Stories of Healthcare and Healing with Donna Bulseco and Ryn Gluckman

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome Donna Bulseco, editor of “Where It Hurts: Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine,” and Ryn Gluckman, ER nursing director at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital, for a conversation about this newly released collection of essays, short stories, and poems. This event will be held at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, August 25th, at the Vineyard Haven Library, located at 200 Main Street in Vineyard Haven. Free and open to the public, no registration required.

Health care workers see us all at our highest highs and our lowest lows. They’re heroes, healers, and confidants—but they’re also real people who struggle with burnout, doubt, frustration, fear, loneliness, shame, and anger. "Where It Hurts" (The Experiment; March 24, 2026; $18.95; Paperback; 979-8-89303-104-1) shares the stories of over sixty medical professionals, offering a window into the daily highlights and difficulties of the health-care industry. This collection of beautifully written poems and highly relatable essays and short stories paints health-care workers as real people, working every day in the spaces between health and illness, life and death. From funny stories (for instance, the story of a doctor who helps his patient find a cure, which, strangely enough, involves fajitas) to heart-rending and heart-mending tales of connection between doctors and patients, "Where It Hurts" shows us what it means to truly be human. 

From Grey’s Anatomy to The Pitt, our society has long been fascinated with stories of what it’s like to work in the high stress, high-stakes world of health care. According to the CDC, the health-care industry employs over twenty-two million workers, and "Where It Hurts" makes a great gift for anyone working in medicine—med school students, doctors, nurses, or EMTs. Literary and deeply moving, "Where It Hurts" reveals the challenges and triumphs of working in health care and invites us to live fully and empathize deeply with those around us.

DONNA BULSECO is a journalist and editor who holds graduate degrees in English from Brown University and in narrative medicine from Columbia University. Through the years, she has published work in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, InStyle, Self, and The Purist. As editor-in-chief of Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, a literary journal recognized as a leader in the medical humanities world, she works with an editorial board of clinicians, educators, and writers, who review and select from over one thousand submissions a year to produce the journal. She edited "Where It Hurts": Dispatches from the Emotional Frontlines of Medicine, a new anthology of work culled from the Intima Archives and published by NYC publisher, The Experiment, this year. 

RYN GLUCKMAN, BSN, RN has been an emergency nurse for over 18 years and is currently the Nurse Director of the Emergency Department (ED) at Martha's Vineyard Hospital. She received a nursing degree at the University of Massachusetts in 2008 and earned a BA in pre-law and sociology from Hampshire College in 2001. In addition to working as a frontline and nursing leader, Ryn has also served has an educator at the University of Vermont and faculty member in the Allied Health Program for the Community College of Vermont. Throughout her career Ryn has been committed to amplifying nursing voices and ethics, elevating nursing practice as a powerful tool for social change and centralizing the principles of justice, inclusion, and equity in nursing culture. She is currently a candidate for a master's degree in the Disaster Resilience Leadership Program at Tulane University, with a focus on alternative models of health care delivery. 

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Author talk – Triage: A Novel by Elisa Speranza

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome local author Elisa Speranza for a conversation about her latest historical novel, “Triage.” This event will be held at 6:00 pm on Thursday, August 6th, at the Vineyard Haven Library, located at 200 Main Street in Vineyard Haven, with books available for sale by Edgartown Books. Free and open to the public, no registration required.

When the ghosts of war won’t stay buried, a former Army nurse must find a way to heal—or risk losing everything. In 1951 New Orleans, Laura Marino works as a nurse at Charity Hospital. She’s been home from World War II for six years, but peacetime has brought its own challenges. She’s frustrated at work, and her childless marriage to Nicholas, a surgeon she met in the Army, is strained. Laura is devastated when news arrives that Frances, her best friend from the front, has taken her own life. Turning to the wartime journal she has kept hidden away, Laura is plunged back into memories of the bonds forged amid chaos on the front lines of North Africa, during the siege of Anzio, and at a refugee camp in Italy. While her husband takes on an overseas assignment, Laura wrestles with her grief and guilt over Frances’ death. Then she meets Boyer, a wounded veteran who shares her pain. Their connection is intense— and dangerous, threatening to upend her life entirely. Triage is an intimate portrait of a woman’s hard-won journey through love, loss, and a quest for redemption. 

Elisa M. Speranza is the author of two historical novels, “Triage” (May 2026) and “The Italian Prisoner” (2022), a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. She is board chair and an instructor for the nonprofit New Orleans Writers Workshop and has been a featured author at the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival, the Louisiana Book Festival, Islanders Write, and the Salem LitFest. She is co-founder of the Washashores Writers Collective on Martha’s Vineyard and was a co-editor for and contributor to the 2025 anthology Washashores Review, Volume 1. She writes “The Bricklayer’s Daughter” newsletter on Substack. Originally from Boston, Elisa lives in New Orleans and Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. 

Elisa will be in conversation with Robin Stratton Rivera. Robin is a former Emmy-winning producer and programming executive for ABC Sports, who continues to work on independent writing and video projects at her home in Chilmark.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Book talk: “The Best Women's Travel Writing: True Stories from Around the World,” with Lavinia Spalding and Natalie Baszile

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome editor Lavinia Spalding and author Natalie Baszile for a conversation about the latest edition of “The Best Women's Travel Writing: True Stories from Around the World.” This event will be held at 4:00 pm on Friday, July 24th, at the Vineyard Haven Library, located at 200 Main Street in Vineyard Haven. Free and open to the public, no registration required.

