The 4th Annual Nantucket Book Festival is bringing a stellar roster of authors to Nantucket on June 19-21. For three days, booklovers will gather in historic Nantucket venues for a series of author readings, panel discussions, and social events that provide opportunities for casual conversations between writers and readers. Most events are free.
There are 7 ticketed events during Book Fest, including breakfast while Alice Hoffman and Jodi Picoult interview each other, a demo by cookbook author Sarah Leah Chase, joint reading with Elin Hilderbrand and Jane Green, brunch with Ishmael Beah, a chat with author Nat Philbrick, and a Pig Roast at Cisco Brewers to wrap the Festival. Tickets can be purchase at nantucketbookfestival.org, and prices range from $35 to $75, depending on the event. At press time, one of the ticketed events was already sold out.
Among the 28 participating authors for this year’s Festival are Scott Turow, master of the legal thriller; Anita Diamant (The Red Tent, The Boston Girl); Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran, The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books); Ishmael Beah (A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier); Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon; Bret Anthony Johnston (Corpus Christi, Remember Me Like This); Alice Hoffman (The Museum of Extraordinary Things, Nightbird), and Nathaniel Philbrick (In the Heart of the Sea, Bunker Hill). Literary genres represented include fiction, memoirs, biography, poetry, and a this year there is a strong contingent of authors in the children’s and young adult categories.
In addition to the ticketed events, author readings, and interviews, the Festival will host an outdoor exhibit of 60+ local authors selling and signing their books and Authors in Bars.
The Festival seeks to create and renew enthusiasm for books, connect authors with readers, and encourage a love of reading and writing. For a complete listing of participating authors, as well as up-to-date details on all weekend events, visit nantucketbookfestival.org.