{"id":214985,"date":"2026-03-11T15:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214985\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T15:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:19:08","slug":"l-a-times-festival-of-books-lineup-speakers-and-panels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214985\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. Times Festival of Books lineup, speakers and panels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The L.A. Times Festival of Books<\/a> is back for its 31st year. <\/p>\n

The event will feature authors, poets, artists and podcasters across panels, book signings, cooking demonstrations and screenings. This year\u2019s lineup includes comedian Larry David, actor and Booker Prize judge<\/a> Sarah Jessica Parker, musician Lionel Richie, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s mother and multihyphenate Tina Knowles, bestselling author and social critic Roxane Gay and News & Documentary Emmy- and Peabody-nominated scholar Reza Aslan, among others. <\/p>\n

Scheduled for April 18 and 19<\/a>, the literary festival will feature more than 550 storytellers and nearly 100 panels across the University of Southern California\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n

Other notable personalities include: Pat Benatar, Blippi, Mark Harmon, David Duchovny, Susan Lucci, Jennie Garth, Hannah Brown, Anne Lamott, Chanel Miller, Lisa Rinna, Stephanie Garber, Jon Klassen, Mac Barnett, Meghan Quinn, Hayley Kiyoko, Megan McDonald, Elyse Myers, Eli Rallo, Raegan Revord and Molly Jong-Fast.<\/p>\n

As part of the Ideas Exchange speaker series, Richie will sit down with Times Pop Music Critic Mikael Wood, to discuss \u201cTruly,\u201d Richie\u2019s new memoir. The book explores the singer\u2019s upbringing in Alabama and his rise to stardom, including performing with the Commodores. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, Sarah Jessica Parker and Alexandra Oliva join the festival to discuss Oliva\u2019s new SJP Lit novel \u201cThe Radiant Dark.\u201d <\/a>The following day, Larry David and Times News and Culture Critic Lorraine Ali <\/a>will talk about Ali\u2019s new book, \u201cNo Lessons Learned: The Making of Curb Your Enthusiasm.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event will debut the Audiobook and Podcast Stage presented by Spotify, hosting talent like \u201cCrimes of The Times\u201d host and Times writer Christopher Goffard <\/a>and \u201cRemarkably Bright Creatures\u201d<\/a> bestselling author Shelby Van Pelt. The festival will also screen a preview of the Hulu show \u201cRivals,\u201d <\/a>which will be followed by a discussion between producer and writer Dominic Treadwell-Collins and actor Nafessa Williams. <\/p>\n

At the Times Food Stage, Cassandra Peterson, known for her work as Elvira, will be demoing from her book \u201cElvira\u2019s Cookbook From Hell.\u201d<\/a> Culinary influencer Cassie Yeung will also be stopping by to discuss recipes from her new Asian takeout cookbook \u201cBad B*tch in the Kitch.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

The festival will kick off April 17 with The Times hosting the 46th annual L.A. Times Book Prizes<\/a> at Bovard Auditorium. The ceremony will honor Amy Tan with the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, We Need Diverse Books with the Innovator\u2019s Award and Adam Ross with the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose. The prizes recognize 61 works in 13 categories.<\/p>\n

General admission to the festival is free. Friend of the Festival packages, which include panel reservations, parking and merchandise, are currently on sale<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The L.A. Times Festival of Books is back for its 31st year. The event will feature authors, poets,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[98621,98624,5661,98619,98622,1043,1404,98623,48,52,51,98618,74455,47,50,49,47857,98625,98617,98626,98620],"class_list":["post-214985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-31st-year","tag-alexandra-oliva","tag-author","tag-book-signing","tag-books-lineup","tag-event","tag-festival","tag-l-a-times-festival","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-larry-david","tag-lionel-richie","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-panel","tag-roxane-gay","tag-sarah-jessica-parker","tag-stephanie-garber","tag-times-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}