Striper Wars author Dick Russell talks about efforts to save a troubled fishery, on Wednesday, August 27, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.
When populations of striped bass began plummeting in the early 1980s, author and fisherman Dick Russell was there to lead an Atlantic coast conservation campaign that resulted in one of the most remarkable wildlife comebacks in the history of fisheries.
In her one woman show The Big Boot, writer Jenny Allen takes a candid look at the cancer diagnosis that turned her life upside down and sent her on a soul-searching journey through complex internal landscapes. Rather than wallow in maudlin bathos, the play combines wit, humor and insight to frame the illness in a humane context audiences can relate to.
Author Carol Gilligan discusses Kyra, her first book of fiction on Thursday, August 21, is free from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.
Dr. Gilligan is most known for her nonfiction bestseller In a Different Voice. Although her previous writings have been works of nonfiction, Dr. Gilligan published Kyra in January of this year. Kyra is a Cambridge-based architect who spends time on Nashawena, one of the Elizabeth Islands. She seeks psychological counseling after falling in and out of love for the first time since the death of her husband ten years before.
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.
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.
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.
