Now in its seventh year, the Nantucket Book Festival has established itself as a major summer destination for book lovers with impressive and eclectic line-ups of award-winning authors. The three-day Festival, June 15-17, will offer author readings, panel discussions and social events in an informal atmosphere that encourages conversations between writers and readers. Most of the Festival events are free and held within walking distance of the ferries.
Some highlights of this year’s Festival include presentations by acclaimed mystery writer LOUISE PENNEY, who will be appear at a solo event as well as a ticketed luncheon at the Nantucket Hotel with fellow author and friend LINDA FAIRSTEIN; National Book Award winner ANDREW SOLOMON, whose most recent book Far and Away: How Travel Can Change the World was named a New York Times Best Book of the Year; MIN JIN LEE, whose books Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko are national bestsellers; and JOE HAGAN, whose eagerly anticipated book Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine is an insider’s trip through the back stages of storied concert venues, rock-star hotel rooms, and the political ups and downs of the latter half of the Twentieth Century. Nathaniel Philbrick, the island’s favorite literary son, will be discussing his reissued memoir Second Wind: A Sunfish Sailor, An Island, and the Voyage that Brought a Family Together. Crowd favorites ALICE HOFFMAN, ELIN HILDERBRAND, and DIANE ACKERMAN will be returning to the Festival as well.
New this year, the Festival is adding two events on Thursday, June 14: “A Nantucket Wedding” at Le Languedoc Restaurant featuring NANCY THAYER, and “Authors in Bars,” everyone’s chance to rub elbows with their favorite authors over drinks, at the Nantucket Hotel.
Other authors who will be participating represent a variety of genres and subjects including mystery, science, memoir, history, poetry, biography, economics, cooking, and conservation. A complete listing of authors to date is at www.nantucketbookfestival.org.
To highlight the active literary community on the island, the Festival will host an outdoor tent in the Nantucket Atheneum garden of local authors selling and signing their books during the weekend. There will be storytimes for children, and poetry on demand from The Typewriter Rodeo, the group of Austin-based poets who will write free poems on any subject for patrons (and who will be presenting about their new book.)
Other events include the Friday evening Author’s Dinner at the White Elephant Resort which is a fundraiser for the Festival (tickets will be available in late April), and the annual Cisco Brewers Send Off event on Sunday afternoon replete with authors, food and entertainment.