Volume 13 of this award-winning series features twenty-seven inspiring and thoughtful writers as they traverse the planet, crisscrossing all seven continents and exploring the ways travel can illuminate, heal, inform, and transform a life. The essays probe themes as diverse as the locations, immersing us in experiences of kindness, adventure, nature, friendship, strength, marriage, motherhood, spirituality, the environment, belonging, healing, history, identity, romance, and resilience. This beautiful and far-ranging collection helps us celebrate an appreciation for other cultures while proving that travel can be a profound gateway to connection, self-awareness, and an expanded worldview. 

Lavinia Spalding is the seven-time series editor of "The Best Women’s Travel Writing," author of “Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-Keeping Traveler” (named one the best travel books of 2009 by the L.A. Times), and co-author of four other books, including “This Immeasurable Place,” one of NPR’s best books of 2017. She has published two Modern Love essays in the New York Times, and her writing also appears in The Walrus, Longreads, Tin House, AFAR, River Teeth, Post Road, Off Assignment, The Guardian, and many other national and international publications. Her work has been widely anthologized, has won gold SATW Lowell Thomas and SOLAS travel writing awards, and has been noted in “The Best American Travel Writing.” She lives with her family in New Orleans. Spalding will be in conversation with Natalie Baszile.

Natalie Baszile is a writer and filmmaker. Her new novel, "Friends and Family," will be published in October 2026. Natalie’s previous novel, "Queen Sugar," was adapted for seven television seasons by writer/director Ava DuVernay and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey. Her non-fiction work includes the book "We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land & Legacy" and has appeared in National Geographic, The Bitter Southerner, O, The Oprah Magazine, and numerous anthologies. Natalie’s documentary film, HARVEST, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. A native Californian, her southern roots stem from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama. She lives in the Bay Area. 

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Book Talk--“Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food” by Elspeth Hay

The Vineyard Haven Public Library and the Chilmark Free Public Library are pleased to co-host Cape Cod author and journalist Elspeth Hay for a discussion about her new book, “Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food.” This event will be held at 12:00 PM on Thursday, July 16th, at the Chilmark Free Public Library, located at 522 State Road in Chilmark. Free and open to the public. No registration required, but space is limited. 

This collaborative program builds on two related initiatives: 

• Chilmark Library’s new Friends, Foraging and Fermenting club, which will hold its first official meeting in September. For more information, email Lynne McCormack at chil.programs@gmail.com or visit the Chilmark Library website;
• Vineyard Haven Library’s Science and Nature Book Club, which will read and discuss “Feed Us with Trees” at its July 1st meeting. For more information, email Liz Shick at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or visit the Vineyard Haven Library website. 

About the book:

GOLD winner of the 2026 Nautilus Book Award for Restorative Earth Practices, “Feed Us with Trees” is a new and ancient story about perennial nut trees, our ecological role as humans, and the future of food. The day Elspeth Hay learned that we can eat acorns, stories she’d believed her whole life began to unravel. Until then she’d always believed we must grow our staple foods in farmed fields—the same fields wreaking havoc on our land, air, and water. But all over the Northern Hemisphere, Hay learned, humans once grew our staple foods in forest gardens centered on perennial nut trees: oaks, chestnuts, and hazelnuts. In “Feed Us with Trees,” Hay brings us along as she gets to know dozens of nut growers, scientists, Indigenous knowledge-keepers, researchers, and food professionals—and discovers that in tending these staple trees, we once played a vital environmental role as one of Earth’s keystone species.

“Feed Us with Trees” is Hay’s hopeful manifesto about a brighter, more abundant future—and a critical look at the long-held stories we’ll need to rewrite to build it. It will appeal to environmentalists, regenerative farmers, permaculture enthusiasts, agroforesters, locavores, and anyone hungry for a more holistic, nutrient-dense diet rooted in wild foods and ancient knowledge.

About the presenter: 

Elspeth Hay is a writer, public radio host, and creator of the Local Food Report, a weekly feature that has aired on CAI, the Cape & Islands NPR Station, since 2008. Deeply immersed in her own local food system, she writes and reports for print, radio, and online media with a focus on food and the environment. Elspeth’s work has been featured in the Boston Globe, NPR’s Kitchen Window, Heated with Mark Bittman, The Provincetown Independent, and numerous other publications. Through her conversations with growers, harvesters, processors, cooks, policy makers, Indigenous knowledge-keepers, scientists, researchers, and visionaries, she aims to rebuild our cultural store of culinary knowledge—and to reconnect us with the people, places, and ideas that feed us. Elspeth lives with her family on Cape Cod, MA

For more information, please contact the Chilmark Library at chil.programs@gmail.com / (508) 645-3360 or the Vineyard Haven Library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org / (508) 696-4211.

