On Tuesday, March 6 beginning at 5 p.m. the West Tisbury Library is hosting a talk by Virginia Carmichael, coauthor of The Albatross and the Fish (University of Texas Press, 2011).

The albatross family is currently the most threatened bird group in the world and in their extensively researched book, Robin W. Doughty and Virginia Carmichael tell the story of how its potentially catastrophic extinction has been interrupted by an unlikely alliance of governments, conservation groups, and fishermen.

Lighthouse Santa

Sara Hoadland Hunter and Julia Miner, the writer and illustrator team behind The Lighthouse Santa will give a reading at the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven on Thursday, Dec. 15, at 5 p.m.

Cynthia Riggs, daughter of Dionis Coffin Riggs, has immortalized her mother as the 92-year-old sleuth Victoria Trumbull of a popular Island mystery series. Riggs, the younger, has penned ten of these novels so far, the title of each one inspired by the name of a poisonous, or at least sinister, flower, such as Deadly Nightshade and The Paperwhite Narcissus.

Before probing the outer reaches of our galaxy, alien hunters would be well-advised to turn their telescopes around, training them on Earth’s own cephalopods instead. The group of animals includes squid, octopus, cuttlefish and nautiluses and were seemingly jury-rigged by evolution, armed with suction cups, beaks, ink, jet propulsion, camouflage and an intelligence entirely unlike our own.

Author Chip Bishop’s great-great-uncle, Joseph Bucklin Bishop, was a newspaper editor during the time of Theodore Roosevelt. One of the stories he covered was the construction of the Panama Canal, the transoceanic canal that today seems a foregone conclusion but at the time was considered by many to be a fool’s errand.

Islanders will have a say in selecting the first Martha’s Vineyard Poet Laureate.

Year-round poets must submit five poems of any genre, style or form. A jury of judges will read all submissions, and nominate five finalists. The winning five poets must be willing to participate in a public reading that will be videotaped and distributed on the Martha’s Vineyard Poetry Society’s Facebook page; MVTV; YouTube and through other Island media and agencies.

Magic and Mystery

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.

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.

What can we say, the man has range.

By JULIAN WISE

LIPMAN PIKE: America’s First Home Run King . By Richard Michelson . Sleeping Bear Press. 32 pages, photographs. $16.95.