The Eastern Shore Writers Association (ESWA) Holiday Book Festival returns to Cult Classic Brewing Company on Kent Island on Saturday, November 7, from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free and there is abundant free parking.

The afternoon will bring together 40 writers from across the region, with books for children, teens, and adults. Poets, memoirists, local historians, short story writers and novelists will all be represented, giving shoppers a chance to browse a wide variety of books while meeting the people who actually wrote them.

It is also an opportunity to get an early start on holiday shopping while supporting local and regional writers and the literary communities they help create. At a time when  the marketplace is flooded by formula-driven titles, the Holiday Book Festival offers something decidedly different: the genuine, homegrown, real deal—books conceived, researched, and written by writers from the Delmarva region.

Adding to the fun this year will be a book-themed scavenger hunt, with multiple free books given away throughout the afternoon.

The festival will also collect donations for Poetry X Hunger, an initiative that brings together poetry and the fight against hunger. Poetry X Hunger works with poets, educators, and community organizations to use the written and spoken word to raise awareness and support efforts to reduce and eliminate hunger.

Cult Classic is a strong supporter of writers from both Maryland’s Eastern and Western Shores, regularly hosting book clubs, author readings, literary events, and exhibits. ESWA is grateful for the brewery’s continued support of writers and the literary arts.

For this year’s festival, ESWA is also grateful for the support of its community partners including Radio Chesapeake, the Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College, Tidewater Rotary Club, and the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce.

Food and beverages will be available for purchase throughout the festival, so visitors can browse, meet authors, shop for books, and stay awhile.

For more than 40 years, the nonprofit, volunteer-run Eastern Shore Writers Association has supported writers and the literary arts throughout the Delmarva Peninsula. Its members include poets, novelists, memoirists, journalists, essayists, short story writers, editors and others working in fiction and nonfiction. ESWA’s programs include the annual Bay to Ocean Writers Conference at Chesapeake College, the annual Bay to Ocean Journal, workshops, readings, and other opportunities designed to connect and support the region’s writing community.