Bay Area Book Festival returns to Berkeley with 350+ authors

Now in its 12th year, the Bay Area Book Festival is back and seemingly bigger than ever. More than 350 authors will gather on 21 stages for a three-day bacchanalia of literature, which in the past has drawn more than 25,000 people to downtown Berkeley.

This year’s festival is centered around the theme of "Writing the Future" — inspired by the legacies of Octavia Butler and James Baldwin – which "challenges authors, readers and communities to move beyond reacting to crises and instead embrace responsive, imaginative action that builds toward justice and liberation," according to the organizers.

Headliners include Bram Stoker Award-winner Tananarive Due and experimental-fiction author Stephen Graham Jones talking about "What Haunts Us Still: Surviving and Storytelling," and Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Susana M. Morris discussing "Black Feminist Futurescaping." These take place at the Freight entertainment venue and are ticketed, but nearly all of the other festival programming is free of charge.

There are two different poetry stages, a Bookworm Block Party on Allston Way, a meeting of Silent Book Club members and a Social Justice Children's Book Fair. The fun is spread among downtown venues, from the Berkeley Public Library to the Brower Center to Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park – home to a new "Chill Zone" for outdoor reading. If you’re having trouble deciding what to do, just wander around and you’re guaranteed to find something captivating.

Details: Festival runs May 29-31 in downtown Berkeley; for schedule and venue information visit baybookfest.org/bay-area-book-festival

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 11:33 AM.