Editor’s note: On Monday we posted some of the big names coming to this year’s Morristown Festival of Books. Well, there’s plenty more where that came from! Here is the complete roster, from the Festival organizers:
5th ANNUAL MORRISTOWN FESTIVAL OF BOOKS ANNOUNCES AWARD- WINNING AUTHOR LINEUP!
Morristown Festival of Books is thrilled to announce its much-anticipated 2018 best-selling and award-winning author lineup!
Former Secretary of State and five-term U.S. Senator John Kerry joins the roster of critically acclaimed authors as the Keynote speaker on Friday, Oct. 12. The all-day, free main festival on Saturday, Oct. 13 features over 50 award-winning fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s, and young adult authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners
Gregory Pardlo and Gilbert King, National Book Award winner and five-time Pulitzer finalist Joyce Carol Oates, Newbery Medal winner Matt de la Peña and Caldecott Honoree Christian Robinson, political commentator Chris Matthews, Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad, current international bestselling authors A.J. Finn, Kate Morton, Diane Chamberlain, Kate Moore, Megan Abbott, Kate Quinn, and National Book Award finalists Laini Taylor and Ibi Zoboi.
New Jersey’s premier book festival, Morristown Festival of Books offers something for everyone. Young readers will delight in the ever-popular KidFest with KidFest Featured Author/Illustrator duo Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson, whose lyrical and poignant new picture book, Carmela Full of Wishes, will move and enchant both children and parents alike.
Other stellar children’s authors who will be speaking and signing books at this year’s KidFest include Roda Ahmed (Mae Among the Stars), Sayantani DasGupta (The Serpent’s Secret), Peter Lerangis (Max Tilt: 80 Days or Die), Laura Numeroff (If You Give A Mouse a Cookie), Eliot Schrefer (Orphaned), Caldecott Honoree David Ezra Stein (Interrupting Chicken and the Elephant of Surprise), and Jessica Love, with her breathtaking debut picture book, Julián is a Mermaid.
Young Adult fans will be thrilled to know that this year’s Featured Young Adult author is National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the best-selling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy. Taylor will discuss Muse of Nightmares, her highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times best seller, Strange the Dreamer.
Fantasy and sci-fi lovers will be equally excited about New York Times
best-selling author Kass Morgan, with Light Years, her first book in a riveting and romantic new series. Finally, Contemporary YA fans won’t want to miss the opportunity to hear and to meet Emily X.R. Pan (The Astonishing Color of After) and National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi (Pride).
In addition to these offerings for children and young adults, history and nonfiction enthusiasts will be excited to hear that Chris Matthews, anchor of MSNBC’s Hardball, will be discussing his most recent best-selling portrait of Robert F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit.
American history buffs will also be intrigued and engaged by Kate Moore’s gripping account of factory girls exposed to radium in the early 20th century in her New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts best seller, Radium Girls, as well as by #1 New York Times best-selling author Bob Drury’s inspiring page-turner, Valley Forge.
Love poetry or memoir? Michael Dickman, award-winning poet and Lecturer in Creative Writing at Princeton University, will read from and discuss his latest book of poems, Green Migraine.
Additionally, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gregory Pardlo will talk about his masterful meditation on race and masculinity, Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America, while Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad will share compelling moments from her memoir, Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream. Muhammad, whose illuminating and inspiring story of faith, family, hard work, and perseverance, will be speaking at one event to readers of all ages. Both editions of her memoir – one for kids and the other for adults – will be available for sale and for signing at the Festival.
Other nonfiction titles that are sure to appeal to festival attendees include Christian Davenport’s The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, Leslie Jamison’s The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, and Pulitzer Prize winner Gilbert King’s Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found.
Fiction aficionados will be thrilled by the vast array of critically acclaimed novelists featured at the festival including A.J. Finn, author of the tour de force, #1 instant New York Times best seller, The Woman in the Window, (Speak No Evil), Sujata Massey (The Widows of Malabar Hill), and national best- selling and award-winning authors Megan Abbott (Give Me Your Hand), Alafair Burke (The Wife), Diane Chamberlain (The Dream Daughter), Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie (My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton), Joyce Carol Oates (Night-Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense), William Kent Krueger (Desolation Mountain), Kate Morton (The Clockmaker’s Daughter) and Kate Quinn (The Alice Network).
Bring your families and friends and join the Morristown community in celebrating the power of the written word!
The all-day, free main festival takes place on Saturday, Oct. 13. Over 50 award-winning and best-selling authors will speak and answer questions at five locales, all within walking distance of each other along South Street in historic Morristown, including St. Peter’s Church Sanctuary and Parish House, The Church of the Redeemer, the Morristown/Morris Township Library and the Presbyterian Church Parish House.
