Poetry

Behind the Mask (2009): Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

By: Frank Bidart, John Felstiner, Marie Howe

Narrated by: David St. John

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.

David St. John has been the recipient of many significant honors for poets, including a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His most recent work is American Hybrid.

Frank Bidart has published five books of poetry. Watching the Spring Festival: Poems is a finalist for the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry. Bidart has also been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

John Felstiner, a professor at Stanford University, is a winner of the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Criticism, among other awards. Felstiner's latest title is Can Poetry Save the Earth! A Field Guide to Nature Poems.

Marie Howe is the author of The Good Thief and What the Living Do. Her latest book of poems is The Kingdom of Ordinary Time, a 2008 finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry.

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