Big names and big dreams dominate second day of L.A. Times Festival of Books

Books quite literally surrounded Stacey Abrams as a child.

The daughter of a reference librarian, she would attend daycare on the campus where her mother worked. The child-care center closed before her mother got off work, so Abrams would nap in the library stacks.

Her mother read to her and her five siblings throughout the week, and on Fridays, their father, a shipyard worker, would entertain the kids with his own fantastical stories — “a G-rated version of ‘Game of Thrones,’ ” the two-time Georgia gubernatorial candidate said.

Because of her mother’s read-aloud books and her father’s extraordinary stories, the voting rights activist “grew up with a steep love, not only of reading but storytelling,” she told a rapt crowd Sunday afternoon at the 43rd Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

That love has propelled the politico's side career as an author — a career that includes romantic suspense novels written under a pseudonym, a political thriller, two nonfiction books and, more recently, children’s books.

It was her latest picture book, “Stacey’s Remarkable Books,” that brought Abrams to the second day of the annual fair on the campus of the University of Southern California. But hers was hardly the only love story with the written word to dominate the weekend.

Over the course of two days, tens of thousands of people meandered the leafy university campus, attending panels and purchasing and browsing countless books.

The festival bills itself as the biggest literary event in the country.

As Abrams bantered with Times columnist Erika D. Smith from the main stage, fans spilled out far beyond the audience tent, filling grassy areas on either side and lining the edge of a nearby fountain. They clapped and squinted in the sun, snapping photos on iPhones and excitedly whispering commentary to friends.

Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine), a Senate candidate and author of the memoir "I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan," received a similarly enthralled reception Sunday morning, when Times political correspondent Melanie Mason interviewed her in front of several hundred people in a basement auditorium.

"She's one of the most entertaining and lively members of Congress," said Sidney Stern, a high school senior from Los Angeles.

"I'm actually a romance reader, so I came here for that," Stern added, clutching a paperback she'd been reading while waiting for Porter to sign her T-shirt. "But me and my mom are really big fans of Katie."

Held the same weekend as another arts festival some 130 miles east in the Coachella Valley, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books draws a different type of star power.

In addition to Abrams and Porter, big names in attendance included culture critic Roxane Gay; “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" author Gabrielle Zevin; crime writing legends James Ellroy, Michael Connelly and Walter Mosley; beloved children's author Lois Lowry; and acclaimed novelists Ottessa Moshfegh and Rachel Kushner.

(And the other festival doesn't have a monopoly on musical talent: Legends like Susanna Hoffs and Joan Baez were among the many lyrical talents at the book fest.)

When California's new poet laureate, Lee Herrick, recited "My California," his best-known work, from the poetry stage, the stanzas had a hypnotic effect on the throngs. A boisterous group of college-age boys walking past the tent stopped suddenly and stared, transfixed as Herrick delivered his melodious vision of the state, rich with imagery of the Central Valley.

"What a nice little mental sorbet," a woman remarked to her daughter of Herrick's poems, as the pair exited the realm of poetry and made their way into the maze of white booths.

There were plenty of well-known publishers and independent bookstores represented. But many booths spoke to an individual writer's dream, chased hard, then offered to the masses — typically with a small bowl of candy or free stickers to draw in potential readers.

By day, Marina Flores works as a marketing manager for a luxury furniture company. But this weekend, she was able to fully embrace her identity as a poet, manning a booth where she sold roughly 70 copies of her first collection, "A Journal Entry."

Many potential customers were drawn in by the rainbow pride flags adorning either side of Flores' booth — a fitting siren call for a personal work that touches on themes of queer identity.

The booth was not cheap, she said, but a worthy investment as she builds her brand and name as a poet.

On the other side of the festival, Élan Marché assured a potential reader that the self-published fantasy series she co-authored with her husband, Christopher Warman, was "less witches and wizards and more kind of a rune-based magical system."

Like Flores, Marché and Warman both have day jobs (corporate real estate administration and cable network employee, respectively). But their festival booth — sparsely decorated with laminated copies of the world map from their series — has allowed them to connect with countless readers, build relationships and sell dozens of books.

"We just kind of decided we wanted to get our face out there and interface with some of our actual readers directly," Marché said.

The festive atmosphere was interrupted Sunday evening when a melee broke out at the En Español stage, where controversial archaeologist Richard Hansen — who has spent decades excavating a vast Mayan complex in Guatemala — was being interviewed by L.A. Times En Español editorial director Alejandro Maciel, whose Column One about Hansen’s research was published this year in The Times.

About 15 masked protesters rushed the small stage, shouting, “This is stolen land” and “F— imperialism." A tussle broke out between the demonstrators and event crew members who were trying to clear the stage, and one person was arrested for battery, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Reed Johnson and Laura Newberry contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.