The Los Angeles Times is hosting its 26th Annual Festival of Books, Stories and Ideas from April 17-23 for a week-long virtual festival and community gathering with 30 individual virtual events and panels.
Typically (in a pre-pandemic world) held each spring on the USC campus, the Festival of Books was postponed last year due to the coronavirus, leading The Times to embrace the opportunity this past fall (Oct-Nov. 2020) to reach festival-goers sheltering at home nationwide by reimagining the festival into a community-wide gathering to be held online.
Since 1996, the Festival of Books has gathered writers, poets, artists, filmmakers, musicians and emerging storytellers. Now in its 26th year, from April 17-23, The Times will celebrate and bring to life the largest event of its kind in the U.S. with storytelling and author panels, readings, performances and more over the course of a week.
Over the years, festival goers have heard from icons such as Julie Andrews, watched Emeril Lagasse make a favorite Cajun dish, listened to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, hummed along to rhythmic poets and gone home inspired. This spring, the festival will continue to make that kind of inspiration accessible from home. A few confirmed participants in this year’s 2021 e-festival include CNN Anchor Don Lemon, author of award-winning non-fiction book “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” Patrick Radden Keefe, children’s author Nina Harris, prolific singer-songwriter Richard Thompson and more.
For details, go to latimes.com/FestivalofBooks and follow the festivalon Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (#bookfest).