Author talk: “Historic Storms of Martha's Vineyard” with Tom Dresser

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome local historian Tom Dresser for a presentation on his latest book, “Historic Storms of Martha's Vineyard,” which chronicles the major storms of the past four centuries on Martha’s Vineyard, including the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635, Hurricane Bob, and the No Name Storm of 1991, among others. 

This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, May 26th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

“Historic Storms of Martha’s Vineyard” is a compilation of the fiercest weather challenges of the past four centuries on Martha’s Vineyard, beginning with the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635, the granddaddy of our major storms. Dresser also takes note of “the year without a summer,” the devastating Portland gale, and Hurricane Edna, concluding  with Hurricane Bob and the No Name Storm of 1991, a pair of obtusely named windstorms that shook us up but were not in the category of the 1635 tempest. 

Tom Dresser came to Martha’s Vineyard in 1995 to visit the woman who would eventually become his wife, Joyce Dresser. Since then he has written dozens of books, booklets, and articles about the history of Martha’s Vineyard. Tom has also worked as a teacher, a school bus driver, a tour bus operator, a walking tour leader, and a speaker on various aspects of island history.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Cookbook Talk: The Making of "The Sea Table"

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome Shelley Edmundson, executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Fishermen's Preservation Trust, and Catherine Walthers, cookbook author and culinary instructor, for a discussion about the making of the new Martha’s Vineyard-based cookbook, “The Sea Table”--a true collaboration between local chefs, fishermen, and photographers. 

This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, March 31st at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required. 

This is the third of three Sea Table events hosted by island libraries: January 31st at 1:00 pm at the Chilmark Free Library, March 14th at 3:00 pm at the Aquinnah Public Library, and March 31st at 6:00 pm at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, hosted by the Vineyard Haven Public Library. 

About the cookbook:

“‘The Sea Table’ is more than just a cookbook. It’s a tribute to the waters that surround Martha’s Vineyard and to the fishermen who work hard to bring seafood to our tables. It features 75 recipes curated from island cooks, chefs, and fishermen; involves 19 seafood species found in Vineyard waters—from bay scallops, to fluke, to yellowfin tuna; profiles 21 local fishermen; and invites you into a world where fresh, sustainable seafood is a way of life. Whether you’re a seasoned cook, a seafood lover, or just someone who cares about where your food comes from, this book offers an inspiring—and delicious—way to eat locally.

‘​The Sea Table’ was created by the Martha's Vineyard Fishermen's Preservation Trust, in partnership with cookbook author, chef, and writer Catherine Walthers. The food photography for this book was created by local photographer Randi Baird, and black and white portraits of fishermen were captured by Brook Bartletta. Other contributing professional photographers include Claire Callagy, Alison Shaw, Ben Scott, Larry Glick, Bob Avakian, Parker Bradlee, Susie Middleton and Lisa Vanderhoop.”

About the presenters: 

Shelley Edmundson, Executive Director, MVFPT, spent every summer with her family on Martha’s Vineyard exploring the island’s shores and fishing off her grandfather’s boat, the Seabird. Shelley received her PhD in Zoology/Marine Biology studying channeled whelks (nicknamed 'conchs'), marine snails that support one of the Vineyard's largest commercial fisheries. Throughout her research, Shelley collaborated with many local fishermen with the goal of helping protect the species and sustainably manage the local fishery. Shelley’s love of the Vineyard, marine biology, and the commercial fishing community drives her passion to work for the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust. 

Catherine Walthers is a Martha’s Vineyard-based writer, culinary instructor, and private chef. A former journalist, she is the author of 4 cookbooks, including “Kale, Glorious Kale, Soups + Sides,” and “Raising the Salad Bar.” Catherine Walthers is also the food editor of Bluedot Magazine. She also wrote an environmental guidebook called “A Greener Boston” published by Chronicle Books in 1992. 

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Author Talk: DAYS OF THE OWL by Basia Jaworska

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome local author Basia Jaworska for a discussion of her newly published book, DAYS OF THE OWL, tracing her mother's extraordinary journey from the Polish Underground Resistance to a WWII POW camp to Martha’s Vineyard. Basia will be in conversation with former WMVY interviewer and programmer Barbara Dacey. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, March 10th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

About the book: 

“DAYS OF THE OWL is a compelling, often painful, depiction of true heroism in everyday life during the cruel Nazi occupation of Poland. The inner fabric of the society was stretched and torn, friendships were tested, and loyalty to the cause of patriotism was strained to an existential degree. In this beautifully crafted account of her mother Teresa's work as a teenager for the Polish resistance, Basia Jaworska creates an intimate account of life under the oppressive Nazi boot and in a cruelly-managed prisoner-of-war camp. She then follows her mother's post-war transition and marriage and her subsequent immigration with her new husband Zbyszek to start a life and family in America. Throughout her many grim, but ultimately triumphant adventures, Teresa's undaunted will and dignity shine brilliantly despite adversities of all kinds. In DAYS OF THE OWL, Teresa's spirit comes vividly alive to be admired and celebrated for her courage, dignity, and unshakable faith in herself and in those she so strongly loved.” ----Gerald Yukevich, M.D., author of “Blood Pudding” 

About the presenters:

Basia Jaworska is a visual artist, author, and social activist, who has been an Island fixture for over 30 years. Her paintings have been exhibited on Martha’s Vineyard and across the country, on stage sets, murals, book and newspaper illustrations, poster art, and political cartoons on social media. Her art reflects a deeper quest to explore what makes individuals risk it all for a higher purpose, be that music, art, or social and political causes. She comes by her political leanings naturally—her mother and father were active in the Polish Underground Resistance movement in World War II. Her book, DAYS OF THE OWL, is both a legacy and a warning to a generation who may have forgotten how easy it is to fall into tyranny. 

