Islanders Write Immersives

Last winter, The MV Times decided to experiment: We held an Islanders Write event in March. We programmed two days of writing workshops, and partnered with Edgartown Books and Featherstone Center for the Arts to host an Island authors book fair. Looking ahead to 2026, which is barreling toward us, we are trying something new again. We’re going online, which is frankly something we’ve resisted until now in spite of pandemic migration patterns to Zoom. 

In January, we will be launching the Islanders Write Immersives. These online workshops will be in addition to a March 2026 event –– that experiment was successful, so we’re doing it again on Saturday, March 14, and Sunday, March 15. 

So what are Islanders Write Immersives? And why are we doing this? 

I’ll begin with the what. 

We asked eight authors who have taken part in Islanders Write over the years to create workshops that are more in-depth than what there is time for at our live events. These courses will be offered online-only during the winter. You might call the shortest of these immersives a quickie, as it’s a 90-minute workshop on writing about sex. A course on publicizing your book will take place over a weekend in February. And several of these immersives will run once a week for four weeks. 

The eight Islanders Write Immersives are:

• “The Joy of Learning to Write Sex Scenes in Fiction and Memoir,” with Elizabeth Benedict
• “Obits, Profiles, and Biographies: Writing about People,” with Bob Drogin
• “Fictionalizing Your Life,” with Kate Feiffer
• “Characters in Context: Creating Characters Who Belong Where You Put Them,” with Nicole Galland
• “Writing from Where You Are –– An Exploration of Journals, Literature, and Truth in a Digital Age,” with James W. Jennings
• “Writing the Story Only You Can Tell: A 30-Day Reflective Challenge for the New Year,” with Sharisse Scott-Rollins
• “The Architecture of the Essay,” and “The Art of the Lead,” with Charles Sennott
• “Planning and Executing a Book Publicity Strategy,” with Elisa M. Speranza

More details about each of the workshops and registration will be posted online soon. 

Now as to the why. 

In the 12 years since the first Islanders Write, we have met, learned from, and been inspired by an extraordinary number of people on the Island who write. When we originally had the idea to create a Vineyard-centric writing conference, we had no clue how very many writers were on the Island. Over the years, we’ve heard from novelists, memoirists, playwrights, cartoonists, journalists, biographers, cookbook authors, children’s book authors, songwriters, essayists, poets –– so very many poets –– and a flock in flight of people working in other genres. There are debut authors, Pulitzer prizewinners, and numerous scribes betwixt and between. There are the self-published, the traditionally published, and the not yet published, as well as the agented, those looking for an agent, and the actual agents. There are aspiring and experienced writers, and the dejected and rejected among us. At Islanders Write, we have been interested in helping the community of writers and publishing professionals to engage in discussions and occasionally debate, to meet as neighbors and colleagues, and in the end to nurture and promote self-expression, and –– naturally –– share our rejection stories.

We resisted going online during the pandemic because we felt it was important to bring together a community of Island-based writers in person. At that time, Islanders Write was still finding its footing. We were growing together, and meeting writers who lived and vacationed here. But now we’ve decided the time is right to make the virtual leap, in large part to support our in-person events, which will remain free to attend. 

We will be charging a fee for the immersives. We’ve priced these courses comparably with other online writing classes, and we encourage you to take a look, sign up for a class for yourself, or give the gift of a class to someone you love, or to someone you wish would stop talking about writing and get to work on that book they’ve been planning.  

If workshops aren’t your thing, but you would like to support Islanders Write, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Islanders Write through the M.V. Community Foundation.

Kate Feiffer is the director of Islanders Write, and the author of the comedic novel “Morning Pages.”