Learn how the annual Nantucket Book Festival brings together book lovers and authors for one memorable weekend transforming the island into a bibliophile’s paradise.

In her keynote at this year’s London Book Fair, Julie Finch, CEO of Hay Festival Global, a charity that organizes book festivals around the world, made a compelling case for book festivals as opportunities for writers and readers to meet each other and share their mutual love of books, not only for the benefits that accrue to the attendees and their publishers, but for the health of reading a writing more generally:

Ben Shattuck and Nathaniel Philbrick

“Festivals introduce readers to authors they might never otherwise encounter. A reader may arrive to hear a writer they already love—and leave having discovered three new voices. In that sense, festivals are not simply celebrations of literature. They are market builders for publishing. They expand readership. They create discovery. They bring literature into the centre of public life. They bring together writers, thinkers and audiences from different perspectives and allow them to speak to one another—thoughtfully, publicly, and in good faith.”

Most of us will not be jetting off to Wales, or Nairobi, or even Dallas to attend a Hay Book Festival this year. But for the price of a ferry ride to Nantucket, we have access to a festival that offers the same richness and diversity. Now in its fifteenth year, the Nantucket Book Festival will welcome readers and writers from June 11th through the 14th for readings, panel discussions and interviews, workshops and book signings from a diverse group of authors. Spearheading the week’s event is the newly appointed executive director Adam Nee, new administrative director Chrissy Brown, festival co-chairs Mary Haft and Sara DiVello and honorary chair Jill Karp, Vice President Ann Sullivan, literary and festival committees, volunteers, and Tim Ehrenberg, president of the Nantucket Book Foundation.

Jenna Bush Hager

This year the Festival will feature Jenna Bush Hager, of Read with Jenna; the perennially bestselling and critically acclaimed Ann Patchett and Alice Hoffman; poet, literary historian, and MIT professor Joshua Bennett; novelist and screenwriter Richard Russo; journalist Norah O’Donnell; and bestseller Pamela Kelley, whose appropriately-titled Nantucket Second Chances will be released on June 9th.

“I’m thrilled with the roster,” Ehrenberg says. “You want to have this really eclectic and diverse lineup, many favorite authors, but also new voices.” He’s especially pleased to have Ann Patchett this year because, as he puts it, “You just say her name and people smile.”

The founders of the Festival, Wendy Hudson and Mary Haft, remain deeply involved. Hudson is the proprietor of Mitchell’s Book Corner and Nantucket Book Works, and Haft began the Foundation’s Visiting Author Program, which brings authors into Nantucket schools. The two women were talking in 2011 about the rich literary history of the island and realized that a book festival seemed like a natural fit. As Tim describes it, “We have Herman Melville, we have Moby Dick, and now Nathaniel Philbrick and Elin Hilderbrand and Nancy Thayer. This book festival, I think, is just part of that storied literary legacy.”

It’s clear that the women who began the Festival continue to play a critical role in the Foundation, but it’s equally clear that since moving to Nantucket in 2013, Tim has approached his role as the Foundation president not just as a job, but as a vocation and a lifestyle. In addition to organizing Nantucket’s biggest book event every year, Tim is the Marketing and Events Director for Nantucket Book Partners, the creator of Tim Talks Books, a book columnist for N, the Nantucket lifestyle magazine, and a podcast host with Elin Hilderbrand on Books, Beach & Beyond. You could call him an evangelist for books in general, and for book communities more particularly, since he doesn’t just want to get people reading; he wants them getting together, talking, and learning about each other and the world.

Ann Patchett by Emily Dorio

Reflecting on the impact of the Festival, Tim says, “We are so lucky that we get to bring in these authors. Regardless of whether you know them or not, you can be inspired, and walk out the doors after an event saying, ‘Wow, I feel a little lighter, or I feel a little bit more, connected to the person next to me.’ And that’s what I think this festival has really turned into after 15 years—connection.”

Log on to the Nantucket Book Foundation website, check out this year’s schedule, and start planning your trip. Go to see an author you’ve always loved, or take a chance on an author you’d never heard of before. Become a part of the Festival community and carry the spark home with you to ignite other readers.

Cape Cod LIFE

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