Bay Area Book Festival – maría mínguez arias

One for the books as Hannah Moushabeck told Cynthia Leitich Smith! PUBLISHING THE FUTURE at the 2026 Bay Area Book Festival was pretty damn good. MC’d by poet Hanan Masri and opened with a song specially composed for the occasion by Tristan Marcelle from Bushwick Book Club Oakland, a musical book club where Bay Area artists perform original songs inspired by a book. Her singing “Where do I go to see my story told” was the perfect launch pad for our conversation.

Kate Gale from Red Hen Press, Cynthia Leitich Smith from Heartdrum, Phoebe Robinson from Tiny Reparation Books, and Hannah Moushabeck from Interlink Books spoke with me about the work towards representation and equity in the literary landscape, inspiring readers in such fucked up times, the AI disruption in the production of art, and working at the crossroads between publishing and authorship.

The Bay Area Book Festival organization was phenomenal, from Deputy Director of Programming Dora la Flora, who was there at all times; and the stage manager at The Freight; to Linda holding up the 1min left, time for Q&A signs and would not let me get lost in time!, and the two ASL interpreters who showed phenomenal stamina, specially keeping up with Phoebe Robinson’s fast, intelligent, and witty remarks on AI, a subject that managed to fire all of us 🔥

Signing my first copy of Naming the Body: A Queer Woman’s Restorative Mapping of the Self!

THE FREIGHT CHANGING ROOM IS BAD ASS!

This Aunt Luter will moderate a very much needed panel about the future (such an impossible word to concieve these days!) of publishing! A Publishing the Future panel seems so fitting for our times! How do we (indie presses) reconcile present and future while struggling to survive financially? How do we search for the next boundary pushing manuscript while freedom of speech is under threat? Is it possible to inspire readers through our collective sense of loss and fear? How do these indie presses stand apart from big publishers and from each other?

Headliner event at this year’s Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, CA

Publishing the Future will be one of the headliner events at this year’s Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, CA. It is a ticketed event. Get your $20 ticket here before they run out! Join us to see how indie presses are raising to the ocassion.

From the Bay Area Book Festival site:

To write an inclusive future, we must publish diverse voices who represent our collective interests and stories. The publishers and imprints represented in this headliner panel will discuss the implications of the current political climate on the future of publishing and put forward creative solutions to the lack of opportunities for publishing underrepresented stories.

Tiny Reparations Press, founded by standup comedian, bestselling author, producer, and actress Phoebe Robinson, is a highly curated imprint dedicated to fiction and nonfiction that pushes the conversation forward.

HeartDrum, an acclaimed imprint of HarperChildren’s featuring stories that emphasize the present and future of Native peoples and the strength of young Indigenous heroes, will be represented by its author-curator and award-winning writer Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Palestinian American author and book worker Hannah Moushabeck runs Interlink Publishing alongside her family, the only Palestinian-owned independent publishing house in the United States offering global perspectives to readers through works of literature-in-translation, history, activism, politics, art, cultural guides, award-winning cookbooks, and illustrated children’s books.

Through publishing talented writers whose works have been overlooked by large-scale publishers, co-founder Kate Gale of Red Hen Press fosters diversity, promotes literacy in local schools, and supports the Greater Los Angeles Area and international communities with arts-based events and literary advocacy.

Moderated by acting Co-CEO of the intersectional, feminist press Aunt Lute, María Mínguez Arias, this inspiring panel is a celebration of the innovative and diverse members of the publishing industry dedicated to creatively curating and publishing the voices of our future.

Introductory live music performance by Bushwick Book Club Oakland!