A monthly newsletter dedicated to Island events and eats by Jenna Sylvia with culinary contributions by Marnely Murray.

Three Questions with Zach Sylvia

At Coastal Events MV, successful events are built on two equally important foundations: thoughtful coordination and dependable infrastructure. While one…

Summer at last

It was a February morning in 2026. I peaked my head over a thick blanket to see heavy snowfall outside…

Pride and Progress

June is here and with it comes the beginning of another Martha’s Vineyard summer. The ferries arrive a little fuller…

Three questions with Jordan Wallace

There’s something especially meaningful about getting to tell the stories of the people who make the Island hospitality scene what…

It’s all happening

Although the weather has yet to really comply with this sentiment, I think it is safe to say we made…

Three Questions with Second Bloom MV

On an island where beauty and community are so deeply intertwined, even the smallest details of a celebration can carry…

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A monthly newsletter dedicated to Island events and eats

Jenna Sylvia

Jenna Sylvia is an Island native with a deep love and appreciation for the place she now calls home again. Sylvia grew up working in restaurants and events on Martha’s Vineyard. She then studied journalism at Keene State College in New Hampshire and went on to work in hospitality and events in Boston, before moving back to the Vineyard to work at the Martha’s Vineyard Times. She went on to found an event production company serving the Massachusetts Cape and Islanders – Coastal Events MV. She believes in the beauty of bringing people together, but also the fundamental importance of local journalism.

Marnely Murray

Marnely Murray returns to the MV Times food pages ten years after first writing for us, bringing back her deep love of local kitchens, farms, and the back of the house people that make things delicious on this island. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, who then moved to Martha’s Vineyard for a restaurant job where she met her husband and settled down into the rhythm of seasonal cooking on Martha’s Vineyard. She was the pastry chef at a private golf course in Edgartown for 12 years, while also writing a food blog called Cooking with Books on and off for over a decade working with national brands such as Cabot Cheese, King Arthur Flour, and Sabra Hummus, among others. She dines out at least 2-3 times a week, when supporting local restaurants becomes not her job, but her way of life. Originally from another island, the Dominican Republic, she brings her knowledge, hunger for good food, and thirst for culinary knowledge to us by way of The Grapevine. 

In 2026 and beyond, she’ll partner with Jenna Sylvia to help guide the newsletter into food-forward waters, celebrating how Martha’s Vineyard eats year-round.