2026 Locus Awards @ The Bay Area Book Festival

Name: 2026 Locus Awards @ The Bay Area Book Festival
Start: 2026-05-30T12:00:00-07:00
End: 2026-05-30T20:00:00-07:00
Location: Hotel Shattuck Plaza

Schedule

Sat May 30 2026 at 12:00 pm to 08:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

Hotel Shattuck Plaza | Berkeley, CA

Visit https://locusmag.com/2026-locus-awards-weekend/ for all details.
Locus is thrilled to announce that three of the field’s fabulously talented and award-winning authors, Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, and Nnedi Okorafor, will be headlining the 2026 Locus Awards as Guests of Honor this May. Bestselling novelists Due (The Reformatory), Jones (The Buffalo Hunter Hunter), and Okorafor (Death of the Author) will grace the stage in Berkeley, California, on May 30, 2026, as we celebrate the science fiction, fantasy, and horror works and creators of the last year.
We will have virtual programming from Wednesday May 27 through Friday May 29. Tune into Zoom to enjoy author readings and more. We will also hold a limited-seating salon on Friday May 29 in the Oakland hills. You will recieve the RSVP link when you buy a ticket!
And for the first time, this year’s ceremony will be held in partnership with the Bay Area Book Festival, a centerpiece event for the Bay Area celebrating the literary arts, under the festival’s 2026 theme “Writing the Future.” The collaboration will create an exciting weekend of events and conversation for all readers, with more guests and full programming still to be announced.
Events will take place in downtown Berkeley across several venues. The 2026 Locus Awards will be held on Saturday, May 30, at the historic Hotel Shattuck. Readers, authors, and industry experts will be welcomed to join an afternoon of programming celebrating genre fiction, with panels on craft and publishing, kaffeeklatsches, books for sale, and more. In the evening, ticketed attendees will enjoy a welcome reception with swag, followed by the Locus Awards banquet and capped with the awards presentation.
All of this takes place during the 12th annual Bay Area Book Festival, held Saturday, May 30, and Sunday, May 31, presenting more than 120 first-rate live conversations with 200 acclaimed and emerging authors across multiple stages, covering genres including science fiction, speculative fiction, horror, literary fiction, fantasy, romantasy, romance, thriller, and queer literature. The festival also features a lively outdoor fair known as the Bookworm Block Party, showcasing 150 literary exhibitors, with the indoor and outdoor components uniting readers, writers, and changemakers across a full weekend of events. 2026 speakers announced to date include Julian Brave Noisecat, Elsiane Hsieh Chou, Emily St. James, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and Annalee Newitz. The Bay Area Book Festival is visited by around 25,000 people, and 95% of the programming is free and open to the public.