MV Times · Islanders Write 2026

2026

PHOTOS: ANTHONY ESPOSITO

Where writers with ties to the Vineyard come to talk about writing and the writing life.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS BOOK SIGNINGS & MORE

Wednesday, July 15 · Thursday, July 16 At Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs Brought to you by The Martha's Vineyard Times and our generous supporters

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July 9, 2026

See a timeline of images from the past 15 years of Photographer's Salon events at Featherstone.

DENA PORTER

"Northern Lights" by Larry Glick.

ON THE WALLS AROUND YOU

15th Anniversary Photo Salon Show

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with guest curator Michael Johnson

ore than 60 photographers have been part of Featherstone Center for the Arts’ Photographers Salon over the past 15 years.

Twenty-eight of the photographers who have presented during that time shine on the walls around you. The salon began in 2010. Photographer Michael Johnson was inspired by the artistic get-togethers that he had been attending on the Island. One was run by Stephen DiRado, a photographer and professor, who hosted an informal daily morning gathering for students and friends at a café in Vineyard Haven. Up-Island, Johnson’s friend Richard Skidmore, who was a keeper at the Gay Head Lighthouse, also regularly had Island artists at his house. Johnson recalls, “I was driving home from Richard’s, and I thought it would be wonderful if we had something like this to bring photographers together and have people present their art and make it a networking and sharing space. I went to Ann [Smith] and told her I had this idea, and of course she said, in her inimitable fashion, ‘Do it!’”

And Johnson has been doing it ever since.

The salon format is straightforward. An invited photographer presents their work and, most importantly, tells their story. Johnson says, “I pick people for their art, but also I want them to bring their personal narrative of how they’ve come to do what they’re doing, the way they are, and why.”

Near or far, black-and-white or color, figurative or abstract, the plethora of images in the 15th Anniversary Photo Salon Show reflects the vast talent of our Island photographers.

BY ABBY REMER

"Great Oak" by Dick Iacovello.

Guest curator Michael Johnson with his photography work on exhibit at Featherstone Center for the Arts.

DENA PORTER

"Beyond Beyond" by LA Brown.

"3 Amigos" by Elizabeth Luce.

"Tashmoo Opening" by Michael Stimola.

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July 9, 2026

WELCOME TO

2026 Schedule At Featherstone Center for The Arts

Free to attend. No advance registration needed.

First come, first seated.

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fter our first year of Islanders Write in 2014, I started using the term “literary barnraising” to describe the event. This year, it seems appropriate to return to that metaphor, given that we’re holding Islanders Write in the Art Barn at Featherstone Center for the Arts. This summer, Featherstone is celebrating its 30th anniversary as an extraordinary Vineyardinclusive arts organization, and we are delighted to celebrate along with them.

This is the first year we’ve held this event in mid-July, and we are looking forward to seeing some new faces. We are thrilled that Brooke Allen, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Belle Burden, Cazzie David, Judith Hannan, Carole Hopson, Linsey Lee, Jane Mayer, Mary Jordan, and Kevin Sullivan will be joining us for the first time. And we are delighted to welcome back Vicky Bijur, Dawn Davis, Bob Drogin, Nicole Galland, Annabelle Gurwitch, Josh Hammer, Judith Hannan, Nathaniel Horwitz, Martha Hall Kelly, Torrey Oberfest, Sarah Kernochan, Elisa M. Speranza, Sherry Sidoti, Nancy Star, Adriana Stimola, Rosemary Stimola, and Gretchen Young. We are extremely grateful to these talented writers and

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knowledgeable publishing professionals for coming out and sharing their insights, thoughts, and expertise with us.

Our goal at Islanders Write and the MV Times is to promote, showcase, and celebrate literary life on Martha’s Vineyard. We do this by holding two events that are free to attend. We do this by writing about books that Vineyard-connected authors publish. We do this by sending out a monthly newsletter with updates on literary life on the Vineyard.

And we do this by offering on-line writing workshops over the winter to help keep us writing and connected.

It’s been a dream partnering with Edgartown Books, and I highly encourage you to purchase as many books as you can by Islanders Write authors today.

We realize that Islanders Write is a writers festival and not a book festival — we discuss writing and the writing life, not our most recent publications, but supporting our local independent bookstores and our Island authors is part of the cycle of keeping literary life healthy and happening on the Island. Also, I have been reading the newest releases by this summer’s authors and I’m eager to discuss all of them - so buy them, read them, and let’s talk.

