Mathew Tombers, the manager of Edgartown Books, recently told me that they did a count of books written by Island-connected authors, and there were more than 200 of them. Included in this number, which I suspect skews low, there are books by first-time authors like Dan Martino’s “The Oyster Book”; books by the chroniclers of the Island, like Tom Dresser, Skip Finley, and Linsey Lee; books by best-selling and Pulitzer prizewinning authors — Geraldine Brooks and David McCullough come to mind immediately, as well as James Beard awardwinning authors, of which there are at least two, Jessica B. Harris and Chris Fischer. I will stop here because the list is quite long, and continues to grow.
A few months back, when The MV Times decided to put on a midwinter Islanders Write, Mathew and I started talking about the idea of having an Island authors’ book fair as part of the event, hosted by Edgartown Books. We’re still working out the details, but depending on how many participants we have, throughout both days we expect to have a setup where four authors at a time can be shmoozing with readers, chatting about their work, and signing their books.
Having hosted many book signings at the store and venues offsite, Mathew speaks from experience when he says, “One of the most exciting things for an author is to meet their readers, and we’re looking forward to helping make that happen at Islanders Write this March.”
This column is an invitation to local authors who would like to be part of this all-Island book fair, and to the readers who would like to meet the authors who are writing on, and often about, the Vineyard. (Authors, see below on how to join us).
There’s a long and impressive list of writers who have found inspiration here, and some months ago, Chris Baer — whose book “Martha’s Vineyard Tales” is a must-read for anyone who has breathed Vineyard air — posted a list of Island-related books that the Vineyard Gazette had compiled and published in 1977. The list is impressively long, and Baer has added an update for people to add titles that were published after 1977. (After reading through it, I was intrigued by, and tracked down a copy of, “A Thousand Summers,” a novel written by Garson Kanin — a seasonal summer resident, writer, director, and husband to Ruth Gordon — which is about an Edgartown pharmacist who has a passionate love affair with a cosmopolitan and married summer visitor.)
I’ve been working on finalizing the workshop schedule for the midwinter Islanders Write — there won’t be any panel discussions, only writing workshops lasting 60 or 90 minutes. There are many more workshops we’d like to offer, but only so many hours in the day. I was hoping not to schedule two workshops at the same time, but unfortunately the hours caught up and closed in on me.
On Saturday, March 15, workshop topics will include jump-starting your memoir with Nancy Slonim Aronie, writing dialogue with John Hough, Jr., self-publishing and promoting your book with Elisa M. Speranza, enhancing your narrative through layering with Jennifer Smith Turner, creating characters who belong where you put them with Nicole Galland, letting music inspire your writing, which will be a bilingual Portuguese and English workshop with Marcia De Castro Borges, and the art of the essay, with MV Times Publisher Charles Sennott. You can find out the times and preregister on the Islanders Write website.
On Sunday, March 16, the workshops will be exclusively for students aged 6-20, with details on those still to come.
We are delighted to have recently learned that Islanders Write received a grant from the M.V. Cultural Council, which is part of the Mass Cultural Council. All our programming is free to attend, and it is through grants like this one and donations that we are able to launch the midwinter Islanders Write.
On a sad note, as many of you already know, the Island recently lost an extraordinary woman who nurtured the talents of writers on and off Martha’s Vineyard. Twenty-five years ago, Abigail McGrath founded Renaissance House, a writer’s retreat in Oak Bluffs where writers came to stay, focus on their craft, find inspiration, and connect with other writers. McGrath started Renaissance House to celebrate the literary legacy she was born into by giving back.
As she wrote, “I was raised by my mother, Helene Johnson, the Harlem Renaissance poet, and
Dorothy West, the Harlem Renaissance novelist. They were cousins who were born within the same year, and died a few years apart. How to celebrate their lives? My first thought was to offer a scholarship to women whose lives closely paralleled theirs. But, there already were such scholarships. Then I remembered how difficult it was for them to find time to write. Both of them had to have pedantic, time-consuming jobs just to be able to survive; time to write became more and more of a luxury. So I created Renaissance House as a tribute to them both. It is located in the former home of Helene Johnson, which is next door to the home of Dorothy West.”
Abigail McGrath will be missed, and she will be remembered.
If you are a Vineyard-connected author and you would like to have a book signing at the all-Island book fair, reach out to Mathew Tombers at [email protected]. For more information about Islanders Write, please go to islanderswrite.com. Kate Feiffer is the event producer for Islanders Write. To reach Kate, please email her at [email protected].
This post was originally published on here