Book sales and signings will occur at a tent on the grounds of the historic Vail Mansion. The Friday, Oct. 12, keynote event is generously sponsored by Investors Bank. The Saturday, Oct. 13, festival is presented by Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management.
Morristown Festival of Books is a fund of the Community Foundation of New Jersey, a non- profit corporation, and we proudly support literacy and education in our community, this year through a partnership with the Morris Educational Foundation.
For more information, go to http://www.morristownbooks.org and please like us on Facebook!
To date, the AWARD-WINNING AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LINEUP is as follows:
FICTION
Megan Abbott (Give Me Your Hand)
A life-changing secret destroys an unlikely friendship in this psychological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me.
Alafair Burke (The Wife)
From New York Times best-selling author Alafair Burke, a stunning domestic thriller in which a woman must make the impossible choice between defending her husband and saving herself.
Diane Chamberlain (The Dream Daughter)
New York Times best-selling author Diane Chamberlain delivers a thrilling, mind-bending novel about one mother’s journey to save her child, unite her family, and believe in the unbelievable. Diane Chamberlain pushes the boundaries of faith and science to deliver a novel that you will never forget.
Fiona Davis (The Masterpiece)
In her latest captivating novel, national best-selling author Fiona Davis takes readers into the glamorous lost art school within Grand Central Terminal, where two very different women, 50 years apart, strive to make their mark on a world set against them.
Mark Di Ionno (Gods of Wood and Stone)
Gods of Wood and Stone is the story of two men framed by the lens of baseball. It is a timeless but strikingly singular tale of the responsibilities of manhood and the pitfalls of glory in a painful and exhilarating novel that’s distinctly American.
Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie (My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton)
From the New York Times best-selling authors of America’s First Daughter comes the epic story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton – a revolutionary woman who, like her new nation, struggled to define herself in the wake of war, betrayal, and tragedy.
A.J. Finn (The Woman in the Window)
One of the decade’s most successful debuts, The Woman in the Window is a smart, sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock.
Uzodinma Iweala (Speak No Evil)
In the long-anticipated novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Beasts of No Nation, a revelation shared between two privileged teenagers from very different backgrounds sets off a chain of events with devastating consequences.
William Kent Krueger (Desolation Mountain)
New York Times best-selling author William Kent Krueger delivers yet another “punch-to-the- gut blend of detective story and investigative fiction,” as Cork O’Connor and his son Stephen work together to uncover the truth behind the tragic plane crash of a senator on Desolation Mountain and the mysterious disappearances of several first responders.
Julie Maloney (A Matter of Chance)
A riveting and emotionally stirring novel about a mother’s worst nightmare – a kidnapping – and her five-year, heartbreaking and tortuous journey to find her daughter.
Sujata Massey (The Widows of Malabar Hill)
1920s India: Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female lawyer, is investigating a suspicious will on behalf of three Muslim widows living in full purdah when the case takes a turn toward the murderous.
Aimee Molloy (The Perfect Mother)
New York Times bestseller and soon to be a major motion picture starring Scandal’s Kerry Washington, The Perfect Mother is an addictive psychological thriller about a group of women whose lives become unexpectedly connected when one of their newborns goes missing.
Kate Morton (The Clockmaker’s Daughter)
A rich, spellbinding new novel from the author of The Lake House — the story of a love affair and a mysterious murder that cast their shadows across generations, set in England from the 1860s until the present day.
Rhiannon Navin (Only Child)
A tenderhearted debut about healing and family, narrated by an unforgettable 6-year-old boy who reminds us that sometimes the littlest bodies hold the biggest hearts and the quietest voices speak the loudest.
Joyce Carol Oates (Night-Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense)
In the title story of her taut new fiction collection, Night-Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense, celebrated author Joyce Carol Oates writes: Life was not of the surface like the glossy skin of an apple, but deep inside the fruit where seeds are harbored. There is no writer more capable of picking out those seeds and exposing all their secret tastes and poisons than Oates herself – as brilliantly demonstrated in these six stories.
Kate Quinn (The Alice Network)
In an enthralling historical novel from national best-selling author Kate Quinn, two women – a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947 – are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.
Rakesh Satyal (No One Can Pronounce My Name)
A humorous and tender multigenerational novel about immigrants and outsiders – those trying to find their place in American society and within their own families.
Susan Holloway Scott (I, Eliza Hamilton)
In this beautifully written novel of historical fiction, best-selling author Susan Holloway Scott tells the story of Alexander Hamilton’s wife, Eliza – a fascinating, strong-willed heroine in her own right and a key figure in one of the most gripping periods in American history.