Scottish Bakehouse is onsite to keep you hydrated, caffeinated, and nourished.

Hopefully you are reading this before showing up, because they are a cash only pop-up. We welcome them back to Islanders Write.

Islanders Write has been free to attend since our first event in 2014. In 2016, we partnered with The Permanent Endowment Fund, now The MV Community Foundation, so that you and others are able to show your support for Islanders Write with a tax-deductible donation.

This program wouldn’t exist without the help of these donations, large and small, and the generous grants we have received.

Thank you for keeping us going: MV Community Foundation, Farm Neck Foundation, MV Cultural Council and Mass Cultural Council, Cronig’s Market, Island Source, Doug Liman, Anonymous, Jeffrey Scheuer, Jonathan Lipnick and Susan Scheuer, Laura Briel Sullivan, JoAnn and Jack Fruchtman, Corinne Basler, and everyone who has volunteered and supported us. And thank you for joining us at this summer’s Islanders Write!

Yours, Kate Feiffer Director, Islanders Write

The Next Generation of Journalists

e are delighted to announce that Nicholas Vukota will be the second “Island Writer” as part of an MV Times initiative to mentor and train emerging journalists on the Vineyard. Nick is a proud Islander who attended the Edgartown school and Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. He started at The MV Times as an intern in the summer of 2024 and moved up, becoming a staff writer in January 2025. Nick is the paper’s lead sports writer and editor, but also covers police and courts, and he often introduces himself as having the beat of “cops, courts, and sports.” It has a nice ring to it.

In addition to his strong reporting and writing, Nick has shown an extraordi-

nary talent for photography in both sports and news, and he plays a pivotal role at the paper.

One of our goals in supporting a new generation of Island journalists is to give them the chance to tell the

PHOTO BY CHARLES SENNOTT

Nicholas Vukota covering the Island Cup at Fenway Park.

story of their own Island, and to do so in a way that brings us all together. Nick’s work, particularly around sports, has indeed served as a unifier for the Island. We can sometimes feel like an Island divided along many different lines, but when it comes to rooting for the hometown team, we can speak with one voice.

The Island Writer program is a nonprofit arm of The MV Times. We are very grateful to our newest, major donors, Jim and Susan Swartz and David and Nina Fialkow — who have joined John and Michelle Battelle as lead supporters of the Island Writer initiative.

If you are interested in learning more about the Island Writer program, please contact Charles Sennott at csennott@mvtimes.com.

Wednesday, July 15, at 7:30 pm

Writing on the Edge: New models for reporting and the current state of journalism Jane Mayer ~ Nathaniel Horwitz ~ Charles Sennott

Thursday, July 16, all day 8 am: Wake Up and Write!

An hour-long writing workshop with Judith Hannan

9:30 am: Book Reviews and the Art and Business of Reviewing Brooke Allen ~ Bob Drogin ~ Joshua Hammer

10:30 am: The Pitch Panel

Five writers will pitch their book projects to publishing professionals Torrey Oberfest ~ Nancy Star ~ Rosemary Stimola Gretchen Young

11:30 am: The Gatekeepers: Editors, Agents, and Publishers on How They Think about Books

Vicky Bijur (literary agent) ~ Dawn Davis (editor and publisher) Adriana Stimola (literary agent)

Gretchen Young (editor and publisher) ~ Kate Feiffer (moderator)

1 pm: Writing about People: Obits, Interviews, and Biographies

Bob Drogin ~ Mary Jordan ~ Linsey Lee ~ Kevin Sullivan

2 pm: Creating Credible and Complex Characters

Carole Hopson ~ Elisa M. Speranza ~ Nicole Galland Martha Hall Kelly

3 pm: Comic Approaches to Serious Subjects

Cazzie David ~ Annabelle Gurwitch Sarah Kernochan (moderator)

4 pm: Memoirists in Conversation Keisha Lance Bottoms ~ Belle Burden Sherry Sidoti (moderator)

*Please note there is no seat saving permitted.

