Four stages, dozens of speakers and scores of books
On the first weekend of June, the block surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Downtown Berkeley was cordoned off for motorists. The park thrummed with activity and people strolled through an avenue lined with white tents on both sides, pausing to browse through books at the stalls where dozens of publishers and bookstores showcased their latest books. The Bay Area Book Festival had rolled into town!
The tenth anniversary of this iconic literary festival saw readers, writers, and literature enthusiasts descend upon Downtown Berkeley for workshops, panel discussions, and an outdoor book fair.
Learning from the best in the business
The festival kicked off on Saturday, June 1 – deemed the Writers’ Day – with ten workshops at the Berkeley Public Library. These workshops, taught by prominent literary voices across genres, were open to the public and most had barely any standing room.
That Was Then: Writing Historical Fiction, had authors Anita Amirrezvani, Nayomi Munaweera, and Janis Cooke Newman speak about the fundamentals of writing stories set in the past. Amirrezvani emphasized the importance of historical settings, while Cooke Newman shared guidelines for plotting a character’s arc. Munaweera built upon their suggestions, emphasizing that historical fiction is still fiction, and encouraged budding writers in the room to experiment with their storytelling formats and innovate within the genre.
The final workshop of the day, Creative Nonfiction: Harnessing the Wild Imagination, was moderated by San Francisco State University’s MFA program candidate, Nathalie Franco. Through helpful exercises and case studies, she focused on how one could write reflectively about one’s own life. She urged the audience to ask themselves, “Why does my story need to be heard?” to set their writing apart from existing nonfiction memoirs.
Finding the Unexpected and the joy of reading
Another workshop titled Break Through: Finding the Unexpected in Your Own Writing – supported by the Dominican University of California’s MFA Creative Writing program – helped address writer’s block – a burden that every writer struggles with. For author and poet Marianne Rogoff, the key is to write in “liminal spaces and times” like during twilight, or right after waking up while author Lee Kravetz suggested working on a rough story outline before writing.
Among the attendees was Gita Baliga-Savel, a first-time author from San Jose. “I was that kid who got in trouble in class for reading under the desk, and I’ve been writing ever since,” she said. She felt that the insights from Break Through… were critical for writers like her who enjoyed variety in their writing regimen.
As a teacher who works with South Asian students in the Bay Area, she wished that desi families nurtured the habit of reading from a young age. “We, as a people, can often be more about delayed gratification. What if we delay it too long?” asked Baliga-Savel. “If parents can see the pure joy that reading books can bring, we would have more readers as a people.”
Climate fiction for justice
On Sunday, the action moved from the quiet environs of the Berkeley Public Library to the sunny MLK Jr. Civic Center Park where four marquee stages hosted discussions with literary luminaries. Around them, dozens of publishing houses and authors set up stations as part of an outdoor book fair.
At a panel titled Climate Fiction as a Tool for Climate Justice, authors Charlie Jane Anders, Sim Kern, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Aya de León explored the appeal of climate fiction as a genre and what they hope to achieve through it. Author and activist, Keya Chatterjee, moderated the conversation about the potential of climate fiction to inspire change by imagining a different future where humanity wins. Panelists addressed the intersections of climate justice, social justice, and decolonization, stressing the significance of intersectionality and inclusive approaches to climate action.
Crime Fiction
In Lurking in Plain Sight: Crime Fiction Beyond Genre Borders, authors Ritu Mukerji, Nancy Kim, and Jason Powell debated the changing nature of crime fiction. Mukerji’s Murder by Degrees follows a woman doctor in 1875 Philadelphia; Kim’s What We Kept to Ourselves follows a Korean-American family in Los Angeles investigating the disappearance of a family member; and Powell’s No Man’s Ghost follows a firefighter in New York in his first year on the job.
“Genres are increasingly irrelevant these days,” said Kim referring to how all three authors have set their books – which have shades of crime fiction – in unconventional settings that are close to their lived experiences.
The publishing world and AI
A stone’s throw away from the main venue, Lance Knobel of the Cityside Journalism Initiative moderated an insightful discussion about AI and creativity at the iconic performance venue Freight & Salvage. Titled Creative Alchemy: Exploring the Intersection of Creativity and Artificial Intelligence, the discussion featured a diverse panel that included multicultural fantasy author and tech leader Hamsa Buvaraghan, AI researcher Alex Hanna, podcaster and author Annalee Newitz, and Maja Thomas from Hachette Publishing.
Buvaraghan spoke about using AI image generators to mock up illustrations for her books, but was doubtful if AI could capture the intangible flavor of a writer’s ‘voice.’ Hanna agreed and made remarks about the predatory nature of AI companies, the bias implicit in most data sets used to train AI products, and the intellectual property theft imposed on artists.
Thomas presented the nuanced position that publishers are taking on the issue of AI; while AI generators are trained on books without authors’ permission, AI also presents new avenues for reader engagement. For example, AI tools like Character AI allow readers to interact with book characters.
After a spirited discussion about the merits of Character AI, the panel agreed that while the publishing industry may use AI to accentuate certain experiences, it is unlikely to substitute the author anytime soon.