Top Authors Set to Participate in 11th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, April 29-30 at UCLA

LOS ANGELES, April 6, 2006 – The joy, value and impact of the written word will be celebrated at the 11th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which takes place Saturday, April 29, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on UCLA’s campus.

Authors scheduled to appear include Dave Barry, T. C. Boyle, Ray Bradbury, Taylor Branch, Mary Higgins Clark, Robert Crais, Billy Crystal, Joan Didion, Larry Flynt, Adam Gopnik, Arianna Huffington, Erica Jong, Chip Kidd, John Lithgow, David Maraniss, Frank McCourt, Joyce Carol Oates, Carl Reiner, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, R.L. Stine and Sarah Vowell.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books – the nation’s largest public literary festival of its kind – was created in 1996 by The Times to promote literacy and to bring together those who create books with the people who love to read them. It is presented in association with UCLA.

The two-day celebration features a mix of panel discussions, book signings, poetry readings, cooking demonstrations and music – including a performance by the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band that includes such authors as Mitch Albom, DaveBarry, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Matt Groening, Greg Iles, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan and Scott Turow.

The Festival affords book lovers the chance to meet best-selling authors, publishers and celebrities. The hundreds of exhibitor booths, stage events and popular children’s characters offer a cornucopia of choices for all ages.

General event information, including a list of authors, is available at http://161.35.110.226/events. Information is also available by calling 1-800-LA TIMES, ext. 7BOOK.

Admission is free, but tickets are required to attend author/panel discussions, lectures and the April 30 screening of “Peaceful Warrior” because of limited seating. Free tickets will be available at all Ticketmaster locations in Southern California starting Sunday, April 23, at noon until Thursday, April 27, at 5 p.m., or until all tickets have been distributed. A limited number of tickets will also be available on-site during the Festival.

As part of the Los Angeles Times’ yearlong 125th anniversary celebration, the 2006Festival of Books will have panels featuring Times editorial staff and a 125th anniversary-themed Times Pavilion.

Other Festival Highlights

• About 400 authors participating in 97 panels, readings and book signings
• Six outdoor stages showcasing book and poetry readings, cooking demonstrations, children’s storytelling and cartoon characters, and music, drama and dance performances
• 26th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize awards ceremony on April 28
• More than 300 exhibitor booths including specialty booksellers and major book publishers
• Special screening of the film “Peaceful Warrior” followed by a discussion with “The Peaceful Warrior” author Dan Millman (Sunday, April 30, 5:30 p.m. in Royce Hall)

Panel Sessions

Panel sessions focusing on current affairs include “Iraq: Where Do We Go from Here?,” “The American Identity,” “Hip Hop: Today’s Music,” “Under Siege: Life in a Culture of Conflict,” “Defining California,” “Under a Crescent Moon: The Changing Shape of the Middle East,” “Defining Ourselves: Women, Feminism & Identity,” and “The Global Becomes Personal.”

Other sessions will focus on:

• Hollywood – “Behind the Screen: Hollywood Histories,” “From Page to Screen,” “The Outsiders: Independent Film Today”
• History – “Out of the Ruins: The History of Disasters,” “Writing Epic History,” “The Old World in the New World,” “Legacy of Lincoln,” and “Memoir: Vietnam Stories.”
• Mystery – “Straight Shooters,” “Page Turners,” “The Los Angeles Influence,” “Mystery, Mayhem and Murder,” “The Detective Had a Familiar Face,” and “Hip Chicks Packing Heat”

Among the authors who will be featured in “In Conversation with... “ or in solo sessions are Dean Baquet, Ray Bradbury, Taylor Branch, Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Joan Didion, Teri Garr, Ray Harryhausen, Chip Kidd, Frank McCourt, Mike Mignola, Joyce Carol Oates, David Rakoff & Sarah Vowell, and Carl Reiner.

Six Stages Featuring Celebrities, Discussions, Readings, Family Entertainment

The Target Children’s Stage, designed for the entire family, will feature Peter Abrahams; Angelina Ballerina & Katharine Holabird; Barney; Lauren Child; Billy Crystal;Julie Andrews Edwards; Brett Helquist; HI-5; Jolie Jones; the Justin Roberts Band; David Kirk; John Lithgow; Lori, Lori What’s the Story; Megan McDonald; Ridley Pearson; Rhea Perlman; David Shannon; R.L. Stine; Valeria Tripp; Rosemary Wells; and Henry Winkler.

