Vineyard children’s author Kate Feiffer is too honest to stuff a ballot box. So not only is she wrestling with how to chop the bottom off her cardboard voting booth to make it kid-sized, she’s got to finesse her party schtick in case the littlest voters mark their ballots overwhelmingly for their moms, dads or selves rather than for Luke Pennybaker, the charismatic candidate in Ms. Feiffer’s latest book, President Pennybaker. They will get the chance to vote at the book’s national launch on Saturday at the Chilmark library.

Sharon Robinson, author of Stealing Home, a memoir of her family life with baseball dad Jackie Robinson, held court last Friday at what’s becoming the Island’s clubhouse, The Oyster Bar & Grill. From weddings to fundraisers, the trendy eatery at the top of Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs, with high wooden booths and brown satin curtains that put you in mind of Renoir and absinthe-sippers, has hosted a string of special events. This past Friday it was the scene of Ms. Robinson’s talk, the third in a NAACP series of summer luncheons.

It’s time to slip on that great summer cocktail dress you’ve been dying to swirl about in, and school up with other she nymphs on Wednesday, July 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. for Margot Datz’s reception and booksigning of A Survival Guide for Landlocked Mermaid’s, published by Simon and Schuster.

In a one-day-only literary event Sunday, Elizabeth Dembrowsky will read from her forthcoming novel, My Monk in Garamond, soon to be published by Heliotrope Books, and Fran Sommers will read from her new play, Space, at 2 and again at 6 p.m. at Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.

This inaugural reading August 17 will mark the beginning of Ms. Dembrowsky’s book tour and allow the audience the opportunity to hear from the debut novel of an innovative new writer. After each reading, Ms. Dembrowsky will take questions and discussion with the audience.

On April 5, beginning at 3 p.m., the Martha’s Vineyard Museum will host a special afternoon honoring those Vineyarders who fought on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement.

On exhibit in the Council Room Gallery is The Civil Rights Movement on Martha’s Vineyard: A Public History Mobile Museum. Funded by the Mass Foundation for the Humanities, this photographic exhibit is on loan to the museum from the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard. Board members of the Heritage Trail will be on hand to answer questions about the exhibit.

People packed into the Chilmark Public Library last week — finding spots on the floor, standing in the back, even watching from the windows — to see Alan Dershowitz explain why torture should be allowed through a warrant.

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, or so the song goes. And Mr. Dershowitz, a longtime Chilmark summer resident famous for his controversial career as a lawyer and a professor at Harvard Law School, knows how to lay on the sugar.

Thomas Dresser is pleased to announce the second printing of Tommy’s Tour of the Vineyard, his popular tour guide based on stories shared by tour bus drivers on their route around the Island. The material has been edited to make the book more readable and useful, but the essence remains the same: Mr. Dresser surveys the Vineyard from a variety of vantage points, including history, geography, social issues and humorous tales.

Writers Talking

Vineyard Haven authors Geraldine Brooks and Tony Horwitz, a rare pair with his and hers Pulitzers, are in conversation with Charlayne Hunter Gault on Sunday. The couple’s only Island book event this summer begins at 7.30 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, with wine and cheese, book signing and reception to follow. Suggested donation is $25 to benefit the center’s educational programs.

Celebrate National Poetry Month with readings by three published Chilmark poets: Margaret (Peggy) Howe Freydberg, John Maloney and Donald Nitchie. The authors will read some of their favorite poems on Wednesday, April 9, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

Ms. Freydberg recently celebrated her 100th birthday at the library surrounded by family, friends and poetry written by her and especially for her. Ms. Freydberg is the author of several novels, a memoir, a book of short stories and two poetry books, Evening on the Pond and Wanting.

The first interview Michael Holley ever asked for as a reporter — from his mom, for her life story when he was a nine-year-old boy back in Akron — she refused to give him.

Mr. Holley overcame this setback, going on to write for the Akron Beacon Journal, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Chicago Tribune and for 10 years a column in the Boston Globe. Anyone who follows sports in this part of the world knows that he now hosts the midday Dale and Holley show on the WEEI sports radio network, 850 AM on your radio dial.