Barbara Dacey is a Buddhist practitioner and musician. For many years, she was a DJ, programmer, and interviewer at WMVY on Martha’s Vineyard, where she helped build and shape the radio station into the locally beloved and nationally respected institution it is today. Before her time at WMVY, she worked as a singer-songwriter and band leader, and as a modern dance accompanist and composer.  She is a volunteer coordinator at Bodhi Path of Martha’s Vineyard and lives in Vineyard Haven.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Author Talk: “Time’s Bounty: Rethinking Aging,” by Philip Weinstein

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to celebrate the release of Professor Philip Weinstein’s new book of essays, “Time’s Bounty: Rethinking Aging,” with a reading and reception at 5:00 pm on Thursday, November 13th. This event will be held at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, located at 130 Center Street in Vineyard Haven. Refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Library, and books available for onsite purchase through Bunch of Grapes Bookstore. Free and open to the public. No registration required. 

Our culture isn’t kind towards age. The dominant drive is to celebrate youth, striving for more and more of everything, while age, we’re told, brings only depletion and loss. Even as Americans live longer, most consider old age with dread. It’s time to challenge these assumptions. “Time’s Bounty” is a bracing view of the surprises that lie ahead, as age enkindles in us new expressions of life. 

“Old-age situations, assumed to announce the end-of-the-road, actually generate fresh life-moves,” writes author Philip Weinstein. “As we age, we tend to become ‘lighter’ in more senses than one....Indeed, we may find ourselves catapulted into late-stage ‘adventures’ the young never dream of.”

“Time’s Bounty” offers a view of age that differs greatly from our preconceptions—surprising, emancipating, sometimes even joyful. In five brief chapters, the author takes us from the generative discoveries that age occasions to the freedom that comes in life’s late chapters, when no company or institution or cause any longer owns us. At last, we are our own, in ways we could not imagine when younger.

Weinstein, a retired professor of English, draws not only on his own insights but on the insights found in writers he taught for decades: Shakespeare, Yeats, Proust, Faulkner, Eliot, Beckett, and others. Brief forays into their imaginative works add further illumination to the author’s own discoveries regarding the dramas—both the trials and the gifts—of old age.

Philip Weinstein earned his PhD in English from Harvard University, staying on to teach at Harvard for the next 3 years. He then accepted a position at Swarthmore, where he remained for over 40 years, becoming Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English. He has written several books of literary criticism, many focused on Faulkner, including “Becoming Faulkner: The Art and Life of William Faulkner,” which won the Hugh Holman Award for the best book of literary scholarship or literary criticism in the field of southern literature published in 2010. In 2015, Weinstein retired from Swarthmore and moved to Martha’s Vineyard full-time. Since then, he’s gone on to write three more books and to continue teaching adults through the Vineyard Haven Library, Swarthmore Lifelong Learning, and the 92nd Street Y in New York.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Author Talk: “Stateless in Paradise: A Stranded Soul's Fight for Freedom"

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome local author Mikael (Misha) Okuns for a conversation about his extraordinary journey from statelessness to citizenship, as described in his new book, Stateless in Paradise: A Stranded Soul's Fight for Freedom. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, October 28th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

About the book: 

Stateless in Paradise: A Stranded Soul's Fight for Freedom recounts the agonizing true story of a stateless individual, and his desperate fight to return to the United States. After living and working in the U.S. for 16 years, Mikael becomes stranded in American Samoa for over a year and five months, barred from re-entry due to a flawed immigration system and misunderstanding of his international passport and status.

Mikael's planned four-day New Year's Eve getaway to American Samoa in December 2011 quickly transforms into an unexpected ordeal, as he becomes ensnared by the island's harsh realities. Between the oppressive heat and humidity, which particularly affect the heat-sensitive Mikael, and frustrating bureaucratic challenges, he finds himself longing for the familiar comforts of Los Angeles – its fresh produce, juice bars, and vibrant coffee scene.

Desperate for a connection to the outside world, Mikael frequents the local McDonald's to use their free Wi-Fi and to email friends and advocates, seeking help for his case. He blogs about his experiences, sharing his struggles with the world and in the process, shedding light on the plight of the 4,000 stateless individuals living in the United States.

The book explores Mikael's family history, uncovering the events that resulted in his stateless status. Born to an Armenian family in Azerbaijan during the Soviet era, Mikael and his family were displaced by the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Tragically, his aunt was stoned to death by local Muslim Azeris, and his family's subsequent attempts to seek asylum in other republics were thwarted by discrimination stemming from their Armenian ethnicity and his sexual orientation.

