Welcome to “The Sights + Sounds Show with Jeneé Darden, " where every week we tap into the Bay Area arts scene and bring you rich conversations with artists. On today’s show: award-winning author Deesha Philyaw talks about her long-awaited debut novel “The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman.” Then, the Bay Area book scene is about to tremble and rumble as Litquake prepares to host their 27th literary festival. Finally, writers and readers from around the world are coming to Oakland for an international fantasy convention.
Today, we're in the books and outside.
Deesha Philyaw
Author Deesha Philyaw rocked the literary scene back in 2020 with “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.” The juicy, short-story collection earned her a PEN/Faulkner award, an LA Times Book Prize and she was a finalist for the National Book Awards. Her long-awaited, debut novel is here and getting a lot of buzz.
“The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman” is about a woman who grew up poor and becomes wealthy as the first lady of a megachurch. But money doesn’t buy her happiness. She enters a national beauty pageant for first ladies, and gets caught up in a big scandal. Her husband is more married to the church than her. And all kinds of secrets unfold in her life.
Like Deesha’s first book, “The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman” explores issues such as class, misogyny and sexuality in the Black church. Several years ago, Deesha spent close to a year in West Oakland. Host Jeneé Darden caught up with Deesha about her new book.
Norah Piehl
Soon, the Bay Area’s literary landscape is going to shake, rattle and roll. The 27th annual festival Litquake is just over a week away. Big headliners this year include writers: R. F. Kuang, Min Jin Lee, Hernan Diaz, Walter Mosley, and the Bay Area’s own Natalie Baszile . That’s just the short list. Other local faves will be part of Litquake. KALW’s Hana Baba and Host Jeneé have something planned (see below). Litquake’s Executive Director Norah Piehl tells us what can book lovers look forward to this year.
Litquake runs from October 8-24. Check out Litquake.org for a full schedule of all of their events.
KALW’s Hana Baba and Jeneé will be co-hosting "Where I'm From." They'll explore stories of home with folklorist Tim Tangherlini and young adult author René Peña-Govea. That’ll be at Monkeybrains in San Francisco on October 24th.
Audrey T. Williams
Writers and artists in the Bay Area are preparing to welcome people near and far to the city of Oakland for the 52nd World Fantasy Convention. Guests of honor include: horror author Stephen Graham Jones, publisher Bill Campbell,, scholar John Jennings and Oakland’s Jewelle Gomez. Writer Audrey T. Williams is co-chairing the convention. She tells us what attendees can look forward to and how this convention will have an Oakland vibe.
The 52nd World Fantasy Convention will take place at Oakland Convention Center October 22-25.
