Diane Ackerman Amy Adams Geraldine Brooks Billy Collins Mark Doty Matt Gallagher Jack Gantos Smith5th HendersonAnnual Alice Hoffman Marlon James T. Geronimo Johnson Sebastian Junger Ann Leary Anthony Marra Richard Michelson Valzhyna Mort Michael Patrick O’Neill Evan Osnos Nathaniel Philbrick Diane Rehm Michael Ruhlman Emma Sky Richard Michelson
NANTUCKET, MA June 17 - 19, 2016 Welcome
In marking our fifth year of the Nantucket Book Festival, we are thrilled with where we have come and where we are set to go. What began as an adventurous idea to celebrate the written word on Nantucket has grown exponentially to become a gathering of some of the most dynamic writers and speakers in the world. The island has a rich literary tradition, and we are proud that the Nantucket Book Festival is championing this cultural imperative for the next generation of writers and readers.
Look no further than the Book Festival’s PEN Faulkner Writers in Schools program or our Young Writer Award to see the seeds of the festival bearing fruit. Most recently, we’ve added a visiting author program to our schools, reaffirming to our students that though they may live on an island, there is truly no limit to their imaginations.
Like any good story, the Nantucket Book Festival hopes to keep you intrigued, inspired, and engaged. This is a community endeavor, dedicated to enriching the lives of everyone who attends. We are grateful for all of your support and cannot wait to share with you the next chapter in this exciting story.
With profound thanks, The Nantucket Book Festival Team Mary Bergman · Meghan Blair-Valero · Dick Burns · Annye Camara Rebecca Chapa · Rob Cocuzzo · Tharon Dunn · Marsha Egan Jack Fritsch · Josh Gray · Mary Haft · Maddie Hjulstrom Wendy Hudson · Amy Jenness · Bee Shay · Ryder Ziebarth
Table of Contents Book Signing...... 1 Weekend at a Glance ...... 16-17 Schedules: Friday...... 2-3 Map of Events...... 18-19 Saturday...... 4-5 Local & Notable Authors. . . . 20-26 Sunday...... 6 Writing Contest & Story Time. . . . 27 Featured Authors...... 8-13 Typewriter Rodeo & Authors in Bars. 28 Presenting Authors...... 14-15 Nantucket Bookworks Friday, June 17 1:30 - 2:00 PM Rich Michelson More Money Than God; S is for Sea Glass and more 2:30 - 3:00 PM Jack Gantos The Trouble in Me and more
Saturday, June 18 10:30 - 11:00 AM Geraldine Brooks The Secret Chord 11:30 - 12:00 Noon Billy Collins Aimless Love 12:30 - 1:00 PM Amy Adams Tagged Michael Patrick O’Neill Wild Waters Photo Journal and more 1:30 - 2:00 PM Smith Henderson Fourth of July Creek 3:30 - 4:00 PM T. Geronimo Johnson Welcome to Braggsville
Sunday, June 19 10:30 - 11:00 AM Matt Gallagher Youngblood 11:30 - 12:00 Noon J. Kael Weston The Mirror Test
Mitchell’s Book Corner Friday, June 17 11:00 - 12:00 PM Alice Hoffman The Marriage of Opposites 12:00 - 12:30 PM Ann Leary The Children 1:00 - 1:30 PM Evan Osnos Age of Ambition 2:00 - 2:30 PM Anthony Marra The Tsar of Love and Techno 3:00 - 3:30 PM Mark Doty Deep Lane 4:00 - 4:30 PM Emma Sky The Unraveling
Saturday, June 18 10:00 - 10:30 AM Valzhyna Mort Factory of Tears 11:00 - 11:30 AM Stephanie Clifford Everybody Rise 12:00 - 1:00 PM Nathaniel Philbrick Valiant Ambition 1:00 - 1:30 PM Diane Ackerman The Human Age 2:00 - 2:30 PM Diane Rehm On My Own 3:00 - 3:30 PM Sebastian Junger Tribe
Sunday, June 19 10:00 - 10:30 AM Michael Ruhlman How to Saute; In Short Measures 11:00 - 11:30 AM Marlon James A Brief History of Seven Killings
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 1 Friday, June 17
Great Hall Atheneum 8:30 am • Alice Hoffman and Ann Leary 1:30 pm • Emma Sky Breakfast • Ticketed Event with Michael Schulder Sponsored by The Green The Unraveling: Emma Sky Alice Hoffman and Ann Leary: Family Ties with Michael Schulder These two powerhouse novelists and Nantucket Entering the rubble of the war in Iraq as a Middle Festival favorites join us again to discuss their East expert, Emma Sky became an invaluable newest novels. Hoffman’s The Marriage of political advisor to an American general on the Opposites details the union of the parents of ground from 2007 to 2010. Now the Director Claude Pissarro, an exotic, tumultuous pairing. of Senior Fellows at Yale, Sky’s award-winning Leary’s The Children is a portrait of a proper memoir The Unraveling provides remarkable WASP family whose children, now adults, insight to the Middle East, specifically the state struggle with themselves and each other at of Iraq, which she will be discussing with their ancestral home. Breakfast with them will interviewer Michael Schulder. be a rousing start to this year’s Festival. 2:30 pm • Valzhyna Mort 10:00 am • Evan Osnos The Words the World Requires Evan Osnos and the 2016 Presidential Race There aren’t many moments of living, one feels, National Book Award-winning author of Age of that don’t awaken in Valzhyna Mort a need Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in to emblazon their images in her cherished the New China, Evan Osnos has written about Belarusian language or, more often now, as in politics and international affairs as a staff writer her most recent book Collected Body, in English. for the New Yorker since 2008. As a celebrated This urgency is conveyed in language concise journalist who contributed to Pulitzer Prize report- and original. She is also the editor of the ing for the Chicago Tribune before joining the 2013 anthology Something Indecent: Poems ranks of the New Yorker, Osnos will be delving Recommended by Eastern European Poets. into his recent work covering the contentious presidential race. 3:30 pm • Stephanie Clifford The Trials and Tribulations of Social Climbing 11:00 am • Anthony Marra Stephanie Clifford, Loeb award-winning No Boundaries to the Human Heart: New York Times journalist, presents her Anthony Marra debut novel Everybody Rise. Her determined In far-reaching fiction, exploring the borders of protagonist goes to great lengths to become worlds in Russia and previously in Chechnya, part of a “smarter set” of friends, risking the writer Anthony Marra brings places and char- loss of her own self and dignity. Clifford has acters to life in a shared humanity of different written about a familiar story, infusing it with worlds. He will discuss his new novel, The Tsar searing satire and a comedic plot. of Love and Techno, a stunning, exquisitely written collection introducing a cast of remark- 4:30 pm • Sebastian Junger able characters whose lives intersect in ways with Rob Cocuzzo both life-affirming and heartbreaking. Homeland Insecurity Few provide a more vivid glimpse into the hearts 12 noon • Mark Doty and minds of returning combat veterans than Loss Retraced and Marked with Life Sebastian Junger. The bestselling author Mark Doty’s newest book of poems, Deep Lane, of WAR, The Perfect Storm, and A Death in is a collection of some beauty; it deals very Belmont, Junger’s latest book Tribe brings much with tribulations in the poet’s life. It’s only groundbreaking insight to the roots of PTSD and one part of Doty’s genius that, with fierce why many soldiers miss the battlefield when they honesty and a great heart, he transforms these return home. Junger will be discussing this and experiences into art that is rich, sustaining, and more with N Magazine editor Robert Cocuzzo. revelatory. As in all his work, on display is his strong claim, despite everything, for the beauty of experience.
