Event PickThe Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Stories and Ideas returns to USC’s Campus after three years, celebrating its 27th year of gathering authors, poets and other creators for inspiration and conversation. Big names making appearances this year include Janelle Monáe, Amanda Gorman, Danny Trejo, Max Greenfield, Terry Crews, Ziggy Marley, Josh Peck, Valerie Bertinelli, David Ducovney, Terry Crews, Tony Alva, Roxane Gay, Amor Towles, Lisa See, Billy Porter and Don Winslow to name just a few. Monáe’s appearance –for an installment of The Times’ Ideas Exchange event–  should be a hot ticket. The dynamic singer-songwriter and actor has an upcoming short fiction collection, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, and they’ll (Monae recently came out as non-binary) discuss it and more with columnist Erika D. Smith. We’re also looking forward to Gorman’s appearance, which is a fitting one considering April is National Poetry Month. The Angeleno poet laureate, who won America’s heart during Joe Biden’s inauguration,  will join Natalie J. Graham in conversation about her book Call Us What We Carry. Both women appear on April 23. And there’s so much more –way too much to list here– at the day two event, which is expected to draw up to 150,000 book lovers, plus dozens of exhibitors, panels and presentations. See full L.A Times Festival of Books schedule, location, ticket and transportation information at https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/

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