The list of acclaimed authors scheduled to appear at the Nantucket Book Festival continues to grow with the additions of Billy Collins, Diane Rehm, Sebastian Junger, Emma Sky, and J. Kael Weston. They join Marlon James, Diane Ackerman, Nathaniel Philbrick, Alice Hoffman, Geraldine Brooks, Jack Gantos, and many other writers in celebrating the fifth year of the Festival, to be held June 17-19.

Billy Collins is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal. His last three collections of poems have broken sales records for poetry. Billy Collins was appointed United States Poet Laureate 2001-2003, and named New York State Poet Laureate 2004-06.

In 2014, President Barack Obama presented NPR radio host Diane Rehm with the National Humanities Medal. “In probing interviews with everyone from pundits to poets to Presidents, Ms. Rehm’s keen insights and boundless curiosity have deepened our understanding of our culture and ourselves,” the White House said. Rehm’s latest book On My Own is a deeply personal and moving account of the long drawn-out death (from Parkinson’s) of her husband of 54 years, and of her struggle to reconstruct her life without him.

Sebastian Junger’s first book The Perfect Storm spent three years on the New York Times bestseller list. His 2010 book War and award-winning documentary Restrepo revolve around Junger's time spent with a United States Army platoon of the 173rd Airborne in Afghanistan. Junger’s next book Tribe (May, 2016) takes a critical look at post-traumatic stress disorder and the many challenges today’s returning veterans face in modern society.