Oakland Book Festival: Edwidge Danticat, Tracy K. Smith, more

31 MAY 2015 — sunday

Oakland Book Festival celebrates poetry, literature, and the City of Oakland with ninety writers, forty events; readings and conversations with Ben Fong-Torres and Derk Richardson in conversation, novelist Edwidge Danticat and László Jakab Orsós in conversation, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith and poet Matthew Zapruder in conversation, poetry readings by Will Alexander, Greg Mahrer, Alissa Quart, Tennessee Reed, and Matthew Zapruder, fiction readings by Adam Johnson and Jenny Offill, plus a memoir reading by Rod Campbell, Zac Unger, and Novella Carpenter, Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild; panels include "In Favor of Cities," with Vikram Chandra, Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty, Leo Hollis, Gary Kamiya; "Radical Lives, Radical Cities: Oakland and Beyond," with Elaine Brown, Astra Taylor; "Writing and War," with Mark Danner, Anthony Marra, and novelist Nayomi Munaweera, Island of a Thousand Mirrors, "History and Fiction" with Molly Antolopl, Jane Ciabattari, Maria Hummel, Michael McGriff, Josh Tyree; "The Reshaping of Voice and Vision: The Possible Paths of American Literature," presented by ZYZZYVA, Paul Beatty, Vanessa Hua, Héctor Tobar, Oscar Villalon; "Bay Area Literary History," presented by LitQuake, features Kim Bancroft, The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin: The Damn Good Times of a Fiercely Independent Publisher, Jerry Cimino, The Beat Museum, Benjamin Griffin, Steve Lavoie; "MultiCulturalism or Political Correctness?" presented by The Before Columbus Foundation, with Lorna Dee Cervantes, Justin Desmangles, David Meltzer, Gundars Strads, Armond White, Shawn Wong; "Literary Magazines: A New Golden Age?" with Roger D. Hodge (Oxford American), Clara Jeffery (Mother Jones), David Rose (Lapham's Quarterly); "The Manhattanization of the Oakland Literary Scene: Tokenism or Diversity? presented by PEN Oakland, with Judy Juanita, Tennessee Reed, Tony R. Rodriguez, Floyd Salas, Al Young, and "Writing Sex," with Melanie Abrams, Leslie C. Bell, Tracy Clark-Flory, Maria Dahvana Headley; more readings include "Fightin' Words: Oakland Out Loud," presented by PEN Oakland, with Judy Juanita, Lucille Lang Day, Genny Lim, Ruben Llamas, Claire Ortalda, and Floyd Salas; Rick Prelinger and Alex Cruse present "Lost Landscapes of Oakland"; music by HipHop4Change, Oakland Youth Chorus, and Oakland School for Arts; exhibits by local publishers, including Poetry Flash, Manic D Press, and Aunt Lute Books, Oakland City Hall and Frank Ogawa Plaza, downtown Oakland, free, 11:00 a.m.-6:00 (www.oaklandbookfestival.org)