I attended the two-day Festival of Books in Los Angeles and the USC Campus.
It was a two-day filled event with panels, sellers, book signings, and eating. It was my first time and I will so be back with more books read! Below are the conversations I went to and the books related to them are at the bottom.
Drawn to Life: A Conversation on Graphic Novels
- Speakers: Henry Barajas, Eagle Valiant Brosi, Anders Brekhus Nilsen, Mimi Pond, Angie Wang
- Topic: Step inside the real world like you’ve never seen it before. These beautifully illustrated graphic novels are based on true events or popular myths, and each artist has reinvented their story with new, fresh eyes. We travel back in time with the Mitford sisters, discover the world of Appalachia through a young artist, revisit the Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial and the Zoot Suit Riots during 1943 wartime Los Angeles, and re-examine the myth of Prometheus in a contemporary light.
Food and Immigration in LA and Beyond
- Speakers: Tien Nguyen, Sarah Portnoy, Gustavo Arellano, Mark Padoongpatt
- Topic: The culinary and cultural landscape of Los Angeles is shaped by immigrant and diasporic communities. In turn, our food cultures help build connections across communities. Leading voices in food writing, history, and food justice will come together to explore the relationship between migration, food, labor, placemaking, politics, and identity in Los Angeles and beyond.
Legends are Real: Folklore, Fairy Tales, and Mythical Interpretations in Speculative Fiction and Horror
- Speakers: Jordan Kurella, Catriona Ward, Maryelizabeth Yturralde, Stephen Graham Jones
- Topic: Two children set off in the pitch-black night, fleeing their troubled home. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor, is discovered within a wall and reveals an American Indian revenge story. A mountain on the brink of demise tries to negotiate its place in the world of the living. These speculative stories give new life to familiar folkloric tales, legends, superstitions, and fairy tales.
The Surreal Life: SciFi That Blurs the Lines Between Humans and Their Creations
- Speakers: Silvia Park, SB Divya, Nnedi Okorafor, Ben H. Winters
- Topic: Two science fiction authors realize that their imagined worlds are slowly bleeding into reality, affecting not only their personal lives–and survival–but possibly the entire future of humanity. Two siblings in a future Korea also find their reality blurring with their creations–but this time the line between human and robot is called into question. These powerful stories interrogate human creativity in a world that already feels largely surreal and fabricated, and they are a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it.
Nature or Nurture: How Humans and AI Are Changing Each Other
- Adam Becker, Joanne McNeil, Cory Doctorow, Lucas Cantor Santiago
- Topic: Are humans changing AI, or is AI changing us? The answer is yes. These authors explore the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence as it continues to upend our everyday lives. Can artists ever really work with AI in a productive, ethical way, and what does that mean for art at large? With deepfakes and other image-editing technology running rampant, are women in more danger than ever before? Have the quality of the Internet and the programs we depend on been degraded to a point beyond repair?
The Epicenter: Novels that Deal with the Aftermath – Tickets Required
- Speakers: Michelle Huneven, Susan Straight, Bruce Holsinger, Sophia Kercher, Lisa Lee
- Topic: A community of nurses in the California desert trying to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. A family rocked by the AI that was supposed to make their lives easier. A family suddenly tasked with the surprise child of their deceased loved one. Each of these stories centers around a community dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy, a choice, or a so-called “act of God” that threatens to unravel everything they thought they knew.