Cooking, Reading, Entertainment Stages Featured at Sixth Annual Los Angeles Festival of Books, April 28-29 at UCLA.

Metro/Entertainment/Lifestyle Editors

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 2001

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2001

The sixth annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will offer a variety of entertainment suitable for every member of the family -- whether it's Shakespearean drama, Hawaiian cuisine, PBS children's television characters Barney and Cassie or Marvel comic book hero Spiderman.

The festival will be held on the UCLA campus from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 28, and from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 29.

Stage performances are free and do not require tickets for admission. On-campus parking is available for $6. The Festival of Books -- one of the nation's premier public literary festivals -- 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.

Some of the activities scheduled for the festival's six stages include:

Barnes & Noble Stage (author discussions)

Saturday -- Renowned expert in the field of mind-body medicine Deepak Chopra ("How to Know God: The Soul's Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries"); Edgar Award-winning author James Patterson ("1st to Die"); the creator of the HBO series "Sex and the City," Candace Bushnell ("Four Blondes"); and PBS television program host Julie Stav ("Get Your Share").

Sunday -- Astrologist Susan Miller ("Planets and Possibilities"); Emmy Award-winner Valerie Harper ("Today I am a Ma'am"); Brad Meltzer ("The First Counsel"); Eric Jerome Dickey ("Liar's Game"); Bertice Berry ("The Haunting of Hip Hop"); and Stuart Woods ("Cold Paradise"). KCRW-FM "Bookworm" program host Michael Silverblatt will interview Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon ("The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay").

Cooking Stage (demonstrations)

Saturday -- Harry Schwartz ("Star Grazing"); Beverly Gannon ("Hali'imaile General Store Cookbook"); celebrity chef Mary Bergin ("Spago Chocolate"); Martha Stewart Living columnist Ina Garten ("Barefoot Contessa Parties!"); and Nancy Silverton ("Pastries from the La Brea Bakery").

Sunday -- Television and radio hosts Mary Sue Miliken and Susan Feniger ("Cooking with Too Hot Tamales"); National Jewish Book Award-winner Faye Levy ("1,000 Jewish Recipes"); Roy Yamaguchi ("Roy's Feasts from Hawaii"); and Donna Deane ("Modern California Cooking").

ETC. Stage (variety)

Both days -- Performances by the Long Beach Shakespeare Company's Bard in the Yard, Latin musician Carlos Velasco and noted Native American performer Arley Washington.

Saturday -- Emmy Award-winning actress and voice-over artist Nancy Cartwright, who is the voice of Bart Simpson of "The Simpsons" animated television series, and author Rebecca Woolf (editor, "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul"). Performances by the Xipe Totec Aztec dancers.

K-MOZART will broadcast a live performance by Opera Pacific of excerpts from the motion picture, "Little Women," based on Louisa May Alcott's Civil War-era classic. NPR affiliate KPCC-FM will broadcast a special live segment of its "Book Club of the Air for Young Adults" featuring host Kitty Felde and Pam Munoz Ryan ("Esperanza Rising").

Sunday -- Author Mark London Williams ("Ancient Fire," "Danger Boy" series). The stage will also feature a performance by the canine cast from the book, "Amazing Gracie: A Dog's Tale".

Reading by 9 Storytelling Stage

Both Days -- Storytelling theater will include "De Colores" by renowned bilingual author, singer and songwriter Jose-Luis Orozco, and award-winning classical storyteller Jim Weiss of Greathall Productions. The stage will also feature Flights of Fantasy, storytelling based on life lessons for children, and "Tell Me a Story," an interactive reading program conducted by AmeriCorps, the country's volunteer domestic Peace Corps.

Saturday -- Readings by actor/author Dom DeLuise ("Charlie the Caterpillar"), Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, author and NBC 4 weather anchor Christopher Nance, and authors Janell Cannon ("Stellaluna") and Barbara Saltzman ("The Jester Has Lost His Jingle").

Sharon Robinson, daughter of National Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, will read from her book, "Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By".

