What makes the Vineyard a special place for growing plants? C.L. Fornari, writer of garden information and radio host of the Saturday morning program Garden Line on WXTK (95.1 FM) is “happy to say that gardening and agriculture on the Island is thriving.”
Speaking to a packed audience at the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club April meeting, Ms. Fornari presented a slide show of selected photographs from her soon-to-be-published book, A Garden Lover’s Martha’s Vineyard.
How do Jules Feiffer’s early comic strips hold up after half a century? For over 40 years, beginning in 1956, his provocative, often ironic cartoons appeared weekly in the Village Voice. Fantagraphics Books has just published Explainers ($28.99 hardcover), a complete collection of the first 10 years’ worth, from 1956 to 1966. The strips deal with politics and the battle of the sexes in an era when intellectuals obsessed about Marx and Freud and when humor might arise from observing hypocrisy in people’s politics and their intimate relationships.
For four years, Salvatore Scibona has been shepherding new writers at the Fine Arts Workshop in Provincetown through readings of their work at local libraries and other cultural venues.
Saturday at 5:30 p.m., at the West Tisbury library, Mr. Scibona will read from The End, his own first novel, that already has generated luxurious reviews prior to its release this week. Responsible reviewers have compared him with Saul Bellow, Virginia Woolf and Graham Greene.
Gardening expert and author C.L. Fornari will launch her new book, A Garden Lover’s Martha’s Vineyard, with a wine and cheese signing reception open to all on Thursday, June 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury. Gazette readers can get a taste of the full-color book — which features Island gardens large and small, from formal layouts in Edgartown to Victorian-inspired gardens in Oak Bluffs to casual up-Island gardens — from the excerpt below, about a Chilmark couple growing a vineyard on the Vineyard.
Political commentator, George Mason University professor and author Michael Fauntroy will discuss his book, Republicans and the Black Vote, a historical look at the GOP and black voters, on Thursday, August 14, at 5 p.m. as part of the Chilmark Free Public Library adult evening series. The free talk is open to the public, hosted by the library and Friends of the Library. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tony Horwitz will discuss his latest book, A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World, at the Chilmark Public Library on Thursday, Sept. 11, 5 to 6 p.m.
The book recounts Mr. Horwitz’s journey of rediscovery, following in the footsteps of the many Europeans who preceded the Pilgrims to America. The talk is free and all are welcome.
Arts a la Carte, a new children’s arts discussion series at the Featherstone Center for the Arts, will kick off this Thursday with a bang: a Molly Bang, that is.
Authors Cynthia Riggs and Tom Dresser will celebrate their mysteries on Tuesday, August 12, at 5 p.m. at the West Tisbury library.
Ms. Riggs, a 13th-generation Islander, lives in West Tisbury in her family homestead, now a bed-and-breakfast for poets and writers. Double Murder on Martha’s Vineyard combines her first two books, Deadly Nightshade and The Cranefly Orchid Murders. Her ninth book is scheduled for release next year. All of her books feature 92-year-old Victoria Trumbull, a poet sleuth based on Cynthia’s mother, Dionis Coffin Riggs.
Author Tom Dresser will discuss his book Mystery on Martha’s Vineyard: Politics, Passion and Scandal on East Chop, on Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. at the Vineyard Haven Public Library.
Island readers anticipated Philip Craig’s annual mystery novels like their first summer swim. The author died this year, leaving one last novel finished. Here is an exclusive excerpt from that book, Vineyard Chill, printed with permission from Scribner.
It was a bright, snowless mid-January day, chilly but not cold, Just right for a drive on the Chappy beaches. We could enjoy the ride and bring back several big, industrial-strength trash bags full of seaweed for the garden. Two good reasons to go. So we went.
