Cinnamongirl Laila

Laila is an accomplished competitive dancer and cheerleader. This marks her third year as a Cinnamongirl and co-moderator for the Bay Area Book Festival, a responsibility she embraces with enthusiasm. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, singing, learning Japanese, and engaging in conversations with friends as they navigate the experiences of middle school life. Laila eagerly anticipates co-moderating the 2025 Bay Area Book Festival, as each year brings new excitement and opportunities to interact with renowned authors.

2025 Family Day 

Moderator  – Pages and Pictures from Early Reader to Middle Grade

Dan Alter

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.

2025 Writers’ Workshops

Speaker A Compass in the Wilderness: Poetry in the Age of Environmental Crisis