History Book Festival to feature local community partners

The Historic Lewes Farmers Market, Beebe Healthcare and Lewes Historical Society are three of nine community partners participating in the 2023 History Book Festival, taking place Friday and Saturday, Sept. 29 and 30, and Sunday, Oct. 1, in Lewes.

Featured on Saturday will be 19 free presentations by 22 authors, thanks to the support of funding partners the Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices/PenFed Realty and Delaware Humanities.

The Historic Lewes Farmers Market is partnering with the festival to present Matt Garcia, author of “Eli and the Octopus,” which tells the tragic story of Eli Black, an immigrant who became CEO of United Brands. Garcia’s appearance is also presented in partnership with the ACLU of Delaware. His presentation will take place at 12:30 p.m., Saturday at Bethel United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall.

Garcia will also visit the Historic Lewes Farmers Market at 9 a.m., Saturday, where he will talk with market-goers about his life as a farmer and a book he co-edited, “Food Across Borders.” The book highlights the connections between the decisions people make concerning what they eat, and the social and geopolitical processes they enact to secure nourishment, territory and belonging.

From food to medicine, the festival is also partnering with Beebe Healthcare and Joyce Robert, MD, FAAFP. Robert is program director of the family medicine residency at Beebe, responsible for designing and implementing a new, community-based residency program. She will talk with Jasmine Brown about Brown’s book, “Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century,” which includes Delaware-born Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler. Their conversation will take place at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, in the Lewes Public Library meeting room. The library is an ongoing festival program partner.

Brown’s appearance is also presented in partnership with the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice, which is working with the festival to present four other Black authors on Saturday: Joshunda Sanders, Traci N. Todd, Cheryl A. Head and Kidada E. Williams. SDARJ is also a community partner for the closing address by James McBride, who will discuss his latest novel, “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” with Marie Arana at 1 p.m., Sunday, at Cape Henlopen High School.

The Lewes Historical Society and Rollins Community Center are festival venue partners, and the historical society is working with the festival to present Meredith Small’s book, “Here Begins the Dark Sea: Venice, a Medieval Monk, and the Creation of the Most Accurate Map of the World,” the story of a Venetian monk’s creation of the first map in history to show that a ship could sail around Africa. Small’s appearance will take place at 3:30 p.m, Saturday, in the Rollins Community Center and Lewes History Museum.

Seaside Jewish Community is a community partner for two book presentations on Saturday: “Hotel Cuba” by Aaron Hamburger, a novel about Jewish immigrants in 1920s Havana, taking place in the Lewes Public Library meeting room at 2 p.m.; and Joseph Sassoon’s “The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire,” also in the library’s meeting room at 3:30 p.m. Seaside is also a community partner for McBride’s closing address.

Other community partners include the Rehoboth Art League, which is joining with the festival to present Prudence Peiffer and her book, “The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever.” Peiffer’s conversation will take place at 2 p.m., Saturday in the Lewes Public Library’s fireplace reading area.

Another Rehoboth partner is the Rehoboth Beach Historical Society & Museum, which published “Greetings from Rehoboth Beach: Postcards from the Collection of the Rehoboth Beach Museum” by museum volunteers Roland Forster and David McDonald. Their presentation will take place at 9 a.m., Saturday in the Rollins Community Center and Lewes History Museum.

CAMP Rehoboth Community Center is joining with the festival to present Lev AC Rosen, author of “The Bell in the Fog,” a mystery set in 1952 San Francisco featuring Andy Mills, a gay private detective. Rosen will also discuss his previous book about Mills, “Lavender House,” during his 12:30 p.m. presentation on Saturday in the Lewes Public Library meeting room.

For more information on all presenting authors and their featured books, and to purchase tickets for the closing address, go to historybookfestival.org.

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. All festival titles may also be borrowed from the Delaware Public Library system as the books are published.