Ninth Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books To Feature Literary “Who's Who” April 24-25 at UCLA

April 2, 2004 12 AM PT

NOTE TO EDITORS – New credential policies have been established for working media interested in covering the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. They are posted in the Media Center section at www.latimes.com/festivalofbooks.

LOS ANGELES, April 2, 2004 – More than 400 of the country’s best-selling authors will join thousands of Southern California book lovers at the ninth annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which will be held Saturday, April 24, and Sunday, April 25, on the UCLA campus.

Festival hours are 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Admission is free to the public. However, tickets will be required to attend indoor author panel discussions and lectures. Beginning April 18 at 12 noon, tickets will be available free of charge at all participating Southern California Ticketmaster locations. A limited number of tickets also will be available on-site. On-campus parking is $7.

General event information is available online at www.latimes.com/festivalofbooks or by calling 1-800-LA TIMES ext. 7BOOK. Detailed information on all festival activities will be published in the April 18 edition of the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books – one of the nation’s premier public literary festivals and the largest of its kind on the West Coast – was created in 1996 by The Times to promote literacy, celebrate the written word, and bring together those who create books with the people who love to read them. It is presented in association with UCLA.

Festival Highlights

•	More than 400 authors participating in 95 panels, readings and book signings
•	Seven stages showcasing book and poetry readings, cooking demonstrations, children’s storytelling and cartoon characters, and music, drama and dance performances
•	24th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize awards ceremony
•	More than 280 exhibitors including specialty booksellers and major book publishers

Literary “Who’s Who”

Authors scheduled to appear include Mitch Albom, Clive Barker,

Michael Benson, T. C. Boyle, Ray Bradbury, Susie Bright, Douglas

Brinkley, Stephen J. Cannell, Iris Chang, Sandra Cisneros, Mary

Higgins Clark, Carol Higgins Clark, Susie Coelho, Rocco DiSpirito,

Carol Muske-Dukes, James Ellroy, Carrie Fisher, Dana Gioia,

Arianna Huffington, Pico Iyer, Chalmers Johnson, Larry King,

Dean Koontz, Kelly Lange, Elmore Leonard, Leonard Maltin, Aaron

McGruder, Anchee Min, Patt Morrison, Nuala O’Faolain,

George Pelecanos, Anna Quindlen, Ishmael Reed, Laura Schlessinger,

David Shannon, Jane Smiley, Tavis Smiley, Kevin Starr, Anthony

Swofford, Nicholas von Hoffman, Alice Walker and Simon Winchester.

Panel Sessions

Panel sessions focusing on current affairs include “Separate

but Equal: 50 Years After Brown vs. the Board of Education,”

“Can America Pursue a Moral Foreign Policy?” “Beyond

Barbie: American Women Today,” ”Law and Disorder:

Gangs, the LAPD and the Pursuit of Justice,” and “Manufacturing

Fear: American Culture Today.”

Other sessions will focus on:

•	Hollywood – “Carrie Fisher in conversation with Susan Reynolds,” “The Higher Gossip and the Culture of Celebrity,” “Writing Hollywood,” and “Moving Pictures and the Birth of Modernism.”
•	Politics – “Critics and Crusaders: The Future of Dissent,” “From Watergate to 9/11 & Beyond,” “High Noon: Can America Go it Alone?” “Going Global: America’s Manifest Destiny?” and “The Golden Door: Mexico Now, California Tomorrow.”
•	Crime – “Classic Crime,” “Behind the Yellow Tape,” and “Less than Heavenly: Mysteries and Thrillers in the City of Angels.”
•	Mystery – “Mayhem, Mystery and Murder,” “Not Your Usual Suspects,” and “Hardboiled Loners.”

Among the authors who will be featured in “In Conversation with …” sessions are Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen, Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark, Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, Anna Quindlen, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and Gay Talese.

Seven Stages: Discussions, Readings, Family Entertainment

The Barnes & Noble Stage will feature authors such as Mitch Albom, Arianna Huffington, Karen Hughes, Chang-rae Lee, Brett Lott, George Pelecanos, Neal Stephenson and Alice Walker.

The Cooking Stage will host such culinary luminaries as Katherine Alford, Leslie Brenner, Rocco DiSpirito, Suzanne Dunaway, Gale Gand, Jacqui Malouf, Juliette Rossant and Carla Williams.

