The 5th annual Nantucket Book Festival, held this year from June 17 to 19, is offering a new “Bookends Package” featuring an opening night Authors Dinner with a cocktail hour, buffet, and what promises to be stimulating conversation, in a ticket that includes a closing morning Breakfast with U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, whose last three collections have broken sales records for poetry.
Both events are being hosted at the harborside Brant Point Grill in The White Elephant. Tickets are still available at NantucketBookFestival.org for these and other special Book Fest events.
Most of the more than three dozen author talks and festival activities are free, and, at press time, seven of the ticketed events were not yet sold out.
The fun begins at 8:30 am on Friday, June 17 and continues morning, afternoon, and evening throughout the weekend. The Opening Night Celebration at 7pm on June 17, will feature Billy Collins and Diane Rehm discussing the power of literature to offer hope, understanding, and courage during difficult times. Held in the Unitarian Meeting House on Orange Street, this event is free, but space is limited.
At 6 pm on Sunday, June 19, the 2016 Festival will end with authors Marlon James, Diane Ackerman, and Nathaniel Philbrick discussing the process of transforming books to film. This ticketed event will be held in the Nantucket Whaling Museum and followed by a wine reception.
Participating authors this year include 2015 Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James, Billy Collins, Diane Rehm, Sebastian Junger, Matt Gallagher, Emmy Sky, J. Kael Weston, Geraldine Brooks, Jack Gantos, Alice Hoffman, Elin Hilderbrand, Ann Leary, Nathaniel Philbrick, Steven Axelrod, Laurie David, Diane Ackerman, Amy Adams, Kathryn Brownell, Stephanie Clifford, Mark Doty, Smith Henderson, T. Geronimo Johnson, Jake Klim, Frances Karttunen, Anthony Marra, Richard Michelson, Valzhyna Mort, Michael Patrick O’Neill, Evan Osnos, Steve Sheppard, Michael Ruhlman, Barbara Ann White, and Nancy Thayer.