Coffee, pastries, and food from the Scottish Bakehouse on Thursday. CASH ONLY Author signings and book sales at the Edgartown Books Pop-up

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MEET THIS YEAR'S SUMMER SPEAKERS

What sets Islanders Write apart from every other writers’ festival? Everyone who speaks at this event has a connection to Martha’s Vineyard. Some of this year’s speakers live here year-round, others are seasonal; some vacation here, and others are frequent visitors. What they all have in common, aside from talent, is that they love and appreciate the Island. We are very grateful to all the speakers, whose bios are on the following pages, for sharing their time, their expertise, and their insights with us.

BROOKE ALLEN is the author

of three volumes of literary essays: “Twentieth Century Attitudes: Literary Powers in Uncertain Times,” “Artistic License: Three Centuries of Good Writing and Bad Behavior,” and the recent “Good Bones: Glorious Relics from the Age of Reading,” as well as other books including “Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers.” Her essays and reviews have appeared in the Atlantic, the New York Times Book Review, the Wall Street Journal, the New Criterion, the New Yorker, the Nation, the Hudson Review, and elsewhere. She taught literature at Bennington College and history of thought at the Bennington Prison Education Initiative.

KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS

is currently the democratic nominee for governor of Georgia. She has served as senior advisor to former President Joe Biden, leading the transformation of the White House Office of Public Engagement and acting as a liaison and media surrogate. Before joining the White House, Bottoms worked with CNN as a political commentator, based in Atlanta, Ga., where she served in all three branches of government, as judge, council member, and mayor. Her recently published memoir is “The Rough Side of the Mountain.” www.keishalancebottoms.com

BELLE BURDEN VICTORIA BIJUR started her

literary agency in 1988. She represents fiction and nonfiction and has served as president of the Association of American Literary Agents and as chair of its ethics committee. Many of the books she represents have been on the New York Times best-seller list. Several of Bijur’s books have been filmed, including James Sallis’ “Drive,” with Ryan Gosling; Lisa Genova’s “Still Alice,” with Julianne Moore; Robert Kanigel’s “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” with Dev Patel; and Laura Lippman’s “The Lady in the Lake” with Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram. www.vickybijuragency.com

is the author of the best-selling memoir “Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage.” She is an attorney specializing in juvenile immigration cases; her work has appeared in the New York Times.

Burden attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College and received her J.D. from New York University School of Law. She lives in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard. www.belleburden.com

CAZZIE DAVID is a 32-year-old

girl (NOT woman) who has been told by up to two psychics that she has lived many lifetimes, and that only this current lifetime is that of a nepo baby (the other lifetimes were very respectable). She released her collection of essays “Delusions” earlier this year, which followed her New York Times best-seller “No One Asked for This.” David is a regular contributor to Air Mail, and has written for Vanity Fair, Vogue, Elle Magazine, and more. Her debut feature, “I Love You Forever,” which she cowrote and directed, premiered at SXSW and is available for streaming on HBO Max.

BOB DROGIN spent 38 years as a national, foreign, and Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and has won or shared numerous journalism awards, including a Pulitzer Prize and two Overseas Press Club awards. After taking a buyout in 2021, he wrote 34 advance obituaries of foreign leaders, CIA directors, and other still-living historic figures for the Washington Post. Drogin now writes advance obits for the New York Times. He is author of “Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War,” a prizewinning 2007 book that was published in 10 languages, was adapted for an off-Broadway play, and lost money in all of them. He shares his time between West Tisbury and Silver Spring, Md.

ANNABELLE GURWITCH is an

DAWN DAVIS

The Poets & Writers 2019 Editor of the Year, Dawn Davis is the founding publisher of 37 INK, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

She has edited multiple bestselling books, such as the New York Times best-seller “The U.S. Constitution” by Melissa Murray and the international best-seller “Keeper of Lost Children” by Sadeqa Johnson, as well as several prizewinning books, including Pulitzer prizewinning “Master Slave Husband Wife” by Ilyon Woo. In 2020, Davis was named editor in chief of the Condé Nast magazines Bon Appétit and Epicurious. She returned to Simon & Schuster in 2023.