NON-FICTION
Caroline Campion (The Dinner Plan)
From the author of the IACP award-winning cookbook Keepers, The Dinner Plan is an entirely new and personalized approach to tackling the dinner dilemma.
Christian Davenport (The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos)
Based on years of reporting and exclusive interviews with all four billionaires, this authoritative account is a dramatic tale of risk and high adventure, the birth of a new Space Age, fueled by some of the world’s richest men as they struggle to end governments’ monopoly on the cosmos. The Space Barons is also a story of rivalry-hard-charging startups warring with established contractors, and the personal clashes of the leaders of this new space movement, particularly Musk and Bezos, as they aim for the moon and Mars and beyond.
Michael Dickman (Green Migraine)
Drawing inspiration from the verdant poetry of John Clare, Dickman uses hyper-real, dreamlike images to encapsulate, illustrate, and illuminate how we access internal and external landscapes.
Bob Drury (Valley Forge)
#1 New York Times best-selling author Bob Drury provides a breathtaking account of the unforgettable and perhaps most underappreciated chapter in American history – Valley Forge, the Continental Army winter camp where George Washington turned the tide of the American Revolution.
Jeff Goodell (The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World)
A timely book about the effects of global warming, The Water Will Come is the definitive account of the coming water, why and how this will happen, and what it will mean. As he reports from the front lines, Goodell employs fact, science, and first-person, on-the-ground journalism to show vivid scenes from what already is becoming a water world.
Leslie Jamison (The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath)
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Empathy Exams comes this transformative work showing that sometimes the recovery is more gripping than the addiction.
Sandeep Jauhar (Heart: A History)
For centuries, the human heart seemed beyond our understanding. As the cardiologist and best- selling author Sandeep Jauhar demonstrates in Heart: A History, it is only recently that we have demolished age-old taboos and devised the transformative procedures that have changed the way we live.
Gilbert King (Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found)
Pulitzer Prize winner Gilbert King tells the gripping true story of a small town with a big secret. Beneath a Ruthless Sun is a powerful, page-turning story rooted in the fears that rippled through the South as integration began to take hold, sparking a surge of virulent racism that savaged the vulnerable, debased the powerful, and roils our own times still.
Chris Matthews (Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit)
A revealing new portrait of Robert F. Kennedy that gets closer to the man than any book before, by best-selling author Chris Matthews, an esteemed Kennedy expert and anchor of MSNBC’s Hardball.
Kate Moore (Radium Girls)
Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls depicts the inspiring young women exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances.
Ibtihaj Muhammad (Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream)
Raised in New Jersey and named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, Ibtihaj Muhammad is the first female Muslim American to medal at the Olympic Games and the first woman in hijab to compete for the United States in the Olympics. Proud is the inspiring story of how Ibtihaj rose above the stereotypes, misconceptions and negativity with grace and compassion.
Gregory Pardlo (Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America)
From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, an extraordinary memoir and blistering meditation on fatherhood, race, addiction, and ambition.
CLOSING
Philip Greene (A Drinkable Feast: A Cocktail Companion to 1920s Paris)
A history of the Lost Generation in 1920s Paris told through the lens of the cocktails they loved.
SCI-FI & YOUNG ADULT
Laini Taylor—FEATURED YA AUTHOR (Muse of Nightmares)
The highly anticipated, thrilling sequel to the New York Times best seller, Strange the Dreamer, from National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the best-selling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy.
Dhonielle Clayton (The Belles)
Dhonielle Clayton creates a rich, detailed, decadent world of excess and privilege, where beauty is not only skin-deep, but a complete mirage. Weaving deeper questions about the
commodification of women’s bodies, gender equality, racial identity, and vanity with high-stakes action and incredible imagery, The Belles is the must-read epic of the season.
Zoraida Córdova (Bruja Born (Brooklyn Brujas))
Three sisters. One spell. Countless dead. Lula Mortiz was born to heal, and in this magical journey she even tries to defy Death itself. But Lula soon learns that magic that defies the laws of the deos is dangerous.
Kass Morgan (Light Years)
Ender’s Game meets The 100 as hidden secrets and forbidden love collide at an interstellar military boarding school in a new sci-fi series from New York Times best-selling author Kass Morgan.
CONTEMPORARY YOUNG ADULT
Emily X.R. Pan (The Astonishing Color of After)
Alternating between reality and magic, past and present, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a luminous debut novel about finding oneself through family history, art, bravery, and love.
Jennifer E. Smith (Windfall)
A romantic story of hope, chance, and change from the author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.
Ibi Zoboi (Pride)
In a timely update of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, critically acclaimed author Ibi Zoboi skillfully balances cultural identity, class, and gentrification against the heady magic of first love in her vibrant reimagining of this beloved classic.
