Publishing

The Big Picture (2009): Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

By: George Gibson, David Kipen, Bonnie Nadell

Narrated by: Kit Rachlis

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 130,000 book lovers each year.

Kit Rachlis became the editor-in-chief of Los Angeles magazine in 2000. Under his direction, the magazine has been nominated for six National Magazine Awards. He has served as a senior projects editor at the Los Angeles Times, editor-in-chief at LA Weekly, and executive editor at the Village Voice.

George Gibson is the publisher of Walker & Co., a division of Bloomsbury USA. He has edited and published many prolific authors, including Dava Sobel, Mark Kurlansky, Ross King, and M. G. Lord.

David Kipen is the author of The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewrite of American Film History and now the translator of Cervantes' The Dialogue of the Dogs. He is also the National Endowment of the Arts' director of literature, where he directs the Big Read.

Bonnie Nadell is the cofounder of the Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Literary Agency. The agency handles legal thrillers, literary fiction, commercial fiction, journalistic books, high-end cookbooks, and style books. This agency's client list includes Richard North Patterson and Rebecca Solnit, among others.

©2009 Los Angeles Times (P)2009 Los Angeles Times