History Book Festival to host Jodi Picoult and Tiya Miles

The eighth annual History Book Festival is set for Friday to Sunday, Sept. 27 to 29, in Lewes. Live events will feature 23 distinguished authors of historical nonfiction and fiction.

The first and only event of its kind in the United States devoted exclusively to history, HBF is building on a successful 2023 festival that attracted more than 4,000 attendees from all over the country.

Keynote speaker Jodi Picoult will open the festival at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 27, at the Cape Henlopen High School Theatre. Picoult is the bestselling author of 29 novels. “By Any Other Name” tells the story of two women, centuries apart – one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays – who are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard. Picoult will be in conversation with Alicia Andrzejewski, a professor at the College of William & Mary who assisted with her research for the book. The keynote event is funded through the generous support of Sally Mott Freeman and John K. Freeman. Tickets are required and may be purchased at bit.ly/HBF-Picoult.

The closing event with Tiya Miles, author of “Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People,” will be presented at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 29, at the Cape Henlopen High School Theatre. Miles is the Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard University, a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow. Her book explores beyond the stock historical grid of Harriet Tubman’s world. What emerges is a human being whose mysticism becomes more palpable the more readers understand it, allowing the story to offer powerful inspiration for present-day challenges.

Miles will engage in conversation with Linda D. Harris of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge, Md. Harris and her husband, David B. Cole, will perform code songs, used to guide enslaved people toward their freedom via the Underground Railroad.

The closing event is funded through the generous support of Griswold Home Care for Sussex and Kent counties, and presented in partnership with the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center and Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice. Tickets are required and may be purchased at bit.ly/HBF-Miles.

Attendees can access their choice of 21 authors at 19 events in four venues Saturday, Sept. 28, all free of charge. Saturday’s spirited discussion, a gathering for attendees and presenters to celebrate and discuss their day, is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Books can be purchased at each venue, or they may be bought in advance at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, the official bookseller of the History Book Festival, or at Biblion in Lewes. Authors will be available to personalize books after their presentations.

For more information on all presenting authors and their featured books, go to historybookfestival.org.

The History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty.

Special thanks go to HBF’s Founding Program Partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library, for event promotion and production, and Browseabout Books.