now they’re coming together, in a time of climate change, pandemics, and global hunger, to examine how we got here, and cook up a bold recipe for implementing transformative changes to our food system. You’ll savor this forward-thinking conversation, moderated by Davia Nelson.

Late Congressman John Lewis called the coming election “the most important ever.” The national schisms that led to the election of Donald Trump have become even deeper over the past four years. How can we address the anger and divisiveness, the “othering” that fuels persistent racism, political dysfunction, raging culture wars, and rises in violence? At this major inflection point in our society, can the nation be healed? Featuring john a. powell in conversation with Arlie Russell Hochschild.

It’s been demonstrated that reading fiction increases empathy. Can it also unlock a blueprint for our future, at a moment when we need new ways of defining what’s possible? Four of Berkeley’s most visionary novelists, known for their ability to conjure exciting “future histories” with words, come together to discuss how literature and the imagination can light a bold path to progress.

“The choice today,” said Martin Luther King, Jr., “is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.” Our nation is rocked by protests; and on a global stage, nuclear-armed countries flirt with mutually assured destruction. What is the path forward? In conversation with Stephen Best, Judith Butler overturns common assumptions about nonviolence, offering a definition that can help us achieve a world where peace and equality arise.

W. Kamau Bell, an Emmy-winner for CNN’s United Shades of America, and Steve Kerr, outspoken head coach of the Golden State Warriors, are teaming up to raise the good kind of hell, talking all things race, power, dissent, the intersection of sports and activism, and comedy as coping mechanism and vehicle for truth. In a freewheeling conversation refereed by Dacher Keltner, founding director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, the comedian and the coach will hold nothing back.

In this conversation, Merlin Sheldrake and bestselling writer Michael Pollan delve into “The Wood Wide Web”: an enchanting “superorganism” whose secrets just might save the world. Merlin’s riveting first book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, has become an instant classic of nature and philosophy — a work of rigorous science and poetic expression, drawing us into the mystery and meaning of this most magical life form.

This episode includes passages that may not be appropriate for all listeners. Why is it so hard for so many of us to claim our own power? “Because,” writes Alexandra Roxo in her debut, F*ck Like a Goddess, “each of us has been conditioned, programmed, and literally brainwashed into thinking we are not enough.” The solution is to rewrite the story we’ve been told about our own worth. Joining Roxo is staff sexologist at Good Vibrations and author-activist-sex educator, Dr. Carol Queen.

Author of Real Happiness and columnist for the Peabody Award-winning On Being, Sharon Salzberg has built a devoted fanbase and major excitement for her latest book, Real Change. A renowned figure in the world of meditation, Salzberg offers us a guide for harnessing mindfulness in ways that benefit ourselves and the world around us. She dispenses her invaluable wisdom and counsel for vanquishing fear and anxiety at a time when awareness of mental health and emotional wellbeing is more necessary than ever.

Trust Adam Hochschild to unearth one of history’s forgotten heroines. Russian immigrant Rose Pastor Stokes spent her first years in America in a sweatshop, only to skyrocket to the upper class when she married an heir. It’s a classic Cinderella story: that is, if Cinderella converted her prince to socialism, became an antiwar and labor activist, promoted birth control access, and was dubbed “one of the most dangerous influences of the country” by a President. Hochschild will be joined by Monika Bauerlein.