Eric Metaxas is the New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Prophet, Martyr, Spy and Amazing Grace and William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. He is also a writer for Veggie Tales, a children’s book and TV series that is both funny and grounded in themes of faith.
The poem begins with the routine event of chopping parsley, a serious and yet absurd musing on a nursery rhyme known to all — three blind mice — and quickly spins into a quiet meditation on the sneaking cynicism that prevents us from feeling, and then, in shame, makes us feel all the more.
The breeze danced across the sails of many boats tied in the Menemsha Sound but it seemed barely to sway the majestic 70-foot frame of the Relemar. Entering the yacht’s living room to shake hands with a tall, poised and enthusiastic brunette, it’s hard to shake the feeling that you have taken a step into Kitty Pilgrim’s debut novel, The Explorer’s Code.
It is the season of magic, or at least that’s what Fall seems to be, what with those cool dark nights slipping in off the ocean, perfect for that wandering black cat shapeshifter at bat-winged spellmaster patrolling the night skies.
Not feeling it yet? Well, the folks at New Moon Magick located at 4 Chapman avenue in Oak Bluffs are. This Sunday, Sept. 18, from 4 to 6 p.m. they are holding a reading by Annette Blair, author of the Accidental Witch Trilogy and artist Diane Hayes, author of The Rift Healer.
How did Tina Chang become the Poet Laureate of Brooklyn? By writing the following words:
“I walk the streets of Brooklyn looking at this storefront and that, buy a pair of shoes I can’t afford, pumps from London, pointed at the tip and heartbreakingly high, hear my new heels clicking, crushing the legs of my shadow.”
Well, actually that is a mere sampling of her work taken from her poem Duality. There is so much more to choose from.
When Elizabeth Murray was 16 years old, she had already seen far too much of the unforgiving side of life, and she had begun to ask herself if what she knew was all there was. What she knew was that she’d recently buried her mother, who died of AIDS, in a donated pine box with her name misspelled on it. Mr. Murray’s addict father, who was suffering from AIDS himself in a homeless shelter elsewhere in New York city, could not attend. Ms. Murray herself had dropped out of high school and was homeless.
Author Winslow Myers will present Living Beyond War, sharing his beliefs and commitment to end war, on Sunday, May 22, at 5 p.m. at the Unitarian-Universalist Society Chapel at 238 Main street in Vineyard Haven.
The organization called Beyond War has been working for 25 years to change thinking about war. During the Cold War, teams of high level scientists from the then Soviet Union and the U.S. wrote a book together about the dangers of accidental nuclear war.
Once the weather turns warmer and the grey, spring skies blow blue and clear the Vineyard beckons to one and all. Time and the grave cannot even thwart the faithful. Pearl Buck is headed our way.
That’s right, on June 1 at 7 p.m. Ms. Buck will be reading from her short story collection East and West at the Vineyard Haven Public Library. Okay, the legendary author of The Good Earth may bear a resemblance to the actress Diane Quaid, but the words will be her own.
The lavish book of photography and essays, Martha’s Vineyard – Now & Zen, has been selected the bronze medal winner of the 2011 Indie Excellence Award in the category of Northeast Regional Publications.
This, the book’s second national award, celebrates the highest achievements in independent press and self-publishing.
Detective Victoria Turnbull is at it once again, sleuthing out the latest Vineyard mystery in The Bee Balm Murders. The fictional character created by writer, activist and innkeeper Cynthia Riggs may be 92 years old, but she isn’t slowing down in the least.
