The L.A. Times book festival schedule, tickets, and Innovator’s Award winner announced

The schedule and lineup for the 22nd annual L.A. Times Festival of Books was unveiled Thursday morning. The Festival of Books will take place April 22-23 on the campus of USC.

Featured authors appearing at the festival include Margaret Atwood, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, George Saunders, T.C. Boyle, Joyce Carol Oates, Marlon James, Cheech Marin, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Chuck Palahniuk, Kelly Oxford, John Scalzi, Roxane Gay, Chris Hayes, Mary Roach, Luis J. Rodriguez and Ngugi Wa Thiong’o.

Rueben Martinez, the former bookstore owner who started out sharing books with his barbershop customers in Orange County, was named winner of the Innovator’s Award, which will be presented at the L.A. Times Book Prizes on April 21. Martinez, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, is being recognized for work that honors the contribution of Latino writers while showing that books are an essential part of all our lives.

During the festival, these authors and more — about 500 more — will appear on panels, engage in discussions, read from their work, answer questions and sign books.

On Thursday, tickets became available. Author events are free, with a ticket processing fee.

In addition to ticketed events, the Festival of Books includes stages that don’t require reservations. They include a kids’ stage with authors and performers; a cooking stage, with demonstrations by chefs such as Jessica Koslow of Sqirl; a stage featuring only authors of young adult books; the USC stage, where the famous marching band can be found; and the L.A. Times stage, where stars Tippi Hedren, Bryan Cranston and more will be talking about their books.

There will also be food, activities, shopping, giveaways and more. As of 10 a.m., all the information can be found online at https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/.

carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com

@paperhaus