Around the Bookstore: Female authors
March has arrived. There are a few hints of spring, with stretches of gray and rain, and more than a small amount of pummeling by the weather, which always puts me in the mood...
Poet’s Corner: ‘in March, before we leave’
in March, before we leave
By Susan Puciul
1.
winter night in the yard
the moon’s room
her rise welling up through
black lace of oak and beech
seize of crystal
on forest ground
mirrors the stern shine
of starry eyes above
same as knew...
Books and music
MVY Radio, the nonprofit radio station located in West Tisbury, and broadcasting throughout the world via internet, is currently hosting something that's a bit of a departure from their usual mix of music and...
Around the Writers’ Table
During the winter of 2014, Peter Oberfest, then publisher of The MV Times, called me into his office. He was interested in creating an MV Times–sponsored event for the community, and wanted to brainstorm...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Things to Come’
Things to Come
By Cecily Bryant
Day dawns under sullen shelf clouds
A promise of a cold rain
A day for making soups and calling friends
I am grateful for the colors of carrots and savory greens
I am warmed...
Poet’s Corner: ‘Snowdrift’
Snowdrift
By Fan S. Ogilvie
Look at a snowdrift of spring Kousa
dogwood blossoms backed by a writer’s
shed on top of which turns a brass and
gold weathervane—the horse/fish warrior
hippocampus. It’s the writer’s story, one
never told just gestured...
Around the Writers Table: Workshops and readings
I was looking into the writing-related events that will be taking place on the Island during pinkletink season, and was surprised that a few of the offerings are still happening over Zoom. I suppose...
Poet’s Corner: Poem by Michael Oliveira
By Michael Oliveira
the book of your life
would you skip to the last page
to see how it ends?
Michael Oliveira has lived and worked on Martha’s Vineyard for decades. He currently lives in East Falmouth.
Poets with...
Around the Bookstore: On vacation
A monger, according to the Oxford dictionary, is a word “denoting a dealer or trader in a specified commodity,” such as a fishmonger.
When I became the manager of Edgartown Books, my godson Paul started...
Poet’s Corner: ‘The Drip’
The Drip
By Georgia Morris
For the third time in two months
water breaks through the ceiling slats
of the downstairs bathroom fan
and you are, this time, happily
making green tea and honey toast
to the tap, tap, tapping that...
Poet’s Corner: Requiem for a Right Whale
Requiem for a Right Whale
By Jeffrey Agnoli
Beloved cetacean
hogtied with fishing line
before washing up
on the shore
not so many yards
from our
fossil-fueled road
you must have rolled
and thrashed
and if we were looking
we would have seen
the planet's grid of...
Losing loved ones
A single shot changed 8-year-old Lily’s life forever in Elaine Kelliher’s “Do You Think I Cried Too Long?” The author writes, “A shotgun blast pierced Lily’s ears, causing her temples to pulse and her...
Novel ideas
The LGBTQI+ Book Club at the West Tisbury library has been going strong since February 2023. Library director Alexandra Pratt explains that the club came about as a response to patrons saying that they...
Around the Writers’ Table: Winter writing
Writing tends to be a solitary endeavor, as does spending a winter on the Vineyard. Given these two situational happenstances, it’s not surprising that the Vineyard’s writers use this time between the tourists to...
Poet’s Corner: ‘January Gems’
January Gems
By Ellie Bates
Night
black velvet sky
wears
crescent pearl
necklace
Morning
flakes
of chalcedony
veils
dress the fields
of fallen snow
Ellie Bates lives year-round in Edgartown, and is a member of the MV Poets’ Collective and the Cleaveland House Poets. Her recent chapbook,“Seasonal...
WHOI: Deep dive
Recently the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) published its first children's book — a deep sea dive into a world that most of us will never witness outside of photos. “Where the Weird Things...
Poet’s Corner: ‘On Aging and the Loss of One’s Marbles’
On Aging and the Loss of One’s Marbles
By Ellen Martin Story
Sad, to think I’m losing marbles these days.
Used to lose a lot when I was a kid
playing on the sidewalk.
Could never finger-flick other marbles
out...
Around the bookstore
Watching the Christmas decorations come down on Main Street in Edgartown caused a sigh to slip out; it always seems they come down a week too soon — but that’s me, someone who’d like...
Farming and prose
Scott Chaskey’s new book, “Soil and Spirit: Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life,” is an ode to nature in many ways. It brims with personal essays and poems in which he intermingles...
Winter writing
It’s wintertime. It’s cold. It gets dark at an absurdly early hour. What better time to light a fire under your inner muse? The upcoming literary arts workshops at Featherstone Center for the Arts...