Attn: Calendar Editors.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books to be held April 28-29, 2001
Sixth annual event to feature best-selling authors from across U.S., 21st annual Book Prizes

LOS ANGELES, December 7, 2000 - The sixth annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will be held Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Sunday, April 29, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., on the UCLA campus.

• National Book Award winner Robert Bly ("Iron John: A Book About Men");
  
• Edgar Award nominee Robert Crais ("Demolition Angel," "L.A. Requiem");
  
• National Book Critics Circle Award winner E.L. Doctorow ("Ragtime," "City of God," "Welcome to Hard Times," "Billy Bathgate");
  
• Syndicated columnist and political commentator Arianna Huffington ("How to Overthrow the Government," "Greetings from the Lincoln Bedroom");
  
• Poet and essayist Thomas Lynch ("Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality," "The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade");
  
• Academy and Tony award nominee Edward James Olmos ("Americanos/Latino Life in the United States");
  
• Emmy Award-winning actress Jane Seymour ("Boing!: No Bouncing on the Bed," "Yum! A Tale of Two Cookies"); and
  
• Oscar, Tony and Edgar award winner Sidney Sheldon ("The Sky Is Falling," "The Best Laid Plans," "If Tomorrow Comes," "Master of the Game," "Rage of Angels," "Bloodline").

Admission to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is free, although tickets will be required to attend author panel discussions and lectures. Beginning April 22, tickets will be available without charge at select Ticketmaster locations throughout Southern California. A limited number of tickets will also be available on-site.

The festival will also feature book signings, cooking demonstrations, poetry readings, children's storytelling and cartoon characters, and music, drama and dance performances. Detailed information on all event activities will be published in the April 22 edition of The Times.

A highlight of the event will be the 21st annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize awards ceremony, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at UCLA's Royce Hall. The 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.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books last year attracted approximately 90,000 visitors and featured 85 panel sessions and 300 authors. More than 250 exhibitors - including specialty booksellers from throughout Southern California as well as major book publishers - participated in the event. Event information is available online at www.latimes.com/festivalofbooks.

One of the nation's premier public literary festivals, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was created in 1996 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.