LitFest Pasadena Returns for the Fifth Year

LitFest Pasadena, the city and Southland’s free books-and-authors festival, returns to celebrate its fifth anniversary with a grand day of events and readings the afternoon and evening of June 4.

Kicking off in the courtyard of famed Vroman’s Bookstore with a big writer and a new book – still-secret details to come – LitFest continues on the sidewalks and storefronts of Pasadena’s highly walkable Playhouse District through the day, including at the city’s iconic Pasadena Playhouse.

– Adding to our legacy of featuring Pulitzer Prize winners, San Francisco novelist Robert Lowe, a Pasadena native, will read from his latest mystery.

– The first-annual Pasadena Lifetime in Literature Award will be presented.

– The Library Foundation of Los Angeles will roll up in its Library Store on Wheels.

– The fourth-annual Pasadena Prize in Prose will be awarded to the author of the best short story by a high school student.

– Prominent California African-American authors will discuss writing in the time of Black Lives Matter with Altadena novelist and LitFest co-founder Jervey Tervalon.

– Poetry, young-adult (YA), true crime, and literary fiction writers will share their recent work.

At our fifth anniversary, we will also celebrate the great authors of past years, including: Pulitzer winners Jonathan Gold, Megan Marshall, and Daniel Walker Howe; as well as novelists Mona Simpson, Michelle Huneven, and Naomi Hirahara; poets Wanda Coleman and Brendan Constantine; poet and YA author Ron Koertge; scholar and Libros Schmibros proprietor David Kipen; L.A. mystery writer Denise Hamilton; Lalo Alcaraz, creator of the “La Cucaracha” daily comic strip; Kogi truck creator and author Roy Choi; and memoirist Jillian Lauren, author of “Some Girls: My Life in a Harem.”

For more information on participating as a sponsor, event creator or volunteer, write litfestpasadena@gmail.com or call Larry Wilson, co-founder of LitFest Pasadena at (626) 429-1739.

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