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.

Carol Muske-Dukes is the Poet Laureate of California. Her collection of poetry, "An Octave Above Thunder," was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her latest novel is Channeling Mark Twain. Joel Arquillos is the executive director at the L.A.- based nonprofit 826LA. The organization is dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their writing skills and to helping teachers inspire students to write.

Diane Luby Lane is the founder of Get Lit-Words Ignite, a program that evolved from her one-woman show, "Deep Sea Diving," which tells the story of how books saved her life. She is the author of Words of Women.

Keren Taylor is a songwriter, vocalist, poet, visual artist and the founder of WriteGirl. She has conducted more than 150 songwriting, poetry and Art & Words workshops in New York and Los Angeles for children and adults.