Nikkei Authors at L.A. Times Festival of Books

Authors and artists taking part in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, taking place this weekend on the USC campus, include the following:

Joe Ide (https://joeide.com) grew up in South Central Los Angeles. His favorite books were the Conan Doyle “Sherlock Holmes” stories. He held a variety of different jobs — including Hollywood screenwriter — before writing “IQ,” which went on to win the Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus awards for best debut novel. His latest “IQ” novel, “Wrecked,” was released late last year. He lives in Santa Monica.

April 13 at 2:30 p.m., “Crime Fiction: Hidden Truths,” Conversation 1104. With Steph Cha, Lou Berney, Jeffrey Fleishman, Tod Goldberg. Requires ticket.

Natsuko Ohama (http://natsukoohama.com/) is a professor of theatre practice in voice at the USC School of Dramatic Arts. Trained under legendary voice teacher Kristin Linklater, she is a founding member and permanent faculty member of Shakespeare and Company Lenox, Mass. She is a senior artist at Pan Asian Rep New York and was the director of training at the National Arts Center of Canada.

She has taught at numerous institutions all over North America, including the NYU Experimental Theater Wing, Cal Arts, Columbia University, the Sundance Institute, New Actors Workshop, the Wooster Group Summer Institute in New York and the Stratford Festival. Internationally, she recently taught in Shanghai, China; Stromboli, Italy; Istanbul, Turkey; and Orkney, Scotland.

She also has an extensive workshop and private teaching practice in New York and Los Angeles. She is the recipient of the Playwright’s Arena Outstanding Contribution to Los Angeles Theatre Award.

April 13 at 10:30 a.m., “The Enduring Allure of Shakespeare,” Conversation 1131, with David Bridel, Emily Anderson, Rebecca Lemon, Andy Stott. Requires ticket.

Nina Revoyr (http://ninarevoyr.com) was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a white American father, and grew up in Tokyo, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles. She is the author of five novels, most recently “A Student of History.”

Her second novel, “Southland,” was a Los Angeles Times bestseller and “Best Book of 2003,” a Book Sense 76 pick, an Edgar Award finalist, and the winner of the Ferro Grumley Award and the Lambda Literary Award. Her third book, “The Age of Dreaming,” was a finalist for the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Her fourth novel, “Wingshooters,” was published in 2011. It was a Booklist Editors Choice for 2011 and an O: Oprah Magazine’s “Book to Watch For,” and has won an Indie Booksellers Choice Award and the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award.

Until recently, Revoyr was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Children’s Institute Inc., a nonprofit that provides clinical, youth development, family support and early childhood services to children and families affected by violence and poverty in Central and South Los Angeles.\ She now works in philanthropy, as part of a comprehensive effort to improve economic mobility for low-income children and their families.

Revoyr has been an associate faculty member at Antioch University and a visiting professor at Cornell University, Occidental College, and Pitzer College. She lives in Los Angeles.

April 14 at 12:30 p.m., “Fiction: Versions of California,” Conversation 2082, with Antoine Wilson, Vanessa Hua, Lydia Kiesling, Susan Straight. Requires ticket.

Duncan Ryuken Williams (https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1038110), an ordained Buddhist priest in the Soto Zen tradition, has spent years piecing together the story of the Japanese American community during World War II. A renowned scholar of Buddhism, he has taught at the UC Berkeley, UC Irvine and Trinity College, and is now the director of the Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture at USC. He has published five other books, including “The Other Side of Zen.”

April 13 at 1:30 p.m., “Writing The Epic American History,” Conversation 1003, with Elizabeth Taylor, Anna-Lisa Cox, James Donovan. Require ticket.

April 14 at 12 p.m., “Aren’t We American? Race, Class, Immigration, and Citizenship,” Conversation 2132, with Jody Agius Vallejo, Sam Erman, Juan De Lara, Elda María Román. Requires ticket.

Kimi Yoshino (https://latimes.com/about/la-bio-kimi-yoshino-senior-deputy-managing-editor-20181019-story.html) is The Los Angeles Times’ senior deputy managing editor, overseeing sports, business, arts, entertainment and lifestyle coverage. She served as business editor for four years, following a distinguished turn as an assistant editor in Metro. Prior to becoming an editor, she was a reporter for the Metro and Business sections, and did two rotations reporting from Baghdad.

Yoshino was one of the primary editors helping guide the paper’s investigation into corruption in the city of Bell, which won the Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service in 2011. Under her tenure as business editor, the section twice received top general excellence honors from the Society of Business Editors and Writers.

Before joining The Times in 2000, Yoshino worked as a reporter at The Stockton Record and The Fresno Bee. She grew up in Modesto and attended UC Davis.

April 14 at 2 p.m., in conversation with Jen Sincero, author of “You Are a Badass Every Day,” Conversation 2103. Requires ticket.

For more information, visit: https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/