Tickets to the L.A. Times Festival of Books now on sale

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Passes to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, taking place April 21 and 22, go on sale today at 10 a.m. While the event is free, enthusiasts who want to reserve tickets to see their favorite authors, purchase valet parking, and get a discount on tickets to the L.A. Times Book Prizes can do so by buying the $30 panel pass. Panel passes can be purchased through the Festival of Books website.

The Festival of Books is the nation’s largest book fair, with more than 500 authors participating. Noted writers scheduled to appear include children’s book author Judy Blume, bestselling novelist T.C. Boyle, mystery writer Robert Crais, and young adult author John Green. A complete list of authors who will be coming to the festival is now online.

Times columnist Patt Morrison will interview Rodney King about his forthcoming memoir, “The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption,” written with Lawrence J. Spagnola. The acquittal of the four police officers charged in King’s videotaped beating sparked the L.A. riots 20 years ago. Talking about the civil unrest, and the change it brought to the city, will be radio host Warren Olney, civil rights attorney Connie Rice, former L.A. Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, and Times’ editor-at-large Jim Newton.

Those who purchase panel passes can select up to eight conversations and panels for which they’ll be ensured entry. The ticketed events take place in various buildings across the campus of the University of Southern California, including the historic Bovard Hall. This is the second year that the Festival of Books will take place at USC.

Pass-holders will also get a free copy of the festival poster, designed by illustrator Bob Staake, and access to purchase tickets to the L.A. Times book prizes on April 20 for half the regular $10 ticket price. Valet parking tickets will be available to pass-holders for $30.

Celebrities appearing at the festival’s stages, which don’t require tickets, include Julie Andrews, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Florence Henderson, Ricki Lake, Sugar Ray Leonard, Henry Winkler, Michael Ian Black, and John Cusack, who portrays Edgar Allan Poe in the upcoming film “The Raven.”

RELATED:

The 2012 L.A. Times Book Prizes

2011 Festival of Books panel coverage

Photos: the 2011 Festival of Books, pre-opening, at USC

-- Carolyn Kellogg