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Martha's Vineyard WritingDecember 08, 2005 Music, theater, and dance are inherently collaborative arts, if not in the creation then at least in the performance. Visual artists work alone but often in the public eye: in warmer weather, and even occasionally in the dead of winter, painters are frequently seen at their easels beside the island's roads, fields, and beaches, and photographers are readily identified by the cameras hung around their necks and the bags slung over their shoulders. Writers, on the other hand, work in isolation, and unless they write for one of the island papers or glossy magazines, their work tends to remain invisible. