NHBF Author: Wyn Cooper

Wyn Cooper has published six books of poetry, including, most recently, The Unraveling. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, as well as in 25 anthologies of contemporary poetry, including A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker. Many of his poems have been turned into songs, including by recording artists Sheryl Crow, David Broza, and Madison Smartt Bell. He is a former editor of Quarterly West, and the recipient of a fellowship from the Ucross Foundation. For two years he worked at the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, a think tank run by the Poetry Foundation, and he has taught at Bennington and Marlboro Colleges. His first novel, Way Out West, was published in 2022. He lives in Vermont and works as a freelance editor.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

NHBF Author: Brinda Charry

Brinda Charry came to the United States from India as a graduate student in 1999 and has been living here since. The East Indian, her first work of fiction published in the United States was awarded the Society of American Historians Prize (formerly the James Fenimore Cooper Prize) for Historical Fiction, and was shortlisted and longlisted for several other awards and recognitions. She is also a specialist in English literature and has published a number of books and articles in that field. She currently lives in Keene, New Hampshire, with her husband and dogs. 

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

NHBF Author: Nora Shalaway Carpenter

Nora Shalaway Carpenter is the award-winning author of the novels Fault Lines and The Edge of Anything, the picture book Yoga Frog, and contributing editor of four anthologies, including her newest: ONWARD: 16 Climate Fiction Short Stories to Inspire Hope. Her fiction has been named to NPR’s and Kirkus Reviews' Best of the Year lists, praised in the New York Times and People, and won the Green Earth Book Award, the Whippoorwill Award, and the Nautilus Book Award. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and teaches at Boyds Mills' (formerly the Highlights Foundation) Whole Novel Workshop. Shalaway Carpenter also works as a voice actor and serves on the executive team of Kindling Words. She lives with her family in the mountains of North Carolina.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

NHBF Author: Emilie Christie Burack

Emilie Christie Burack lives in rural New Hampshire. Her novel, The Runaway’s Gold (Abrams/Amulet), is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and was New Hampshire's featured book at the National Book Festival. Dominic Bean and the Mammoth Melt (Groundwood) releases September 1, 2026. Emilie serves on the Children’s Literacy Foundation board and is co-founder of the New Hampshire Book Festival. 

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

Book of the Week (8/24/2026)

Death in a Blackout (A WPC Billie Harkness mystery, Book 1) by Jessica Ellicott (Severn House, 2022)

1940. Britain is at war. Rector's daughter Wilhelmina Harkness longs to do her duty for her country, but when her strict mother forbids her to enlist, their bitter argument has devastating consequences.

Unable to stay in the village she loves, Wilhelmina - reinventing herself as Billie - spends everything she has on a one-way ticket up north. Hull is a distant, dangerous city, but Billie is determined to leave her painful memories behind and start afresh, whatever the cost.

The last thing Billie expects on her first evening in Hull, however, is to be caught in the city's first air raid - or to stumble across the body of a young woman, suspiciously untouched by debris.

If the air raid didn't kill the glamorous stranger, what did? Billie is determined to get justice, and her persistence earns her an invitation to the newly formed Women's Police Constabulary. But as the case unfolds, putting her at odds with both high-ranking members of the force as well as the victim's powerful family, Billie begins to wonder if she can trust her new friends and colleagues . . . or if someone amongst them is working for the enemy. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Jessica Ellicott loves fountain pens, Mini Coopers and throwing parties. She lives in New Hampshire where she obsessively knits wool socks and enthusiastically speaks Portuguese with a shocking disregard for the rules of grammar.

As Jessie Crockett she’s the author of the nationally bestselling Sugar Grove Mysteries, and the Daphne du Maurier Award winner, Live Free or Die. She also is the author of the books in the Change of Fortune mysteries as Jessica Estevao.

NHBF Author: Lisa Borders

Lisa Borders’s third novel, Last Night at the Disco – a dark comedy set in the disco era – was published last fall. She is the author of two previous novels, The Fifty-First State and Cloud Cuckoo Land, the latter chosen by Pat Conroy as the winner of River City Publishing’s Fred Bonnie Award and a 2003 Massachusetts Book Awards honoree. A frequent humor contributor at McSweeney’s, Lisa received a 2025 Massachusetts Cultural Council grant. She lives outside of Boston with her partner and two rescue cats.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.

NHBF Author: Valerie Bolling

Valerie Bolling is an award-winning author/educator who is passionate about creating stories in which all children can feel seen, heard, valued, and validated. She’s the author of eight picture books, including LET’S DANCE! (SCBWI Crystal Kite Award winner); TOGETHER WE SWIM (Kirkus Prize Finalist); I SEE COLOR (Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection); A FLEA FOR JUSTICE: MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN STANDS UP FOR CHANGE (Notable Social Studies Trade Book Selection); and a Scholastic Acorn early reader series, RAINBOW DAYS. Sharing her books with children and inspiring them to write their own stories brings Valerie immense joy. Valerie lives in Connecticut with her husband where they enjoy traveling, hiking, reading, going to the theater, and dancing.

This author is scheduled to appear at the NH Book Festival which will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts & NHBF Festival Village on South Main Street in Concord, NH on October 2-3, 2026.