History Book Festival

The seventh annual History Book Festival returns to Lewes, Delaware, on
September 29, 30 and October 1 for live events with 23 distinguished authors of
historical nonfiction and fiction.
The festival — the first and only one of its kind in the United States devoted
exclusively to history — kicks off on Friday, September 29, with the keynote
presentation at 7 p.m. at Bethel United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. The closing
address will be presented at 1 p.m. on Sunday, October 1, at Cape Henlopen High
School Theatre. Saturday, September 30, will feature 20 author appearances
throughout the day at various venues in historic Lewes. This singular 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 of NPR’s “Up First,” one of the nation’s most popular podcasts. 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. He is a New York
Times–bestselling novelist, who 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.
Information on the other presenting authors and their featured books, as well as
additional details about the 2023 festival, are available online at historybookfestival.org.
Tickets are required for the keynote and closing addresses. Saturday’s events
are open access and culminate with a “Spirited Discussion” after-party at Lewes Public
Library.
Keynote and closing tickets are available now to 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. In
addition, all festival titles may be borrowed from the Delaware Public Library system as
the books are published.