NICOLE GALLAND’s most recent novel is “Boy,” set in Shakespeare’s London. Her historical fiction includes “I, Iago,” “The Fool’s Tale,” and “Crossed: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade.” She is also coauthor, with Neal Stephenson, of the New York Times best-seller “The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.,” and her contemporary work includes the rom-com “On the Same Page,” about two competing newspapers on Martha’s Vineyard. Galland’s plays include “The Retreat” and “Last Call,” both of which premiered January 2026. Galland is also the managing editor of features for The Martha’s Vineyard Times. www.nicolegalland.com

KATE FEIFFER is the director of Islanders Write, a MV Times initiative that brings literary events to the Vineyard community and supports emerging reporters. Feiffer is the author of the novel “Morning Pages,” 11 books for children, and the play “Deja New.” She is the illustrator of the poetry book “The Lamb Cycle,” and her illustrations and artwork have been published and exhibited widely on the Island, and less widely off-Island. www.katefeiffer.com

actress, activist, New York Times best-selling author of six books, and two-time Thurber Prize finalist.

Her essays and satire have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among other publications. Her books include the New York Times best-seller “I See You Made an Effort” and “You’re Leaving When?,” a New York Times “Favorite Book for Healthy Living.”

Gurwitch cohosted the fan favorite “Dinner and a Movie” on TBS and was a regular commentator on NPR. She is a Jewish mother, a lung cancer survivor and patient advocate, a terrible ukulele player, and an unrepentant cat lady. www.annabellegurwitch.com

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July 9, 2026

JOSHUA HAMMER spent 15

years as a Newsweek magazine foreign correspondent on five continents. Since 2006, he has been a roving freelance journalist, contributing frequently to Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, the New York Review of Books, GQ, the New York Times, and many other publications. Hammer is the author of six books, including the New York Times best-seller “The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu,” and the winner of a National Magazine Award for Reporting.

In his 20 years as a literary critic, he has reviewed over 100 books for the New York Times and dozens for the New York Review of Books.

NATHANIEL BROOKS HORWITZ is CEO of Hunter-

brook, which is pioneering a new way to fund investigative journalism. He cofounded Hunterbrook after company-building and investing as a venture partner at a healthcare firm, where he incubated four companies, ranging from AI-designed medicines for cancer to cell therapies for autoimmune diseases. He has served on the board of directors at several companies, and volunteers as executive chair at the education nonprofit Mayday Health.

Horwitz earned a degree in molecular biology from Harvard, where he coauthored biomedical research. He has published in several national outlets. His first job out of high school was reporting for his hometown newspaper, The Martha’s Vineyard Times. www.hntrbrk.com

MARTHA HALL KELLY is the New York Times bestselling author of “Lilac Girls,” “Lost Roses,” “Sunflower Sisters,” and “The Golden Doves.” Born and raised in Massachusetts, she was inspired to write her most recent novel, “The Martha’s Vineyard Book and Beach Club,” by her mother’s family, the Smiths, who settled on Martha’s Vineyard in 1891. Kelly received journalism degrees from both Syracuse and Northwestern universities and worked as an advertising copywriter for many years before becoming a novelist. Her books have sold more than two million copies and have been translated in 50 countries. www.marthahallkelly.com

LINSEY LEE served for 35 years

as oral history curator at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum. She is the author of three volumes of “Vineyard Voices,” distilled from the more than 1,500 interviews she has conducted. She also authored “Edible Wild Plants of Martha’s Vineyard” and “Those Who Serve: Martha’s Vineyard and WW II.” Lee has produced over 250 videos from her interviews, used in the museum’s exhibits and on YouTube social media. She continues gathering oral histories, works with students to interview elders, and is authoring a new collection of oral histories: “Vineyard Voices IV.”

TORREY OBERFEST

is a partner at Bloomvale, where she advises publishing companies on growth strategies, mergers, and acquisitions. Previously, Oberfest was the vice president of corporate strategy at Hachette Book Group, where she helped the company grow through acquisitions and new business initiatives. Earlier in her career, Oberfest was the managing editor of Bulfinch Press, where she shepherded illustrated books from manuscript through publication. She brings a unique perspective on how the publishing industry works and how authors can best navigate it.

CHARLES SENNOTT is the JUDITH HANNAN is the au-

thor of the memoir “Motherhood Exaggerated,” as well as of “The Write Prescription,” a guide for writing about illness. Through her teaching, she is an activist in child and family health, education, and welfare. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications such as Lilith Magazine, the Washington Post, and The MV Times.

Hannan is a writer-in-residence for the Gold Foundation for Humanism in Medicine and on the boards of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and CavanKerry Press. www.judithhannanwrites.com

CAROLE HOPSON

Following a 20-year career as a journalist and executive, Carole Hopson followed her dream and became a flight instructor and a Boeing 737 captain for United Airlines. True to her roots as a writer, Hopson published her debut novel, “A Pair of Wings,” based on the life story of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, the first American to earn a French civilian pilot’s license.

