Betty Brito

Gail Burmeister

Steven Calvert, co-chair 2025, 2026

Allen Clark

Jillian Hanon DeLong

Travis DeLong

Elizabeth Hanson

Susan Hibbitt, secretary 2025, 2026

Kasey Kennedy

Beverly Larson

Elisabeth Lavers, treasurer 2025, 2026

Tina Palmer

Kim Petta

Lianne Pinheiro

Renee Soto, co-chair 2025, 2026

August Thompson

Ann Kathrin Weldy

About BookFest

How it started

Bristol BookFest was founded in 2019 by Joanna Ziegler and Charles Calhoun, who thought that the town might welcome a lively new event in the quiet months– late winter, early spring – and who hoped to bring together local readers who would enjoy sharing a “big” book. It’s intended as more than a community book group – it’s an unusual opportunity for readers in a small town to connect with college-level teacher-scholars who are experts in a relevant field. The idea quickly caught on, and BookFest is now a permanent part of the calendar for a growing number of Bristolians and our East Bay neighbors.

The first program had to be postponed because of COVID but finally took place in September 2021 online. It was well received, and subsequent programs have been in person, attracting ever larger audiences.

The Books

The first book was Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men” (1946), widely recognized as the best American novel about politics – a cautionary tale about the clash of ideals and raw ambition.

The book in spring 2022 was Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” (1816), the founding text of science fiction and another cautionary tale – about the dangers of getting what you asked for without having thought of the repercussions.

The spring 2023 book was Emily Wilson’s enthusiastically welcomed, highly readable new translation of Homer’s 3,000-year-old epic, “The Odyssey”. Can you go home again, it asked. What will you find there?

In 2024, we turned to another tale of the sea, perhaps the greatest American novel, Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” (1851).

In 2025, the chosen book was Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” (1953), a chilling vision of a dystopian future where books are banned and critical thought is suppressed. This enduring classic serves as a powerful warning about the fragility of intellectual freedom and the dangers of censorship.

For 2026, Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” is the centerpiece of BookFest. The novel’s themes of identity, time and the complexity of human consciousness remain as resonant in the 2020s as they were in the 1920s, inviting readers to reflect on their own inner lives and connections to others.

BookFest Committee

listed in alphabetical order