Silicon Valley Reads 2026
Building bridges through Books
Join Silicon Valley Reads 2026, a community-wide program that brings people together through books, events, and conversation. Each year, we explore a shared theme with author talks, book clubs, arts programs, and activities for all ages.
This year’s theme, Bridges to Belonging, explores how stories help us connect across differences, strengthen our communities, and create a sense of home for everyone. Explore this year’s book selections, join the conversation, and attend free events.
Kickoff Event
Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 7 p.m.
De Anza VPAC Theater
21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino, CA 95014
Join us for an evening with Sal Pizarro of the San Jose Mercury News as he talks with the authors of our three featured adult selections:
John A. Powell
Keeonna Harris
Annie Hartnett
Books will be available for purchase, with a signing after the program. Plus, visit the “A Sense of Belonging” art show at the Euphrat Museum.
For more information and to register, visit Silicon Valley Reads Calendar of Events.
john a.powell is Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies at the University of California,Berkeley. He was previously the Executive Director at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University, and prior to that, the founder and director of the Institute for Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. john formerly served as the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He is a co-founder of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and serves on the boards of several national and international organizations. john led the development of an“opportunity-based” model that connects affordable housing to education, health, healthcare, and employment and is well-known for his work developing the frameworks of “targeted universalism” and “othering and belonging” to effect equity-based interventions. john has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia University. His latest books are Belonging Without Othering, How We Save Ourselves and the World and The Power of Bridging, How to Build a World where we all Belong.
Keeonna Harris is a writer, storyteller, mother of five, prison abolitionist, activist, and academic, born and raised in Watts and other parts of South Central Los Ange - les. Her work focuses on health disparities and radical organizing for women connected to systems of mass incarceration, mothering, and community building as acts of radical defiance against carceral institutions. Harris has received several honors, including a 2018–2019 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship, a 2021 Tin House Summer Residency, a 2023 Baldwin For The Arts Residency, and a 2023 Hedgebrook Fellowship as the 2023 Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence. She is a 2024 Hay - market Writing Freedom Fellow and a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health. She is developing the Borderland Project, a mental health and community support system for women forced to navigate carceral institutions to maintain connections with incarcerated persons. She lives in Seattle.
Annie Hartnett is a bestselling award-winning author of three novels: RABBIT CAKE, UNLIKELY ANIMALS, and most recently, THE ROAD TO TENDER HEARTS. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. Along with the writer Tessa Fontaine, she co-runs Accountability Workshops for writers, helping writers commit to routines and embrace the long, slow, joyful, terrible process of doing the work. She lives in Massachusetts with her very good husband, perfect daughter, and darling border collie.