In a place where there are so many wonders to celebrate — from Wasque Point to the lighthouse in Aquinnah — we want to take a moment to highlight the extraordinary good fortune we all share of living on an Island that is a welcoming home to so many talented writers.
Every summer on Martha’s Vineyard, we gather in a literary pageant that brings together the most experienced, awardwinning authors with the newest, buoyant writers. The Martha’s Vineyard Times is proud to be the host of this free gathering known as Islanders Write, which, under the leadership of Kate Feiffer, our director, has flourished and expanded its mission in recent years.
There are several other literary gatherings on the Island that also bring writers from around the country and around the world, but what makes Islanders Write unique is that all of the writers who speak on panels and conduct writing workshops are directly connected in some way to the Island. All of the novelists, playwrights, journalists, poets, scribes, and essayists who attend proudly fit within that most inclusive definition of “Islander.”
We love that inclusive spirit in Islanders Write, which kicked off on Wednesday, July 15, at Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs, right after our print deadline, and we want to thank the whole Island community for its generous support of the craft of writing through more than 12 years since Kate first raised high the beams on the event, what she referred to back then as “a literary barnraising.”
Kate describes the gathering’s evolution this way: “Islanders Write is a writers’ festival and not a book festival — we discuss writing and the writing life, not our most recent publications, but supporting our local independent bookstores and our Island authors is part of the cycle of keeping literary life healthy and happening on the Island. Also, I have been reading the newest releases by this summer’s authors, and I’m eager to discuss all of them — so buy them, read them, and let’s talk!”
Raising the curtain on this summer’s Islanders Write gathering, MV Times Publisher Charles Sennott moderated a discussion on the future of journalism. Sennott was in dialogue with two extraordinary journalists: the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer and Hunterbrook’s Nathaniel Horwitz. Jane is a longtime lover of the Island and a new homeowner here, and we are thrilled to know she will be spending more time with us. Nathaniel was raised on the Island by his parents, Geraldine Brooks and his late father, Tony Horwitz. Both Geraldine and Tony had awardwinning careers as journalists and authors. Coming of age on the Island, Nathaniel got his start in journalism as an intern here at The Times, and the family is now sponsoring the first annual Tony Horwitz Internship for an Island high school student to work with us in the newsroom on Beach Road. We are so grateful to be starting a new apprenticeship.
The Times’ owner, Steve Bernier, was there at the gathering at Featherstone, and he was generously appreciated for his strong stewardship of the paper and for keeping this great tradition of Islanders Write going strong. By his side was his wife Constance Messmer, who is a talented writer herself, whose work was featured in the Islanders Write newsletter this summer. Both Steve and Constance have embraced the importance of good writing in the telling of this Island’s remarkable story, and it is hard to thank them enough for all of that.
The gathering also remembered two of our beloved contributors to Islanders Write whose loss we are feeling profoundly. They are singer, songwriter, and music producer John Forte, who passed away over the winter just before his 51st birthday, and leaves his two children, Wren and Haile, and Elizabeth (Hawes) Weinstock, 84, who passed away this summer, and was a celebrated writer and editor at the New Yorker, and the wife of Davis Weinstock.
At the gathering, we also named our newest talent, a rising senior at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, Maria Barros, who has been awarded our first Tony Horwitz Internship. She is helping us bring the voice of the vibrant Brazilian community into the stories we tell. You can watch for her coverage all summer.
At the gathering, we also named our newest Island Writer through a Times initiative that supports a new generation of Island writers to tell the story of their own Island. We’re proud to announce that Nicholas Vukota, who both writes and photographs for the paper, has been named our 2026 Island Writer. This initiative, which is coordinated through Islanders Write as our nonprofit arm and the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation as our fiscal sponsor, has allowed us to pool generous funding from a number of major donors. This fund enables us to support this new full-time staff position for up to three years to keep on writing, and covering an Island beat that he likes to describe as “cops, courts, and sports.”
Sennott said, “One of our goals in supporting a new generation of Island journalists is to give them the chance to tell the story of their own Island, and to do so in a way that brings us all together. Nick’s work, particularly around sports, has indeed served as a unifier for the Island. We can sometimes feel like an Island divided along many different lines, but when it comes to rooting for the hometown team, we can speak with one voice.”
All of our writers on this Island contribute their unique voices to our shared narrative as a community, and The Times is fiercely proud to celebrate the art and craft of writing through the work we do every day in telling the story of our Island.