Although the Festival of Books is still a couple of months away, it’s not too early to consider registering as a volunteer to work during the Festival, which will take place Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27, at UCLA.  You get lunch, a free T-shirt, and a behind-the-scenes view of the events.  Check out the links for complete information about volunteering and an online registration form.  But don’t bother looking yet for the author lineup.  It’s usually posted in late March or early April–sometime after the Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists are announced–with tickets to panels and special events becoming available a couple of weeks in advance through Ticketmaster.  However, the presenters for the book prizes are already lined up, and probably some of them will be on panels or giving readings.  A number of the presenters are local or semi-local, e.g. Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Francesca Lia Block–two writers whose names don’t appear in the same sentence all that often!–but Mark Doty, for example, is not.  (Did I mention that Mark Doty is among the remarkable faculty lineup at Napa this summer?  Consider it mentioned.  More info here.)