Bay Area Book Festival Set To Return In May

BERKELEY, CA — The Bay Area Book Festival is set to return to the city of Berkeley and is offering a variety of events leading up to the event scheduled for the weekend of May 6 and 7.

"This year we’re doing some things a bit differently; in April we’re launching the Bay Area Book Festival Prologue," organizers announced on the festival website.

Entitled Prologue, the events leading up to the 9th annual festival will include a full month of literary happenings all around the city presented by the BABF as well as its partners.

Held at a variety of locations throughout the city of Berkeley, Prologue will feature a variety of headliners such as Michelle Zauner and Leila Mottley taking part in events that include local nature walks, to writing workshops, and author events, to poetry slams and open mics, and more, organizers said.

Prologue will take place from April 1 through May 5.

The 9th annual Bay Area Book Festival kicks off May 6, with free programming at all events, with the exception of headliner programs on Saturday and Sunday night.

"The festival’s 74 indoor programs and 24 programs on outdoor stages will feature the most lauded and exciting authors and thinkers of today, from W. Kamau Bell to Joan Baez, Cory Doctorow to Tricia Hersey and many, many more, representing a wide diversity of backgrounds and writing across many genres," organizers said.

The full schedule, including the one for the Prologue events, can be found on the Festival website here.

Programs during the Bay Area Book Festival will run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Sunday. All Saturday programs will take place indoors, while Sunday’s are both indoors and outdoors. Tickets for each of the two headliner events are $15. Friends of the Festival are eligible for priority seating.

Youth programs, all of which are free, will include an abundant and diverse array of events and

activities for families and young readers to unite around a shared celebration of books and reading.

Award-winning YA, middle-grade, and picture book authors and illustrators from the Bay and around the world will appear on indoor and outdoor stages, organizers said.

Then on Sunday, May 7, Downtown Berkeley’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park will be home to a magical youth expo and Family Fun Zone brimming with author booths, games, arts and crafts, scavenger hunts, and other interactive fun.

For more information on the Bay Area Book Festival, including tickets to headliner events, click here.