About the author:

Mikael Sebastian Okunuga (aka Misha Okuns) is a multifaceted professional and creative entrepreneur with a diverse international background. Originally from the former Soviet Union (Azerbaijan SSR), he lived in the United States as a stateless person for over 16 years before becoming a U.S. citizen. A passionate world traveler, he has visited over 77 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Cuba. Mikael is married to Quadri Okunuga, and the couple divides their time between the United States and Latvia. In the United States, Mikael lives on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where he runs the popular Edgartown cafe, Behind the Bookstore.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Book Talk: "The Revolutionary War on Cape Cod and the Islands" with Tom Dresser

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome local historian Tom Dresser for a discussion about Martha’s Vineyard’s role in the American Revolution as portrayed in the new book coordinated by the Cape and Islands Historians Committee, The Revolutionary War on Cape Cod and the Islands to which Dresser is a contributor. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, October 14th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

Prepared in time for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, The Revolutionary War on Cape Cod and the Islands brings together under one cover the facts and narratives about often little-known histories of the American Revolution on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, from the period 1761 (end of the French and Indian Wars) to 1783 (Treaty of Paris). Coordinated through the Cape and Islands Historians Committee, the book includes chapters by 24 contributors, including local historians Tom Dresser and Bow Van Riper.  

Book topics include: accounts of the few battles fought on Cape and Islands, privateering, the serious splits between Loyalists and Patriots, British shipwrecks off of Cape Cod which resulted in favorable outcomes for the Patriots, the history of African Americans and Native Americans from the region who served actively in the War, and the stories of 10 important individuals from the region who played important roles in the Revolutionary period. The Revolutionary War on Cape Cod and the Islands was published by West Barnstable Press in August 2025 and is available in bookstores, libraries, and schools across the Cape and Islands.

Tom Dresser came to Martha’s Vineyard in 1995 to visit the woman who would eventually become his wife, Joyce Dresser. Since then he has written dozens of books, booklets, and articles about the history of Martha’s Vineyard. Tom has also worked as a teacher, a school bus driver, a tour bus operator, a walking tour leader, and a speaker on various aspects of island history. 

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Author Talk–"The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World" by Peter Brannen

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome award-winning science journalist and author Peter Brannen for a conversation about his latest book, “The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World.” This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, October 7th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

Book synopsis:

Every year, we are dangerously warping the climate by putting gigantic amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. But CO2 isn’t merely the byproduct of burning fossil fuels—it is also fundamental to how our planet works. All life is ultimately made from CO2, and it has kept Earth bizarrely habitable for hundreds of millions of years. In short, it is the most important substance on Earth. But how is it that CO2 is as essential to life on Earth as it is capable of destroying it?

“The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything” explores how carbon dioxide’s movement through rocks, air, water, and life has kept our planet’s climate livable, its air breathable, and its oceans hospitable to complex life. Starting at the dawn of life almost 4 billion years ago, and working all the way up through today’s global climate crisis and beyond, he illuminates how CO2 has been responsible for the planet’s many deaths and rebirths, for shaping the evolution of life, and for the development of modern human society. And he argues that it’s only by reckoning with this deep planetary history that we can understand the cosmic stakes of our current moment on Earth—and how dangerous our experiment with the climate really is.

With groundbreaking research and a clear-eyed perspective, Brannen shows how a deep exploration of the carbon cycle across our planet’s history can shed light on the way forward for humanity, as we try to avert environmental catastrophe in the future. And it all begins with a richer understanding of the critical role of CO2 in our world.

Peter Brannen is an award-winning science journalist and contributing writer at The Atlantic. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, Aeon, The Boston Globe, Slate and The Guardian among other publications. His book, “The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything,” was published August 26, 2025 by Ecco. His previous book, “The Ends of the World,” about the five major mass extinctions in Earth's history, was published in 2017 by Ecco. 

Peter was a 2023 visiting scholar at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, and is an affiliate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He was formerly a 2018 Scripps Fellow at CU-Boulder, a 2015 journalist-in-residence at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center at Duke University, and a 2011 Ocean Science Journalism Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA. His essays have been featured in the “Best American Science and Nature Writing” series and in “The Climate Book” by Greta Thunberg. Peter worked for the Vineyard Gazette from 2009-2012.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

 

Author Talk–Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome co-author and senior investigator Mac Muir for a conversation about his new book, “Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing.” This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, September 16th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

In “Cop Cop,” former senior investigators at Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), Mac Muir and Greg Finch, delve into the hidden gears that turn at the heart of American policing, distilling the complex web of police oversight into a far more accessible story. Across nearly a decade, Muir and Finch interviewed over 1,000 police officers and hundreds of victims of misconduct, and spoke with countless witnesses, policymakers, journalists, jailers, and gatekeepers of the criminal-justice system. The result is a web of real cases, spanning instances of chokeholds, stop-and-frisk, shootings, egregious verbal abuse, bodycam footage tampering, distortion of policing data, and much more.

Combining their unique perspectives as police misconduct investigators, the authors provide a new way of framing the history of policing, tethering a story that begins in the fields of Ireland and the plantations of Barbados, courses along the cobblestone paths of Charleston, South Carolina, and London, England, flows through the heart of New York City, and bleeds into the present day.

