Berkeley Talks podcast | September and ongoing
If you’ve not yet discovered this Berkeley News podcast that comes from the Office of Communications and Public Affairs, jump onboard during September. A new episode is released every other Friday, but in the meantime, there’s an entire universe of archival events to explore.
Listen to bestselling author and UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Michael Pollan expound on how he chooses his subjects and the role of storytelling in shifting perspectives; or catch sports journalist Jemele Hill speak on the intersection of sports and race. A gang of UC Berkeley professors bite into the effects psychedelic substances have on the human brain and mind and their potential in therapeutic use. A recent podcast had UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner discussing with others the science behind the emotions in Pixar’s Inside Out 2. A majority of the participants have several books to investigate if a particular topic or voice proves compelling. Fill your mind and if moved, visit a local bookstore to fill your shelves.
September and ongoing | Free podcast | news.berkeley.edu/podcasts/berkeley-talks/
43rd Annual Northern California Book Awards | Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library | Sept. 7
Books published by Northern California authors and translators in 2023 receive their due at this annual event. Northern California Book reviewers and editors who are members of the organization select the nominated finalist books in five categories: Fiction, Poetry, General Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Children’s Literature. The winning book in each division is announced during the free ceremony, with a reception and all books available for purchase following. Special awards include “groundbreaker,” “lifetime and service,” and more. Bay Area readers will recognize several author’s on this year’s list of finalists: Daniel Mason, Peggy Orenstein, Dave Eggers, Dashka Slater, Michael Lewis, and others.
Sept. 7 @ 2 p.m. | Free | wnba-sfchapter.org/the-43rd-annual-northern-california-book-awards/
Elizabeth Rosner | Books Inc. Berkeley | Sept. 17
Berkeley-based bestselling novelist, poet, and essayist Rosner is the author of Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and the novel Electric City, named a best book by NPR. Her new book blends personal stories about her multilingual upbringing and decades-long exploration and research with experts in psychotherapy, neurology, agriculture, medicine, biology and more. As a daughter of Holocaust survivors, it is Rosner’s development of a “third ear” that has led to deeper understanding and acceptance of her human connection to the natural world and to other people. The book inspires thought about how a person does, does not, has never — or might in the future — not only hear sounds, but make choices about listening and attention.
Sept. 17 @ 7 p.m. | Free | booksinc.net
Children’s Book Festival | Children’s Fairyland, Oakland | Sept. 21
The annual six-hour festival led by Oakland school teacher Mr. (Peter) Limata introduces families to more than 30 local authors, illustrators and storytellers. Kid-lit activities include stories read aloud, art created in real time, book shopping and special appearances by young writers from Fairlyland’s 2024 Youth Writer’s Workshop and adult authors. This year’s lineup features Aida Salazar, Annie Barrows, Innosanto Nagara, Nidhi Chanani, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Minnie Phan, Ying Chang Compestine, and more. The festival is free with ticketed admission that allows kids and families to enjoy the park’s many attractions while engaging in hands-on, play-based and educational activities provided by the festival’s community partners.
Sept. 21 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. | Free for members; tickets $18-20 | fairyland.org/events-and-performances/book-festival
Matthew Zapruder | Mrs. Dalloway’s | Sept 24
Presenting his new poetry collection, “I Love Hearing Your Dreams,” the widely celebrated Bay Area poet’s reads from his latest work. Described as “dream songs,” it’s an appropriate descriptive and pulled off with Zapruder’s marvelous and mysterious relationship with language, phrasing, and rhythm. In Tourmaline, a poem about a green-shaded stone, he writes, “…to look at it/is to become leaf/falling/into a bottomless mirror/you look in/and see not yourself/but the final pure lake/you are falling toward/and the sun refuses to set/so you forget your face….” Some poems ache, others hint at humor—or just hardness—buried under hard times, and always, there is a pensive atmosphere, as if the next best or most remarkable moment or memory awaits on the cusp of consciousness. Zapruder was Guest Editor of Best American Poetry 2022, and from 2016-2017 held the annually rotating position of Editor of the weekly Poetry Column for The New York Times Magazine. He teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Saint Mary’s College of California.
Sept 24 @ 7 p.m. | Free | mrsdalloways.com