13th Annual Festival | June 4–6, 2027 | DOWNTOWN BERKELEY
At next year’s Bay Area Book Festival, June 4–6, 2027, “Reconstruction” is our guiding theme. What do we do with what has cracked: our climates and coastlines, our infrastructures and institutions, our relationships and our sense of self? How do we reconstruct our emotional lives after grief, our communities after displacement, our political and economic systems after they have shown us who they serve, while still making room for joy, wonder, and play?
The quarterly Merritt Dialogues, launched in Uptown Oakland in 2025, invites us into generative conversation where two thinkers, whose viewpoints may align or diverge, engage in dialogue that engenders critical thinking and deepens understanding of complex issues.
In June 2025, we officially launched Bay Area Book Festival’s three affinity lit collectives: Women Lit, LGBTQIA+ Lit, and Mixed Race Lit. Whether you are a writer, reader, or just a lover of all things literature, these collectives are free and open to join …
BABF is more than a cultural celebration—it’s a vital space for building networks, sharing resources, and organizing for a democracy rooted in care, dignity, and free expression.
Dan Alter’s poems, reviews and translations have been published in journals including Field, Fourteen Hills, and Zyzzyva; his first collection My Little Book of Exiles won the 2022 Cowan Poetry Prize. A volume of translations Take a Breath, You’re Getting Excited, from the Hebrew of Yakir Ben-Moshe, was published by Ben Yehuda Press in September 2024, and Hills Full of Holes, a second collection of poems, by Fernwood Press in March 2025. He lives with his wife and daughter in Berkeley. He works at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley.
Speaker – A Compass in the Wilderness: Poetry in the Age of Environmental Crisis
