BLOOMINGTON BOOK FEST: WRIGHT THOMPSON Join the Bloomington Book Festival for the third annual presentation of the Bob Hammel Writing Award.
The 2026 winner and keynote speaker is Wright Thompson, a New York Times-bestselling author and revered journalist. A native of Clarksdale, in the Mississippi Delta, Thompson has spent two decades proving that the best stories are often about ambition, loss, family, and the price of greatness.
His latest book, The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi, is a haunting account of the brutal 1955 murder of Emmett Till, named a Best Book of the Year by the Washington Post, TIME, and Vanity Fair, and nominated for a PEN America Literary Award.
In his journalism for ESPN and The Atlantic, Thompson has written the definitive profiles of legends ranging from Ted Williams to Michael Jordan, revealed the secret history of Tiger Woods’ Navy SEAL fascination, and penned many of the most-read articles in ESPN’s history. Some of those pieces were collected in his New York Times bestseller, The Cost of These Dreams: Sports Stories and Other Serious Business.
Another bestseller was Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last, which is both a chronicle of the remarkable history of world-famous Pappy Van Winkle whiskey and a meditation on the traditions worth preserving.
We’re hoping Wright will offer an opinion on Indiana’s finest bourbon by the end of the night, and we can promise a few rare bottles will be on the auction table.
Presenting the Hammel Award and joining Wright in conversation is Bloomington native Michael Koryta, a New York Times-bestselling author, whose new novel, Die Famous, releases September 22. Set in Indiana in 1937, the novel follows Savannah Cody and her son Alford as they pursue the man she once loved and the nation now fears – the outlaw Nickel Terhune – from the Midwest to Maine. Stephen King called Die Famous “the best gangster novel I’ve ever read.” The evening with Wright Thompson will be Koryta’s only appearance in Bloomington this fall. Both writers will sign books following the event.
Don’t miss the chance to hear these authors talk about their craft, influences, – and bourbon preferences! While also raising money for the good work of BloomREADS.
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5:00pm - 6:30pm