Fiction: The Big Picture (2009): Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

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.

Nicholas Delbanco is the author of more than 20 books; his newest title is The Count of Concord. Delbanco is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Writing Fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts.

Ron Carlson is the award-winning author of four story collections, including At the Jim Bridger and The Hotel Eden. His latest novel is The Signal. Carlson is director of UC Irvine's MFA fiction writing program.

Antonya Nelson is the author of eight books of fiction, including Female Trouble, Living to Tell, and most recently, Nothing Right. Nelson's work has appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Harper's and Redbook. The New Yorker called Nelson one of the "20 young fiction writers for the new millennium".

Marisa Silver has written a collection of award-winning short stories called Babe in Paradise as well as No Direction Home, her debut novel. Silver's latest novel, The God of War, was nominated for a 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction.