The Martha’s Vineyard book festival celebrated its 20th anniversary over the weekend doing what it does best — bringing authors and readers together to discuss literature and ideas as well as inspire one another.

The festival began on Friday with an in-depth discussion about Signalgate and the future of journalism, and continued on Saturday and Sunday with panels and author talks, readings and book signings.

Founder and organizer Suellen Lazarus said the three-day affair was a huge success.

“We felt the responsibility and expectation from this smart and engaged community to facilitate discussions that recognize and reflect on the times we are living in,” Ms. Lazarus said. “Our authors did just that. From socio-economic, cultural and political issues, to dispatches on the ultra-rich and the political chaos that surrounds us, our authors and moderators offered insights and inspiration on the path forward. We are grateful to them and to the many volunteers who worked so hard to make this festival a success.”

Saturday’s lineup featured seven panel discussions, opening with a talk about power and its impacts.

Edward Fishman, Evan Osnos, Tyler Pager and Jordan Thomas took part in a discussion titled Where the Power Lies, moderated by George Gibson. The authors all discussed how their books came to be and their approaches to making large stories accessible for readers.

Mr. Pager, a New York Times correspondent who co-authored, with Josh Dawsey and Isaac Arnsdorf, 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, said that the collaborative nature of their writing process was a natural extension of their work as reporters covering the election.

“One of the great things about modern journalism is how collaborative it has become,” he said. “We are drawing on expertise from colleagues across the newsroom.”

Mr. Thomas, an anthropologist and wildland firefighter, wrote When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World, a firsthand account of fighting wild fires on the west coast. He said that it was important to balance both first-person stories with the history of mega fires because it showcases how decisions made by those in power can cause environmental and humanitarian disasters.

“My book is getting into the experience on the ground of consequences of the decisions made by the people everybody else here is writing about,” he said. “The things about writing about natural disasters is you start realizing it’s political decisions that make parts of nature disastrous for certain people.”

The political conversation continued with a panel called The Road to Autocracy: Government, Universities and The Law. The panelists included Steven Hahn, Andrew Lawler, Jason Stanley and Kara Swisher. The discussion focused on how the current political situation, on campuses and across the nation, has come to be.

Mr. Hahn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, said that the assault on democratic values of the past decade are more in line with American history than an aberration.

“I understand the appeal of trying to imagine the last decade as something that does not fit in American history and the American experience, but as a historian, I knew a lot better,” he said.

He added that liberal democratic norms have been denied to many people throughout United States history.

“That’s a luxury relatively few people in this country have,” he said.

Mr. Stanley, formerly a professor of Yale before he moved to Canada due to the current political issues in the U.S., said that attacks on the education system prevent an exchange of diverse ideas.

“If you want to attack a democracy, you have to attack its education system, replace it with an autocratic education system,” he said.

Ms. Swisher, who has covered Silicon Valley for almost 30 years, said that the media strategy used by current politicians has also been seen throughout history, adapting to whatever the latest technology is, whether it is the Gutenberg printing press or images generated with artificial intelligence.

“These tools are the same tools. It’s repetition, it’s confusion. It’s flooding the zone,” she said. “It’s not new stuff, it’s just new tools.”

The subject shifted during the next panel, entitled Eating Our Stories, featuring Julia Blanter, Jessica Harris, Eric Kim and Steven Satterfield, along with moderator and food critic Ligaya Mishan.

When asked about their favorite childhood dishes, each speaker had a vastly different answer.

“For me, it is Pelmeni, Ukrainian dumplings,” said Ms. Blanter, a culinary adventurer who grew up in Australia and recently published the Martha’s Vineyard Cookbook: 100 Recipes from the Island’s Restaurants, Farmers, Fishermen & Food Artisans. “Pelmeni is a labor of love, a whole day of making the filling, rolling the pastry, and boiling.”

Mr. Satterfield, chef and owner of Miller Union, looked to his childhood for his inspiration.

“It would be a warm buttermilk biscuit that my grandmother just baked with her strawberry rhubarb preserves,” he said.

Mr. Kim, a New York Times food columnist known for his cookbook Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home, described a homecoming meal close to his heart.

“Anything with the flavor of sesame oil and seaweed has always been the taste of my childhood, usually involving my mom’s kimchi fried rice,” he said.

Ms. Harris, a professor and author of more than 15 books, had a more unconventional answer.

“I like onions,” she said. “My mother found me sitting in the middle of the kitchen eating an onion like an apple.”

The authors all said that food and cooking should not become so specialized as to make it feel out of reach. The enjoyment of eating and making food should always be the main ingredient.

“The taste of memory is different for everyone,” said Ms. Harris. “It’s the things that you remember as being absolutely sublime, but it’s the memory of it. Sometimes the reality is the thing you need to hold on to, not so much perfection.”

Family was the main topic at a panel entitled The Complicated Family Unit, featuring authors Susan Dominus, Elinor Lipman and Safiya Sinclair, moderated by Ron Charles.

