Our full list of Festival authors and speakers will go live mid-March, but to make the wait a bit less daunting, here’s one author you won’t want to miss in April. Robert Reich has become a household name as one of today’s political commentators with the distinct power to go viral. The former Secretary of […]
Dear Friend of the Festival, In last month’s newsletter, we asked you why you read. And you — you wonderfully curious, insatiable, driven people — answered that you read, above all else, to expand your minds with new ideas. How lucky we all are to be surrounded by others who are forever seeking knowledge and growth. Some of […]
Dear Friend of the Festival, We do it “to live twice,” as Anais Nin wrote. Her paramour Henry Miller recommended it “to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.” Gustave Flaubert called it “a perpetual orgy.” Ian McEwan said it allows a person to “be so engrossed that you barely know you exist.” Yes, we […]
Are the next festival’s dates on your calendar yet? April 28-29, 2018! We’ve gone through some dark times recently in the Bay Area, the skies literally darkening, and so many people have faced devastation. We want to offer some solace through what we know best, literature, so instead of closing our newsletter as usual with a poem, […]
Next Festival: April 28-29, 2018! Hello! We know you’ve been staring longingly at your 2017 Bay Area Book Festival program since June. We appreciate the love, but we’re here to tell you to snap out of it because we’re back with a BIG announcement — our 2018 festival will take place April 28-29. Be sure […]
By Cherilyn Parsons, Bay Area Book Festival Founder and Director Literature is one of the most powerful tools for social change because it shapes the most potent force that humankind has: hearts and minds. When hearts and minds are mobilized, watch out—as we have seen with books from The Origin of the Species to The […]
The easiest way to travel to a far-off land is by reading a book. Literature offers a deep dive into foreign places and people from backgrounds very different from our own. It is the next best thing to going there in person. And yet in the United States, only 3% of books published are works in translation. […]
Writer Samin Nosrat worked for several years at Chez Panisse, and Alice Waters described her as “America’s next great cooking teacher.” Now Nosrat has published Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, combining the best of her cooking and teaching talents into a cookbook. The book, illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton (New York Times bestselling illustrator of The Gutsy Girl, […]
Interested in putting your money where your heart is, and making financial decisions that are in line with your values? On Sunday, June 4, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from two leading authors on the topic — Andy Behar and Clair Brown. Andy Behar is founder of the Oakland-based nonprofit As You Sow and author […]
In these uncertain and turbulent times, how do you hold onto hope, optimism, and courage? For Carolina De Robertis, the answer lay in Radical Hope, a book she conceived of three days after the election. The essays in Radical Hope are socially conscious love letters written by award-winning novelists, poets, political thinkers, and activists, including […]