Sixth Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books To be Held April 28-29 at UCLA; Mayor Richard Riordan to be Honored for Support of Literacy Initiatives.

News & Entertainment Editors

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 2001

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2001

-- 21st Annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize Ceremony April 28 at

UCLA's Royce Hall

Ai, Aimee Bender, A. Scott Berg, Ray Bradbury, Jan Burke, Ian Buruma, Margaret Cho, Deepak Chopra, Mary Higgins Clark, Michael Connelly, Jared Diamond, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, E.L. Doctorow, Susan Estrich, Cristina Garcia, bell hooks, Arianna Huffington, Pico Iyer, J.A. Jance, Elmore Leonard, Sandra Tsing Loh, Adeline Yen Mah, Edward James Olmos, Sara Paretsky, T. Jefferson Parker, George Plimpton, Sidney Sheldon and Martin Cruz Smith are some of the more than 350 best-selling authors scheduled to appear at the sixth annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books which will be held April 28-29 on the UCLA campus.

Festival hours are 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.

Admission is free to the public. However, tickets will be required to attend author panel discussions and lectures. Beginning April 22, tickets will be available free of charge at all participating Southern California Ticketmaster locations. A limited number of tickets will also be available on-site. On-campus parking is available for $6.

Other participating authors include: Debbie Allen, Peter Bart, Peter Biskind, Stephen J. Cannell, Charles Champlin, Nicholas Clapp, K.C. Cole, Miles Corwin, Robert Crais, Dom DeLuise, Dr. Dean Edell, Brian Fagan, Janet Fitch, Eric Foner, Dale Furutani, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Dagoberto Gilb, Valerie Harper, Edward Hirsch, Christopher Hitchens, Edward Humes, Jonathan Kirsch, Joel Kotkin, A.J. Langguth, John Lithgow, Yolanda Nava, Lisa See, Jane Seymour, Michael Shermer, Mona Simpson, Kevin Starr, Harry Turtledove, D.J. Waldie, Ciji Ware, Donald E. Westlake and Michael York.

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.

The official Festival of Books event program, which will be published in the April 22 edition of The Times, will provide detailed speaker and event information on all event highlights including:

-- more than 95 author panels, readings and discussion sessions;

-- book signings, cooking demonstrations and poetry readings;

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

-- six stages showcasing poetry readings, children's storytelling and cartoon
characters, and music, drama and dance performances;

-- 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 Panels

Author panel and discussion topics include: "Americanos: Triumphs and Tribulations of Identity"; "Evolving Landscapes: L.A. in the 21st Century"; "The Front: Hollywood and the Blacklist"; "Is There Really a New Hollywood?"; "Reporting Wars: The Moral Dimension"; "Break Out the Muscle: High-Octane Thrillers"; "Bad Cops and Demolition Angels"; "D is for Dead"; "Mapping the Cosmos: Germs, Genomes and the Big Bang"; "Meal Ticket: Food and the Senses"; "The Price of Union: Revisiting the Civil War"; and "Will Vietnam Ever Go Away?"

Other sessions will focus on: "Hanging Chads and Butterfly Ballots: Rethinking Florida"; "The Searchers: Teens Navigate the World"; "What Ever Happened to the Women's Movement?"; "The Politics of Motherhood"; "Does Religion Matter?: The Search for Jesus and the Nature of Faith"; "Beneath the Sands of Time: Digging the Bible"; "Midnight's Children: The Fiction of South Asia"; "Outer Limits: Surviving the World's Extremes"; "Beyond the Madhouse: From Bedlam to Prozac"; "The Hunger of Memory: The Memoir and its Discontents"; and "Viva Shakespeare! The Bard's Eternal Appeal."

Several sessions will focus on writing and publishing: "The Evolution of a Book: From Inspiration to Publication"; "The Art of Fact: Literary Nonfiction"; "The Art of Poetry"; "Fantasy Writing"; "How to Get an Agent"; "In Other Words: The Craft of Translation"; "Writing: How To"; "Writers on Writers"; and "The Future of Publishing."

Los Angeles Times to Honor Mayor Richard Riordan

The Los Angeles Times will honor Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan for his long-standing support of literacy and reading programs across the country and for his contributions to the Festival of Books and The Times' Reading by 9 child literacy initiative. A one-hour tribute will be held at noon on Saturday, April 28, in UCLA's Royce Hall.

Mayor Riordan, who has been a strong supporter of the Festival of Books since its inception in 1996, established the Riordan Foundation in 1980 to help children learn to read and write by the end of the second grade. To date, the foundation has awarded more than $30 million to support reading or computer-assisted literacy programs at nearly 2,000 schools in 40 states.

Stage Activities

The Barnes & Noble Stage will feature 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"); creator of the HBO series, "Sex and the City," Candace Bushnell ("Four Blondes"); astrologist Susan Miller ("Planets and Possibilities"); and Emmy Award-winner Valerie Harper ("Today I am a Ma'am").

The Cooking Stage will host live demonstrations by celebrity chefs Mary Bergin ("Spago Chocolate"); Martha Stewart Living columnist Ina Garten ("Barefoot Contessa Parties!"); television and radio hosts Mary Sue Miliken and Susan Feniger ("Cooking with Too Hot Tamales"); and National Jewish Book Award-winner Faye Levy ("1,000 Jewish Recipes").

The ETC. Stage will feature 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, who is an editor of "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul." Stage entertainment will include The Long Beach Shakespeare Company's Bard in the Yard; Marmalade Skies, whose music has been featured on the hit television series, "Felicity"; noted Native American performer Arley Washington; and the Xipe Totec Aztec dancers.

The Reading by 9 Storytelling Stage activities will include readings by actors/authors Jane Seymour and Dom DeLuise; Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan; NBC 4 weather anchor Christopher Nance; and author Barbara Saltzman ("The Jester Has Lost His Jingle"). Storytelling theater will include "De Colores" by renowned bilingual author, singer and songwriter Jose-Luis Orozco, and "Tell Me a Story," an interactive reading program conducted by AmeriCorps, the country's volunteer domestic Peace Corps.

The Target Stage, designed for the entire family, will feature guest appearances by popular children's television character, Barney, and characters from the PBS Kids television series, "Dragon Tales"; performances by the cast of the hit musical comedy, "Forever Plaid"; and readings/book signings by authors David Kirk ("Little Bird, Biddle Bird") and Lemony Snicket ("A Series of Unfortunate Events" books).

The Poetry Stage will feature readings by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni ("Sister of My Heart"); Edward Hirsch ("How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry"); and Quincy Troupe ("Miles and Me").

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 and NPR 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 buffet 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 achievement 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 and National Geographic Traveler (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 98.3 FM, KTWV 94.7 FM The Wave, and Radio Disney AM 710.

The Los Angeles Times, winner of 24 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, please contact David Garcia at 213/237-4715.