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.

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.

Even if you don’t call your brother by the name of a different vegetable every day (Broccoli, Turnip, or, whenever he’s being nice, Pea Pod), many readers know what the quirky, crazy-lovable third grader Clementine means when she says, “Spectacularful ideas are always sproinging up in my brain.”

Vineyard-born author A.F. Cook (known to many Islanders as the artist Anne Cook) recently published her first book, Democrats in the Red Zone: an Independent Voter’s Take on the Game of Political Perception. The book looks at the Democratic Party’s strategic failures through the lens of a football fan — specifically, a longtime New England Patriots fan.

Storyteller and author Susan Klein will recount her Island childhood in a special free performance at the Old Whaling Church on Saturday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m., sponsored by the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank.

A signed copy of Ms. Klein’s book, Through a Ruby Window: A Martha’s Vineyard Childhood, will be given out to the first 250 people at the event. Immediately following the presentation Ms Klein will meet guests at a reception with refreshments in the Baylies Room downstairs.

Celebrate National Poetry Month with readings by three published Chilmark poets: Margaret (Peggy) Howe Freydberg, John Maloney and Donald Nitchie. The authors will read some of their favorite poems on Wednesday, April 9, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Public Library.

Ms. Freydberg recently celebrated her 100th birthday at the library surrounded by family, friends and poetry written by her and especially for her. Ms. Freydberg is the author of several novels, a memoir, a book of short stories and two poetry books, Evening on the Pond and Wanting.

On April 5, beginning at 3 p.m., the Martha’s Vineyard Museum will host a special afternoon honoring those Vineyarders who fought on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement.

On exhibit in the Council Room Gallery is The Civil Rights Movement on Martha’s Vineyard: A Public History Mobile Museum. Funded by the Mass Foundation for the Humanities, this photographic exhibit is on loan to the museum from the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard. Board members of the Heritage Trail will be on hand to answer questions about the exhibit.

Writer Ben Greenman so craves human contact as part of his routine that he edits the front section of The New Yorker.

His fiction, including his latest novel, Please Step Back, he boxes off in the mornings and evenings at his Brooklyn home, between raising his five and eight year-old sons. Then he takes the subway into Manhattan and begins to put together the listings and features that make up Goings On, the weekly events guide of the globally-renowned magazine. It’s a job he has held for 10 years.

As a student at the Edgartown School, a counselor once told Chappaquiddick native Stephanie Duckworth-Elliott that she wouldn’t go to college, and implied that Ms. Duckworth-Elliott would not achieve in life. The young girl had a background and home life that already separated her from other kids her age — she was a member of the only Wampanoag family living on Chappy at the time, and raised primarily by her grandfather — and the counselor’s prediction made her feel even more detached from her peers.

What if your muse becomes your shrink? Margot Datz didn’t really take her paintings of mermaids seriously until they began to speak to her like a Ouija Board, predicting divorce, life changes and pointing out a woman’s place in the landlocked world.