The ETC. Stage will feature a variety of speakers and performers including Susie Coelho, Kitty Felde, Timothy Zahn, The Chameleons, the Korean Classical Music and Dance Company, and Will and Company, who will perform “ Robin Hood.”

Among the authors gracing the Poetry Stage will be Susan McCabe, David St. John, Barbara Hurd, Henri Cole, Carol Muske-Dukes, Dana Gioia, Tung-Hui Hu, Sandra Cisneros and Harryette Mullen.

The Reading by 9 Storytelling Stage activities will include performances by the Parachute Express, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Beethoven’s Wig, the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles and Jim Gamble’s Puppetry as well as readings and storytelling by KTLA’s Michaela Pereira, Sam Rubin and Eric Spillman; Jose Luis Orozco, Marilyn Singer, Jim Weiss and Jane West.

Featured on the Starbucks Stage will be performances by Ben Arthur, Josh Kelley, Jennifer Marks, Patrick Park, Abalaye African Dance Ensemble, Danza Azteca Xochipilli, the Susie Hansen’s Latin Band and the Zydeco Party Band.

The Target Stage, designed for the entire family, will feature Julie Andrews, Angelina Ballerina, Barney, Georgia Byng, Dean Koontz, Laura Numeroff, R. L. Stine, Rosemary Wells, and Schoolhouse Rock.

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Awards Ceremony

Michael York, author and internationally renowned star of stage, screen and television, will emcee the 24th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize awards ceremony, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 24, at UCLA’s Royce Hall. York is a past participant in the Festival of Books and is the author of “Dispatches from Armageddon: Making the Movie Megiddo: a Devilish Diary” and his 1991 autobiography “Accidentally on Purpose,” and co-author with actor/director Adrian Brine of “A Shakespearean Actor Prepares.”

The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, established in 1980, recognize outstanding literary achievements in biography, current interest, history, poetry, science and technology, fiction, first fiction, mystery/thriller, and young adult fiction.

In addition, the Robert Kirsch Award annually recognizes the body of work of an author who resides in and/or whose work focuses on the Western United States. It is named after Robert Kirsch, who served as The Times’ book critic for more than 25 years prior to his death in 1980.

Presenting the nine category awards will be Dean Baquet, K.C. Cole, Dana Gioia, Vivian Gornick, Carolyn See, April Smith, Kevin Starr, R.L. Stine and Bruce Wagner. The Kirsch award will be presented by author Jonathan Kirsch, son of the late book critic.

Tickets are $14 per person for a reserved seat. In addition, there will be a first-ever “Interlude Dinner” at 5:30 p.m. in UCLA’s Faculty Center for people who want to attend both the Festival and the Book Prizes event. The cost of the Interlude Dinner, including a prime reserved seat at the Book Prizes awards ceremony, is $48, and for $65, guests get premium all-day parking at Royce Hall as well.

Tickets may be purchased through the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310-825-2101 or online at www.tickets.ucla.edu. Additional charges apply for online ticket orders.

Information about the Book Prize awards ceremony and awards program is available at www.latimes.com/bookprizes or by calling 1-800-LA TIMES, ext. 72366.

Since 1980, the Book Prizes have honored numerous internationally distinguished literary figures including Ray Bradbury, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Christopher Isherwood, Milan Kundera, Ursula Le Guin, Frank McCourt, David McCullough, Larry McMurtry, Tillie Olsen, Carl Sagan and W.G. Sebald.

Festival of Books Sponsors

Presenting sponsors of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books are Barnes & Noble, Starbucks and Target. Major sponsor are Ticketmaster and Borders. Contributing sponsors are Los Angeles Opera and Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Media sponsors are KTLA 5, ESPN Radio AM (710), KABC-AM (790), KCRW-FM (89.9), KFWB-AM (980), KIIS-FM (102.7), KKJZ-FM (88.1), KPCC-FM (89.3), Radio Disney AM (1110) and Distinction Magazine.

The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country and the winner of 30 Pulitzer Prizes. The Times publishes five daily regional editions covering the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange and Ventura counties, the San Fernando Valley, and an Inland Empire edition covering Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as a national edition. Additional information about The Times is available at www.latimes.com/mediacenter.