WHAT: The 19th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the largest and most prestigious public literary event in the country.

Visit http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/ and http://festivalofbooks2014.usc.edu/ for more information.

WHEN: Saturday, April 12 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday, April 13 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Numerous appearances, hundreds of panels and more than eight stages, including a USC Stage featuring:

On Saturday

10 a.m. – Festival Kickoff with the USC Trojan Marching Band and a joint welcome from Elizabeth Garrett, the university’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, and Eddy Hartenstein, Los Angeles Times publisher and CEO.

11:40 a.m. – Musci: Saved by Grace Gospel Choir

12:50 a.m. – Music: Brett Fromson

2 p.m. – Music: idesia

3:10 p.m. – Music: Malia Civetz

4:20 p.m. – Music: House Fire

5:30 p.m. – Music: Trojan Bhangra and Asli Baat

On Sunday

10:15 a.m. – Music: The Trojan Marching Band

11:40 a.m. – Music: SoCal VoCals

12:50 p.m. – Music: Fight On Figaro, LA Opera

2 p.m. – Music: Exploding Flowers

3:10 p.m. – Music: Aaron Childs

4:20 p.m. – Music: Carlton

For more, visit http://festivalofbooks2014.usc.edu/usc-events/usc-stage/

USC, home of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, is planning a number of activities that draw from its strengths in academics, literature, performing arts, health and civic engagement.

USC panels in Hoffman Hall include “Race, Justice and the Law;” “Degrees of Fictionality: Representing ‘Truth’ Across Genres,” “L.A Lives: Making, Mapping and Imagining Southern California.”

Highlights from the USC Civic Engagement booth include a workshop with illustrator Lalo Alcaraz, neighborhood author Jervey Tervalon and read alongs with authors Stephen Hodges, Erin Aubry Kaplan and Lisa Yee. The Civic Engagement booth will also be a drop-off point for new and gently used children’s books to benefit the USC Family of Schools.

Highlights from the USC Health and Wellness Pavilion include a visit from L.A. Laker and USC alum Nick Young; doctors discuss sports safety; demonstrations using watermelons and bike helmets; health screenings for skin cancer, sleep apnea and oral health. The Mobile Dental Clinic, which offers free screenings all day, will be nearby.

WHO: Hundred of authors and performers, including Hugh Acheson, Gustavo Arellano, Reza Aslan, Philip Bailey, Mayim Bialik, T.C. Boyle, LeVar Burton, Roy Choi, Sandra Cisneros, Jackie Collins, Giada de Laurentiis, Rob Delaney, Barbara Ehrenreich, John Green, Carla Hall, Daniel Handler, Robert Hilburn, Pico Iyer, Diego Luna, Chris Kluwe, Terry McMillan, B.J. Novak, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Katherine Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, Alicia Silverstone, Susan Straight, Marlo Thomas, Stephen Tobolowsky, Sandra Tsing Loh, Rachel Zoe and Adrian Todd Zuniga. A complete list can be found on the L.A. Times website here: http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/fob-authors/

WHERE: USC University Park Campus, just south of the 10 (Santa Monica) Freeway and west of the 110 (Harbor) Freeway. The USC campus is accessible via the new L.A. Metro Expo line.

PARKING: $10 per day in various USC-area parking lots. In addition, there are several public transit options available, including the free Bullseye Bus that will run continuously between Union Station and USC. More details, including a parking map, can be found here: http://festivalofbooks2014.usc.edu/attending-the-festival/

Click to see the L.A. Times Festival of Books at USC video.

Click to watch the video of the winning entry from the USC Thornton School of Music song writing contest for the Los Angeles Times  Festival of Books.

OTHER: This is the 19th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the largest and most prestigious public literary event in North America. The free weekend of activities has become an L.A. institution, evolving to encompass more than 400 award-winning and celebrity authors and chefs, local musicians, political experts and entertainers engaging in stimulating debates, the exploration of entrepreneurial ideas and revelry under the California sun.

The lineup of authors and performers is set to participate in the annual celebration of ideas, creativity and the written word April 12-13 at USC. Held in the heart of one of the world’s most culturally vibrant and diverse cities and drawing more than 150,000 attendees, the festival — for the first time ever — called on local artists, comedians, musicians, photographers and poets to join The Times’ “Inspire Us” contest and upload their work for a chance to make the leap from audience to stage at this year’s event.

New and of note this year:

• Artists’ Row: In a nod to the Southland’s thriving fine art community, the festival will include a hand-selected group of artists from several genres creating installations live on site. And they will be joined by one aspiring creator discovered through “Inspire Us.”

• L.A. Times Photo Pop-Up Gallery: The award-winning newspaper’s visual storytelling team will showcase recent work, with a spot reserved for an “Inspire Us” shutterbug.

• Pop & Hiss Stage: In collaboration with Spaceland Presents, this year’s music stage will host a variety of emerging bands as well as an artist and emcee selected through the “Inspire Us” music and comedy submissions.

• Poetry Stage: One of literature’s oldest art forms and the festival’s longest-running stages will get a hit of street style with an “Inspire Us”-picked performance poet.

• Festival After Dark, which extends the Festival of Books into the evening hours with a live performance of American Public Media’s Wits on April 12. Special guests Margaret Cho, Superchunk and Will Sheff (of Okkervil River). Host John Moe introduces an evening of improv, sketch comedy, conversation and music as the popular public radio program is recorded for air.  For tickets, latimes.com/festivalafterdark.

Seating for all Conversations is limited and requires tickets. For more information, http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/fob-tickets/

Programming updates will be available at the Festival website, Facebook page and @latimesfob Twitter feed.  To join in the conversation use the #bookfest hashtag.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is presented in association with USC and major sponsor Chevrolet.