For 15 years, Martha Frankel has treated the Woodstock Bookfest like a writerly dinner party, inviting authors from around the world into town, feeding them well with her cooking, goodie bags and wit, and building a literary weekend centered on conversation and ideas. Next year, Frankel will pause the festival to re-center her attention closer to home.
Frankel, a veteran journalist and the festival’s founder, said the Bookfest will not take place in 2026. She described the decision as less about the future of the event than about how she wants to spend her time amid growing national uncertainty, as a federal health care subsidy is expected to expire at the end of the year after House Republicans advanced legislation this week that would not renew the tax credit. Without action by Congress, many of the roughly 24 million Americans who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act could face significantly higher costs starting Jan. 1.
Frankel, who lives in West Shokan and first arrived in Woodstock in 1971, said the decision reflected a desire to focus more closely on the people around her.
“I just feel like it is time for me to concentrate on my community,” Frankel said. “I need to shake myself up. I can make a difference and I’m going to work locally for the good of the world. I’ve always believed that.”
At 75, Frankel has spent decades writing, first as a Hollywood reporter and profile writer, later as a memoirist and cultural organizer, and more than a decade building the Bookfest largely on her own. She has interviewed Elizabeth Taylor, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, among many others, and is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts award in creative nonfiction. Each year, the festival requires months of fundraising, scheduling and logistics, much of it handled personally.
“The Bookfest is huge,” she said. “It’s me pushing uphill. And I don’t have it in me right now.”
That pause does not mean Frankel is stepping away from live literary events altogether. She plans to continue producing Story Slams, live storytelling events that have become a signature of her programming.
On Saturday, April 11, 2026, she plans to host a large Story Slam at the Woodstock Playhouse.
The pause, Frankel said, reflects a broader reckoning about what feels useful to her now and what does not.
“I don’t feel like my neighbors are safe,” she said. “I want to take care of myself and my husband and my dogs and my community.”
Frankel, who lives in Olive with her husband, the artist Steve Heller, said her attention has narrowed in recent weeks to the people around her.
The decision, she added, brought an unexpected sense of calm.
“Once I decided, I slept so great,” she said. “I was just like, OK, this is what I’m going to do.”
Local booksellers said they understood the decision. James Conrad, a co-owner of The Golden Notebook, which has long partnered with the festival, said the Bookfest had been central to Woodstock’s literary life but supported the pause.
“Sometimes it’s good to take a pause and come back in a year better than ever,” Conrad said.
Frankel said she expects the Bookfest to return.
“The Bookfest is just a three-day event,” she said. “It’ll come back, and it’ll be great.”
For now, she said, her sense of purpose feels closer to the ground.
“I can make a difference,” she said.
Noah Eckstein is the editor-in-chief of The Overlook. Send correspondence to noah@theoverlooknews.com.