Nantucket Book Foundation Announces 2026 Author Lineup For 15th Anniversary Book Festival

The Nantucket Book Foundation today is revealing the 2026 author lineup for the 15th anniversary Nantucket Book Festival, taking place June 11^th – 14^th.

Featured authors at this year’s Festival include:

• Award-winning and beloved novelist Ann Patchett;
• Co-host of TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle and the founder of the wildly popular Read with Jenna book club plus her new production company and book imprint Thousand Voices, Jenna Bush Hager;
• Pulitzer Prize winning author of the novel Empire Falls, celebrating its 25^th Anniversary, Richard Russo;
• Carnegie Medal Winner and internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times best-selling author of historical fiction published in over sixty countries and forty languages as well as the Nantucket Book Foundation’s 2025 Fall Visiting Author in Schools, Ruta Sepetys;
• Winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings and his newest novel out this September, The Disappearers, Marlon James;
• Best-selling author of Baldwin: A Love Story, winner of a 2026 ALA Stonewall Book Award, Nicholas Boggs;
• Award-winning journalist Norah O’Donnell, author of We the Women, a book in honor of America’s 250^th birthday celebrating untold women’s stories;
• Author of one of the most talked about memoirs of the year so far Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden;
• Writer, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, champion powwow dancer and student of Salish art and history, Julian Brave Noisecat, whose first book of nonfiction We Survived the Night was an instant bestseller;
• And authors of two of the most celebrated novels of 2025, Patrick Ryan, author of Buckeye, and Angela Flournoy, author of The Wilderness.

Additional authors who will present June 11 -14 are Liaquat Ahamed, Dr. Joshua Bennett, Emma Brodie, Juliet Faithfull, Isaac Fitzgerald, Shannon Garvey, Julie Gerstenblatt, Alice Hoffman, Mitchell S. Jackson, Pamela Kelley, Kyleigh Leddy, Vanessa Riley, Lois Romano, Julian Sancton, Jamie Siminoff, James Sulzer, Adriana Trigiani, Rick Tulsky, John Vaillant, and Laura Zigman.

A few more authors may be added in the coming weeks. For more information on the 2026 authors, visit the Nantucket Book Festival website.

"The Nantucket Book Festival Literary Committee works tirelessly to bring diverse voices to our island for the annual event, ones that capture the full human experience and celebrate the transformative power of literature," the Nantucket Book Foundation stated in its announcement. "The full roster of renowned authors represents a vast array of subjects and genres, from literary fiction to memoir to biography and more!"

The Nantucket Book Festival, celebrating its 15^th Anniversary, has established itself as a major summer destination for booklovers with impressive and eclectic lineups of award-winning authors. The four-day Festival, June 11 - 14, with a preview event featuring new Nantucket fiction on Wednesday evening June 10^th, will offer author readings, panel discussions, and social events in an informal atmosphere that encourages conversations between writers and readers. Most Festival events are free and held within walking distance of the ferries.

Full event schedule and tickets for the Friday night Author Dinner presented by The White Elephant will be available at nantucketbookfestival.org in April. For a complete reading list of books by participating authors, click here.

About the Nantucket Book Festival: The Nantucket Book Festival operates under the Nantucket Book Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded to celebrate and promote the joys and rewards of reading and writing. The organization seeks 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 Nantucket Book Foundation runs literacy programs and author events year-round, working together with island educators, organizations and businesses to celebrate the enduring power of books to teach, transport and connect us to one another.

For more information visit www.nantucket book festival.org.