Hopson also heads the Jet Black Foundation, dedicated to sending 100 Black women to flight school by the year 2035. carolehopson.com

Mary Jordan

MARY JORDAN and KEVIN SULLIVAN are a celebrated

partnership in work and in life — a married couple and New York Times No. 1 best-selling authors.

Together they ran the Washington Post’s news bureaus in Tokyo, Mexico City, and London for 14 years, writing deeply reported stories about people and critical issues around the globe. They won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for their investigation of the Mexican justice system, and in 2009 were Pulitzer finalists for their groundbreaking work on worldwide discrimination of women. They have written three books together: “The Prison Angel,” “Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland,” and “Trump’s Trials.” Jordan wrote a fourth: “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump.” Jordan and Sullivan have interviewed and profiled spies, survivors, mob bosses, presidents, oligarchs, royals, rock stars, and refugees around the world for three decades. They live in Washington and Katama.

Kevin Sullivan

SARAH KERNOCHAN has written many films, among them “9½ Weeks,” “Impromptu,” “Sommersby,” “What Lies Beneath,” and “Learning to Drive,” and both wrote and directed “All I Wanna Do.” She has won two Academy Awards for her documentaries “Marjoe” and “Thoth.” Kernochan’s published novels include “Jane Was Here” and “Dry Hustle.” At present, she is librettist for a Nancy Drew musical and is completing her third novel. She lives in New York with her husband, playwright James Lapine. www.sarahkernochan.com

JANE MAYER is an awardwin-

ning investigative journalist and staff writer for the New Yorker, known for her deeply reported work on politics, power, money, and national security. She is the author of several best-selling books, including “Dark Money,” which examines the influence of billionaire donors on American politics, and “The Dark Side,” a landmark investigation into U.S. detention and interrogation policies after 9/11. Mayer’s reporting has earned numerous honors, including the George Polk Award and the Peabody Award.

publisher of The Martha’s Vineyard Times, founder of GroundTruth, and publisher of the GroundTruth newsletter on Substack. An awardwinning correspondent for the Boston Globe and a best-selling author and editor with 30 years of experience in international, national, and local journalism, Sennott started GroundTruth in 2014, and in 2017 launched the nonprofit organization’s local reporting initiative, Report for America. He is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Sennott was the 2024 recipient of the World Press Freedom Award given by the James W. Foley Foundation.

Thank You, Islanders Write for Anchoring Our Literary Community

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July 9, 2026

IN MEMORIAM

winning author, a yoga teacher, and a steward of memoir-writing experiences. She believes that writing is a spiritual, sacred, and brave practice of self-awakening, with great potential for healing.

Her debut memoir, “A Smoke and a Song,” received the 2024 Readers’ Favorite gold medal for nonfiction, the 2023 Living Now Book Awards gold medal for inspirational memoir, the 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Awards honorable mention for the Grand Prize, among others.

She lives on Martha’s Vineyard with her husband, cats, chickens, and visiting adult children. www.sherrysidoti.com

NANCY STAR is the author of

six novels, including “Sisters One, Two, Three,” which landed on Publishers Weekly’s list of Top Ten Bestsellers of 2016. Her most recent novel, “Rules for Moving” takes place partly on Martha’s Vineyard. Her essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Lit Hub, and the Forward, among other places. Before writing fiction full time, Star worked as a movie executive at the Samuel Goldwyn Company, dividing her time between New York and London.

She now lives in Chilmark and New York City. www.nancystarauthor.com

ROSEMARY STIMOLA,

a former professor of language and literature and an awardwinning children’s bookseller, founded the Stimola Literary Studio in 1997. Representing both fiction and nonfiction from preschool through young adult, and selectively extending into adult fiction, she is honored to count among her clients many awardwinning and best-selling authors and illustrators, including Suzanne Collins, Matthew Cordell, Thanhha Lai, Karen McManus, Lesa ClineRansome, Tanya Lee Stone, Matt Tavares, and Renee Watson. www.stimolaliterarystudio.com

ANTHONY ESPOSITO

SHERRY SIDOTI is an award-

When we lose the writers whose work we love, the loss can feel personal even when we don’t know them personally.