CHILDREN’S
Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson—FEATURED KIDFEST
AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR TEAM (Carmela Full of Wishes)
With lyrical, stirring text and stunning, evocative artwork, Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson, the team behind Last Stop On Market Street, have crafted a moving ode to family, to dreamers, and to finding hope in the most unexpected places.
Roda Ahmed (Mae Among the Stars)
Inspired by the life of the first African-American woman to travel in space, Mae Jemison, Mae Among the Stars will inspire other young girls to reach for the stars, to aspire for the impossible, and to persist with childlike imagination.
Heather Alexander (A Child’s Introduction to Norse Mythology: Odin, Thor, Loki, and Other Viking Gods, Goddesses, Giants, and Monsters)
Packed with action, intrigue, trickery, and love, A Child’s Introduction to Norse Mythology acquaints kids with the original North Germanic and Scandinavian folklore behind characters like Thor and Loki, plus other gods, goddesses, giants, dwarves, and more.
Sayantani DasGupta (The Serpent’s Secret)
A humorous, action-packed story about an ordinary sixth-grade girl from Parsippany, NJ, who turns into a fierce, demon-fighting princess.
Christopher Eliopoulos (I am Neil Armstrong and Monster Mayhem)
I am Neil Armstrong: Neil Armstrong’s journey to the moon is the focus of the 15th board book in the New York Times best-selling series of biographies about heroes.
Monster Mayhem: In this funny, action-packed graphic novel adventure, a science-obsessed girl finds herself in the middle of one of her favorite monster movies. Can she invent her way out of disaster while also saving the monster who has become her friend?
Debbi Michiko Florence (Jasmine Toguchi, Flamingo Keeper)
Jasmine’s best friend, Linnie, has just gotten a puppy. And now Jasmine wants a pet of her own – a flamingo! So when her grandmother sends Jasmine a daruma doll as a surprise gift, Jasmine colors in one doll eye and wishes for a flamingo to keep. Jasmine Toguchi, Flamingo Keeper is a sweet, special story of sisterhood and new responsibilities, with illustrations by Elizabet Vukovic!
Dan Gutman (My Weirdest School #11: Mr. Will Needs to Chill!)
Mr. Will is bringing delicious treats to Ella Mentry School, but Dr. Carbles has banned desserts forever. Will A.J. and the gang ever get to enjoy the sweet taste of a push-up pop again?!
Peter Lerangis (Max Tilt: 80 Days or Die)
The New York Times best-selling author of the Seven Wonders series and of books in the 39 Clues series, Peter Lerangis, brings us the hair-raising, edge-of-your-seat second installment of the Max Tilt trilogy
Jessica Love (Julián is a Mermaid)
A glimpse of costumed mermaids leaves one boy flooded with wonder and ready to dazzle the world. Mesmerizing and full of heart, Jessica Love’s author-illustrator debut is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.
Margaret McNamara (Eliza: The Story of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton)
For fans of the musical Hamilton, here is a stunning picture book biography about Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton’s extraordinary wife and an important figure in her own right.
Laura Numeroff (If You Give A Mouse a Cookie)
Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the award-winning If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, from the #1 New York Times bestselling team Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond.
Ibtihaj Muhammad (Proud: Living My American Dream)
Young Readers Edition
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (Naomis Too and Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-ins)
Naomis Too: A heartfelt, sweet, social justice-themed ode to blended and unconventional families—perfect for fans of Rita Williams-Garcia, Lisa Graff, and Sara Pennypacker.
Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-ins: Someday Is Now tells the inspirational story of the celebrated civil rights leader, Clara Luper, who led one of the first lunch-counter sit-ins in America.
Eliot Schrefer (Orphaned)
In his boldest work yet, two-time National Book Award finalist Eliot Schrefer shows us a riveting, heartbreaking early encounter between ape and man – told from the ape’s point of view. It is a journey unlike any other in recent literature.
David Ezra Stein (Interrupting Chicken and the Elephant of Surprise)
Surprise! The little red chicken is back – and as endearingly silly as ever – in David Ezra Stein’s follow-up to the Caldecott Honor–winning Interrupting Chicken.
Audrey Vernick (Naomis Too and Take Your Octopus to School Day)
Naomis Too: A heartfelt, sweet, social justice-themed ode to blended and unconventional families—perfect for fans of Rita Williams-Garcia, Lisa Graff, and Sara Pennypacker.
Take Your Octopus to School Day: A hilarious classroom story about an octopus and his boy, from the author of Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?
Tracey West (Dragon Masters: Shine of the Silver Dragon)
The dark wizard, Maldred, is back and wants to steal a powerful key from a Silver Dragon named Argent. Drake and his friends will need to find the dragon before Maldred does . . . but will Argent’s Dragon Master, Jean, get in their way?
