Fish Story

Charles A. Bartholomy, a seasoned professional fishing captain and former syndicated outdoor columnist, presents Fish Story Extraordinary on Friday, July 17, at 4 p.m. at the Federated Church Parish House in Edgartown

Mr. Bartholomy combines corporate and political intrigue with an American CEO’s quest for success in Cuba’s annual Hemingway Blue Marlin Tournament in his latest book, The Blue.

Island Historian

Reveals New Book

David McCullough, Pulitzer-prizewinning author of The Path Between the Seas, Truman, John Adams and 1776, is working on a new book, set for release in 2010. The as-yet-untitiled tome chronicles the remarkable history of innovation and achievement in the fields literature, medicine, design and the arts by Americans living in Paris.

IN MY LIFE. By Thomas Dresser. Red Lead Press. Spring 2009. $17, softcover.

Young love in the sixties. These five words summarize In My Life, the brief, quirky and charming novel by local author Thomas Dresser. Set against the backdrop of the turmoil of the bygone decade, In My Life tells the story of Rusty and Jodie, two teenagers in central Massachusetts whose blossoming love is colored by the sexual revolution, rock and roll, and the draft board.

When authors die, some of their work lives after them. In or out of print, it’s bound and sitting on shelves. But another chunk of inventory survives the author, often to the chagrin of his or her heirs: unpublished or unfinished manuscripts. What to do with this material?

Writer, director and theatre maestro Jon Lipsky, of West Tisbury, was confronted with just such a dilemma when his father, author Eleazar Lipsky (1911-1993), left behind a stack of research books and a synopsis for a riveting historical saga.

So you’re Kate Feiffer, and you think you’re set to have two new children’s books released, with all the attendant tours and book signings . . . when along comes another project with a yesterday-deadline attached to it, some super-sized hoopla stemming from its topicality, and the next thing you know USA Today’s Life section features it on the front page, Stephen Colbert is flashing a copy of your book on the air, and your Amazon.com sales perform a turn-around jump shot.

Scene: The Pearly Gates, hopefully a good 50 years from now. St. Peter is standing by the gates. Nicole Galland enters, agog at what is before her.

NG: There must be some mistake. I’m an agnostic Buddhist pagan. Plus I’m Jewish. I think I took the wrong exit.

Tom Dresser Signs Book

Thomas Dresser has a new book, entitled In My Life, published by Red Lead Press. The novel, his first work of fiction, is a coming-of-age story set in a small Massachusetts town with the backdrop of the 1960s.

To promote his new venture, a print-on-demand publication, Mr. Dresser will host a book signing on the porch at Slice of Life on Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs on Monday, May 18, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. He will speak at 4 p.m. Free coffee and cookies.

West Tisbury author Cynthia Riggs will talk about her latest book Death and Honesty, the eighth in her Martha’s Vineyard mystery series, at the Chilmark Public Library on Wednesday, May 20, at 5:30 p.m.

Fanny Howe of West Tisbury was honored last week with the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, awarded annually by the Poetry Foundation to a living American poet for lifetime accomplishments that warrant extraordinary recognition. The $100,000 that accompanies the award is one of the largest literary prizes in the nation.

It’s possible to put two and two together and come out with a number not exactly four. Ann Coleman Allen of West Tisbury bears the last name of one of our original settler families, and she teaches courses on Vineyard history. One could reckon, therefore, that her interest in the subject stems from the irresistible pull of family genealogy.