History Book Festival returning to Lewes Sept. 29 to Oct. 1
The seventh annual History Book Festival is set for Friday and Saturday, Sept. 29 and 30, and Sunday, Oct. 1, 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, the festival will kick off with a keynote presentation at 7 p.m., Sept. 29, at Bethel United Methodist Church fellowship hall. The closing address will be presented at 1 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 1, in the Cape Henlopen High School theater.
Twenty author appearances will be featured throughout the day Sept. 30 at various venues in historic Lewes. The nonprofit event is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices/PenFed Realty.
This year’s keynote speaker is Steve Inskeep. He is the award-winning cohost of National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition,” the most widely heard radio program in the United States, and NPR’s “Up First” podcast. His reporting has taken him across the United States, and to the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Pakistan and China. Inskeep will be in conversation with Christina Shutt, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. They will discuss Inskeep’s latest nonfiction work, “Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America.” The keynote address is presented by Sally Mott Freeman and John K. Freeman.
James McBride is the festival’s closing speaker. A bestselling novelist, McBride has won a National Book Award and received a National Humanities Medal from former President Barack Obama. He is also an accomplished musician and a distinguished writer in residence at New York University. McBride will be in conversation with Marie Arana, co-founder of the National Book Festival and inaugural literary director of the Library of Congress, about his latest novel, “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.” The closing address is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.
For more information on all presenting authors and their featured books, go to historybookfestival.org.
Tickets are required for the keynote and closing addresses. Saturday’s events are open access and culminate with a spirited discussion and after-party at Lewes Public Library.
Keynote and closing tickets are now available for purchase at bit.ly/TKTS-INSKEEP and bit.ly/TKTS-MCBRIDE. Ticket fees start at $28 and include a signed, hardcover copy of the author’s featured book.
Books can be purchased after each presentation, when authors will be available to sign them, 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. All festival titles may also be borrowed from the Delaware Public Library system as the books are published.
