The 2026 History Book Festival Lewes, Delaware
The History Book Festival is the only book festival dedicated to history through story, showcasing new historical fiction and narrative nonfiction from multiple subjects, eras, and voices. Over 94% of HBF’s author presentations are free and open to all, drawing readers from 30 states and abroad to this singular event at the Delaware beaches in historic Lewes, dubbed “the first town in the first state.”
The SDARJ is a proud Community Partner for the following books and authors, including at the Closing Event. Tickets now on sale for the Keynote Opening and the Closing Event.
Saturday 8:30am at the Bethel United Methodist Fellowship Hall
The War Within a War:
The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home
by Wil Haygood
(Hardie Grant, 2026)
Told through the stories of Black soldiers and officers, doctors and nurses, journalists and activists, artists and politicians, The War Within a War illuminates a generation caught between two battles: one on the front lines in Vietnam and another for justice and dignity at home. Surrounding their experiences are the cultural and political forces of the turbulent era of transformation. The story is both sweeping history and intimate revelation, providing a lens through which to understand the racial and political divides that continue to shape America.
About the Author
Wil Haygood is the author of ten nonfiction books, including The Butler, and he has been a correspondent for The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. Haygood is a Guggenheim and NEH Fellow and is currently a Visiting Distinguished Scholar at Miami University in Oxford, OH, his alma mater.
Saturday 10:00am at the Lewes Public Library
Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen
by Cheryl Thompson
(Kensington, 2026)
The Tuskegee Airmen are legendary. Though these first African American aviators in the US Armed Forces were hailed for their patriotism and skill, it took years of pressure from civil rights groups and the Roosevelts before these men could attend the famed flight school and serve in WWII. Tragically, many from the 332nd Fighter Group never returned, nor were they honored by the government for decades. Forgotten Souls shines a light on 27 of the Tuskegee Airmen who vanished in combat during WWII, preserving the stories of their lives, struggles, valiancy, and legacies.
About the Author
Cheryl Thompson is an Emmy and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who teaches investigative reporting at George Washington University. She was a reporter for the The Washington Post for 22 years before joining NPR as a correspondent. A Chicago native, she lives outside DC.
Saturday 11:30am at the Bethel United Methodist Fellowship Hall
The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker
by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowitz
(Simon & Schuster, 2026)
On a September morning in 1851, a Maryland enslaver and his posse arrived in Pennsylvania to drag four men back into bondage. They were met by a diverse community of neighbors who gathered to stop them, violating the Fugitive Slave Act. What ensued was dubbed the “Christiana Riot,” and it led to a landmark trial that advanced the path to the Civil War. Much more than the story of that single bloody morning, the tale of events leading up to it was one of bravery, ingenuity, and hope involving ordinary people, with little in common, who came together to stand against injustice…and won.
About the Author
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is a New York Times bestselling nonfiction writer and poet. She is the author of eight books of poetry and Dr. Mütter’s Marvels and Words in Your Face. A seventh generation Pennsylvanian, she lives in Philadelphia with her husband, the novelist Ernest Cline, and their children.
Saturday 11:30am at the Lewes Elementary School
Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me
by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor
(37 Ink, 2026)
Inspired by Pryor’s viral TED talk on why it’s hard to talk about the N-word, Something We Said is a braided narrative that integrates the history of the N-word with Pryor’s own story. Growing up the Black Jewish daughter of Richard Pryor, she went on to become a leading scholar and teacher of the controversial word that was central to her father’s comedy. Through the lens of her story and deep research, Pryor confronts the history of the notorious slur, working to unpack the messy, sometimes surprising, legacy of racism in the United States.
About the Author
Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor is a professor of history at Smith College, where she focuses on 19th century US history and race. She studied history at Tufts, Cornell, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Pryor grew up in Los Angeles and now lives with her husband in North Hampton, MA.
Saturday 2:00pm at the Frederick D. Thomas Middle School
Runner: A Novel
by Ashton Lattimore
(37 Ink, 2026)
One fateful summer in Prohibition-era Martha’s Vineyard, Earl Jameson, a successful Black fisherman-turned-rumrunner, disappears in a suspicious shipwreck. His daughter Lena steps up to take over his dangerous, illegal trade, working to save her family’s fortunes while preserving her own dream of a college education. That decision takes Lena and her siblings from the safe, colorful streets of Oak Bluffs, through gangland Boston, to the jazz-filled clubs of Harlem during its Renaissance, all in search of quick money—and the truth about the shipwreck and their father’s death.
About the Author
Ashton Lattimore is a graduate of Harvard College, Columbia Journalism School, and Harvard Law School. Her debut novel, All We Were Promised, was featured at HBF in 2024, becoming a Book of the Month Club pick and a Washington Post and NPR Best Book of the Year. A native of New Jersey, she lives there with her family.
Saturday 3:30pm at the Frederick D. Thomas Middle School
Soomaaliya: A Cookbook
by Ifrah Ahmed
(Hardie Grant, 2026)
In Somali culture, knowledge is passed down orally – through songs, stories, recipes, and more. But the Somali Civil War that began in 1991 brought 30 years of mass emigration forcing people like Ifrah Ahmed and her family to abandon their communities thereby disrupting this oral tradition. In Soomaaliya: A Cookbook, Ahmed reclaims the story of her country through its history, food, and people. From Somalia’s role in the spice trade to the relics of Italian colonial rule, here is a celebration of the richness of Somali food and the resilience of its people.
About the Author
Ifrah F. Ahmed is a Somali-born writer, chef, recipe developer, and artist whose work centers on food, history, memory, and migration. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times, sharing recipes and stories. Ahmed arrived as a refugee in Seattle from Mogadishu in 1996, and lives with her family in New York today.
Sunday 1:00pm at the Cape Henlopen High School Theatre
A Pair of Aces: A Novel
by Victoria Christopher Murray & Marie Benedict
(Berkley, 2026)
From the co-authors of The Personal Librarian comes the story of two trailblazing women on opposite sides of the law—a prosecutor and a madam—who team up to bring down notorious mob boss Lucky Luciano in 1930s New York. Eunice Carter, assistant district attorney for the City of New York and Manhattan’s first Black female prosecutor, and Polly Adler, high-class brothel madam, set their sights on ending the reign of Luciano.
About the Authors
Murray, a native New Yorker, earned her MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business before working in corporate America and starting her own financial services agency. She has written 30 novels, including Harlem Rhapsody, a 2025 NPR Best Book of the Year, and Stand Your Ground, recipient of an NAACP Image Award and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year.
Benedict is a graduate of Boston College and Boston University School of Law with more than ten years’ experience as a litigator. Among her bestselling books selected for national book clubs are The Only Woman in the Room, Carnegie’s Maid, The Other Einstein, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, and Lady Clementine. Benedict lives in Pittsburgh with her family.