2 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Friday, June 17
Nantucket Yacht Club 12 noon • Diane Ackerman Lunch 12 noon • Nancy Thayer with Jared Bowen • Ticketed Event: with Marianne Stanton Underwritten by Finn Wentworth Nancy’s Nantucket • Sponsored by Caroline Ellis Nancy Thayer brings countless readers to Nantucket Natural: A Feast for the Senses Nantucket’s shores with her newest novel with Diane Ackerman The Island House, a tale of a family tied by Poet, essayist and naturalist Diane Ackerman will magical summers in an old island property. speak to us from her wide range of works crafted As always, her moving story is informed and through the years with a passionate and delib- enhanced by island history and the ways of erate consideration of our natural environment, the heart. Interviewing Nancy will be Marianne and an attunement to the senses that define us. Stanton, Editor and Publisher of Nantucket’s The Inquirer and Mirror. Unitarian Meeting House 7:00 pm • Opening Night Celebration 1:00 pm • Steve Sheppard Reading and Writing in Times of Crisis: Through the Fog A Conversation with Billy Collins Steve Sheppard, chronicler of Nantucket and her and Diane Rehm people, presents his newest work Tourist Town, a The Nantucket Book Festival invites everyone to mystery on the Grey Lady steeped in Nantucket the Sanctuary of the Unitarian Meeting House history and full of places, circumstances, and for our Opening Celebration, which extols the even some characters locals may well recognize. bond of literature and community to which our Festival is dedicated. Our two writers’ conver- 2:00 pm • Laurie David / Peggy Freydberg sation will stem from the notion that, in difficult Captive and Caught: times when disorder and discouragement rule in The Poetry of Peggy Freydberg so many quarters, the power of literature to offer Environmental activist Laurie David found herself hope and understanding and the courage to captivated by the extraordinary artistry and endure has great value. We will also recognize beauty of the poetry of Peggy Freydberg, who the island’s youth who show promise as writers, began writing at age 90. Poems from the Pond and highlight the Young Writer Award, a is the result of that meeting, a compilation and perennial cornerstone of the Festival. distillation of a lifetime set to words. David may Atheneum Garden be joined by notable friends of the poet and her work who will read from her last book, published Tent Presentations when she was 106. 10:00 am • Steve Axelrod with John Stanton 3:00 pm • Jake Klim Murder by the Book Attack on Orleans Steven Axelrod, author of the Henry Kennis Author Jake Klim tells the previously untold tale mystery series set on Nantucket, will be of a German U-Boat strike on Nauset Beach, the discussing his newest, Nantucket Grand, with only spot in the US to receive enemy fire in WWI, John Stanton, filmmaker and contributing writer defended by a hodgepodge of Cape Codders, at the I&M. In this riveting mystery, Kennis discov- the waning US Life-Saving Service, and a fledg- ers scandals and intrigues behind the scenes in ling air arm of the US Navy. one of America’s most popular resort locations. 4:00 pm • Fran Karttunen and 11:00 am • Kathryn Brownell Barbara White Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life Nantucket Historians Kathryn Brownell will provide insight into the Fran Karttunen and Barbara White give historical contemporary connections among media, perspective on island life in their several books politics, and popular culture, especially relevant of Nantucket history. They will tell us about the during this presidential election cycle. She will process of collecting and researching, writing also give us a sneak preview of her work in prog- and publishing the many engaging stories ress: Republic of Entertainment: Cable Television they tell. and the Transformation of American Democracy. Nantucket Book Festival 2016 3 Saturday, June 18
Great Hall Atheneum 9:00 am • Nat Philbrick 1:30 pm • T. Geronimo Johnson Revolutionary Figures on a Shifting Canvas The Art of Provocative Fiction: Nathaniel Philbrick has written on Nantucket T. Geronimo Johnson and its culture; national adventure and expan- “Welcome to Braggsville is the best and most sion; personal avocation, and colonial days and powerful form of satire; it sets fire to your brain the struggle for independence. That last strand while expanding your heart.” Those are words is the one for which he finds this time a new van- to launch this discussion with writer T. Geronimo tage point, and uses his eye for revealing details Johnson on what The Washington Post named to produce distinctive and surprising history. “One of the 10 Best Books of 2015”. Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution is Philbrick’s eagerly awaited new book. 2:30 pm • Emerging Authors: Stephanie Clifford, Smith Henderson, 10:00 am • Diane Ackerman & T. Geronimo Johnson with Dick Burns Emergent, with Bright Markings Stewards of the Radiant Planet Diane Ackerman’s The Human Age sounds This year’s group of what we designate a hopeful call for us to use our imagination, “emerging writers” — Stephanie Clifford, author our growing understanding of our place in the of Everybody Rise; Smith Henderson, author of web of life, and our transformative technology Fourth of July Creek; and T. Geronimo Johnson, to bring about the healing and revitalization of author of Welcome to Braggsville — will discuss Earth — the present and hopefully future home their novels and the writing of them, and their of millions of remarkable species, including our writing careers so far, with Dick Burns, founding own well-meaning but troublesome one. member of the Nantucket Book Festival.
10:00 am • Local Author Tent Dreamland Theater Atheneum Tent, 10 am - 4 pm Harborview Room
11:00 am • War Panel with Matt Gallagher, 8:30 am • Jack Gantos Breakfast Sebastian Junger, Emma Sky Ticketed Event, Sponsored by The Green From Cats to Catastrophes & J. Kael Weston Jack Gantos is the winner of the 2014 John Voices from War in Iraq and Afghanistan Newbery Award for the novel Dead End in Grappling with the complex and haunting Norvelt, and the author of 48 other books for truths of war, a panel comprised of authors children and young adults plus two memoirs. Matt Gallagher (Kaboom and Youngblood); Gantos is a brilliant speaker; you are laughing so Sebastian Junger (War and Tribe); Emma Sky hard during his presentations, you (almost) don’t (The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Oppor- realize he is changing your life! Join Gantos for a tunities in Iraq), and J. Kael Weston (The Mirror Test: America at War in Iraq and Afghanistan) wild romp through his award-winning children’s will share and discuss their diverse perspectives books, from Rotten Ralph to his most recent book, on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Trouble in Me, and everything in-between. Breakfast is free for all children attending! 12:30 pm • Marlon James 10:00 am • Smith Henderson Counting Characters: The Complex World of Marlon James A Legacy of Wilderness, Wildness, and Heartbreak Join the 2015 Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James in discussing his dynamic tour de force, New York Times Notable Book Award winner A Brief History of Seven Killings. James’s Smith Henderson won national and inter- powerful prose reveals the underbelly of national awards for his era-defining novel, Jamaican culture, a world he fled and will Fourth of July Creek. This stunning master- reveal during his presentation. piece, his first novel, places him firmly in the company of John Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy. Set in the wilds of Montana during the 80’s, the book’s many unforgettable characters amplify the contradictions and cracks in our civilized world. 4 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Saturday, June 18
Unitarian Meeting House 11:00 am • Ann Leary 2:30 pm • Billy Collins Lakeside at Harborview A Host of Objects of Affection Ann Leary, the author of The Good House, has Billy Collins is Distinguished Professor of English done it again with The Children, another searing at Lehman College (CUNY) and was Poet yet compassionate story about a family at odds Laureate of the United States from 2001-2003. with itself. Each and everyone has a secret or a He has seen 15 of his books published, including shame, and a newcomer to the family is the im- Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems (2013) petus for exposure, clashes, and the redefinition and Voyage (2014), a poetry and picture book of their safe family life. for children. With wit, irony, and a range of gra- cious tones, Collins invites readers into his poems 12:00 noon • Geraldine Brooks Lunch and toward the delightful and touching aspects with Kitty Pilgrim • Ticketed Event in his subjects and themes. Sponsored by Congregation Shirat Ha Yam and Annye’s Whole Foods 4:00 pm • Diane Rehm with Mindy Todd Shepherd to Soldier: The Saga of King David On Her Own: Continuing Chapters Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks will with Diane Rehm discuss her newest novel, The Secret Chord, As host of NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show, about the life of King David. Brooks’s inter- award-winning radio broadcaster Diane Rehm viewer will be Kitty Pilgrim, novelist and for- has covered the topics of our time for three de- mer CNN correspondent and news anchor. cades with her inquisitive mind. Coming off the recent release of her memoir On My Own, Rehm 1:45 pm • Rich Michelson (for adults) will be joined in conversation with Mindy Todd, The Personal is the Fabric of History the host and producer of WCAI’s The Point. Richard Michelson’s poems display an amalgam all their own. In his latest book, More Money than Nantucket Culinary Center God, painful Holocaust anecdotes and heart- breaking wisecracks are intertwined with irrev- 3:00 pm • Michael Ruhlman erent jokes and several generations of poignant Ticketed Event family antics, not to mention Biblical history. Learning from the Master 2:30 pm • Rich Michelson (for children) Michael Ruhlman is the author of 23 books, most Love that Seashore, Letter by Letter of them about food, and many of them teaching Richard Michelson’s poems in a variety of forms home cooks how to up our game. He has a (such as free verse and haiku) contain the scientist’s curiosity, an instructor’s precision, and delights and surprises of human activity, shore- a relaxed sense of humor. At the Culinary Center line creatures, and washed-up artifacts in his he will demonstrate How to Sauté, while his alphabet book, S is for Sea Glass, one of the guests nibble appetizers and sip wine courtesy children’s books he’ll talk about. of Annye’s Whole Foods.
