Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Islanders Write

Summer reads

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As we lurch toward a return to “normalcy,” let us remember that the most normal thing to do during a Vineyard summer is to read a book. This summer, with attendance on the Island...

Every book counts

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When I was a child, I surely read books in school, although I don’t remember any of them. It’s the books I read during the summer that have stayed with me. It was in...

Writing his truth

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“Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World” isn’t exactly a memoir. As Cole Brown explains it, “What it is is a scrapbook, a collection of stories — some mine, some not.”  In his award winning...

Telling other people’s stories

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James Dale tells other people’s stories. It’s not that he’s a biographer; his books tend more toward memoir — only he’s not writing his own story. During the past two decades, Dale has collaborated...

Sense of place

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Bestselling authors like Judy Blume, Richard Russo, Richard North Patterson, Geraldine Brooks, Linda Fairstein, and Elin Hilderbrand have done it. The list continues with Jill Nelson, Nicole Galland, John Hough Jr., and Stephen L....

For writers, from writers

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The MV Times is pleased to announce the return of Islanders Write at Featherstone Center for the Arts during the weekend of Sept. 17 to 19. While planning for this year’s event is still...

Vineyard creative writing conference goes virtual

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The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing’s summer conference will be virtual again this summer, giving it a degree of outreach that is already generating global attention to what may be one of the...

Finding Lucy Stone

Since reading an advance copy of Katherine Sherbrooke’s “Leaving Coy’s Hill,” I haven’t stopped talking about about the abolitionist, suffragist, and orator Lucy Stone. I hadn’t heard of Lucy Stone before reading the book....

King Lear and you

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Dear Internet, Thank you for reminding us that Shakespeare wrote “King Lear” during the plague of 1606. It’s helpful to think about Shakespeare when we sit down at our computers. He was a model for...

Write on

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An expanded Islanders Write will be returning to Featherstone Center for the Arts on Sunday, August 2, and Monday, August 3. For the first time, Islanders Write will kick off with a half day...

Secret lives of secret sellers

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While working for the CIA as a mid-level agent, Aldrich Ames once left a briefcase with confidential material in it on a New York City subway. A misstep like this, one might think, would...

Gifts for the bibliophile in your life

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The holiday shopping season quickly accelerates into high gear, and with Black Friday and Cyber Monday fast fading in the rearview mirror, we suggest it’s time to refocus your attention, if you have any...

When a giraffe is born without spots

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Imagine a giraffe born spotless. Kate Hancock and illustrator Lane Gregory do just that in their new collaboration for young readers, “Spotless” (Stanza Lone Books). Readers first meet the strikingly cute and spotless giraffe...

Writing advice from the pros

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If you weren’t among the 600 to 700 people on Monday who trooped to the sixth annual Islanders Write conference at Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs, here's a short list of...

Fans fill Featherstone for Horwitz, McCullough

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If you showed up at 6:30 Sunday night you were late. The line of people to hear David McCullough and Nathaniel Horwitz speak at 7:30 snaked two-abreast down the 100-foot walkway from the Featherstone...

Sex, spiders, and symphonies, oh my!

Every year leading up to Islanders Write, we ask four questions to the writers taking part. We actually have a lot more questions for them, but we’ll save those for the event. Three of...

Coolest Islanders Write ever

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The annually delightful Islanders Write (IW) conference occurs August 11 and 12 at a new venue. The sixth edition of IW features new themes supporting traditional fan faves for active and aspiring writers. A...

Rejoice, grammar geeks

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Grammar nerds are in for a real treat at this year's Islanders Write. New Yorker Ellen Jovin will set up her “Grammar Table” at the event at Featherstone Center for the Arts on Monday,...

Honing your craft

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Islanders Write is expanding the number of writing workshops offered at the day-long event scheduled for Monday, August 12, at Featherstone Center for the Arts, beginning with an 8 am Wake up and Write!...

Writers reading

“I am always stunned at the caliber of writing on the Island,” said West Tisbury’s Niki Patton. Since 2015, Patton, a writer herself, has been facilitating Writers Read, a monthly informal feedback group open...