Bainbridge Island Book Festival
September 25 - 26, 2026
Annual Literary Festival on Bainbridge Island, Washington
Join us on beautiful Bainbridge Island, a 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle, for our third annual Bainbridge Island Book Festival on September 25th and 26th, 2026. Enjoy a gathering of nationally renowned and award-winning authors spanning genres and experiences.
Friday September 25 | Opening gala and fundraiser | Keynote author Edwidge Danticat in conversation with Seattle Times arts critic Moira Macdonald
Ticketed event
Stan Pocock Legacy Rowing Center
Edwidge Danticat is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, The Farming of Bones, The Dew Breaker, Brother, I’m Dying, Create Dangerously, Claire of the Sea Light, The Art of Death, Everything Inside, a Reese’s Book Club selection and National Book Critics Circle Awards winner.
Danticat is also the editor of The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States, Best American Essays 2011, Haiti Noir, and Haiti Noir 2. She has written eight books for children and young adults: Anacaona, Behind the Mountains, Eight Days, The Last Mapou, Mama's Nightingale, Untwine, My Mommy Medicine, Watch Out For Falling Iguanas, and a travel narrative, After the Dance. Her memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and a 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.
Danticat is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow, a 2018 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” fellow, the winner of the 2018 Neustadt International Prize, the 2019 St. Louis Literary Award, the 2020 Bocas Fiction Prize, the 2020 Vilcek Prize for Literature, a 2020 United States Artists Fellow, a two-time winner of The Story Prize and the 2023 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Her 2024 essay collection, We’re Alone, was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and in March 2026, she received the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.
Saturday September 26 | Author conversations, panels and readings
Free
The festival is held at three locations in downtown Winslow, the heart of Bainbridge Island: The Stan Pocock Legacy Rowing Center, Eagle Harbor First Congregational Church, and the Waterfront Park Community Center. All venues are within a two-block area, with shops, restaurants and cafes offering easy access to sips and nibbles
We’re building the 2026 author lineup and schedule now. Check our 2026 Authors tab, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media.
Celebrating community and literature
More than 25 authors in conversation and on panels across three venues in Winslow.
Author Panels
A vibrant market of local vendors on the lawn outside the Stan Pocock Rowing Center
Vendor Market
An exclusive ticketed fundraiser for the festival featuring a keynote author conversation kicks off the festival on Friday, September 25th.
Keynote Speaker
Book Signings
Meet the authors and purchase signed and personalized copies of their books.