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.

Writers’ Group Unveiled

On Sunday evenings for the last several years a group of writers has been gathering at the Cleaveland House in West Tisbury, the home of mystery writer Cynthia Riggs. The writers meet to share their work and help critique and inspire each other while traveling down that very solitary road of the creative process.

While the Ink Is Still Wet

Reading a book that has already been published is so, well, regular Sunday driving. How about taking a peek behind the creative process and hearing work that is not yet ready for publication? In other words, work that is still evolving.

Book Group Assembles

The Edgartown Library’s book group’s next meeting will be on March 29 at 4 p.m. The book under scrutiny will be The Fiddler in the Subway by Gene Weingarten.

Poet Rebecca Gayle Howell is a reader first and foremost. When she started to read in a serious way at the age of 11, Ms. Howell would sneak away with her older sister’s high school English textbook. That’s how she discovered T.S. Eliot.

“I read the Four Quartets, and for the first time I knew something had changed in me,” Ms. Howell said in a phone interview with the Gazette earlier this week. “I just kept reading from there.”

Waxing Poetic

Chilmark resident Donald Nitchie and Oak Bluffs resident Barbara Peckham will read their poems in honor of Ms. Peckham’s new book A Jar of Summer and Other Poems. The reading will take place on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. at the West Tisbury Free Public Library.

Before settling permanently on Martha’s Vineyard, Barbara Peckham served as the Society and Women’s Page Editor of the Journal Courier in New Haven, Conn. She has written radio and television commercials and was an English teacher for many years.

Author and farmer Jon Katz will talk about his new novel, Rose in a Storm, at the Edgartown Public Library at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 29.

Now and Zen Win

Martha’s Vineyard, Now and Zen by Susan Klein and Alan Brigish is the winner in the Wild Card category of the New England Book Festival.

The following is from newenglandbookfestival.com:

Submitted works are judged by a panel of industry experts using the following criteria: general excellence, the author’s passion for telling a good story, and the potential of the work to reach a wider audience.

Martha’s Vineyard Tile

Vineyard Stories has just published its sixteenth book about the Vineyard.

Last summer the press featured Schooner: Building a Wooden Boat on Martha’s Vineyard and The Bike Ride. Both books received great reviews and recognition. Schooner was named one of the 100 best photo books of 2010 by Snapshot magazine. The Bike Ride, a book for children, was endorsed by the Nature Conservancy for its contributions in the area of conservation.

Water Essays

Water Matters, Why We Need to Act Now to Save Our Most Critical Resource, was recently released by AlterNet, an award-winning magazine and online community.

Water Matters includes a contribution from Island writer William Waterway. Other contributing writers include Barbara Kingsolver, Bill McKibben, Maude Barlow and Tina Rosenberg, to name a few.

For more information, please visit alternet.org.