Lineup Grows for Book Fest

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. Times are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 20 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 21.

A full schedule of events, ranging from author panels to children’s book and poetry readings, will appear in a special section in The Times on Sunday, April 14.

Children’s programming will include readings by such well-known children’s book authors as Caldecott Medal winner Eve Bunting and story-tellings with Walter the Giant Storyteller and Marilyn McConnie. Also, Belle from Disney’s “Sing Me a Story” will perform and the Los Angeles Children’s Museum will conduct book-binding and book-decorating workshops both days. There will also be a special appearance by Wishbone the Dog.

General programming will include more than 45 author panels on a wide range of book topics, including romance novels, biographies, general fiction, poetry, cookbooks, travel writing, gardening books, mysteries, political books and African American, Latin American and Asian American literature.

Here is a partial list of authors who will participate:

Noah Adams, Paula Gunn Allen, Ralph Angel, Mark Arax, Gioconda Belli, Gregory Benford, Sandra Benitez, Warren Bennis, A. Scott Berg, Francesca Lia Block, Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Michael Cart, Wanda Coleman, Bernard Cooper, Dennis Cooper, Catherine Coulter, Janet Dailey, Gerald DiPego, Roger Director, Chitra Divakaruni, Mark Doty, Carol Muske Dukes, Judith Freeman, Mikal Gilmore, Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, E. Lynn Harris, Edward Humes, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Pico Iyer, Cynthia Kadohata, Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman, Dean Koontz, Judith Krantz, Kelly Lange, Linda LaPlante, Peter Lefcourt, David Wong Louie, Garry Marshall, Russell Means, Dennis Miller, Victor Navasky, Hannah Pakula, Victor Perera, Thomas Perry, Gary Phillips, John Rechy, Richard Reeves, Adrienne Rich, Esmeralda Santiago, Greg Sarris, Robert Scheer, Laura Schlessinger, Carolyn See, Michael Silverblatt, Nancy Silverton, Robert Smaus, April Smith, Amy Tan, Quincy Troupe, Abigail Van Buren, Michael Ventura, Victor Villasenor, David Foster Wallace, Joseph Wambaugh, Alice Waters, Geoffrey Wolff, Paula Woods and Jim Wright.

General information: (800) LA TIMES, Ext. 7BOOK; volunteers: Ext. 76160.