Save on book purchases, support literacy, meet authors, get your books signed. Visit the Levantine Cultural Center at the 10th annual West Hollywood Book Fair, which features 25,000 GUESTS * 300 AUTHORS & ARTISTS * 13 STAGES 125 EXHIBITORS * PANELS & PERFORMANCES FOR ALL AGES. This year, many of the Book Fair panels and events will take place in the brand new West Hollywood Library, solidifying its place as a community gathering space. Libraries are centers of the community and the West Hollywood Library is the center of the Book Fair.

1:00-1:45 pm, Remi Kanazi signs Poetic Injustice: Writings on Resistance and Palestine
1:45-2:30 pm, Maria Armoudian, Kill the Messenger: The Media's Role in the Fate of the World
2:30-3:00 pm, Reza Aslan, No god But God, Beyond Fundamentalism, Tablet & Pen
3:00-4:00 pm, Chris Cryer, Tolstoy in Riyadh-A Story of a Teacher and Her Muse

10th annual West Hollywood Book Fair

Maria Armoudian will sign copies of her new book on the media, Kill the Messenger. "Kill the Messenger clearly demonstrates how media help to shape beliefs, societies, and policies that impact the fate of the world. It's a must read for everyone who cares about the welfare of humanity and the planet itself." —Ed Begley Jr., actor and environmental steward.

Reza Aslan will sign copies of his bestselling books No god But God, Beyond Fundamentalism and the literary anthology he edited, Tablet & Pen, as well as the Iran "Green Movement" anthology, The People Reloaded.

Reza Aslan, Maria Armoudian, Chris Cryer, Remi Kanazi: (left to right)Chris Cryer presents and signs her new novel, Tolstoy in Riyadh-A Story of a Teacher and Her Muse, in which a female expatriate, working in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, finds a sense of connection where she least expects it. This is a fast-moving, slightly comic, always fascinating adventure that pulls us directly into the journey. "A good read that presents a new perspective on Saudi life. You meet real Saudis in compelling situations. By one of the first expatriates to see Riyadh with an open mind and heart." —Ferial Masry, recent Arab American politico, former ABC News Person of the Week.

And provocative Palestinian American spoken word poet Remi Kanazi presents his book Poetic Injustice, with several poems criticizing Israel's occupation of the West Bank and siege of Gaza.

Visit Levantine Cultural Center booths B26 and B27. Free refreshments with every purchase!

More About the Authors

Maria Armoudian is a fellow at the University of Southern California's Center for International Studies, the host and producer of the Pacifica Radio programs The Scholars' Circle and The Insighters, and a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California. She served as an environmental commissioner for the city of Los Angeles for five years and in the California State Legislature for eight years, working on environmental protection, government oversight, poverty reduction, civil rights, and corporate reform legislation. Her articles have been published by the New York Times Syndicate and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and have appeared in Salon.com, Alternet, the Los Angeles Daily News, the Progressive, Inc. 

Dr. Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is the founder of AslanMedia.com, an online journal for news and entertainment about the Middle East and the world. Reza Aslan has degrees in Religions from Santa Clara University, Harvard University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He serves on the board of directors of the Ploughshares Fund, which gives grants for peace and security issues; Abraham's Vision, an educational, conflict transformation organization for Israeli and Palestinian youths; PEN USA, which champions the rights of writers under siege around the world; and the Levantine Cultural Center, which builds bridges between Americans and the Arab/Muslim world through the arts.  

Chris Cryer teaches English at Ventura College in California. She has written and edited for an L.A. Arab news magazine, was principal of a Muslim school, freelanced reviews for L.A. Cityzine, the L.A. Times, the Levantine Review, and published a memoir in Damazine, a Syrian journal. This is her first book, a work of the heart, a tribute to her favorites: Tolstoy, the Saudis, and her son. 

Remi Kanazi lives in New York City and has performed xtensively in the US, the UK and the Middle East. He has appeared in the New York Arab American Comedy festival, the Palestine Festival of Literature and Poetry International. His commentaries have been featured in Al Jazeera English, GRITtv with Laura Flanders, BBC Radio, the Jerusalem Times, CounterPunch and other media outlets. Kanazi is also the co-founder of the web site poeticinjustice.net and author of the newly released book, Poetic Injustice: Writings on Resistance and Palestine.