3:15 pm • Michael Patrick O’Neill Straight Wharf Restaurant Wild Water Michael Patrick O’Neill, award-winning 12:00 noon • Elin Hilderbrand & photographer and YA author specializing in Nancy Thayer • Ticketed Event marine wildlife and environmental issues, will Appetite for Life at the Straight Wharf give an exciting presentation sure to encourage Elin Hilderbrand and Nancy Thayer will children of all ages to read, write, and become present their new novels at a season-opening involved in science and conservation. lunch event at Straight Wharf Restaurant. Here’s to Us is Elin’s tale of a grieving and 4:00 • Amy Adams complicated family, finding solace after Tagged: A White Shark Adventure the shocking death of a celebrity chef in a Author and marine biologist Amy Adams gives ramshackle Nantucket summer cottage. a presentation about her YA suspense novel, Nancy’s novel The Island House tells of a combining her experience tagging and family tied by magical summers in an old researching sharks with an exciting story of island house. As always, her moving story a shark attack in a quiet Cape Cod village. is informed and enhanced by island history and the ways of the heart. Nantucket Book Festival 2016 5 Sunday, June 19
2016 Committee Brant Point Grill Co-Chairs: at the White Elephant Marsha Egan • Jack Fritsch 9:00 am • Billy Collins • Ticketed Event Co-Founders: A Lyrical Sunday Breakfast Meghan Blair-Valero • Mary Haft • Wendy Hudson with Poet Billy Collins Meghan Blair-Valero • Mary Bergman Billy Collins has had 15 books of poems published in his career, and they’ve brought Dick Burns • Annye Camara him a large, devoted following. Formerly the Poet Rebecca Chapa • Rob Cocuzzo Laureate of the United States, Collins received the Tharon Dunn • Josh Gray • Mary Haft Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry in 2005. Wendy Hudson • Amy Jenness The memorable TED Talk he gave in 2012, now viewed over a million times, is a great example Bee Shay • Ryder Ziebarth of the rapport he always has with a live audience. Join Billy Collins at the Festival breakfast in the The Nantucket Book Foundation historic White Elephant Hotel, as he reads some President: Annye Camara poems and discusses what’s on his always Vice President: Tharon Dunn fascinating mind. Treasurer: Meghan Blair-Valero Cisco Brewers Mary Haft • Wendy Hudson 12 noon Dick Burns • Jennifer Diamond Cisco Send-Off Marsha Egan • Jack Fritsch Gather at noontime at Cisco Brewers on our Elizabeth Galvin • Ginny Grenham last day for good food, good music, and good Michael Schulder conversation for readers and writers alike. Executive Director: Maddie Hjulstrom Millie’s and the Lobster Trap’s food trucks will offer delicious options for lunch, plus drinks by Cisco Brewers, of course.* Here’s your opportunity The Founders Circle to chat with festival authors and audiences about Meghan Blair-Valero • Leslie Bresette your favorite events of the weekend. Shuttle avail- Dick Burns • Annye Camara able from the Visitor’s Center on Federal Street. Tharon Dunn • Marsha Egan * Patrons pay for their own food & drinks. Mary Haft • Wendy Hudson NHA Whaling Museum Jill and Stephen Karp • Heather Reisman Wendy Schmidt 6:00 pm • Diane Ackerman, Marlon James, and Nathaniel Philbrick Writers Advisory Board with Rob Cocuzzo • Ticketed Event Wyn Cooper • Ben Fountain Book to Film: Words Take Flight Jack Gantos • Alice Hoffman Whether for the silver screen or small screen, Daniel Menaker • Azar Nafisi all movies begin with the written word. How those words come to life is movie magic that these award-winning authors have witnessed firsthand. Special thanks to: Join New York Times bestselling author Diane Jared Bowen • Suzanne Daub Ackerman, Man Booker Prize winner Marlon Fifi Greenberg • Louise Martling James, and National Book Award winner Kitty Pilgrim • John Stanton Nathaniel Philbrick in a discussion about the process of transforming books to film. Author Marianne Stanton • Mindy Todd and editor at N Magazine, Rob Cocuzzo, will moderate what promises to be a lively discussion. Cover Photo: Josh Gray Co-sponsored by the NHA, this closing night event Program Design: Eleventh Hour Design will be followed by wine and hors d’oeuvres.
6 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 The Nantucket Book Festival is committed to broadening the world through words for our island’s children by our expanded reach of programs: the PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools program, the Nantucket Book Festival Visiting Authors program, and our Nantucket Book Festival Young Writer Award.
The Nantucket Book Festival and Nantucket High School have partnered with PEN/Faulkner’s Writers in Schools Program.
PEN/Faulkner’s Writers in Schools is a dynamic literary-enrichment program running in urban public schools in Washington, DC and in Baltimore, MD. Nantucket has its own “away off-shore” program, launched within the Nantucket public school system, and joined by our island’s two independent elementary schools. Students discover inspiring works of literature that feel relevant to their lives, begin building their own personal libraries, and meet writers who inspire an interest in reading and self-expression. Teachers enliven their classes with contemporary literature and the motivating promise of author visits. The Nantucket Book Festival was proud to welcome author Morowa Yejide to our schools in April 2016.
The Nantucket Book Festival Young Writer Award
Celebrating the craft of writing and encouraging the development of finding one’s voice through the expression of words on a page, we will be announcing the winner of the NBF Young Writer Award, along with the four finalists at our Opening Celebration. We’re aiming for the stars with our outreach to our island’s young people. We believe in the power of words to shape and change lives. Our hope is that our students will find a platform of words and a love of reading — to understand that while they may live on an island of boundaries, there is no limit to imagination.
The Nantucket Book Festival Visiting Authors Program
New in 2015, this fall program was created in close collaboration with Nantucket school teachers and librarians, featuring an author whose work ties into the curriculum. Appealing to all grade levels, our 2015 Visiting Author was Michael Patrick O’Neill, award- winning photographer and author specializing in marine wildlife and environmental issues. Michael will also be joining us at the Festival this year to share his story with a new audience, promoting a greater appreciation for the natural world, especially the ocean and its inhabitants.
These programs were created by Festival Co-Founder Mary Haft in partnership with the dedicated librarians, teachers, and principals at our Nantucket Schools. Funding was provided in 2016 by generous grants from the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation and the Community Foundation for Nantucket, as well as ongoing support from our generous sponsors and donors.
