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.