Going Long

The Book as Journalism (2009): Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

By: Dan Baum, John Powers, Barry Siegal, Sharon Waxman

Narrated by: Elizabeth Taylor

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. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 130,000 book lovers each year.

Elizabeth Taylor is editor of the Chicago Tribune Magazine and Books sections. She joined the Tribune after more than a decade with Time magazine. She is the coauthor with Adam Cohen of American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation.

Dan Baum is a former staff writer for the New Yorker and has written for numerous other magazines and newspapers. He lives in Boulder, Colo. Baum is the author of Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans.

John Powers is a film critic at Vogue, critic at large for NPR's "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," columnist for Los Angeles magazine and contributor to L.A Weekly. Powers is the author of Sore Winners: (And the Rest of Us) in George Bush's America.

Barry Siegel, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, is a former correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of six books, including Lines of Defense and Claim of Privilege.

Sharon Waxman covered Hollywood and other cultural news for the New York Times and is the author of Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of TheWrap.com.

©2009 LA Times (P)2009 LA Times