Mac Muir was raised in Oakland, California. From 2016 to 2022, he rose to become a Supervising Investigator at the New York City CCRB. From 2023 to 2025, Mac served as Executive Director of Oakland’s Community Police Review Agency.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

“Free”: A Reading by Professor Philip Weinstein

View the recording of this event:

https://vimeo.com/1113388331

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome Professor Philip Weinstein for reading from his forthcoming book, “Time’s Bounty: Rethinking Aging” to be released on November 11, 2025. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, August 26th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

Professor Weinstein will read from the final chapter of “Time’s Bounty,” entitled “Free,” in which he reflects on a peculiar kind of freedom that arises for the elderly—one in which commonplace daily rituals have the potential to be remarkable, perhaps even blessed. The idea for “Time’s Bounty” grew out of Weinstein’s realization that much of his experience of aging differed provocatively from stereotypes about old age. “But interesting things are going on in this wintry season: it is a dramatic time of life!” insists Weinstein.

Philip Weinstein earned his PhD in English from Harvard University, staying on to teach at Harvard for the next 3 years. He then accepted a position at Swarthmore, where he remained for over 40 years, becoming Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English. He has written several books of literary criticism, many focused on Faulkner, including “Becoming Faulkner: The Art and Life of William Faulkner,” which won the Hugh Holman Award for the best book of literary scholarship or literary criticism in the field of southern literature published in 2010. In 2015, Weinstein retired from Swarthmore and moved to Martha’s Vineyard full-time. Since then, he’s offered several series of literary lectures for adult learners through the Vineyard Haven Library, Swarthmore Lifelong Learning, and the 92nd Street Y, New York.  

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

An Evening with Nicole Galland, NYT Bestselling Author of "Boy: A Novel"

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome critically-acclaimed local author Nicole Galland for a conversation about her latest historical novel, Boy, set in Elizabethan England. Nicole will be in conversation with Scott Barrow. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, August 12th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above the Tisbury Town Hall). Books will be available for on-site purchase through Bunch of Grapes. Free and open to the public. No registration required.

Sander Cooke is the most celebrated “boy player” in William Shakespeare’s theatre company. Indeed, Sander’s androgynous beauty and deft portrayal of female roles have made him the toast of London, and his companionship is sought by noblewomen and -men alike. But now at the height of his fame, he teeters on the cusp of adulthood, his future uncertain. Often, he wishes he could stop time and remain a boy forever.

Joan Buckler, Sander’s best friend, also has a wish. Though unschooled, she is whip-smart and fascinated by the snippets of natural philosophy to which she’s been exposed. As a woman, she has no place in the intellectual salons and cultural community of the day; only disguised as a boy can she learn to her heart’s content.

Joan’s covert intellectual endeavors attract the attention of Francis Bacon: natural philosopher and trusted adviser to Queen Elizabeth. It is through their connection with Bacon—one of the greatest minds of their time—that they will be changed forever as they become embroiled in an intricate game of political intrigue that threatens their very lives.

Nicole Galland is a proud graduate of the West Tisbury Elementary School and MVRHS. She's the author of 7 historical novels, several of them Shakespeare-themed, and co-author of the NY Times bestseller The Rise and Fall of DODO. Her contemporary work includes On The Same Page, about two newspapers on Martha's Vineyard. She has recently become an editor at one of these papers in real life. With Chelsea McCarthy, she co-created the popular off-season "Shakespeare for the Masses" series, and also directs plays off-Island.

Scott Barrow is Company member of Tectonic Theater Project where he is part of the team creating and performing in the Pulitzer Prize Finalist Here There are Blueberries. He is a contributing author of the company’s devising methodology book: Moment Work, and was part of the creative team on broadway’s Tony award-winning 33 Variations starring Jane Fonda. On island Scott's favorite credits include Hamlet and Every Brilliant Thing, Much Ado about Nothing and a dozen Shakespeare for the Masses directed by Nicole at the MV Playhouse and the sinister Square Master under MVFF’s Cinema Circus's big top.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

An Evening with Essie Chambers, Award-winning Author of the novel, "Swift River"

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome Essie Chambers for a conversation about her award-winning debut novel, Swift River, recently selected as a Today Show “Read with Jenna” Book Club pick. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, July 29th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above the Tisbury Town Hall). Books will be available for on-site purchase through Bunch of Grapes. Free and open to the public. No registration required.

It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: she’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on.

But when Diamond receives a letter from a relative she’s never met, key elements of Pop’s life are uncovered. She is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, whose lives span the 20th century and reveal a much larger picture of prejudice and abandonment, of love and devotion. As pieces of their shared past become clearer, Diamond gains a sense of her place in the world and in her family. How will what she’s learned of the past change her future?

Essie Chambers is an award-winning author and producer. Her bestselling debut novel, Swift River—a Today Show “Read with Jenna” Book Club pick—won the 2024 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize and was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, Elle, and others. It was also longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award, The Libby Awards, the New England Book Awards and the Barnes & Noble Book of the Year. She received an Honor Fiction award from The Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Essie started her career as a television executive at Nickelodeon and BET before becoming an independent producer and filmmaker. She went on to produce the critically acclaimed PBS documentary, The New Public, and the Sundance Award–winning, Oscar-shortlisted documentary Descendant, which was released by the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company and Netflix in 2022. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center, and Baldwin for the Arts. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, where she’s about to get started on book number two!

