Special Nantucket Book Festival “Authors at Home” Edition.
DIANE REHM
From one radio host to another, this interview is sure to be the talk of the town. Legendary host of NPR’s longtime series, The Diane Rehm Show, Diane Rehm will be chatting with podcast and radio host of CNN Profiles Michael Schulder about her brand-new autobiography When My Time Comes. Her thought-provoking read examines the hotly contested cause of the Right-to-Die movement, and Rehm’s thoughts on the misrepresentations of end-of-life care.
SAMANTHA POWER
Samantha Power’s impressive resume features highlights like serving in President Barack Obama’s cabinet from 2013 to 2017, acting as a US Ambassador to the United Nations, and being named by TIME as one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People. But in her latest book, The Education of an Idealist, she goes beyond her career accolades to reveal her most valued and personal life lessons. Michael Schulder will be interviewing the author and foreign policy expert on her “highly personal and reflective memoir” (as reviewed by Obama himself).
ANN NAPOLITANO
N Magazine’s resident bookworm and NBF Social Media Manager Tim Ehrenberg will be sitting down with novelist Ann Napolitano to discuss Dear Edward, her coming-of-age story with a heartbreaking twist. When twelve-year-old Edward Adler becomes the sole survivor of a plane crash causing 183 fatalities, including his family, he struggles to find his place in the world and feels that a part of him will forever be left in the sky. But after a surprising discovery, he learns the answers to some of life’s most profound questions in a way that will surely make your heart soar.
SARAH M. BROOM
In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it, only for the house to show her it had a mind of its own. The Yellow House, Broom’s memoir, tells the story of a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities. This June, Michael Schulder will host a dialogue with Broom touching on the book’s themes of place, class, race, inequality, and shame.
MITCHELL JACKSON
We’ve done the math for you, and this add-up is going to make for a riveting result: author and co-founder of the NBF Mary Haft will be in conversation with author Mitchell Jackson about his latest book, Survival Math. Jackson’s memoir, a unique combination of narrative, poems composed of historical American documents, photographs, and short stories from Jackson’s male relatives, takes its name from the calculations he made to survive feeling disenfranchised during his youth in Portland, Oregon.
ALICE HOFFMAN
An accomplished author of more than 30 works of fiction, Alice Hoffman will take part in the 2020 Nantucket Book Festival to discuss not one but two of her New York Times bestselling books: The World That We Knew, a longlist recipient for the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal, and The Rules of Magic, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Two very different tales, the former takes place in Europe in 1941 during humanity’s darkest hour, while the latter explores the powerful magic of love.
JAMI ATTENBERG
Two top titans of text will join together for a rare tête-à-tête this June. #1 New York Times bestselling author and local literary legend Elin Hilderbrand will sit down with fellow New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg to discuss Attenberg’s latest work of fiction, All This Could Be Yours, a timely and piercing exploration of what it means to be caught in the web of a toxic man who abused his power, and how to break free from it.
ROBERT COCUZZO
Experience the rolling hills of the Italian country-side from the comfort of your own home during this dynamic one-on-one. N Magazine’s own Robert Cocuzzo will be speaking with Michael Schulder about his most recent release, a travel memoir titled The Road to San Donato. Chronicling his cycling adventure with his father across Italy, San Donato captures not only the heroic feat of traversing 425 miles of Italian backroads by bicycle, but the unbreakable (and sometimes complicated) bond between father and son.
GABRIELLA BURNHAM
This matchup gets an A+ in our book. Gabriella Burnham, a 2005 graduate of Nantucket High School, will be discussing her debut novel It is Wood, It is Stone with Anne Phaneuf, her former English teacher. A full circle moment for both educator and student, this conversation will explore the novel’s complex relationship between two women in São Paulo, Brazil.
BARBARA WHITE
Two historians meet up for a book chat, and the rest, as they say, is history. Nantucket writer and history buff Mary Bergman will be speaking with Barbara White amid the release of her latest book, Disturber of Tradition: A Portrait of Anna Gardner. No stranger to Island archives, White is also the author of A Line In The Sand – The Battle to Integrate Nantucket Public Schools 1825-1847.
Check out all of these “Authors at Home” talks and more virtual Nantucket Book Festival content by visiting nantucketbookfestival.org.
