The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the nation’s largest literary event, returns April 22 and 23, to the campus of the University of Southern California. The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. In the preceding years, it has evolved to include live bands, poetry readings, film screenings and artists creating their work on-site.

The book festival’s schedule for 2023 has been released. All outdoor events are free to attend. Indoor panels require a small fee for advance reservations. You must have a ticket to attend an indoor event. These events include one-on-one conversations, readings by featured authors and musical performances.

Advance tickets are available along with other benefits here, with the purchase of one of our Friend of the Festival passes. Tickets for indoor events will be widely available the week before the festival, on Sunday, April 16, 2023.

Featured authors at this year’s event include: Monica Youn, Will Alexander, Donna Sprujit-Metz, Douglas Manuel, California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick, José Olivarez, Susie Jaramillo, Aimee Liu, Antoine Wilson, Tod Goldberg and Gary Phillips.

To check out the Festival of Books full schedule at their website https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/schedule/.