There is a resurgence of activity in Menemsha this summer, and it is all related to getting seafood from the boats to the consumer. Every morning, visitors to Menemsha find fishing boats going in and out of the harbor. In the late morning they return from the fishing grounds laden with product

On Thursday, July 19, at 7:30 p.m. the 2012 author lecture series begins. This year’s summer lineup includes Pulitzer Prize winners Richard Russo and Jennifer Egan, also Peter Beinart and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The series is designed to celebrate and support the authors and independent bookstores. The price of admission is free if you buy the author’s book. If you choose not to buy a book, the cost is $10.

Attic Sale

The West Tisbury Congregational Church’s annual attic and barn sale takes place on the church grounds Saturday, July 14, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

All year long church members collect, sort and clean sale items in preparation for this busy day. Collectibles range from enamelware to English bone china. Table linens mingle with garden tools, kayaks, bicycles, children’s games and small furniture pieces. All proceeds benefit the historic church.

The rain date will be Sunday, July 15, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Dreamland Comes True Again

Some thought it would never return, put to rest some 100 hundred years ago by forces unknown and many. But it never died. It simply waited, quietly and patiently, biding its time for new blood to be pumped into its walls and floors and ceilings and speakers. The time has come. After all, the landscape is clear, most contenders to the throne are both near and distant memories.

Nectars? Hot Tin Roof? Yesterday’s news.

Tonight, Friday the 13th, Dreamland returns. Don’t say you weren’t forewarned.

Holly Near

Singer, songwriter and activist Holly Near performs with pianist John Buccino and guitarist Coleen Kittau at The Old Whaling Church on Sunday, July 22, at 7:30 p.m.

Ms. Near has a long history of using music for social activism. She was a 2005 nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize as one of the 1000 Women for Peace. She has performed on Broadway in the show Hair and in film and on television.

For more information, visit hollynear.com.

Dana Nunes perched naked on a pedestal of pillows and blankets inside a studio at Featherstone Center for the Arts.

“I get a kick out of the flea market go-ers who look through the window and back up . . . and then look again,” she said.

Ms. Nunes was the model for the Tom Maley Life Drawing class which last Tuesday morning was experiencing another full house, as the flea market was in bloom right outside the doors.

Class facilitator Anne Gallagher asked everyone to make room for old and new faces alike.

At the end of the dock in Menemsha Harbor sits a stately white yacht. At 75 feet, it can’t fit anywhere closer in the harbor. Inside the yacht, a woman often sits cross-legged in a bright sitting room, imagining far-off worlds full of romance and historical intrigue. She’s Kitty Pilgrim, CNN correspondent-turned-novelist, and she’s been hard at work writing her third book, while promoting, by boat, her latest release, The Stolen Chalice.

Many overlook Martha’s Vineyard in the off-season, when beaches no longer accommodate bikinis, business owners stow away their cash registers, and the Flying Horses cease to fly. But Phyllis Meras, author of In Every Season, recently released by Schiffer Publishing, has a great appreciation for this time of relative hibernation, for humans at least. For her, the off-season is when the familiar becomes mysterious, and the unrelenting cadence of nature’s course penetrates the human psyche.

Best-selling author and Chilmark resident Linda Fairstein has said that one of her greatest pleasures is the moment she holds in her hand a copy of her latest book. Fans will feel the same way on July 10 when Dutton publishes Night Watch, the latest of Ms. Fairstein’s engrossing crime fiction novels.

Lucas Brunelle is a man on a mission. The 41-year old Vineyard native wants to take people where they’ve never been before. That’s exactly what he does in Line of Sight, his first full-length film, a compilation of footage shot over the past 10 years from Mr. Brunelle’s unique vantage point: a two-camera set-up atop his bicycle helmet. Mr. Brunelle competes in grueling alleycat bike races all over the world.