Morristown Festival of Books kicks off with author Rick Atkinson

The annual Morristown Festival of Books, which takes place Oct. 11-12, celebrates the “power of the written word to challenge, transport, and transform” people, according to its website. 

The festival, which began in 2014, offers in-person talks by world-class authors, the chance for readers to interact with writers, and numerous events for kids, teens, and fans of young adult literature. Books will be for sale in tents throughout the event.

The festival center will be on the lawn in front of the Vail Mansion at 110 South Street in Morristown, with all festival locations within walking distance.

“It’s just a nice event, and you’re learning something, and you’re in the community together, and that’s one of our things, is to bring the community together in conversation,” Wendy Supron, the chair of the festival, told the New Jersey Independent. 

In honor of next year’s 250th anniversary of the United States, this year’s 2025 keynote speaker is author Rick Atkinson, a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and best-selling author of “The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780.”

The book is part of a planned trilogy on the history of the Revolutionary War and includes the history of soldiers encamped in Morristown and of battles that took place in New Jersey. This is the second book in Atkinson’s trilogy, following 2019’s “The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777.” He was a consultant on Ken Burns’ latest miniseries, “The American Revolution,” scheduled to premiere on Nov. 16 on PBS.

Atkinson will speak on Friday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m. at the Mayo Performing Arts Center. Tickets for Atkinson’s keynote are on sale for $60, and admission includes a copy of “The Fate of the Day.” Outside of the keynote, the festival is entirely free. 

The festival features 42 authors of adult fiction and nonfiction and over 40 authors and illustrators at the KidFest, featuring picture books and chapter books for readers from pre-K to middle school. 

According to Supron, the festival has about 8,000 attendees each year during the two-day event. She added that about 1,700 adult books and about 2,600 children’s books were sold last year. 

CNN anchor and author Jake Tapper will be attending the festival, talking about his nonfiction book “Race Against Terror,” which will be released Oct. 7. 

“He came two years ago with his thriller, and our biggest venue, it’s a church, so it has pews, if you’re really cozy, it holds 600., He had 650 people. I don’t know what it’ll be this time,” Supron said, adding that his moderator is a journalist and New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman. 

To mark the festival’s 12th anniversary and to encourage budding young writers, the MFOB sponsored a teen writing contest. The theme for the poetry and fiction categories was “red,” a color, concept, name, or word. Submissions are now closed, but finalists will be announced at the festival and invited to read their work during a special presentation on Saturday, Oct. 11. 

Three finalists will be selected in each category: poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction — and each first-place winner will receive $300, second-place winners will receive $200, and third-place winners will receive $100.

“I encourage people to get out of their shell of reading,” Supron said. “For example, if you’re always reading historical fiction, and you’re going to the historical fiction people, then really, what are you getting out of this? Here’s your opportunity to explore.”