And as Vineyarders, it’s easy to feel like we know someone whom we’ve seen around the Island, even if never formally introduced, which is why our Island so often mourns together. This year, we mourn two Vineyard writers whose work we admired, whose songs we sang, and who took part in Islanders Write over the years.

JOHN FORTÉ

ELISA M. SPERANZA

Oak Bluffs summer resident Elisa M. Speranza is the author of two historical novels, “Triage” and “The Italian Prisoner,” a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. She is board chair and an instructor for the nonprofit New Orleans Writers Workshop, and cofounder of the Washashores Writers Collective on Martha’s Vineyard.

Speranza coedited and contributed to the 2025 anthology “Washashores Review, Volume 1,” published by Featherstone Center for the Arts. She writes “The Bricklayer’s Daughter” newsletter on Substack and has been a speaker at the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival, the Louisiana Book Festival, and Islanders Write. www.elisamariesperanza.com

ADRIANA STIMOLA is a liter-

ary agent who represents writers of cookbooks, mind-body-spirit, art, and the occasional novel, including James Beard Nominee Tyler Balliet (“Rebel School of Wine”), Julia Blanter (“The Martha’s Vineyard Cookbook”), and awardwinning memoirist Elissa Altman (“Permission”).

Stimola’s own poetry has been featured in numerous publications, and she is the current West Tisbury poet laureate. Before agenting, Stimola was the content manager at Stone Barns Center in partnership with Blue Hill, and before that she worked in all manner of publishing jobs, including roles at Little, Brown and Shambhala. She lives on Martha’s Vineyard. www.stimolaliterarystudio.com

GRETCHEN YOUNG is a veteran editor who launched Regalo Press, distributed by Simon & Schuster, in September 2022. The new imprint unites philanthropy with the business of book publishing. Since its inception, Regalo has published 70 books, has had 12 USA Today best-sellers, a New York Times best-seller, and three Los Angeles Times best-sellers — and has earned numerous awards. Before launching Regalo Press, Young spent the prior 10 years at Hachette as vice president, executive editor at Grand Central Publishing. Her books and authors have hit the NY Times best-seller list more than 75 times. They have also garnered a Pulitzer finalist, a Grammy, an Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, and two Time 100 honors. www.regalopress.com

PHOTOS COURTESY WEINSTOCK FAMILY

John Forté, an always fascinating singer, songwriter, music producer, and the father of Wren and Haile, passed away at his home in Chilmark in January. John was a musical prodigy — he was nominated for a Grammy, was a member of the Fugees, and in recent years, he arranged the score on soundtracks for the documentaries “Kerouac's Road: The Beat of a Nation” and “Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest (1977-2015).”

BETSY WEINSTOCK

Betsy Weinstock was well known to Vineyarders, while readers knew her as Elizabeth Hawes. Betsy was a magical presence and a beautiful writer who penned articles for the New Yorker and the New York Times, published two non-fiction books (“Camus, A Romance” and “New York, New York: How the Apartment House Transformed the Life of the City”), and helped Martha Stewart launch her career. A mother of three sons, grandmother of five, and married to Davis for 60 years, Betsy passed away at her home in Chilmark on June 28.

Islanders Write is extremely grateful for our generous supporters: Begun in 2014 by The Martha's Vineyard Times, Islanders Write is a unique festival where writers with a connection to the Island come together for robust conversation about the art, craft and business of writing. This free event includes panel discussions, author talks, book signings and workshops and is a highly anticipated part of the Island summer. We welcome your support.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

And John and Michelle Battelle, Jim and Susan Swartz, David and Nina Fialkow, Tony Horwitz Fellowship, Mimi Haas, Doug Liman, Jeffrey Scheuer, Susan Scheuer, Jonathan Lipnick, and Corinne Basler.

And to everyone who has volunteered and contributed to this program!

Join us in supporting Islanders Write with a tax-deductible donation scan or visit mvtimes.com/islanders-write

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July 9, 2026

Author Signings at Islanders Write Every home should be filled with books by Vineyard authors.

Find these books and many others at the Edgartown Books pop-up.

BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE LAST YEAR

BOOKS BY ISLANDERS WRITE AUTHORS

The

Mesopotamian RIDDLE An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World’s Oldest Writing

Jo shua Hammer New York Times bestselling author of The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

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July 9, 2026

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