Support the “Second Responders”
Someday, this pandemic will end. We all want the arts to still be there, helping us to heal, process our experience, and envision new approaches to living.
Artists of all forms — including authors — and the organizations that amplify and support their artistic work have been called “second responders.” They step in after the immediate crisis to help us feel whole again. Doctors take care of our cardiac health, but the arts help us understand matters of the heart. Medical innovations can help expand our lung capacity, while the arts heighten our ability to cherish each breath we take.
More than ever, we know that life is precious. So, as the poet Mary Oliver famously asked, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
By bringing you some of the most important, inspiring authors of our times, the Bay Area Book Festival (and our Women Lit program) will help YOU envision, create, and write your next chapter.
“It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance… and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”
—Henry James, author
Today, open your heart to the “second responders,” the ones who make yours beat a little faster.
Support for the Bay Area Book Festival is support for all of us: those whose lives have been changed by books and authors and ideas, those who read to understand each other better and live with empathy, those who dream of a world where the arts are treated as the healing powers they are. Please give today.
What we can’t quantify is the intangible and immeasurable impact the Bay Area Book Festival has on our community.
It was a wonderful, enriching, and reassuring two-day event that filled my head and heart almost to the point of dizziness.
– 2019 Attendee
The feeling described above is invaluable.
But making it happen takes work— and money.
As soon as we wrap up one Festival, we start planning the following year’s: making sure it’ll be better, more diverse, more in sync with the issues you care about. That means booking top-notch authors far in advance, covering travel and lodging for in-demand writers who aren’t local, securing coveted venues, and coordinating the most thoughtful panels, sessions, and round-tables to showcase all this brilliance.
At a time when it seems like everything—even culture—is a luxury item, we’re committed to keeping our world-class programming free or affordably priced.
We’re also passionate about empowering local kids and teens—a whole new generation of readers and writers—with year-round initiatives, like bringing writers into schools, and collaborating with amazing nonprofits serving our community’s youth.
We Can’t Do All This Without Your Generosity.
THREE EASY WAYS TO SUPPORT THE BAY AREA BOOK FESTIVAL
Contribute any amount and receive a full tax deduction. Unrestricted donations are the lifeblood of the Festival!
Become a Friend of the Festival:
You’ll be entitled to awesome extra perks and gifts, like priority seating, extra passes and tickets, and much more.
Our year-round Women Lit programming showcases women writers like Gloria Steinem, Eve Ensler, and Rachel Cusk, and builds community with gatherings that are intimate and one-of-a-kind. Make history and connections as part of the first Bay Area-wide women’s literary network.
“It was so reassuring, in these times of excess high tech, to be among a large mix of people who seek knowledge, enjoyment and new experiences in the old fashioned or traditional way: from books, and in rooms with live authors who labor to write them.”
– 2019 Attendee
About the Bay Area Book Festival
The Bay Area Book Festival is the main project of the Foundation for the Future of Literature and Literacy, a 501(c)(3) designated, California-based nonprofit corporation with Tax ID #47-3955286. Your donation is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.