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<\/p>\nWomb House Books will gather small publishers, Bay Area authors and readers on July 18.<\/p>\n
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Oakland\u2019s Womb House Books hosts readings and a book club. \u00a0(Jessica Ferri)<\/p>\n
Tucked away in North Oakland\u2019s Temescal Alley, Womb House Books<\/a> is a small, cozy shop where one can leaf through Assata Shakur\u2019s autobiography and Torrey Peters\u2019 trans-feminist speculative fiction. This sun-filled nook haas hosts a book club and readings, and is now looking to expand its community with the first-ever Temescal Alley Book Festival<\/a> on July 18.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just to spotlight the very wonderful, lovely and brilliant book community that we have here in the East Bay,\u201d says Womb House owner Jessica Ferri, \u201cand how lucky we are to have so many publishers, independent small presses \u2026 and also such great literary magazines.\u201d<\/p>\n From noon\u20136 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> reflects on childhood trauma, family and queerness; Kate Folk, author of the bizarrely addictive novel Sky Daddy<\/a>, whose protagonist has an airplane fetish; and Amanda Montei, whose book Touched Out explores the misogynistic expectations placed upon mothers.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s doing a lot of really important work with her Substack<\/a> and her podcast on feminism in this day and age,\u201d Ferri says.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s Souls untangles thorny questions about love, addiction and codependency.<\/p>\n