10th Anniversary Festival
Saturday June 1 & Sunday June 2, 2024
Presented by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
3 Headliners, 10 Writers’ Workshops, an Outdoor Fair, and 4 stages full of top programming in downtown Berkeley. Welcome to the 10th Anniversary Bay Area Book Festival!
June 1
Writers’ Day & 2 Evening Headliners
June 2
Author Events, Outdoor Fair, Evening Headliner
How to Attend
Writers’ Day – June 1: 11-5pm
Berkeley Public Library, 3rd floor, Community Meeting Room
Workshops are free but spaces are limited and we require advance RSVP.
We know our community is filled with writers and authors, aspiring and published. The Festival wants to honor all of you with a day-long series of workshops and sessions that drill down into topics that will spur your creativity, engage your writerly minds, and even support you with practical, insiders’ advice and guidance in your journey to publication.
This full day of sessions will feature nonfiction, poetry, and fiction events, a session on publishing, and two pitch sessions for our robust writing community.
You will find these events and their RSVP links in our schedule
Daytime Author Events – June 2: 11 am – 5 pm
Freight & Salvage, 4 outdoor stages in the park
Free Events
We have carefully curated a rich program for you to showcase important subjects and amazing authors.
• Panels, Interviews, Readings
• Critical Conversations with Top Authors, Thought Leaders
• Indigenous Authors Showcase
• Author Q&A and Book Signings
You will find these events in our schedule
Evening Headliners – June 1 & 2
Freight & Salvage
Ticketed Events
June 1, 5:30 PM: Joan Baez & Greg Sarris
Ground-breaking Mexican-American musician, artist, and activist Joan Baez joins accomplished writer, professor, and tribal leader Chairman Greg Sarris in a conversation about writing, creating, and legacy. Sarris is co-executive producer of Joan Baez: I Am A Noise, a deeply personal, profound, and haunting documentary that follows Baez on her 2018 Fare Thee Well goodbye tour and explores memory and abuse through home videos, journal entries, photographs, and therapy tapes. This pairing sold out in a few days last year, so we invited this dynamic duo again!
June 1, 7:30 PM: Naomi Klein & Brooke Warner
Join award-winning author, professor, filmmaker, and activist Naomi Klein in conversation about her latest book, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World. Doppelganger offers a unique and dynamic perspective on the absurdity and complexity of our current political moment. Klein uses her own experience of being mistaken for “Other Naomi” (Naomi Wolf, the feminist intellectual turned anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist) as a springboard to explore what she calls the “mirror world,” where conspiracy theories, online paranoia, mimicking, and more are creating a far-right parallel universe that’s been all too tempting for Democrats to dismiss or ignore.
June 2, 5:30 PM: Page to Screen: A Dance Between Words and Images: Viet Thanh Nguyen, Piper Kerman, Alka Joshi
Turning a beloved book into a compelling film or series is a journey filled with creative collaboration, financial considerations, script development, casting decisions, and years of meticulous preparation. For the authors at the center of these adaptation journeys, it also involves roadblocks, setbacks, near misses, and plot twists, with lessons about letting go of control and outcome. This all-star panel brings us three celebrated authors whose books have been or are being adapted for a viewing audience.
You will find these events and ticket links in our schedule
Special Access for Friends of the Festival
A Friends membership allows you to join a priority access line at all the indoor venues, making it easier for you to see your favorite authors. Plus, if there are tickets left, you’ll get one for an evening keynote.
You can join the Friends on our website at baybookfest.org/friends, or by visiting the Friends of the Festival table in BART Plaza the weekend of the Festival (both Saturday and Sunday).
With your wristband, you can get into the Friends priority line, which will enter the venue first when doors open (20 minutes before the program’s start time).
Why “Friend” Us? All daytime programs are now FREE! – that is, free to the public, and free for you reading this page. But this giant event isn’t free to produce, to say the least.
The Friends of the Festival do what all friends do, which is lend a hand, in this case financially, with a donation starting at $200*. That very real generosity benefits everyone: it allows the organizers to bring this nonprofit festival to you for FREE.
Can you say, “With my help, everyone can attend”? Yes you CAN! Go to baybookfest.org/friends right now (easiest), or head to the BART Plaza at the festival over the weekend.
*It’s tax-deductible, of course. We’ll send you a receipt.
FAQ
What do I do if I need an ADA accessible seat, or have any mobility or accessibility needs?
Priority Tickets: We ask that Friend of the Festival Priority Wristband holders with accessibility requests come to the venue 30 minutes before the program start time and inform the event staff of their request so that they may be seated ahead of the doors opening to general admission attendees.
General Admission: If you have accessibility requests, please let our door staff know you are in line and what your needs are, so they can do what they can to help. Seating is not guaranteed for any General Admission; General Admission attendees are seated based on first-come, first-served available seating after the Priority Admission line is let in 20 minutes before the program is scheduled to begin. If you are in the General Admission line and we know you’ll be able to get into that session based on priority attendees and your place in line, we are happy to get you in first before we open the door.
How do I make a request for a Sign Language Interpreter?
We will have available-on-demand / roving interpreters who will get ‘scheduled’ on a first come basis, by email and reservation. If you want to see a talk and need services, please email [email protected] to request an interpreter for that specific talk. We will confirm whether there is still interpreter scheduling availability and whether the show will have those services via an email reply.
We will put an Interpreting Services Icon on the session/show once confirmed on our website so others can see it when perusing the schedule.
What can I expect at each venue/stage?
All indoor venues will have two lines. The Priority line is for people who are Friends of the Festival and VIP pass holders. They go in first, starting at 20 minutes before the program is scheduled to begin. At 10 minutes before the session start time, the General Admission line goes in and takes all the rest of the seats on a first-come, first-served basis.
Where will the festival Box office and Information be located?
You’ll find our box office located at the Berkeley downtown Bart Plaza
The Box office will be open from 9am-6pm on Saturday and 9am – 5pm on Sunday.
You can pick up your Priority Wristband, or become a friend of the festival, and get your questions answered!