Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

McNamara was named assistant managing editor for arts and entertainment in 2016. She was previously the television critic and senior culture editor. A Pulitzer Prize winner in 2015 and finalist for criticism in 2013 and 2014, she has won various awards for criticism and feature writing... Read More →

Ali is television critic of the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she was a senior writer for the Calendar section where she covered culture at large, entertainment and American Muslim issues. Ali is an award-winning journalist and Los Angeles native who has written in publications ranging... Read More →

Chang is a film critic for the Los Angeles Times and a regular contributor to NPR's "Fresh Air Weekend" and "FilmWeek." Before joining The Times, he was chief film critic at Variety. He is the author of the book "FilmCraft: Editing" and serves as chair of the National Society of Film... Read More →

Hawthorne has been the architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times since 2004. Before coming to The Times, he was architecture critic for Slate and a frequent contributor to the New York Times. He is the author, with Alanna Stang, of “The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable... Read More →

Knight is art critic for the Los Angeles Times. He is a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism (1991, 2001 and 2007). Knight received the 1997 Frank Jewett Mather Award for distinction in art criticism from the College Art Assn., becoming the first journalist to win... Read More →

Wood writes about pop music in all its ever-quickening splendor. Prior to joining the Los Angeles Times in 2012, he was a freelance contributor to Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Spin and the Village Voice. He grew up in Little Rock, Ark., graduated from Northwestern University... Read More →