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 7 Featured
Poet, essayist, and naturalist Diane Ackerman is the author of two dozen highly acclaimed works of nonfiction and poetry, including The Zookeeper’s Wife and A Natural History of the Senses. She has received a PEN Henry David Thoreau Prize for Nature Writing, an honorary doctorate from Kenyon College, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Orion Book Award, John Burroughs Nature Award, and a Lavan Poetry Prize, as well as being honored as a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library. She has taught at a number of universities, including Columbia and Cornell. Her essays about nature and human nature have been appearing for decades in The New York Times, Diane Ackerman Smithsonian, Parade, New Yorker, and National Geographic.
Amy Adams grew up in New England, spending each summer on the outer beaches of Cape Cod. After earning her master’s degree in marine policy, she migrated to Florida. Working as an environmental writer, Amy recognized a notable shift in the public’s perception of sharks since Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel Jaws. She also found very little non-scientific reading material publicly available to effectively learn about the species and its sometimes-tangled relationship with people. Seeking to fill this gap, she wrote the novel Tagged to provide shark conservation information embedded in an engaging story format. Amy Adams
Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who, together with her husband Tony Horwitz, won the 1990 Overseas Press Club Award for best coverage of the Gulf War. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel March. Her novels Caleb’s Crossing and People of the Book were New York Times bestsellers. Her first novel Year of Wonders was an international bestseller, currently optioned for a major motion picture. She is also the author of the nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire, Foreign Correspondence and The Idea of Home. Her latest novel The Secret Chord is historical fiction based on the biblical King David. Geraldine Brooks
Stephanie Clifford is a novelist and a Loeb-award winning journalist. At The New York Times, where she was a longtime reporter, she covered courts, business and media. Stephanie grew up in Seattle and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. Everybody Rise, her first book, is a New York Times bestseller; movie rights were optioned by Fox 2000. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, son and two cats.
Stephanie Clifford
8 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Featured
Billy Collins is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal. He is a Guggenheim fellow and a New York Public Library “Literary Lion”. Collins sees his poetry as “a form of travel writing” and considers humor “a door into the serious.” Billy Collins has published 10 collections of poetry; his most recent book, Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems 2003 – 2013, is a New York Times bestseller. In June 2001, Billy Collins was appointed United States Poet Laureate 2001-2003. In January 2004, he was named New York State Poet Laureate 2004-06. He is a Distinguished Professor of Billy Collins English at Lehman College of the City University of New York.
Since the publication of his first volume of verse, Turtle, Swan, in 1987, Mark Doty has been recognized as one of the most accomplished poets in America. The recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, Doty has also won a number of prestigious literary awards, including the Whiting Writer’s Award, the T. S. Eliot Prize, the National Poetry Series, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction, and the National Book Award for Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems (2008). A long-time resident of Provincetown, Massachusetts, Doty teaches at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Mark Doty
Matt Gallagher is a former US Army captain and the author of the acclaimed Iraq War memoir Kaboom, based on the popular and controversial blog he kept while he was deployed. He holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and The Paris Review, among others. His new novel Youngblood was named one of the weblog The Millions’ most anticipated books of 2016. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn.
Matt Gallagher
Jack Gantos has won the 2012 Newbery Medal and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction for his young adult novel Dead End in Norvelt. Since the success of his first book Rotten Ralph in 1976, he has produced books for all ages, from picture books and middle-grade fiction to works for young adults and adults. Joey Pigza Loses Control was a Newbery Honor Book. Hole in My Life is a memoir of his brief career in drug trafficking and his subsequent imprisonment, during which he committed himself to writing. Jack developed the master’s degree programs in children’s book writing at both Emerson College and Vermont College. He lives with his family in Boston. Jack Gantos
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 9 Featured
Smith Henderson is the author of the debut novel Fourth of July Creek, a 2014 New York Times Notable Book. Henderson was awarded a 2011 PEN Emerging Writers Award in fiction, and a 2011 Philip Roth Residency in Creative Writing at Bucknell University. His short story Number Stations won a Pushcart Prize and a finalist honors for the University of Texas Keene Prize. An accomplished screenwriter, he is a staff writer on the The Son for AMC and co-wrote Dance With the One, a 2010 South By Southwest Narrative Prize Finalist. Born and raised in Montana, he now lives in Los Angeles, California. Smith Henderson
Alice Hoffman wrote her first novel, Property Of, when she was 21 and a Mirrielees Fellow at the Stanford University Creative Writing Center. She has since written over 30 books, including the novels Blackbird House, The Red Garden, and The Dovekeepers, books for young adults, and several books for children. Her novel The Museum of Extraordinary Things, set in early 20th century New York, brings to life a fascinating love story set against the tumult of the bustling immigrant city. Nightbird, a Middle Reader, was released in March of 2015. Alice’s latest novel The Marriage of Opposites was an immediate New York Times bestseller. Alice Hoffman
Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His most recent novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. James is the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was also critically Marlon James acclaimed. James lives in Minneapolis.
Born and raised in New Orleans, T. Geronimo Johnson is the bestselling author of Welcome to Braggsville, winner of the 2015 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. His first book Hold It ’Til It Hurts was a finalist for the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. He received his M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and his M.A. in language, literacy, and culture from UC Berkeley. He has taught writing and held fellowships—including a Stegner Fellowship and an Iowa Arts Fellowship—at Arizona State University, The University of Iowa, UC Berkeley, Western Michigan University, and Stanford University. He lives in Berkeley, California. T. Geronimo Johnson
10 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Featured
Attracted since childhood to “extreme situations and people at the edges of things,” Sebastian Junger primarily writes about people with dangerous jobs, from firefighting to commercial fishing (leading to his first book and New York Times bestseller The Perfect Storm). His 2010 book War revolves around Junger’s time spent with a United States Army platoon of the 173rd Airborne in Afghanistan. The corresponding documentary Restrepo was nominated for an Academy Award. Junger’s next book Tribe (May, 2016) takes a critical look at post-traumatic stress disorder and the many challenges today’s returning veterans face in modern society. Sebastian Junger
Ann Leary’s new book The Children is the captivating story of a wealthy but unconventional New England family, told from the perspective of a reclusive 29-year-old who has a secret (and famous) life on the Internet. Ann is also the author of the New York Times and national bestselling novel The Good House; her memoir An Innocent, A Broad, and the novel Outtakes From a Marriage. She has written fiction and nonfiction for various magazines and is a co-host of the NPR weekly radio show Hash Hags. She lives on a small farm in Connecticut with her husband Denis Leary, their two children, and an assortment of pets. Ann Leary
Anthony Marra is the New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in fiction, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award. Besides winning a Pushcart Prize and a Narrative Prize, his work was also in Make magazine and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012. In 2012 he received a Whiting Writers’Award. His new novel, The Tsar of Love and Techno, is a stunning, exquisitely written collection introducing a cast of remarkable characters whose lives intersect in ways both life-affirming and heartbreaking. Anthony Marra
Richard Michelson’s many books for children, teens and adults have been listed among the Ten Best of the Year by the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The New Yorker. Michelson hosts Northampton Poetry Radio, and just completed his second term as Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA. Michelson’s latest poetry collection, More Money than God, was published in 2015 by the University of Pittsburgh Press, and his most recent children’s book S is for Sea Glass was written on the porch of his summertime gingerbread cottage in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard. In fall 2016 Knopf will publish Fascinating, a biography of his close friend Leonard Nimoy. Richard Michelson
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 11 Featured
Born in Minsk, Belarus, Valzhyna Mort has been praised as “[a] risen star of the international poetry world” by the Irish Times. When she moved to the United States in 2005, she had already published her first book, I’m as Thin as Your Eyelashes, and was known across the world as an electrifying reader of her poems. Her debut collection in America, Factory of Tears, has received acclaim: The New Yorker writes, “Mort strives to be an envoy for her native country, writing with almost alarming vociferousness about the struggle to establish a clear identity for Belarus and its language”. Mort received the Crystal of Vilenica award in Slovenia in 2005 and the Burda Poetry Prize in Valzhyna Mort Germany in 2008.
Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, Michael Patrick O’Neill is an award-winning photographer and author specializing in marine wildlife and environmental issues. He lives in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, and for the last 23 years has traveled worldwide photographing diverse aquatic animals, habitats and man’s impact on them. He has written and photographed seven non-fiction marine life books designed to encourage school children to read, write, and become involved in science and conservation. His images have appeared in hundreds of publications worldwide and have won many prestigious competitions. Michael Patrick O’Neill
Evan Osnos is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Based in Washington D.C., he writes about foreign affairs and politics. He is the author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, which won the 2014 National Book Award. Based on eight years of living in Beijing, the book traces the rise of the individual in China, and the clash between aspiration and authoritarianism. He was the China Correspondent at The New Yorker magazine from 2008 to 2013. He is a contributor to This American Life on public radio, and Frontline, the PBS series. Before his appointment in China, he worked in the Middle Evan Osnos East, reporting mostly from Iraq.
Nathaniel Philbrick moved to Nantucket in 1986. His interest in the history of the island led to the writing of Away Offshore: Nantucket Island and Its People. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex was published in 2000 and won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He has since published five more books, all critically acclaimed. In the Heart of the Sea, a film directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard, based on Philbrick’s best-selling book, was released in December 2015. Nat’s newest book, published this spring, is Valiant Ambition, a surprising account of the middle years of the American Revolution and the tragic relationship between Nathaniel Philbrick George Washington and Benedict Arnold. 12 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Featured
Diane Rehm began her radio career in 1973 as a volunteer for WAMU 88.5, the NPR member station in Washington, D.C. In 1979, she began hosting WAMU’s local morning talk show, Kaleidoscope, which was renamed The Diane Rehm Show in 1984. In 2014, President Barack Obama presented Rehm with the National Humanities Medal. “In probing interviews with every- one from pundits to poets to Presidents, Ms. Rehm’s keen insights and bound- less curiosity have deepened our understanding of our culture and ourselves”, the White House said. Rehm’s latest book On My Own is a deeply personal and moving account of the long drawn-out death (from Parkinson’s) of her Diane Rehm husband of 54 years, and of her struggle to reconstruct her life without him.
Michael Ruhlman is a food blogger and author of more than 20 non-fiction and cooking related works, including the bestselling The Soul of a Chef, The French Laundry Cookbook with Thomas Keller, Charcuterie, and Ruhlman’s Twenty, which won both James Beard and IACP awards. He lives in Cleveland with his wife, Donna, who is the photographer on his most recent cookbooks. In Short Measures: Three Novellas was published in October 2015, and How to Sauté will be released May 3.
Michael Ruhlman
Emma Sky is Director of Yale World Fellows and a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute, where she teaches Middle East politics. She is the author of The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq. Emma served as advisor to the Commanding General of US Forces in Iraq from 2007-2010; as advisor to the Commander of NATO’s International Se- curity Assistance Force in Afghanistan in 2006; as advisor to the US Security Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process in 2005; and as Governorate Coordinator of Kirkuk for the Coalition Provisional Authority, 2003-2004. Emma is an Officer of the British Empire. Emma Sky
J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan work- ing for the State Department in some of the most dangerous frontline locations. Upon his return home he asked himself: How and when will these wars end? How will they be remembered and memorialized? What lessons can we learn from them? The overall frame for his book The Mirror Test centers on soldiers who have received a grievous wound to the face and must look upon their reconstructed appearance for the first time. Here, like grains of sand, Weston gathers these voices and stories – Iraqi, Afghan, and American – and polishes them into a sheet of glass, one he offers to us as a national mirror. J. Kael Weston
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 13 Presenting
Local resident Steven Axelrod holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of the Fine Arts and remains a member of the Writers Guild of America. Poisoned Pen Press publishes the Henry Kennis Nantucket mystery series — Nantucket Sawbuck in 2015, Nantucket Five-Spot last year, and this summer’s Nantucket Grand. A Christmas-themed mystery is due in 2017. Axelrod has also published a dark noir thriller, Heat of the Moment, with Gutter Books. Excerpts ran recently on Nikki Finke’s Hollywood Dementia website. Axelrod’s work has also appeared online at Salon.com, Numero Cinq, The GoodMen project and the Atticus Books Blog. Steve Axelrod Kathryn Cramer Brownell is an author and assistant professor in American political history at Purdue University. Her first book, Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life, examines the institutionalization of Hollywood styles and structures in American politics during the twentieth century. She is now work- ing on a new book project, Republic of Entertainment: Cable Television and the Transformation of American Democracy, which examines the rise of cable television in the 1970s and 1980s and its influence in American politics. She has published articles in numerous scholarly journals, and also writes regularly on the intersection of politics and entertainment for Reuters. Kathryn C. Brownell Laurie David is a world-renowned author, producer, and environmental advocate. She produced the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Fed Up. David has published two cookbooks, The Family Dinner and The Family Cooks, and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. She has been on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, The New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and others. David is the editor of Poems from the Pond by Martha’s Vineyard poet Peggy Freydberg. Freydberg was born in 1908 and lived to the extraordinary age of 107. Her life spanned two world wars, two marriages, and countless personal triumphs and tragedies. Though a writer for much of her life, Peggy didn’t Laurie David start writing poetry until the age of 90.
Peggy Freydberg Elin Hilderbrand was born in Collegeville, PA and spent her childhood summers on Cape Cod. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University and subsequently attended the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, where she was a teaching/ writing fellow. She moved to Nantucket in 1993. Her first novel, The Beach Club, appeared in 2000 and has been followed by a dozen more books, all of which are set in the world of Nantucket. Elin does her best writing on the beaches of Nantucket and on the charming streets of Beacon Hill in Boston. Here’s to Us is her 17th novel. Elin Hilderbrand
14 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Presenting
Frances Ruley Karttunen is a 1960 graduate of Nantucket High School. After college, graduate school, and a thirty-year career in linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, she returned home to Nantucket. Beginning with The Other Islanders: People Who Pulled Nantucket’s Oars (2005), she has published eleven books about Nantucket history. Her most recent are Nantucket’s North Shore: A Neighborhood History (2014) and Something Should Be Done: A History of the Nantucket Civic League (2015). She has also been active in programming for the African Meeting House on Nantucket, the Saltmarsh Senior Center, and Our Island Home. Frances Karttunen Jake Klim was born and raised on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, just twenty miles from the village of Orleans. As a child, he had read snippets about the “Attack on Orleans,” in local periodicals, but always wanted to know the full story, thus beginning a lifelong fascination with American history. Klim studied film and video at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where he also ran cross country and track. Today he is a television producer and writer based in North Bethesda, Maryland. He has worked on productions for History Channel, the Military Channel, National Geographic Channel, WILD, The Weather Channel, and Animal Planet, among many others. Jake Klim Steve Sheppard is the author of Tourist Town: A Nantucket Idyll, which took top honors in the Wild Card category at this year’s New England Book Festival. Sheppard was editor of Nantucket Magazine, a respected quarterly dedicated to the history, people, and culture of the island. He was also an editor and reporter for The Inquirer and Mirror and Nantucket Independent, and a reporter for the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, MA. He is currently a music teacher and chorus instructor at Nantucket Elementary School. He lives on Nantucket with his wife, Karin.
Steve Sheppard Nancy Thayer is the author of 28 novels, including The Island House, new in 2016. Nancy has lived on Nantucket for 32 years with her husband Charley Walters. Her books are about families and friendship and the beautiful island of Nantucket. She grew up in Kansas, so every morning when she looks out the window, she reminds herself never to wear ruby red slippers, and she never clicks her heels.
