We have questions, they have answers
Each year before Islanders Write, The MV Times asks the writers taking part in the event a series of random questions. Last week we printed a selection of their answers; this week we invite...
We have questions, they have answers
Each year before Islanders Write, The MV Times asks the writers taking part in the event a series of random questions. This year, since more writers are taking part than ever before, we asked...
From politics to pitch panels
The MV Times and MV Arts & Ideas are delighted to announce the schedule of panel discussions for this summer’s Islanders Write. As always, Islanders Write will be exploring a variety of genres and...
On the shelf
Islanders Write brings together writers and publishing professionals with ties to the Vineyard to speak about various genres and aspects of writing and the writing life. Since the first Islanders Write in 2014, the...
Out of the gate
What do an enslaved Black male born in the 1800s, a Thoroughbred racehorse sired in Kentucky in the same era, a struggling artist commissioned for an opportunity that consumes his life, a sleuthing scientist,...
Get inspired
This summer’s Islanders Write will have more writing workshops on a wider range of topics than ever before. These breakout sessions will be focused on the craft of writing and the business of selling...
When pictures speak
By Kelly DuMar
Photographs fill boxes in our attics, and cover our walls and furniture in frames. We store them on our computers and cellphones, and share them instantly on social media. We're taking and...
‘Debut Authors: A Survival Guide’
My debut novel, “The Moon Always Rising,” (a work-in-progress for decades) launched in April 2020. It wasn’t much of a launch, given COVID lockdown; it was more like a sprinkling of saltwater and a...
Pitch perfect
I don’t know if the ability to shape and present a pitch should be considered an art form, but there is an artistry and craft to doing it well. Pitching your book to agents,...
Ghost, with, or and
Cole Brown was waiting out the pandemic in Australia when his friend Matt James, who had found fame and courted controversy on the 25th season of the reality TV show “The Bachelor,” reached out...
Island writers on writing
Jennifer Smith Turner’s debut novel, “Child Bride,” was published in April 2020. It’s generally not advised to launch a literary career a month into a global pandemic, but even with the country’s focus on...
Island writers on writing
It began when she gave up. Her computer irretrievably and maliciously devoured the first 68 pages of a memoir she was working on, what Nancy Slonim Aronie calls the best piece of writing she...
On the shelf
I’ve heard a lot of people say that their reading habits have changed since the beginning of the pandemic some two years ago — no, make that since Donald Trump first ran for president...
A life’s work
Marc Brown makes a cameo appearance in the series finale of the PBS show “Arthur.” (For those of you who haven’t been in the company of young children in the past 45 years, Arthur...
Islanders Write 2022
February will soon be over, and the gust of wind from our collective exhale could practically blow the ferry off course. The number of coronavirus infections are trending in a downward direction, and preparations...
Grief on your terms
Last Friday, when Hurricane Ida was maliciously eyeing the Gulf Coast, I briefly spoke to Merissa Nathan Gerson about her new book, “Forget Prayers, Bring Cake: A Single Woman’s Guide to Grieving” (Mandala). Gerson,...
Yes, Islanders Write 2021 is canceled
Islanders Write, the MV Times-sponsored event that brings writers with ties to the Vineyard together to speak about topics related to writing, has for the second time in as many years been canceled. The...
‘From Caldecott to Coretta Scott’
Since the upcoming show of Black illustrators of children’s books at Featherstone Center for the Arts is being called “From Caldecott to Coretta Scott: Award Winning Black Illustrators,” I am somewhat reluctantly beginning this...
Writers and their dogs
Our dog Henry, an Australian shepherd, was the inspiration for my second children’s book, “Henry the Dog with No Tail.” For years Henry and I walked a few times a week at Trade Wind...