LA Times Festival of Books 2018

Johnson is the author of "Break Any Woman Down," for which she received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and the novel "Elsewhere, California." Born and raised in and around Los Angeles, she is an associate professor of English at USC where she teaches literature... Read More →

Ko is the author of "The Leavers," which was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2016, The New York Times, BuzzFeed, O. Magazine, and elsewhere... Read More →

Lepucki is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels "Woman No. 17" and "California." Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire, McSweeney's, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications, and she is a contributing editor to The Millions. She is the... Read More →

Messud's novels include "The Emperor's Children" (2006); "The Woman Upstairs" (2013); and, most recently, "The Burning Girl," a finalist for the 2017 LA Times Book Prize in Fiction. Twice a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, a recipient of the Strauss Living Award from the American... Read More →

Tallent was born in New Mexico and raised on the Mendocino coast by two mothers. He received his BA from Willamette University, and after graduation spent two seasons leading youth trail crews in the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest. Tallent lives in Salt Lake City. His debut... Read More →