Nancy Thayer Barbara Ann White is a Nantucket Historical Society Research Fellow and a retired Nantucket schoolteacher. Her first book, A Line in the Sand, for which she got a Rockefeller Grant, documents the struggle to desegregate the Nantucket public schools in the 1840s. Her second book, Live to the Truth, is the biography of the radical educator Cyrus Peirce, the director of the first teacher-training school in the U.S. Her third book, co-authored with Frank Morral, is Hidden History of Nantucket.
Barbara Ann White Nantucket Book Festival 2016 15 Weekend at a glance Friday June 17
8:30 am Breakfast: Alice Hoffman/Ann Leary 12 noon Mark Doty s Ticketed Event, Sponsor: The Green Atheneum Great Hall Atheneum Great Hall 12 noon Lunch: Diane Ackerman 10:00 am Evan Osnos s Ticketed Event Atheneum Great Hall Nantucket Yacht Club
10:00 am Steven Axelrod 12 noon Nancy Thayer Atheneum Garden Atheneum Garden
11:00 am Anthony Marra 1:00 pm Steve Sheppard Atheneum Great Hall Atheneum Garden
11:00 am Kathryn Brownell 1:30 pm Emma Sky Atheneum Garden Atheneum Great Hall Saturday, June 18
8:30 am Breakfast: Jack Gantos 11:00 am War Panel with Gallagher, Junger, s Ticketed Event, Sponsor: The Green Sky & Weston Dreamland Theater Harborview Rm Atheneum Great Hall
9:00 am Nat Philbrick 11:00 am Ann Leary Atheneum Great Hall Dreamland Theater Harborview Rm
10:00 am Diane Ackerman 12 noon Lunch: Geraldine Brooks Atheneum Great Hall s Ticketed Event Dreamland Theater Harborview Rm 10:00 am Smith Henderson Dreamland Theater Harborview Rm 12 noon Lunch: Elin Hilderbrand and Nancy Thayer 10:00 am Local Author Tent s Ticketed Event Atheneum Garden, 10 - 4 pm Straight Wharf Restaurant
Sunday, June 19
9:00 am Breakfast: Billy Collins 6:00 pm Diane Ackerman, Marlon James s Ticketed Event & Nat Philbrick Brant Point Grill / White Elephant s Ticketed Event NHA Whaling Museum 12 noon Cisco Send-Off Cisco Brewers Co-sponsored by the NHA, this closing night event will be followed by wine and hors d’oeuvres.
16 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 2:00 pm Laurie David on the poetry of 4:30 pm Sebastian Junger Peggy Freydberg Atheneum Great Hall Atheneum Garden 7:00 pm Opening Night Celebration with 2:30 pm Valzhyna Mort Diane Rehm and Billy Collins Atheneum Great Hall Unitarian Meeting House
3:00 pm Jake Klim Atheneum Garden Story Times will be held Saturday, June 18 on the half hours from 9:30 AM till 12:00 PM 3:30 pm Stephanie Clifford at the Atheneum Garden. Atheneum Great Hall Check the schedule at the tent for specifics. A parent or care-giver must remain with 4:00 pm Fran Karttunen & Barbara White toddlers during the programs. Atheneum Garden
12:30 pm Marlon James 2:30 pm Billy Collins Atheneum Great Hall Unitarian Meeting House
1:30 pm T. Geronimo Johnson 3:00 pm Michael Ruhlman Atheneum Great Hall s Ticketed Event Nantucket Culinary Center 1:45 pm Rich Michelson (for adults) Dreamland Theater Harborview Rm 3:15 pm Michael Patrick O’Neill Dreamland Theater Harborview Rm 2:30 pm T. Geronimo Johnson, Stephanie Clifford & 4:00 pm Amy Adams Smith Henderson Dreamland Theater Harborview Rm Atheneum Great Hall 4:00 pm Diane Rehm with Mindy Todd 2:30 pm Rich Michelson (for children) Unitarian Meeting House Dreamland Theater Harborview Rm 10:00 pm Authors in Bars & Typewriter Rodeo Nantucket Hotel, 77 Easton Street s Ticketed Event = For ticket information go to www.nantucketbookfestival.org or visit the information booth at the Atheneum, June 17th & 18th. Atheneum Great Hall Nantucket Culinary Center
Atheneum Garden Brant Point Grill • White Elephant
Unitarian Meeting House Nantucket Yacht Club
Dreamland Theater - Harborview Room Cisco Brewers
Straight Wharf Restaurant NHA Whaling Museum Nantucket Book Festival 2016 17 18 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 1. White Elephant 50 Easton Street
2. Nantucket Yacht Club 1 South Beach Street
3. NHA Whaling Museum 13 Broad Street
4. Nantucket Bookworks 25 Broad Street
5. Nantucket Visitor Services & Information 25 Federal Street
6. Nantucket Culinary Center 22 Federal Street
7. Dreamland Theatre 17 South Water Street
8. Nantucket Atheneum 1 India Street
9. Mitchell’s Book Corner 54 Main Street
10. Unitarian Meeting House 11 Orange Street
11. Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce Zero Main Street
12. Nantucket Hotel 77 Easton Street
The Nantucket Book Festival is proud to be a member of the Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 19 & Local Notable A Midwest-based writer, producer, and performer, RC Atchisson has contributed to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Pulse of St. Louis, and the Big 500 KSD-AM. In addition to the “30 Miles Out” series, he is the author of the Onward! series of devotional workbooks and co-founder of Victory Theater. His original stage play A Problem of Evil is currently in workshop for a staged reading later this year. RC is excited to be kicking off his ‘bACK to StL” tour at the Nantucket Book Festival.
RC Atchisson Ray Bartlett is a Cape Cod-based travel writer who divides his time between Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and the USA. His debut novel, Sunsets of Tulum, is set in exotic Yucatan, where he wrote several guidebooks for Lonely Planet and other publications. Connect with Ray at www.fb.com/RayBartlettAuthor
Ray Bartlett In addition to co-authoring and illustrating Scallop Season: A Nantucket Chronicle, Rob Benchley has been a photographer for four Nantucket publications since 1983: The Inquirer and Mirror, the Nantucket Beacon, the Nantucket Independent and the original Nantucket Magazine. His published book credits include Peter Brace’s Walking Nantucket (Faraway Publishing 2003), Voices of the Village (Sconset Trust 2002), and Keeping the Light: The Epic Move & Preservation of Nantucket’s Sankaty Head Lighthouse (Sconset Trust 2009).
Rob Benchley Peggy Brown Bonsee, an ICF Professional Certified Coach, draws on her broad background in education, health, libraries, and training to support her coaching practice in mature life transition and retirement. A Nantucket summer resident for 24 years, Peggy honeymooned on the island and treasures both Nantucket and some of its fascinating and inspiring ninety- year-old women, whose lives she has profiled in her first book, Silver Linings: What Five Ninety-Something Women Taught Me About Positive Aging.
Peggy Bonsee Peter Brace is an environmental writer who has lived on Nantucket since 1992. A hiker and kayaker, Peter is the author of Walking Nantucket; A Walker’s Guide to Exploring The Island on Foot and Nantucket: A Natural History.
Peter Brace
20 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 & Local Notable Robert Cameron & his wife owned a summer home on Nantucket for over two decades. Early in Robert’s career, he was a ship’s captain, traveling the world with the opportunity of seeing whales in New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, and California Coast. But none were as spectacular as the ones in the Nantucket waters- especially Tuckey, Nantucket’s friendly whale which this children’s book series is all about.
Robert Cameron Jayne Conway is the author of two books: What if I Fly? and As it Seems. She has worn many hats in her day; teacher, mother, marketing guru, student, web designer, daughter, friend, and sister. She is a graduate of SUNY: FIT in New York City and Providence College. Jayne lives in Rhode Island with her three amazing children and is currently writing her third novel.
