LitFest Pasadena, the second largest literary festival in Southern California, was cancelled in 2020 as the CDC and California authorities advised against large on-site gatherings.
This time, the 9th annual free community event, featuring over 200 authors and over 50 panels, workshops, readings and performances, will be virtual on Saturday and Sunday, May 15 and 16, with events scheduled from 12 noon to 6 p.m. on both days.
LitFest Pasadena has traditionally been an avenue for authors and community members to celebrate literature of all kinds, to instill a love of reading and writing, and to provide a public intersection of dialogue around the variety of topics and ideas that books inspire.
Produced by Light Bringer Project, a Pasadena-based nonprofit arts and education organization, LitFest has been held in the City’s historic Playhouse District and has involved events at Vroman’s Bookstore, Zona Rosa Cafe, Red Hen Press, and many other local arts venues and establishments around the Playhouse District.
This time, all events will be online and accessible on YouTube, Facebook, and on LitFest Pasadena’s own website. It will feature 12 live streams of panel discussions covering multiple genres, writing and craft, publishing, and current essential topics.
It will also include 12 10-minute interludes in between the live streams. These interludes include pre-recorded mini-interviews and “in conversation” segments; poetry readings from traditional LitFest locations as well as from unusual places; and literary, sci-fi, and Locavore Lit LA readings.
If you’re the viewer, you’re not required to be seen on screen, and you’re not even required to register! So you can just curl up on the couch in your favorite pajamas, and watch all day long.
Saturday’s line-up opens with a panel, Stories of the New Unionism, where activist writers and educators offer inspiring context on the recent struggles to secure labor justice, telling stories, revisiting history, critiquing and celebrating the resurgence of a birthright tradition. This panel will feature moderator Mia McIver, Arlene Inouye, Carolina Miranda, Christine O’Connell, Todd Wolfson and Lindsay Zafir.
At 1 p.m., Our SoCal DNA will explain how location affects how, when, where, and what is written. Panelists – Ryka Aoki, Aimee Bender, Natasha Deon, Deborah A. Lott, Luis Rodriguez, Michael Torres – will discuss how SoCal influences the work and literary community from across Los Angeles. Monica Fernandez is moderating.
Our Culinary Table follows at 2 p.m., where Elisa Callow and Bill Esparza converse with award-winning journalist and LA chronicler Val Zavala, and look beyond the trends to celebrate the multitude of food cultures represented in SoCal.
Writing While Black will include Donnell Alexander, Rachel Harper, Keenan Norris, Kia Penso, Lisa Teasley and Jervey Tervalon as they talk about writing as black folks in the community.
Graphic Description comes on at 4 p.m. and discusses graphic novels – with comics creatives – from the mechanics of putting one together to matters of inclusivity and representation. This will feature BOOM! Studios’ Shannon Watters, Josh Trujillo, Amanda Meadows, and Pamela Ribon, along with Carly Usdin, Mariah-Rose Marie, and moderator Gary Phillips.
Finally, Speculative Los Angeles, at 5 p.m., will have Denise Hamilton, Lynell George, Kathleen Kaufman, and Duane Swierczynski as they discuss inspiration and process for writing sci-fi and fantasy fiction, as well as their recently published “Speculative Los Angeles” short story anthology.
For a list of upcoming interludes for Saturday and instructions on how to watch them, visit www.litfestpasadena.org/