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

A Conversation with NYT Bestselling Author Martha Hall Kelly

At 6:00 PM on Wednesday, July 9th, the Vineyard Haven Library welcomes New York Times bestselling author Martha Hall Kelly for an intimate conversation about her new novel, The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, inspired by her mother’s family--the Smiths--who settled on Martha’s Vineyard in 1891. Martha will be in conversation with her sister, Polly Simpkins, as they explore the intricacies of their mother's story and the role it plays in the novel. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, July 9th, 2025 at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, with books available for on-site purchase through Bunch of Grapes Bookstore.

In The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, two sisters living on Martha’s Vineyard during World War II find hope in the power of storytelling when they start a wartime book club for women in this spectacular novel inspired by true events, from the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls.

“A dreamy beach book that also sizzles with tension . . . another winner by one of the best historical fiction writers around.”—Fiona Davis, author of The Stolen Queen

2016: Thirty-four-year-old Mari Starwood is still grieving after her mother’s death as she travels to the storied island of Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. She’s come all the way from California with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Devereaux, the famous but reclusive Vineyard painter. When Mari makes it to Mrs. Devereaux’s stunning waterfront farm under the guise of taking a painting class with her, Mrs. Devereaux begins to tell her the story of the Smith sisters, who once lived there. As the tale unfolds, Mari is shocked to learn that her relationship to this island runs deeper than she ever thought possible.

1942: The Smith girls—nineteen-year-old aspiring writer Cadence and sixteen-year-old war-obsessed Briar—are faced with the impossible task of holding their failing family farm together during World War II as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. When Briar spots German U-boats lurking off the island’s shores, and Cadence falls into an unlikely romance with a sworn enemy, their quiet lives are officially upended. In an attempt at normalcy, Cadence and her best friend, Bess, start a book club, which grows both in members and influence as they connect with a fabulous New York publisher who could make all of Cadence’s dreams come true. But all that is put at risk by a mysterious man who washes ashore—and whispers of a spy in their midst. Who in their tight-knit island community can they trust? Could this little book club change the course of the war . . . before it’s too late?

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, Martha was inspired to write this novel by her mother’s family, the Smiths, who settled on Martha’s Vineyard in 1891. She received journalism degrees from both Syracuse and Northwestern Universities and worked as an advertising copywriter for many years before becoming a novelist. With more than two million copies of her books sold and translated in fifty countries, Martha lives in Litchfield, Connecticut, and Hobe Sound, Florida. 

Photo: © Frank Cordoba

Polly Simpkins is an inter-spiritual minister, ceremonialist, and founder of Petal Sky, which provides spiritual care for all stages of life, including death. She is a fourth-generation Islander, a story-gatherer, and a DJ at MVY Radio. Polly lives in Vineyard Haven.

This event will be held at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven, above the Tisbury Town Hall. Registration not required. For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.

Celebrate Amity Week with Author Talk and Cartoon Workshop by Award-winning Graphic Novelist Ira Marcks

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to celebrate Amity Week with a back-to-back author talk and cartoon workshop by award-winning graphic novelist Ira Marcks, author of the kid-friendly mystery Shark Summer. Set on Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 1974, Shark Summer tells the story of aspiring documentarian Gayle Briar and her new friends, who set out to film a documentary about the island’s secret history just as a Hollywood film crew arrives to make history of its own. 

On Tuesday, June 24th at 6:00 PM, Ira will treat kids, adults, and JAWS fans to an evening of inspiration and humor as he shares the trials and tribulations of mixing local legends, cinematic history, and cartoon characters. This event will be held at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall), with books for sale by Edgartown Books. Free and open to the public. No registration required.

On Wednesday, June 25th from 3:30-5:30 pm, Ira will lead a hands-on workshop for teens and tweens in designing expressive cartoon characters. Through a fun and engaging workshop, participants will learn an easy-to-follow process for designing a cartoon face and adapting the features to create emotional expressions for storytelling. This workshop will be held in the community room on the lower level of the Tisbury EMS Facility, located at 215 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven. No registration required, but attendance is limited.

Ira Marcks is the award-winning cartoonist behind the creepy kid mysteries Shark Summer, Spirit Week and the upcoming Snake School. His books have been recommended by The New York Times, appeared on ‘Best of the Year’ list for the American Library Association, received a Gold Selection from the Junior Library Guild, as well as Maryland’s student voted Black-Eyed Susan Award.

Ira’s creative interests in supernatural fiction and scientific research have led to an unlikely list of past collaborators, including a White House Fellowship Scientist, the European Research Council, and the Hugo Award-winning magazine Weird Tales. When he isn’t making comics and visiting schools Ira is teaching on the creative learning platform Skillshare where he has earned Top Teacher status by inspiring over 100,000 students.

For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211 or vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org, or consult the library website: https://www.vhlibrary.org.

A Conversation with T. Elizabeth Bell, author of "Sheepish: A Martha’s Vineyard Novel"

The Vineyard Haven Library is pleased to welcome seasonal author T. Elizabeth Bell for the launch of her third novel, Sheepish: A Martha’s Vineyard Novel. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, June 17th at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, located at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above Tisbury Town Hall). Books will be available for sale on site by Edgartown Books.  Free and open to the public. No registration required.