Canada Presents the Culinary Stage will serve up a smorgasbord of authors, including Karen Adler & Judith Fertig, Giada De Laurentiis, Ann Gentry, Suzanne Goin, Jenny Jones, and Jasmin Kobajica.

The ETC. Stage will feature a variety of speakers and performers including Kishin Daiko, the Melvin Eddy Blues Band, Kitty Felde, the Flying Other Brothers, Murphy’s Flaw, One Ring Zero, the Rock Bottom Remainders, Susie Hansen’s Latin Band, Marlo Thomas, and WriteGirl.

The Los Angeles Times Stage in partnership with Barnes & Noble will feature Gloria Allred, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, John Grogan, A.M. Homes, Erica Jong, Sebastian Junger, Frances Mayes, T. Jefferson Parker, Carl Reiner, Gay Talese, Sarah Vowell, and Saul Williams.

Gracing the Poetry Stage will be Chris Abani, Ralph Angel, Sarah Arvio, Victoria Chang, John Fitzgerald, Sesshu Foster, Dana Goodyear, Eloise Klein Healy, Jane Hirshfield, Ilya Kaminsky, Dana Levin, Jeffrey Levine, Sarah Maclay, Glyn Maxwell, Gail Mazur, Christopher Merrill, Gabriel Meyer, Marilyn Nelson, James Ragan, Donald Revell, Martha Ronk, Kay Ryan, David St. John, Maurya Simon, Amy Uyematsu, Charles Harper Webb, Terry Wolverton, and Stephen Yenser.

Appearing on the Reading by 9 Storytelling Stage will be Beethoven’s Wig, Gisselle Castellanos, the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles, Eric Drachman, Cornelia Funke, Marie-Louise Gay, Pat Harvey, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Sylvia Lopez, “Manners I, Care,” Marlee Matlin & Doug Cooney, the Ohmies, Jose Luis Orozco, Elise Paschen, Rachel Payne, Matthew Reinhart, Sally Ride, Adam Rivera, Robert Sabuda, Glen Walker, and Jim Weiss.

Festival of Books Sponsors

Target is the presenting sponsor of the 2006 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Borders Bookstores and Canada are major sponsors. Ticketmaster is the official ticket provider of the event. The official television sponsor is KCBS-2/KCAL-9. Supporting sponsors are Chronicle Books, C-SPAN, Geffen Playhouse and the L.A. Chamber Orchestra. Media sponsors are Hoy, ESPN Radio 710, KABC Talkradio 790, KCRW 89.9 FM, KFWB News 980, KJAZZ 88.1 FM, KPCC 89.3 FM, KPFK 90.7 FM and Radio Disney (KDIS- 1110 AM).

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Awards Ceremony

The 26th annual presentation of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes is set for Friday, April 28, at 8 p.m., in UCLA’s Royce Hall. The event’s emcee will be Dana Gioia, Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a poet, critic, essayist, translator, radio commentator and editor. The evening will honor books in nine categories, and Joan Didion will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.

Tickets are required and are on sale at UCLA’s Central Ticket Office (310-825-2101) and online at https://www.tickets.ucla.edu. (NOTE: Additional $3 service charge for online ticket purchases.) Tickets are $16 for a reserved seat at the awards ceremony and $63 for a package including a buffet dinner (6-7:45 p.m.) with some of the nominated authors at the UCLA Faculty Center, a prime reserved seat at the ceremony and convenient parking at Royce Hall. The Los Angeles Times Book Prize Awards, established in 1980, recognize outstanding literary achievement in biography, current interest, history, poetry, science and technology, fiction, first fiction, mystery/thriller, and young adult fiction. More information is available at http://161.35.110.226/events.

About the Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country and the winner of 37 Pulitzer Prizes. Celebrating this year its 125th anniversary covering Southern California, The Times maintains the largest newsgathering operation in California and publishes five daily regional editions: Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange County, Ventura County, the San Fernando Valley and the Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Times’ website, www.latimes.com, features 50,000 content pages and is updated continuously with more than 3,000 stories posted daily. Latimes.com’s award-winning arts and entertainment section, calendarlive.com, offers an extensive range of entertainment news reviews and Southern California’s most comprehensive event listing. The Times also produces The Envelope, www.TheEnvelope.com, the entertainment industry’s most comprehensive, year-round awards show website.

Additional information about The Times is available at www.latimes.com/mediacenter.

Contact:
Mike Lange
213-237-3848
mike.lange@latimes.com