“These three writers approach the family in such distinct ways. One investigates a group of families, one told about her own family,” Mr. Charles said.

Ms. Dominus, author of The Family Dynamic, approached writing about high-achieving families through the lens of social science and personal reflection.

“I went into this book thinking it was going to be a pretty straightforward investigation...and then two things happened along the way as I was reporting,” she said. “Very good social science and behavioral genetic science suggest parenting impacts are smaller than we think they are, and then in the narratives of the story, some of the people I was interviewing said it actually isn’t about my parents but about my brother or my sister.”

Ms. Sinclair wrote her novel, How to Say Babylon, from personal experience growing up in a strict Rastafari family. She depicts her story of living under her father’s repressive rules and ultimately finding her voice and defining her womanhood through poetry.

“I am the eldest of four, and I’m the oldest daughter, and I have two sisters, and there was an interesting dynamic when I was growing up,” she said. “When I was about nine years old, my dad said to my brother ‘You can’t be following behind your sisters anymore, you’re taking a different path’....Seeing how rules diverged between me and my brother was one of the things that led me to questioning.”

The Changing the Rules, The Role of Advocacy panel had audience members thinking about how to solve various overarching problems that society is facing today. Panelists included Jaz Brisack, Rebecca Grant, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Wally Lamb, and was moderated by Barbara Phillips.

Ms. Johnson, a marine biologist who writes about climate solutions, noted that while she sa

id in her book that she has “aversion to the word hope” that doesn’t mean she has no hope.

“I know how I can contribute to climate solutions. I understand that we have the solutions we need,” she said. “It’s just a matter of how quickly and how justly we’re going to implement them. It’s really just a question of how I can be useful, as opposed to worrying about being hopeful.”

When talking about how to move forward, Ms. Grant, who writes about the abortion access movement, acknowledged the tension that exists between policy and practicality.

“Any movement needs both,” she said. “You need those radicals. You need those visionaries who are basically dragging everyone along with them. But you also need people who are practical and who really understand the respectability politics of it. Those different factions don’t always get along, and they don’t always agree, but I think that they’re really both essential for any kind of sustainable, long-term change.”

The last panel of the day, The Press Under Pressure: Media’s Role in a Shifting Democracy, featured journalists Ashley Parker, Maria Sacchetti and Chris Hayes and was moderated by Lawrence O’Donnell.

All the panelists said the current presidential administration presents distinctive difficulties, including the sheer amount of news it creates.

“One major thing that is so different this year is the velocity,” Ms. Sacchetti said. “The first four months, I don’t think we had a day off, and I’m not exaggerating. So many different things have happened that if we wanted to cover the daily news and do investigative work, we just have to do it on our own time. And we do it, and it’s important to do, and I’m happy to do it.”

Ms. Parker said that the job itself hasn’t changed, but the dynamics have.

“Each president you cover presents different challenges. But one thing that’s different, of course, is Trump is different this term,” she said. “He is much more emboldened. He’s much more willing to shatter traditional democratic norms.”

Sunday at the book festival was a time for sampling author talks and enjoying the atmosphere on the Chilmark Community Center grounds.

Mollie Giancola walked out of the Menemsha tent after Wally Lamb’s discussion, holding a copy of his latest book.

“I haven’t read any of his work but now I’m really excited to,” she said. “He was talking about his book The River Is Waiting, his previous writings, and also his experiences working with incarcerated women and how he teaches writing classes in a correctional institution. It was very inspiring.”

Isabel Custer browsed the book sale tent following a talk by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, author of What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures, among other books.

“I honestly came just for Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson because I’ve been a fan of her for a long time,” Ms. Custer said. “She is so knowledgeable, and it was really inspiring to hear her talk and share her wisdom.”

Several attendees said it was their first time at the book festival.

“This is my first book festival and I live in Aquinnah year-round,” said Jamie Vanderhoop. “I’m a voracious reader, a big fan of our public libraries, and I was really excited to have some local authors here. I really love the book signings and being able to interact with the authors, enhancing my reading experience.”

Some authors were new to the event as well.

“It’s been a great experience,” said Joseph Lee, author of Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity.

“This is my first time coming even as an audience member,” he said. “I’m pretty sure it’s the first time there’s been a Wampanoag author at the book festival.”

“Everybody’s been so welcoming,” he added. “And for me to be able to bring my book home in a sense is really cool.”

Meg Goldner Rabinowitz has been a regular at the event but this year took it a step further by volunteering at it.

“I’ve been attending for many years, and this is my first time volunteering. I come every summer to the Vineyard. I’ve always picked the weeks to come here when the book festival is happening,” she said.

Anne Humphrey was visiting the Vineyard for the first time, inspired to do so by the book festival.

“This is a dream come true, really,” she said.

Ellie Stevenson and Eloise Christy contributed reporting.

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