When tech-savvy Aly Bennett loses her job in San Francisco, she does what any self-respecting millennial in crisis would do and hops a plane to Martha’s Vineyard. Comforted by her childhood best friend, Aly trades Wi-Fi for ocean waves, laptops for lambs, and the hustle of city life for something slower, gentler, and unexpectedly real.

As the Island works its magic, Aly crosses paths with Whit Dias, a local fisherman with a bruised and wary heart. The attraction is unexpected and undeniable. Aly begins to imagine a future that isn’t driven by apps and ambition, until the tug of her old life—and the secrets she’s kept hidden—threaten to undo everything. Sheepish is a charming, sea-swept tale of friendship, forgiveness, and the messy, beautiful work of finding yourself, and finding love.

T. Elizabeth Bell swapped writing legal memos for crafting sea-breezy, toes-in-the-sand novels (Goats in the Time of Love and Counting Chickens) inspired by her love of Martha’s Vineyard. A beachcomber, dog-lover, wild blueberry-and-beach plum picker and jam-maker, she also dabbles in silversmithing, glittering Mardi Gras shoes, and capturing the island’s beauty through her photography (@tb.dc.mv on Instagram and @telizabethbell on Facebook).

For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211 or vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org, or consult the library website: https://www.vhlibrary.org.

 

Author Talk: “Into the Amazon” with Mass Book Award-honoree Larry Rohter

Join the Vineyard Haven Public Library at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, May 20th for a book talk with Mass Book Award-honoree Larry Rohter! Rohter will discuss his thrilling new biography, Into the Amazon, which celebrates the great indigenous Brazilian explorer, scientist, statesman, and conservationist, Cândido Rondon. Into the Amazon: The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist is at once a traditional adventure yarn, an introduction to modern Brazilian history, and a meditation on race and exploration. 

This event will be held at the Katharine Cornell Theatre at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above the Tisbury Town Hall). The program is sponsored by the Mass Book Awards Speakers Bureau and is presented in collaboration with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Free and open to the public. No registration required.  

Between 1890 and 1930, Cândido Rondon navigated scores of previously unmapped rivers, traversed untrodden mountain ranges, and hacked his way through inhospitable jungles. In 1913-14, he led Theodore Roosevelt and his son Kermit on their celebrated “River of Doubt” journey. Upon leaving the Brazilian Army in 1930, Rondon devoted the remainder of his life to writing about the region’s flora and fauna, advocating for his fellow Indigenous people who inhabited the rainforest, and lobbying for the creation of a system of national parks. Rondon’s many achievements earned him three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, yet he has never received his due. Originally published in Brazil, Into the Amazon is the first comprehensive biography of the greatest tropical explorer in history.

Larry Rohter was the Rio de Janeiro bureau chief for the New York Times from 1998 to 2008 and held the same role at Newsweek from 1977 to 1982. He is the author of two previous books about Brazil, one in Portuguese and one in English: Deu no New York Times and Brazil on the Rise: The Story of a Country Transformed. He divides his time between the United States and Brazil.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211. 

Author talk: Once Upon A Place with Holly Bellebuono

At 6:00 PM on Tuesday, May 6th, the Vineyard Haven Library welcomes author and herbalist Holly Bellebuono for a discussion of her newest book, Once Upon A Place: Forests, Caverns, and Other Places of Transformation in Myths, Fairy Tales and Film. This event will be held at the Katharine Cornell Theatre at 51 Spring Street in Vineyard Haven (above the Tisbury Town Hall). Free and open to the public. No registration required.

Once Upon a Place explores narratives from modern film, famous fairy tales, and ancient mythology to define the five core locations that shape every story: the Cavern, the Deep, the Vessel, the Forest, and the Labyrinth. Popularized by Joseph Campbell, the hero's journey features narrative stages along which a person matures and transforms. But where heroes transform is just as important as what they do to get there. Holly Bellebuono shows you how the location of each step in the hero's journey is intimately tied to the challenges faced, setting the tone for the entire adventure.

To illustrate each location, Bellebuono shares fifteen original adaptations, such as the tales of Persephone, Gilgamesh, Cerridwen, and Alice, to explore how the "sense of place" drives the adventure and outcome. From Innana's descent into the Cavern to Snow White entering the Forest, this book offers powerful wisdom about personal growth, life's purpose, and the origins of creativity.

Holly Bellebuono has published 8 books in 3 languages, including the award-winning documentary book Women Healers of the World. She is an internationally known natural health expert, herbalist and entrepreneur, bringing 30+ years of leadership in the natural and organic products industry to her passion for supporting health and business. Drawing from her rich personal and professional background in health and wellness, Holly is dedicated to eco-friendly and women-empowering education. 

Holly is the founder of the Bellebuono School of Herbal Medicine (since 2011) and Bellebuono International LLC and has lectured at conferences in England, Costa Rica, Canada, and across the United States. She is the recipient of two small business awards plus a nonprofit executive award. Holly holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration: Environmental Policy from Appalachian State University.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.