Jayne Conway Julia Denos is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books. She has illustrated over thirty books for children, including cover art, and popular picture book Just Being Audrey, a biography for children about the life of Audrey Hepburn. Her debut authored work, SWATCH, The Girl Who Loved Color, a book about creativity, released by HarperCollins in March of 2016. Julia lives and works in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Julia Denos Jascin Leonardo Finger is the Curator and Deputy Director of the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association where she has worked for close to thirty years. Her research and writing focuses on Nantucket women, Quakers, and island history. When not spending time with her husband – a naval architect – their son and dog, she writes for the Nantucket Chronicle, serves on several Town and private boards, spends time working in her garden, and walking all over the island.
Jascin Leonardo Finger Michael Glueck is the author of Living Among The Swiss, a memoir/travel guide/book of personal reflections based upon his eight years’ experience living and working in Switzerland as an investment analyst responsible for following the U.S. markets.
Michael Glueck
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 21 & Local Notable Author, designer, illustrator-artist, Rose Gonnella has contributed research, writing, and images to 11 books and has written numerous articles on creativity, art, and architecture, and design. Her latest co-authored series is titled Design Fundamentals: Notes on Color; Notes on Visual Elements; and Notes on Type. For someone who earns her grocery money in New Jersey, Rose lives on Nantucket as much as possible.
Rose Gonnella Joanna Greenfield has conducted chimpanzee research in Uganda and at a breeding center in Israel, where she was attacked by a hyena. Her account of the attack was published in The New Yorker in 1996. Her 2009 book The Lion’s Eye is the true story of one woman’s burning mission to connect with animals—an adventure story and against-the-odds quest for a wilderness few of us have ever glimpsed.
Joanna Greenfield Mary Haft is a writer, producer, and founder of HAFT PRODUCTIONS, LLC, specializing in documentaries for nonprofits. Co-Founder of the Nantucket Book Festival, a director of The Nantucket Book Foundation, and Vice-President of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, she is the author of Nantucket: Portrait of an American Town.
Mary Haft Deborah Halber has worked as a journalist, in public relations and writer and editor for Tufts University and MIT. A freelance journalist since 2004, her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, MIT Technology Review, Symbolia, and Inked. Her book, The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America’s Coldest Cases, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2014.
Deborah Halber Holly Hurd’s website VentureMom.com and her book Venture Mom: From Idea to Income are devoted to helping people create and build successful businesses. Hurd has interviewed over 200 women who have started businesses out of thin air, without a business plan and using very little start up capital. She offers a no-nonsense plan to come up with an idea and to brand your business and is a master at marketing small businesses in unique ways, which she shares in her book.
Holly Hurd
22 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 & Local Notable Shawnie Kelly is a travel writer and the author of Discover Cape Cod, It Happened on Cape Cod, and Insiders’ Guide to Columbus. She contributes regularly to several travel, food, history and lifestyle magazines. Shawnie is a Partner and Travel Director for Wanderlust Tours, specializing in cultural and culinary travel through Europe and parts of the US, including Cape Cod and the Islands. She is also Partner and Editorial Director for Wanderlust Travel Press.
Shawnie Kelly Diane Daniels Manning writes fiction and non-fiction inspired by “ordinary” people who quietly do extraordinary things. She is the author of Hill Country Teacher: Stories from the One-Room Schoolhouse and Beyond, a full-length collection of oral histories, and ALMOST PERFECT, a Shelf Unbound Notable Book. Her other writing awards include the Wisdom-Faulkner Prize for Best Novella and the 2012 Short Script Prize from WIFT.
Diane Daniels Manning A Nantucket native, Melissa MacVicar has lived most of her life on the island. Her first Young Adult novel, Ever Near, debuted in 2013 and the sequel Ever Lost, was published in 2014. She is now represented by Meg Ruley at Jane Rotrosen Agency.
Melissa MacVicar Bobbi McPeak fell in love with Nantucket in 1993 and has been trying to capture the essence of this beautiful island ever since, mainly through long beach walks. She has written and illustrated two children’s books featuring the island, Santa Claus Moves To Nantucket and Nantucket Playground, as well as writing another book, Sailing Nantucket Sound/Captain Jim’s Adventure.
Bobbi McPeak Terry Norton and her two brothers were summer visitors to Nantucket from 1958 to 2006 at which time, she made the island her home. She is a veteran of the United States Air Force and while living in Virginia was a member of a Civil War Living History reenactment unit. In 2015 she published her first novel Lady in Blue.
Terry Norton
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 23 & Local Notable For more than 35 years, Greg O’Brien was a writer, editor, investigative reporter and publisher for the Associated Press, USA Today, Providence Journal, Cape Cod Times and Boston Magazine. He is now president of a political and communications strategy company on Cape Cod. When he was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease he decided to write the book On Pluto: Inside the Mind Of Alzheimer’s.
Greg O’Brien Snezhana Oberg was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and has been a Nantucket resident since 2005. Nantucket Seasons - A Collection of Island Photographs is a result of her passion for gardening and photography. The book is an original way to present the island during all four seasons. It also shows some beautiful summer gardens.
Snezhana Oberg Jim Patrick wrote the text and Rob Benchley took the photographs for Scallop Season: A Nantucket Chronicle, the 2002 benchmark book cataloguing Nantucket’s effort to save America’s last remaining wild scallop fishery, while chronicling the island’s character through interviews with many beloved fish- ermen. Jim re-released Nantucket Love Stories, Nantucket’s bestseller in 1992 featuring true historical stories of the island’s famous love affairs. Jim founded the Nantucket Short Play Competition and Festival in 1992 .
Jim Patrick Sheryll Reichwein is an author, adjunct professor of communication, and consultant to academic publishers. Douglas Reichwein is an accomplished sculptor and painter with works in a number of private, public, and museum collections. Au Coeur: Why Beauty Matters Now is the Reichwein’s second written collaboration.
Sheryll & Doug Reichwein Ellen Ross believes the small portion of the world that each of us inhabits deserves our appreciation, respect and protection. The photographs and lyrical prose poems in The Moment Whispers were inspired by the beauty and peace found on Nantucket Island where she and her husband, David Ross, have had a home for more than twenty-five years.
Ellen Ross
24 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 & Local Notable As a child, Wendy Rouillard had a stuffed bear named Barnaby that had also been her grandmother’s and mother’s. Years later, while a student at Parsons School of Design, she fell in love with Nantucket and decided to create a book about Barnaby, a Nantucket Bear. 20 years later, still living on the Island, Wendy is raising two daughters and has published many Barnaby books.
Wendy Rouillard In her book Love: A Harvesting From Heaven, Glenora Kelly Smith presents a philosophical and spiritual exploration of the magic and mysteries of love through poetry and photography. Smith has had a career in graphic arts, interior design and photography.
Glenora Kelly Smith In his career, award-winning journalist Crocker Snow has earned NPR radio prize and Pulitzer Prize nominations. He has served as founding editor of The WorldPaper and as director of the Edward R. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His book, published in 2015, is called Muskeget: Raw, Restless, Relentless Island.
Crocker Snow Barbara Tibbetts is a former kindergarten teacher, the mother of three children and divides her time between Acton, MA and the island of Nantucket, which inspired The LOOK Book series. When she is not exploring and creating her own scavenger hunts you can find Barbara at the beach, kayaking, skiing or riding on the back of a motorcycle.
Barbara Tibbetts Known as “The Metaphysical Flight Attendant,” Rebecca Tripp is an author, spiritual coach, and creative manifestress on a mission! Through speaking engagements, workshops, and global events, she shares the wisdom of a life lived at 35,000 feet, and helps people from all walks of life tap into the innate power of their personal spiritual connection.
