Lineup Grows for Festival of Books

The first Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will be held April 20 and 21 at UCLA’s Dickson Plaza. Admission is free; parking at UCLA is $5.

Among the more than 40 author events are the following: “The Nature of Evil: Crime Writers Talk About Their Craft” with Joseph Wambaugh, Jonathan Kellerman and Gerald Petievich; “Memories and Writing” with Amy Tan and Bernard Cooper; “Romance Fiction in the Spotlight,” featuring Catherine Coulter, Janet Dailey, Kelly Lange and other romance fiction writers; “Mystere Noir: Black Mystery Writers Come of Age,” with Eleanor Taylor Bland, Robert O. Greer, Gar Anthony Haywood and Valerie Wilson Wesley; “Virtues and Values” with authors Warren Bennis, Jean Lipman-Blumen and Robert Louv, and “Hollywood Novels” with Peter Lefcourt, Roger Director, David Freeman and John H. Richardson. Also appearing will be authors Noah Adams, Sandra Benitez, Ray Bradbury, Phyllis Burke, Octavia Butler, Mark Doty, Judith Freeman, Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, Pico Iyer, Dean Koontz, Judith Krantz, Garry Marshall, Dennis Miller, John Rechy, Richard Reeves, Laura Schlessinger, Carolyn See, Nancy Silverton, Quincy Troupe, Victor Villasenor, David Foster Wallace and Abigail Van Buren. There will also be a children’s program, including visits by such children’s characters as the Cat in the Hat, Belle and the Berenstain Bears. More than 100 publishers and booksellers will be on hand to display their wares. There will be book signings in abundance.

Times are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 20 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 21. Program information will be available in The Times as the festival approaches. General information: (800) LA TIMES, Ext. 7BOOK; booth sales: Ext. 77714; volunteers: Ext. 76160. A full schedule of events listing all authors will appear in a special section in The Times on April 14.