The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books returned with authors, books, and presentations! The yearly event was the weekend of April 18-19th, it was held at the USC campus, so check the website: https://www.latimes.com/events/festival-of-books next year! The festival has been held since 1996. There is a BookCon at New York City, but it is ticketed event that started in 2014, the Festival of Books is free! The reservations for panels is online and there are also booths at the festival. For this year, Sarah Jessica Parker had a conversation with author Alexandra Olivia, the next day it was Lionel Ritchie, and Larry David, discussing their books. There are maps and an app, but I think there needed to be signage, even hand made signs, Turn Here for the Festival of Books-type thing.
I was so disoriented that I couldn’t find any place except for the helpful people at the information booths. I think there should be signs, Left or Ahead to Teal Zone. The other part that was difficult was finding where all the signings were located. There were so many booths with signings of incredible authors. Still, no listing, on the website it could be clicking on a retailer or author’s name. I basically used author's social media to see where and when they would be at the festival. I like the poetry reading and music on the main stage. They promote who will be at the panel presentations. The best part of course is to see how many guests are interested in reading, I don’t know how many people attended, but it is at Comic Con levels! It is outdoors, so there are grassy areas, some seating and shade, and a few food trucks.
A few tips from the day I attended, dress lightly, good shoes, and get some rest. I entered checking out every booth. The booths are fantastic, every subject, many retailers. I headed to the 800s; comic book retailers like Stranger Comics. I went to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators booth. At the booth was Mia Araujo, writer and artist of Afia and the Land of Wonders (2025)! She had said that it took her twelve years to write. Also, that it started very influenced by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1871) by Lewis Carroll, but Araujo gave the story and characters her own unique spin. I mentioned that the text and artwork complimented each other; details left out in the writing was seen in the art and vice versa.
The next author that I wanted to see was Brandon Mull at the Mysterious Galaxy booth. He is the writer of Fablehaven. There is an upcoming Fablehaven movie from Angel Studios. A board game, card game, Hugo stuffie, and pins are available at: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/haven-film-llc/fablehaven-the-movie-book-collectibles. Mull mentioned that there is an upcoming, June 23rd, edition, Fablehaven: The Illustrated Ediiton. It features art by cover illustrator, Brandon Dorman. Check out more about Brandon Mull and his works: https://brandonmull.com/ Also at the booth was his Guardians: Forbidden Mountain novel which was just published this month. I was by the booth where Chanan Beizer was promoted his graphic novel, The Golem of Venice Beach (2022), a two volume story. It is illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz, Jae Lee, and a number of other artists like Stephen R. Bissette and Michael Allred. The Festival of Books was exhausting, but very fun to see authors and artists!
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