“Tough Luck, Kid” – A Fishing Story
Our last Islanders Write prompt was fishing stories, and we are delighted to share this beautiful essay by Alicia Winter.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. The sound of braid being stripped off a reel. I look over and see...
Creating a Community of Writers from Scratch
The Washashores Writers Collective is a diverse and vibrant sisterhood of Martha’s Vineyard–connected writers. T. Elizabeth Bell recently spoke with Washashores' co-founders Brenda Horrigan and Elisa M. Speranza about the group’s origin story.
T. Elizabeth...
Around the Bookstore: Exploring the dark corners …
September has slipped into October, leaves are beginning to change –– even as the Island has experienced a dazzling streak of weather, keeping summer feelings stirring in all of this. October is one long...
Writing Prompt: Leaving the Vineyard
Each month we post a writing prompt and pick an essay to highlight in this newsletter and on our website. Our August writing prompt was “Leaving the Vineyard.” Here is what Jen Keenan sent...
My Josh Hammer Problem
In 2023, Naomi Klein wrote “Doppelganger,” a tragicomic memoir about identity conflation and the spread of false information in the digital age. A liberal activist known for her books on climate change and globalization,...
What I didn’t realize about the Vineyard
By Joani LaMachia
Joani LaMachia submitted this essay in response to the writing prompt “What I didn’t realize about the Vineyard…” in the July Islanders Write newsletter.
As I am writing, it is a rainy wet...
All I Really Need To Know About Writing I Learned on Martha’s Vineyard
On bad days of writing, days when I achieve little to no writing or, worse, days when the writing is so bad that I am ready to throw in the proverbial towel, I try...
Beth’s Story
In 2017, the mother/daughter team Kathy and Beth Usher stood up in front of a rapt audience and pitched their book project to the Islanders Write Pitch Panel in the three minutes’ time they...
Putting our people on the page
One hard truth I learned along my bumpy path as a published memoirist is that people-pleasing is not exactly part of the equation. Despite my best efforts to write with multidimensionality, love, and integrity,...
Writing Prompts
June’s writing prompt –– Vineyard horror stories –– was not popular. Since we didn’t receive any submissions, we’ll share an essay by Brae Eddleston from the previous month’s prompt, which was “Vineyard love story,”...
‘Jaws,’ capitalism and Fidel Castro
“It was 1975, and Fidel Castro was reading ‘Jaws.’”
Wendy Benchley shared that complex shard of history with me. She’s the widow of Peter Benchley, who authored the best-selling novel that would inspire the Hollywood...
In the beginning was the POV
When a writer sits down to begin a work of fiction, one of the most important decisions is what narrative voice to use. There are so many ways to tell a story, and sometimes...
My job was to be a kid
By Jill Orluskie
Thanks to my father, I couldn’t have asked for a better summer job on Martha’s Vineyard from 1982 to 1985. Although my father’s job at Bell Atlantic had him work on the...