Sunday -- Readings by actor/author Jane Seymour ("Boing!: No Bouncing on the Bed"), and Joy Harjo and Paul Lee ("The Good Luck Cat").

Target Stage (children/family)

Both Days -- Guest appearances by popular PBS children's television characters Barney and Cassie, from the "Dragon Tales" series. Readings/book signings by authors David Kirk ("Little Bird, Biddle Bird") and Lemony Snicket ("A Series of Unfortunate Events" books).

Saturday -- Marvel comic book hero Spiderman will invite the public to participate in a special "Who Wants to be a Super Hero" show. Performances by the cast of the hit musical comedy, "Forever Plaid".

Sunday -- Suzy Spafford ("Little Suzy's Zoo" book series) will join the stage for readings.

Poetry Stage (readings)

Saturday -- Chinese dissident editor and poet Bei Ling; Carl Phillips ("The Tether"); Diane Di Prima ("Recollections of My Life As a Woman: The New York Years"); David St. John ("The Red Leaves of Night"); and Rilke readings by Galway Kinnell ("A New Selected Poems") and Imogen von Tannenberg ("The Fantastic Ordinary World of Lutz Rathenow: Poems, Plays & Stories").

Sunday -- Ai ("Vice: New and Selected Poems"), Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni ("Sister of My Heart"); Carol Muske-Dukes ("Life After Death"); Nick Flynn ("Some Ether"); Edward Hirsch ("How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry"); and Quincy Troupe ("Miles and Me").

The official Festival of Books event program will be published in the April 22 edition of The Times. Information is also available by calling 1-800-LA TIMES, ext. 7BOOK and online at www.latimes.com/festivalofbooks. The guide will provide detailed speaker and event information on all event highlights including:

-- 96 author panels, readings and discussion sessions;

-- book signings;

-- a tribute to Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan for his support of the
Festival of Books and children's literacy programs;

-- the 21st annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize awards ceremony; and

-- more than 250 exhibitors including specialty booksellers from throughout
Southern California and major book publishers.

Author panel discussions and lectures are free; however, tickets will be required for admission. Beginning April 22, tickets will be available without charge at all participating Southern California Ticketmaster locations. A limited number of tickets will also be available on-site.

Los Angeles Times Book Prizes

The 21st annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize awards ceremony will be held at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 28, at UCLA's Royce Hall. The Times will present its first Book Prize in the Mystery/Thriller category. Prize-winning author, KCRW-FM commentator and PRI contributor Sandra Tsing Loh will emcee the event.

Tickets are $10 per person for the ceremony only and $50 per person for both the ceremony and a post-event reception. Tickets may be purchased through the UCLA Box Office at 310/825-2101 or Ticketmaster at 213/365-3500.

The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, established in 1980, recognize outstanding literary achievements in nine categories: biography, current interest, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, fiction, first fiction, and young adult fiction. Each prize includes a $1,000 cash award.

Festival Sponsors

Presenting sponsors of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books are Barnes & Noble and Target. Other sponsors include Ticketmaster (major sponsor) and The Huntington Library, Center Theatre Group, National Geographic Traveler and United Airlines (contributing sponsors).

Media sponsors are: NBC 4, KTLA TV 5, KABC-AM 790 Talk Radio, KCRW 89.9 FM, KFWB-AM News 980, KIIS-FM 102.7, KLON 88.1 FM, K-MOZART 105.1 FM, K-JAZZ 1260 AM, KPCC 89.3 FM, KTWV 94.7 FM The Wave, and Radio Disney AM 710.

The Los Angeles Times, winner of 25 Pulitzer Prizes, is a Tribune Publishing newspaper. The largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, The Times publishes four daily regional editions -- covering the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the San Fernando Valley, and Orange and Ventura counties -- as well as an Inland Valley section and a National edition.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Working media are invited to cover the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books but must register in advance to cover panel discussions. Some on-site author interview opportunities are available. To register or obtain additional information, contact David Garcia at 213/237-4715.