While treading water in the open ocean off the coast of San Diego, playwright Mona Mansour and her nephew debated the morality of war.

After seven decades as a published poet, literary wife and mother, international human rights activist and famed Vineyard hostess, Rose Styron has a wealth of stories to tell.

Setting them down in writing, however, had never appealed to her.

The centerpiece of the Fourth of July weekend festivities is, of course, the Edgartown parade, where floats of all sights and sizes strut their stuff throughout Edgartown on July 4.

If the manufacture of oil paints were to stop, how could an artist continue to paint?

In her 30-year career, Jean Stone has written upwards of 24 novels, more than a third of which are set on the Vineyard. The reason, she said, goes back to the works of Agatha Christie.

Providence psychiatrist Henry Farber is the narrative focus of Death of the Great Man, the new novel by Peter Kramer.