Islanders Write brings the literary lights of August right to our shores.
The Vineyard is catnip for creative types. The Island’s literary legacy alone is a veritable who’s who of notable writers. There’s W. Somerset Maugham, Dorothy West, James Thurber, John Hersey, Lillian Hellman — oh, how this spectacular list continues on and on to this day. There’s no official count of the number of writers who have visited, lived and vacationed on the Island, but whatever the number is, it is surely robust enough to fill up a ferry and leave many left waiting in the standby line.
It’s fitting then that August has emerged as an extraordinary time for the literary arts on the Island. What better time is there for a summer book-fling? Readings and book signings are scheduled throughout the month at the Island’s libraries, galleries, and bookstores. The Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival takes place in Chilmark during the first weekend of August, and Islanders Write, which is brought to you by the MV Times and this magazine, will return to Featherstone Center for the Arts on August 20 and 21.
And, yes, there’s room for two literary-themed festivals on one Island during this particularly busy month. In part, because these events are quite different from each other.
The Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival showcases the country’s leading authors for several days of author talks, panel discussions, and book signings. According to event organizer Suellen Lazarus, “Featured themes this year include poverty and incarceration, the Supreme Court, the political landscape, national security, family and gender, and a search for solutions.” This year Kwame Alexander, Jessamine Chan, and Tracy Kidder are a few of the notable authors who will come to the Vineyard to speak at the book festival.
Islanders Write brings writers and publishing professionals together for panel discussions, writing workshops focused on the art, the craft, and the business of writing, author signings with an Edgartown Books pop-up, designated writing spaces, and schmoozing. What differentiates Islanders Write from every other writers’ festival worldwide is that everyone who is a speaker or facilitates a workshop has a connection to Martha’s Vineyard. They are writers and publishing professionals that you bump into on the beach, and at the farmers and flea markets. They are the writers whose names tend to be familiar on the Island, perhaps you’ve even heard some gossip about some of them. (They will deny whatever it is you’ve heard.)
This summer at Islanders Write topics will include: writing across racial lines, who drives what — character and plot, a conversation with James Lapine and Rose Styron (whose new memoir is excerpted in this magazine), a behind-the-scenes look at cartooning with two New Yorker cartoonists, covering the political divide, a pitch panel, a conversation about publishing with agents and editors, and workshops on plotting, escaping from imposter syndrome, meditation as muse, and a primer into digital marketing. And as always, the day will begin with a Wake Up and Write! Workshop.
Given the Vineyard’s ability to attract and nurture the talents of writers, some of the speakers at Islanders Write have received extraordinary honors — Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards, MacArthur Fellowships, and books surfing various bestseller lists. But not all the writers speaking at Islanders Write are well-known — yet. Event speakers include authors whose early books took our breath away — writers to watch and read — and we want to know how they did it.
As of this writing the speakers at Islanders Write include Nancy Slonim Aronie, T. Elizabeth Bell, Geraldine Brooks, Emma Brodie, Callie Crossley, Nicole Galland, Susan Golumb, Hannah Halperin, Judith Hannan, John Hough, Jr., Paul Karasik, Peter Kramer, James Lapine, Mara Liasson, Bella Morais, Mathea Morais, Torrey Oberfest, Richard North Patterson, Misan Sagay, Walter Shapiro, Katherine Sherbrooke, Sherry Sidoti, Mick Stevens, Adriana Stimola, Rosemary Stimola, Rose Styron, Jennifer Smith Turner, Patricia Williams, and Gretchen Young.
The literary events mentioned in this article are free to attend. For more information about Islanders Write, go to islanderswrite.com. Kate Feiffer is the event producer for Islanders Write.