{"id":399289,"date":"2026-04-18T22:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399289\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T22:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:05:08","slug":"l-a-times-festival-of-books-kicks-off-with-packed-panels-at-usc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399289\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. Times Festival of Books kicks off with packed panels at USC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tens of thousands of readers of all ages, from toddlers clutching picture books to longtime fans carrying armfuls of paperbacks, fanned out across the USC campus Saturday for the opening day of the 31st Los Angeles Times Festival of Books<\/a>, packing panels and lining up to see favorite authors and celebrity guests.<\/p>\n

It was too early to know how many people attended the first day of the event, billed as the country\u2019s largest literary festival, though organizers said they expect between 150,000 and 155,000 attendees over the weekend. By late morning, the campus was already bustling, with strong turnout expected for appearances by author T.C. Boyle and actors Sarah Jessica Parker and David Duchovny, among others.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1996 and spread across eight outdoor stages and 12 indoor venues, the festival has become a fixture on Los Angeles\u2019 cultural calendar, bringing together more than 550 storytellers for panels, author interviews, book signings, performances and screenings spanning a wide range of genres, from children\u2019s story times to cooking demonstrations. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s lineup features a broad mix of writers, performers and public figures, including comedian Larry David, musician Lionel Richie, multihyphenate businesswoman (and Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s mother) Tina Knowles<\/a>, author and social critic Roxane Gay and scholar Reza Aslan.<\/p>\n

Under sunny skies, actor and reality TV personality Lisa Rinna brought humor and a bit of bite to a 10:30 a.m. conversation on the festival\u2019s main stage<\/a>. The \u201cReal Housewives of Beverly Hills\u201d alum released her second memoir, \u201cYou Better Believe I\u2019m Gonna Talk About It,\u201d in February, chronicling her time on the show and her recent turn on Season 4 of Peacock\u2019s reality competition series \u201cThe Traitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her approach to \u201cTraitors,\u201d Rinna said she wanted to strip away the conflict-driven persona she had cultivated on \u201cReal Housewives\u201d and present a more unfiltered version of herself. \u201cI was like, \u2018Self, listen. You\u2019re gonna go in there and just be you. No housewife s\u2014, none of that reactionary stuff.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

In conversation with Times senior television writer Yvonne Villarreal, Rinna also spoke candidly about the loss of her mother, Lois Rinna, in 2021 and how her grief manifested in a feeling of rage while she was filming Season 12 of \u201cReal Housewives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really took me by surprise,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd you have to give space for it because you can\u2019t make it go away. … They always say time heals, but time makes everything just a little less intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a noon panel titled \u201cFire Escape: Wildfires and the Changing Geography of Southern California,\u201d moderated by Times climate and energy reporter Blanca Begert, author and former wildland firefighter Jordan Thomas said the scale and frequency of California wildfires have shifted dramatically in recent decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of the largest wildfires in California\u2019s recorded history have happened just in the past 20 years,\u201d said Thomas, author of last year\u2019s National Book Award finalist \u201cWhen It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World.\u201d \u201cWhile I was a hotshot, there were three of those fires burning simultaneously, including a million-acre fire \u2014 more than used to burn across the entire American West over the course of a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival kicked off Friday evening with the 46th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes ceremony<\/a> at USC\u2019s Bovard Auditorium, emceed by Times columnist LZ Granderson, recognizing both emerging voices and established writers.<\/p>\n

Winners were announced in 13 categories for works published last year. Find a full list of winners here.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Oakland-born novelist Amy Tan, whose work often explores identity and the Chinese American immigrant experience, received the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, and the literary nonprofit We Need Diverse Books received the Innovator\u2019s Award for its work promoting diversity in publishing.<\/p>\n

Accepting her award, Tan, author of the 1989 bestseller \u201cThe Joy Luck Club,\u201d said that as a birthright citizen, she had never questioned her place in the country until recent debates over citizenship and belonging led her to reconsider whether she is, in fact, a \u201cpolitical writer.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMy birthright and that of millions of others is now being argued before the Supreme Court, and no matter what the outcome is, it\u2019s been a kick in the gut to know that those in the highest echelons of government and those who support them believe that we don\u2019t belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tan said that as an author, \u201cI imagine the lives of the people I write about,\u201d and that act of compassion \u201creflects our politics and our beliefs. And so yes, I am a political writer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the attendees, Times Executive Editor Terry Tang pointed to the breadth of the weekend\u2019s programming as an opportunity for connection and discovery. \u201cIf you take in just a fraction of these events, it will expand your mind,\u201d she said. \u201cThis weekend gives all of us a chance to celebrate a sense of unity, purpose and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival runs through Sunday. More information, including a schedule of events, can be found on the festival\u2019s website.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands of readers of all ages, from toddlers clutching picture books to longtime fans carrying armfuls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7168,412,12987,146,6764,879,189296,85,46,6376,3713,189295,70696,189294,15934,1264,18570,1661],"class_list":{"0":"post-399289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-author-interview","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-country","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-event","13":"tag-festival","14":"tag-fire-escape","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-los-angeles-times","18":"tag-panel","19":"tag-rinna","20":"tag-southern-california","21":"tag-story-time","22":"tag-weekend","23":"tag-work","24":"tag-writer","25":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}