Chris Adrian is a fellow in pediatric hematology-oncology. He is also a recent graduate of the Harvard Divinity School. So he’s well-versed in tragic loss and grief, as well as the more abstract issues of immortality and the meaning of life. In his newest novel, The Great Night, he mixes all of these ingredients together and bakes them in an oven fueled by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The result is an exquisitely heart-breaking novel, sprinkled with dark comedy, whimsy and sex.
Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search For Jewish Cooking In France by Joan Nathan of Washington, D.C., and Chilmark, is a delectable-looking cookbook with hundreds of delicious recipes. And, best of all, since many of them come from the hot climates of southern France and North Africa, you’re sure to be able to find in it just what you want to serve at a mid-summer Island dinner party.
Young poets have until Monday at 5 p.m. to enter their poems in the Elisa Brickner Poetry Contest, sponsored by The Elisa Brickner Fund of the Chilmark Free Public Library.
The contest was created to foster the love of poetry, and provides cash prizes of $200 and $100. To be eligible, poets must be entering grades 6 - 12 in the fall.
Winners will be asked to read their poems on Monday, August 15, at 5:30 p.m.
Cartoonist Is Talk of the Island
Paul Karasik is many things and an exhibit focusing on the whole man would include, but not be limited to, the following: Cartoonist extraordinaire (published in The New Yorker), development director for the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School, professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, author, graphic novelist, sweat lodge devotee, the list goes on and on. He is also one of the nicest, most interesting people you will ever meet.
Joseph Sebarenzi, author of God Sleeps in Rwanda, is speaking at Howes House in West Tisbury on Saturday, August 6, at 5 p.m.
Mr. Sebarenzi’s book is a memoir of his life in Rwanda, including his service as President of the Rwandan Parliament, before and during the period of genocide experienced in Rwanda. Mr. Sebarenzi’s parents, three brothers, two sisters, and all their families were killed during this period.
How did Tina Chang become the Poet Laureate of Brooklyn? By writing the following words:
“I walk the streets of Brooklyn looking at this storefront and that, buy a pair of shoes I can’t afford, pumps from London, pointed at the tip and heartbreakingly high, hear my new heels clicking, crushing the legs of my shadow.”
Well, actually that is a mere sampling of her work taken from her poem Duality. There is so much more to choose from.