Coming to the L.A. Times Festival of Books: Buzz Aldrin, Padma Lakshmi, Kwame Alexander and more

By Carolyn Kellogg

March 8, 2016 11:55 AM PT

Today, the roster of the 21st annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books has landed. It includes:

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin
Prizewinning children's book author Kwame Alexander
U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera
"Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi
Long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad

Author James Patterson (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Writers

James Patterson
Susan Orlean
Joyce Carol Oates
Jonathan Lethem
T.C. Boyle
Alexander Chee
Michael Connelly
Heather Havrilesky

Commentators

Tavis Smiley
Reza Aslan

Author Michael Connelly (Mark DeLong / Little, Brown and Company)

Actors

Rainn Wilson
Alison Sweeney

Poets

Jorie Graham
Luis J. Rodriguez
Douglas Kearney
David St. John

YA writers

Ally Condie
Ransom Riggs
Marie Lu
Melissa de la Cruz
Zac Brewer
Margaret Stohl

Chefs

Duff Goldman
Alice Waters

Festival events are free, with a $1 processing fee per ticket. Times subscribers can buy festival passes and other tickets starting today; tickets are available to the general public March 11.

In two separate, ticketed events that are part of The Times' Ideas Exchange, commentator and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and musician, actress and memoirist Carrie Brownstein will appear to talk about their latest books and creative lives.

In all, there are more than 400 authors coming to read, discuss and sign books. There are open stages where attendees might pass a poetry reading or musical performance; a kids' stage full of family-friendly programming; demonstrations on cooking stages; hundreds of booths, food trucks and more. This year, attendees can get tickets to see podcasts recorded live at the festival, including Jonesy's Jukebox and Nate Corddry's Reading Aloud.

The 2016 Festival of Books will take place April 9 and 10 on the USC campus. The book prizes — which include awards for James Patterson and Juan Felipe Herrera — will take place Saturday evening. More information about attending the Book Festival and Book Prizes can be found at www.latimes.com/festivalofbooks.

Book news and more; I'm @paperhaus on Twitter

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Carolyn Kellogg

Carolyn Kellogg is a prize-winning writer who served as Books editor of the Los Angeles Times for three years. She joined the L.A. Times in 2010 as staff writer in Books and left in 2018. In 2019, she was a judge of the National Book Award in Nonfiction. Prior to coming to The Times, Kellogg was editor of LAist.com and the web editor of the public radio show Marketplace. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in English from the University of Southern California.