'LitFest Pasadena' to Attract Talent From Eagle Rock Saturday

“When we talk about cookbooks, you’ll be eating. When we discuss the city’s pub culture, you’ll be drinking. You’ll be performing your haiku while the kids take the lead in a Shakespeare scene.”

If that sounds like your idea of fun—or too much fun—you should head over today, Saturday, to the first-ever Pasadena LitFest, a book festival, whose organizers conceived the above-stated scenarios and who certainly seem to embrace the unconventional.

The festival was initially scheduled on March 17 but had to be canceled because of heavy rain that day. It is being held in Central Park (275 S. Raymond Ave.), a few blocks south of Old Pasadena, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

Among the prominent authors participating in the festival are Janet Fitch, Gary Phillips, Jonathan Gold, Lian Dolan and Laurie Ochoa.

Eagle Rock, home to such noted authors as Mark Haskell Smith and Christopher Meeks, is also suitably represented: Jeanne Kelley, author of a new book, Salad for Dinner, and Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes, will be on food panel in the Internet age along with Joseph Shuldiner, a founder of the now-defunct Altadena Urban Farmers Market and the market manager for the . Both Kelley and Shuldiner live in The Rock.

Another local writer, Nina Revoyr, author of the 2011 novel Wingcheaters, was originally scheduled to participate in the festival back in March. A resident of Glassell Park who is a regular at and , Revoyr told Patch she will “see if I can rush to the Litfest” because she has a prior commitment to attend the 19^th Annual Festival of Women Authors in Orange County, which is also scheduled on Saturday.

Panel discussion topics at LitFest Pasadena will include 21st Century Noir; The Rise of the Graphic Novel; Local L. A. Publishers: Where New York Dominates, L.A. Innovates; The L.A. Canvas; and History, Fiction ... Truth?

The event will also feature theater, music, and poetry. Gourmet food trucks will be selling food, according to a festival news statement.