I am in the final stages of planning this year’s Islanders Write, which will take place on Monday, August 21, at Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs. Over the years, the event has grown to include writing workshops. This summer, we will offer six different workshops with six different instructors, who have generously offered their time and expertise to Islanders Write. These workshops are free to attend, and there is no advance registration necessary.
Wake Up and Write! (30 minutes)
Judith Hannan
Start the day inspired. Essayist, author, and workshop leader Judith Hannan will guide participants in a series of quick writing prompts to encourage free association and the revelation of scenes and stories.
The P Word (1 hour)
Mathea Morais
If you’re like most writers, you probably struggle with the dreaded P word — plot. In this workshop, novelist Mathea Morais, who is also the director of Featherstone Center for Literary Arts, will offer simple and effective ways to structure a plot regardless of genre. Attendees will come away with a stronger understanding of character, and a clearer way to formulate their stories. This workshop is for people in all stages of their writing life.
Memoir as Medicine (1 hour)
Nancy Slonim Aronie
Nancy Slonim Aronie, founder of the Chilmark Writing Workshop, is bringing one of her treasured workshops to Islanders Write. Have you ever thought of writing your memoir as part of your healing process? If so, you’re not alone. Kick off your creativity for a writing workshop based on Nancy’s most recent book, “Memoir as Medicine,” to help you create beauty from the life challenges that made you who you are today.
Take Five: Meditation as Muse for Inspired Writing (90 minutes)
Sherry Sidoti
Oh, to be in the zone, filled with spontaneous inspiration, riding the sweet spot of creative flow! But equal to the elation that comes with writing come the roadblocks — overthinking, stress, dullness, and mental restlessness, to name a few. Creativity is too easily hijacked by the mind stuff. Join yoga teacher and author Sherry Sidoti in this 90-minute workshop to learn how meditation can serve as muse for inspired writing. Open to all — no prior meditation practice necessary. Bring something to write on/with, any writing pieces you may be working on, and an open mind.
Build Your Own Bookstagram (B.Y.O.B.) (2 hours)
Bella Morais
In this two-hour workshop, attendees will learn the basics of creating, cultivating, and maintaining a successful Bookstagram by discovering different niches, aesthetics, similar accounts, and more. Bella Morais will share her expertise in literary-focused social media to introduce you to different content management systems, such as Canva and Later, explore the importance of hashtags and other engagement techniques, and demonstrate mobile editing apps to help you get a feel for how to take photos and get comfortable with the apps that can make your social media a success.
Navigating Imposter Syndrome: What If They Find Out? (45 minutes)
T. Elizabeth Bell
Do you sometimes (always) feel like you’re not a real writer? If that’s the case, you’re not alone. In this workshop, author and attorney T. Elizabeth Bell will ask you to confront your imposter syndrome, and offers tactics to help you defeat it before it defeats you, through writing prompts and other exercises.
Islanders Write is sponsored by The MV Times and MV Arts & Ideas Magazine. For more details about workshops and Islanders Write, please go to islanderswrite.com.
