Join Heyday author John Freeman at the 2026 Bay Area Book Festival, in conversation with Venita Blackburn, Reyna Grande, and Elaine Castillo. The discussion, “Best of California,” will focus on the crop of amazing literature emerging from the Golden State. The discussion will be moderated by Heyday publisher Steve Wasserman.

What makes Californian literature shine? Writer Kathleen Alcott suggests that the diversity of California’s landscape has gifted a unique sense of time and change to its inhabitants, who are “used to the colors out the window turning over entirely, and to stop seeing trees and to start seeing water” within a few hours’ drive. In California Rewritten, editor, author, and host of Alta‘s California Book Club John Freeman captures the evolution of the Golden State’s literary life. He traces our literary history from early myths to the arrivals and migrations chronicled by works including The Distance Between Us, Reyna Grande’s memoir about her experiences as an undocumented child immigrant from Mexico, and America is Not the Heart, Elaine Castillo’s novel about a queer war veteran’s journey from the Philippines to the insular immigrant community in Milpitas. Following building cities, exploding fantasias, and digital dystopias, Freeman then directs readers to the ruptures, the fraying connections to reality that can follow the traumatic loss of a family member, as portrayed in Venita Blackburn’s Dead in Long Beach, California. Moderated by Heyday publisher Steve Wasserman, this panel will explore the featured works individually and as part of the road map to Californian literature that can help us uncover our history, confront pressing issues that face our society, and imagine our shared future.