The 15th Nantucket Book Festival, taking place June 11 to 14, has announced a slate of well-known authors who will be appearing and presenting at the 2026 event. Featured authors at this year’s festival include award-winning and beloved novelist Ann Patchett; Jenna Bush Hager, co-host of TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle and the founder of the wildly popular Read with Jenna Book Club; Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of the novel Empire Falls; Ruta Sepetys, Carnegie Medal Winner and best-selling author of historical fiction and the Nantucket Book Foundation’s 2025 Fall Visiting Author in Schools; Marlon James, winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings; Nicholas Boggs, best-selling author of Baldwin: A Love Story; ; Norah O’Donnell, award-winning journalist and author of We the Women; Belle Burden, author of Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage; Julian Brave Noisecat, author of We Survived the Night, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, champion powwow dancer, and student of Salish art and history; and authors of two of the most celebrated novels of 2025: Patrick Ryan, author of Buckeye, and Angela Flournoy, author of The Wilderness.
Additional authors who will present June 11 -14 are Liaquat Ahamed, Dr. Joshua Bennett, Emma Brodie, Juliet Faithfull, Isaac Fitzgerald, Shannon Garvey, Julie Gerstenblatt, Alice Hoffman, Mitchell S. Jackson, Pamela Kelley, Kyleigh Leddy, Vanessa Riley, Lois Romano, Julian Sancton, Jamie Siminoff, James Sulzer, Adriana Trigiani, Rick Tulsky, John Vaillant, and Laura Zigman.
A few more authors may be added in the coming weeks. For more information on all the 2026 Nantucket Book Festival authors, visit the Nantucket Book Festival website.
The Nantucket Book Festival Literary Committee works tirelessly to bring diverse voices to our island community for the annual event, ones that capture the full human experience and celebrate the transformative power of literature. The full roster of renowned authors represents a vast array of subjects and genres, from literary fiction to memoir to biography and more!
The Nantucket Book Festival, celebrating its 15th Anniversary, has established itself as a major summer destination for book lovers with impressive and eclectic line-ups of award-winning authors. The four-day Festival, June 11th – 14th, with a special extra preview event featuring new Nantucket fiction on Wednesday evening June 10, will offer author readings, panel discussions and social events in an informal atmosphere that encourages conversations between writers and readers. Most festival events are free and held within walking distance of the ferries. Visit the Insiders Guide to Nantucket to plan your trip to our island.
Full event schedule and tickets for the Friday night Author Dinner presented by The White Elephant will be available at nantucketbookfestival.org in April. For a complete reading list of books by participating authors, visit https://nantucketbookpartners.com/list/nantucket-book-festival-2026
The Nantucket Book Festival operates under the Nantucket Book Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded to celebrate and promote the joys and rewards of reading and writing. The organization seeks to present an annual quality program that honors national, regional, and local authors and the rich culture of the written word, ideas, and the imagination.
The Nantucket Book Foundation runs literacy programs and author events year-round, working together with island educators, organizations and businesses to celebrate the enduring power of books to teach, transport and connect us to one another. For more information visit www.nantucket book festival.org.
