Oakland’s Temescal Alley Gets Its First Book Festival
Tucked away in North Oakland’s Temescal Alley, Womb House Books is a small, cozy shop where one can leaf through Assata Shakur’s autobiography and Torrey Peters’ trans-feminist speculative fiction. This sun-filled nook hosts a book club and readings, and is now looking to expand its community with the first-ever Temescal Alley Book Festival on July 18.
“It’s just to spotlight the very wonderful, lovely and brilliant book community that we have here in the East Bay,” says Womb House owner Jessica Ferri, “and how lucky we are to have so many publishers, independent small presses … and also such great literary magazines.”
From noon–6 p.m., Temescal Alley will fill up with tables from local literary vendors, including the magazine Zyzzyva, which has been publishing poetry, fiction and interviews since 1985. Two Lines Press, created by the Center for the Art of Translation, offers international titles from Cameroon to Korea. TBW Books makes eclectic, colorful photo books that look like art pieces in their own right. Other vendors include Transit Books, Oakland Review of Books, Heyday Books, Parapraxis Magazine and Double Negative Press.
Festivities continue at 6:30 p.m. with a reading inside Womb House. Among the featured authors are Carvell Wallace, whose memoir All About Love reflects on childhood trauma, family and queerness; Kate Folk, author of the bizarrely addictive novel Sky Daddy, whose protagonist has an airplane fetish; and Amanda Montei, whose book Touched Out explores the misogynistic expectations placed upon mothers.
“She’s doing a lot of really important work with her Substack and her podcast on feminism in this day and age,” Ferri says.
Also reading at the event are Tomas Moniz, whose novels meditate on fatherhood, gentrification and karaoke, and Nina Renata Aron, whose memoir Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls untangles thorny questions about love, addiction and codependency.
The Bay Area has a long history of feminist bookstores, dating back to the women’s liberation movement of the ’70s. Ferri says Womb House is evolving that legacy. Whereas the second-wave feminist movement wasn’t always inclusive to women of color, lesbians or trans women, Ferri wants her bookstore to be a space where readers of all backgrounds can come together amid our divided political moment.
“I just really love the community that we have,” Ferri adds. “Everybody is really thoughtful and compassionate.”
The Temescal Alley Book Festival takes place at Womb House Books (470 49th St., Oakland) on Saturday, July 18, from 12–9 p.m.