Rebecca Tripp
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 25 & Local Notable Boston-based registered dietitian nutritionist, Liz Weiss, is one of the nation’s top experts on family nutrition. She writes the award-winning food and nutrition blog, Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen, hosts Cooking with the Moms podcast on iTunes, and she’s written three family cookbooks: The Smoothie Bowl Coloring Cookbook: Healthy Recipes and Playful Mandala Food Designs for Kids and Adults!, No Whine with Dinner, and The Moms’ Guide to Meal Make- overs. Liz hosts the Meal Makeovers cooking segment on CNN’s AccentHealth channel, and she’s contributed to publications throughout her career including Relish, Nick Jr. Family Magazine, Kiwi, LoseIt.com, and Parade.com. Liz Weiss Scott Widmeyer first came to Nantucket with his family in the 1970s and he’s never looked back. Scott founded Widmeyer Communications, which merged in 2013 with Finn Partners, one of the largest independent PR firms in the U.S. In recent years, he was named to the PR News Hall of Fame and has been widely recognized for his diversity leadership.
Scott Widmeyer Alan Yount has had diverse careers in health, law, and education, but, through them all, Nantucket has remained a constant place of peace and renewal. After teaching in New York City public schools for 10 years, he is now working on a Master’s in creative writing at Wilkes University, contributes to a variety of online and print publications and leads a course in theology.
Alan Yount
Our Mission Statement The Nantucket Book Festival is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization founded to celebrate and promote the joys and rewards of reading, writing, and literacy. The organization endeavors to partner with other non-profits, publications, media, businesses, schools, underwriters and individuals 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 festival seeks to benefit the breadth of the community by hosting a variety of events, including author readings and presentations, panel discussions, book signings, workshops, writing competitions, school programs, gatherings and conversations, as well as incorporating other allied arts and entertainment.
26 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 In 5 languages! For Young Children, ages 2 to 10
Bring your toddlers and young children to The Nantucket Book Festival series of Story Times, where our volunteer book lovers will read aloud stories to their rapt audience! Introduce your children to the exciting world of books and reading… is it ever too early to learn what treasures books hold in store for one’s imagination? Story Times Saturday, June 18 on the half hours 9:30 AM - Noon Atheneum Garden Check the schedule at the tent for specifics. A parent or care-giver must remain with toddlers during the programs.
Summer Writing Competition … with an Antiques Twist! The Antiques Depot is thrilled to once again host their annual Short Story Competition.
Writers of all ages are invited to choose an object in our shop (no purchase necessary) that sparks their imagination and then write a story, putting their new-found knowledge and imagination to work.
The writing contest will launch during the Nantucket Book Festival. Visit our table at the Author’s Tent in the Athenaeum Garden Saturday, June 18th from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM for more information or visit our website nantucketantiquesdepot.com. All entries must be must be submitted by July 18th.
Jack & Ciara Fritsch • 22 South Beach Street, Nantucket 508-228-1287 • www.nantucketantiquesdepot.com
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 27 Typewriter Rodeo
Come meet them! The Atheneum Garden • 10 am - 4 pm Friday June 17 & Saturday June 18
They will also make a special appearance at Authors in Bars at the Nantucket Hotel Breeze Bar on Saturday June 18, starting at about 10 pm
Typewriter Rodeo is a quartet of poets based in Austin, Texas. They travel the country (and the world!) typing customized spontaneous poetry on vintage typewriters. You give them a word or a phrase, and they will type you a poem in minutes. Typewriter Rodeo has written poems at the Smithsonian, for Willie Nelson’s Heartbreaker Ball, for a post-hurricane hotel grand-reopening in Cabo San Lucas, and at many, many more events. What would you like YOUR poem to be about? The Typewriter Rodeo’s visit to the Nantucket Book Festival is made possible by a grant from the Community Foundation’s ReMain Nantucket Fund.
An Author … except it’s not a joke! Walks Into a Bar… Join us at the Nantucket Hotel’s Breeze Bar 77 Easton Street • Saturday, June 18 Authors will start heading to the bar at about 10 pm. Share stories with your favorites over a drink (or two). Admission is free* – the stories will be priceless! *Patrons pay for their own food and drinks.
28 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 29 30 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 31 32 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 33 34 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 35 36 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 37 38 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Save the Date • June 16 - 18, 2017 nantucketbookfestival.org
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 39 40 Nantucket Book Festival 2016 Thank you to our Donors
Wendy Schmidt Mary & Robert Haft • Jennifer Diamond Heather Reisman • Nancy Seaman & Alan Schwartz Katherine & David Bradley • Elizabeth & Michael Galvin • Cindy & Evan Jones Lora & Chuck Farkas • Mary-Louise Fennessy • Linda & Joe Hale • Ashley & Jeff McDermott Ella Wall Prichard • Ellen Ross • Kim & Finn Wentworth Janet & Sam Bailey • Christine Meleo Bernstein • Dorice Dionne & Sal Perisano Tharon & Lee Dunn • Ginny Grenham • Carla & Jack McDonald Donald Shackelford • Laurie & Toby Webb
Jo Abella Rachel Hobart Judith Seinfeld Patty Abramson & Les Silverman Lois & John Horgan Kathryn Sheehan Susan & Bill Boardman Patience Killen Charles Soule Mary Casey & Jeffrey Blackwell Sondra & Norman Levenson Barbara Stevens Jay Craven Melissa Long Nikki Toole Judith Deutsch Richard Lubin Deborah Van Dyke Connie & Dan Driscoll Anne Lucke Jane Wall & Martha Smeallie Caroline Ellis Dorothy Lund Polly Warner Ana & Michael Ericksen Linda Mackay Elaine Williams Leslie Forbes & David Worth Marion & Terence Martin Maria Zodda Art Gertel Laurie & Robert Monahan Mark Goldweitz Nichole & Jason Olbres Lucile Hayes Mary Tinsley Raul
The Nantucket Book Foundation is grateful for the following grants that have helped make our 2016 programs possible:
The Nantucket Golf Club Foundation: Nantucket Book Foundation educational programs in schools
The Nantucket Arts Council: Nantucket Book Festival children’s programming
Community Foundation’s ReMain Nantucket Fund: Billy Collins & Typewriter Rodeo appearances
The Massachusetts Cultural Council: Nantucket Book Festival funding We apologize for omitting anyone from this list who donated to this event after the program book went to press.
Nantucket Book Festival 2016 41 Thank you to our Sponsors Platinum Sponsors
Nantucket Island Resorts Nantucket Atheneum Gold Sponsors Haft Productions N Magazine • The Inquirer and Mirror Nantucket Historical Association • WCAI Silver Sponsors Bronze Sponsors Brass Sponsors Annye’s Whole Foods Cape Air 21 Broad Fogged In Bookkeeping Cape Cod RTA/CapeFLYER Brass Lantern Inn RE/MAX INTEGRA Congregation Century House of New England Shirat Ha Yam Cisco Brewers Tervis Daily Construction Inc. Don Allen Auto Center The Westmoor Club Nantucket Bank Epernay Wine & Spirits Nantucket blACKbook The Green Nantucket Culinary Center Nantucket Book Partners nantucket.net Seastreak Ferry Young’s Bicycle Shop The UPS Store Pewter Sponsors Anchor Inn Nantucket Bake Shop Antiques Depot The Nantucket Hotel & Resort The Carlisle House Inn Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce Housefitters & Tile Gallery Nantucket Pool & Spa Center Hy-Line Cruises Brian Sullivan, Fisher Real Estate Madaket Marine Unitarian Universalist Meeting House Marsha Egan Coaching Sponsors Sarah F. Alger, P.C. Dreamland Film & Nicholas Ferrantella All Point Audio Video, LLC Performing Arts Center Landscaping Cape Cod Five Cents Egan Maritime Institute Stop & Shop Savings Bank Egan Sign Swain’s Travel Christopher’s Home Granite Payroll Assoc., Inc. Table No. 1 Wine + Cheese Furnishings Nantucket Marine W.B. Marden Co. Dennis & Associates Nantucket Wine Festival
For more information or to donate: NantucketBookFestival.org