Friday, April 19, 2024
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Hollywood Gothique
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Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Steve Biodrowski 2 min read
  • Event Date & Time: Two days of panels, interviews & presentations
  • Location: UCLA Campus – West Los Angeles
  • In Person: Ray Bradbury, Harry Turtledove, James Elroy, Joseph Wambaugh, Walter Mosley, etc

    • Just a friendly reminder: This weekend is the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. The event takes place Saturday and Sunday, with the first panels beginning at 10:00am and the last ones starting at 3:00pm.

    Although this is not a genre-specific event, there is more than enough to make it worthwhile for fans of mystery, fantasy, horror, and science-fiction.

    Mystery is especially well represented with several panels of authors on both days, plus a couple of high-profile interviews:

    • Crime novelists James Elroy and Josephe Wambaugh will appear jointly at Schenberg Hall on Saturday, April 28 at 1:00pm (Panel 1033
    • Walter Mosley (author of the Easy Rawlins mysteries) will be interviewed in Royce Hall at 10:30am on Sunday April 29 (Panel 2051)

    There is a bit less of interest to fans of horror and science-fiction, but there are still a couple of events worth checking out:

    • “Dracula’s Children: Books with Bite” – moderated by Nick Owchar, with guests Elizabeth Kostova, John Marks, Christopher Moore – in Rolfe 1200 at 3:00pm on Saturday, April 28 (Panel 1024)
    • Ray Bradbury will be interviewed in Royce Hall on Saturday April 28 at 5:00pm (Panel 1054)
    • “Science Fiction: The Road from Here to There” – moderated by Harry Turtledove, with guests Kage Baker, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi – in Rolfe 1200 at 10:30am on Sunday, April 29 (Panel 2021)

    Besides the panels, there are also numerous open-air stages with presentations and entertainment. Perhaps even more important, this is a wonderful chance to get a glimpse of the multitude of book stores available in Los Angeles, which will have booths at the festival.

    Maybe you don’t have the time or inclination to drive around the vast landscape of Los Angeles, searching for specialty stores like Anime Jungle, Dark Delicacies, Hollywood Book & Poster, and Kinokuniya. Well, here is your chance to find them all in one place.

    A couple words of warning:

    1. Parking is a bitch, so arrive early and expect to walk from a remote lot to the University of California in Los Angeles campus.
    2. In-door events tend to fill up, so get tickets early to reserve you seat.

    Parking is $8. Admission to the festival is free, but you will need tickets to reserve seats for indoor events.

    These tickets are available for free at Ticketmaster outlets: Wherehouse Music, FYE Stores, and Ritmo Latino. For a fee of $.75 you can get tickets at Tickemaster.Com. Advance tickets will be available until 5:00pm on Thursday, April 26.