UC Riverside faculty and alumni authors are set to appear at the 31st annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the largest book festival in the country, which runs April 18-19. 

For the second year in a row, UCR’s Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA Program is sponsoring the festival, which takes place at the University of Southern California. Representatives of the program will be on hand both days at Booth 134, hosting giveaways and contests and conducting information sessions for prospective students.

Some 150,000 people are expected to attend this year’s festival, with more than 500 authors and celebrities taking part in events.

UCR faculty members and alumni who will be speaking on panels, signing books, and reading from their work are:

• Tod Goldberg, founder and director of the Palm Desert MFA program, whose novel “Only Way Out” is a finalist for the 2025 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction. The winner will be announced at a ceremony that kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday, April 17, in Bovard Auditorium (tickets required). Goldberg is also appearing at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18, in Taper Hall 101 on a panel titled Law & Disorder: The Contemporary Crime Procedural (tickets required) and will be signing copies of “Only Way Out” at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at the Mystery Writers of America booth (Booth 360).

• Allison Benis White, a professor, will read from her most recent collection of poetry, “A Magnificent Loneliness” — a finalist for the 2025 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry, the recipient of which will also be announced during the April 17 ceremony — at 11:20 a.m. Saturday, April 18, at the Poetry Stage.

• Elizabeth Crane, an adjunct associate professor, will appear on a panel titled From the Terrible to the Beautiful to Surreal: Short Stories with Long Shadows (tickets required) at 12 p.m. Sunday, April 19, in Taper Hall 201.

• Susan Straight, a distinguished professor, will participate on a panel titled The Epicenter: Novels that Deal with the Aftermath (tickets required) at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 19, in Hoffman Hall at Edison Auditorium.

• David Ulin, an adjunct associate professor and the Los Angeles Times’ former book editor, will moderate a panel titled Brooklyn Revisited: Jay McInerney, Adam Ross, and the Enduring Legacy of New York City in Fiction (tickets required) at 12 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at Town and Gown.

• Natashia Deon, an alumna, will appear on a panel titled Jury of Your Peers: Secrets in Love and Friendship in Crime Fiction (tickets required), at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18, in Taper Hall 201. 

• Reza Aslan, a professor, will participate on a panel titled Raising Gen Alpha: Parenting Today (tickets required) at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, April 19, at Wallis Annenberg Hall.

• Jaime Parker Stickle, an alumna, will sign copies of her thriller “Vicious Cycle” at 12 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at the Mystery Writers of America booth (Booth 360).

• Megan Jauregui Eccles, an alumna, will sign copies of her novel, “Sing the Night,” at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at the Mysterious Galaxy booth (Booth 368).

• Jesenia Chavez, an alumna, will sign copies of her poetry collection, “This Poem Might Save You (Me),” at 12 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at the Alegria Publishing booth (Booth 008).

• Matthew Johnson, an alumnus, will be representing his small press, Untold Stories, both days at Booth 055.