LitFest Pasadena

Pasadena’s first community-wide book festival—LitFest Pasadena—hits town Saturday, March 17th in Central Park from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m, just south of Old Pasadena and next door to the historic Castle Green. Admission is free.

LifFest will be a celebratory day of readings and panel discussions featuring well-known local and California authors, hands-on activities for young people, good food, better books, and great fun, all aimed at promoting the literary arts.

Attendees can look forward to an irreverent and informative festival that incorporates theater, music, poetry, and more. Some of L.A.’s hottest gourmet food trucks, courtesy of Chefs Center, will be located along Raymond Avenue, and public parking is under the Gold Line Del Mar Station directly across the street from Central Park, a comfortable green space between Raymond and Fair Oaks Avenues, just south of the historic Castle Green.

Panel discussions will explore topics such as 21st Century Noir; The Rise of the Graphic Novel: Write the Image; History, Fiction…and Truth?; The L.A. Canvas; and local L.A. Publishers: Where New York Dominates, L.A. Innovates.

Confirmed authors include Pulitzer Prize-winner Jonathan Gold; novelists Mona Simpson, Michelle Huneven, and Lian Dolan; L.A.’s unofficial poet laureate Wanda Coleman; poet and Young Adult author Ron Koertge; scholar and Libros Schmibros founder David Kipen; and L.A. mystery writer Denise Hamilton. More than 30 publishers, institutions and vendors will have books by these and many, many other authors available for sale at this event.

A children’s area will feature storytelling, Shakespearean actors from Foshay Learning Center, and a Quidditch demonstration!