About this Event
Every book on a shelf is the result of a series of choices. Which ideas are considered urgent? Which voices are given space? Who decides what gets published, how a book is positioned, who is imagined as its reader, and, ultimately, which books find their way into our hands?
From the outside, publishing can look like a relatively straightforward journey: an idea becomes a manuscript, a manuscript becomes a book, a book arrives on a shelf. But behind that journey is an ecosystem of editors, publishers, marketers, distributors, booksellers, institutions, economics, relationships, taste, timing, and power.
At every stage, someone is deciding what is worth paying attention to.
Join us at Clio’s for a conversation about the politics of publishing with Tim McKee, Publisher of North Atlantic Books; Michelle Phan, Marketing Manager at University of California Press; author and advocate Kelechi Ubozoh; and cultural anthropologist and Clio’s founding member Cari Borja, whose programming explores what can happen when different voices, disciplines, and ways of knowing are deliberately juxtaposed, creating the possibility for unlikely conversations.
Together, we’ll follow a book from idea to bookshelf while asking the harder questions beneath that journey: Who gets through the door? What kinds of knowledge are valued? Which stories enter the cultural conversation, and which don’t? What gets changed, or lost along the way? And what roles do authors, publishers, marketers, booksellers, programmers, and readers play in determining which ideas circulate through our culture?
Kelechi Ubozoh’s We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health gives us a particularly powerful book through which to examine these questions. Bringing together voices challenging conventional understandings of mental health and healing, the anthology asks what happens when lived experience itself becomes a form of knowledge, and what it takes for voices outside dominant systems to make their way into print and into public conversation.
A bookstore is never simply a place where books are sold. It is a place where voices are chosen, ideas are juxtaposed, unlikely conversations begin, and culture is made.
Tim McKee, Publisher, North Atlantic Books
Tim came to NAB in 2013 and is honored to serve as publisher. Born in New York City, McKee grew up in Los Angeles and received a BA from Princeton University and an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri. He has worked in the nonprofit sector for his entire career, including serving as the long-time managing editor of The Sun magazine, the grants director for a social-justice foundation in San Francisco, and as a writer for several community-based organizations in California. He has also taught college-level writing and journalism. His book No More Strangers Now: Young Voices from a New South Africa (Dorling Kindersley) was an Honor Book for the Jane Addams Book Award and a Los Angeles Times bestseller. He is happiest when bringing necessary stories to the page.
Michelle Phan, Marketing Manager, UC Press
Michelle launched her publishing career at North Atlantic Books as a publicist before transitioning to marketing at UC Press. With 7+ years of experience in book promotion, she is passionate about uplifting authors and books that share the knowledge necessary for our times. As Vice President of Bay Area Women in Publishing and Co-Chair of the Robin Seaman Award Committee, she also cares deeply about fostering meaningful relationships and building inclusive community within the industry.
Kelechi Ubozoh, Author and advocate
For over a decade, Kelechi has worked in the California mental health system in the areas of research and advocacy, community engagement, stigma reduction, youth development and peer support. Kelechi has spoken publicly about her experiences on multiple platforms, including CBS This Morning with Gayle King, O The Oprah Magazine, and The S Word documentary. Kelechi began her career as an investigative reporter in New York City, and was the first student-reporter ever published in The New York Times. In 2019, Kelechi published her anthology with L.D. Green, We’ve Been Too Patient, which features diverse voices who all share their stories of radical healing and consider the recent movement towards reform in the mental health field, including the mad pride/consumer movement, theater as therapy, peer support, combating stigma, and trauma-informed care. Most recently, she co-authored What I Wish My People Had Known: The Psychiatric Green Book: A Guide for Black Folks with Yolo Akili Robinson, a strategic guide helping Black communities protect against racialized violence and institutional harm.
Event venue & nearby stays
Clio's Books, 353 Grand Avenue, Oakland, United States
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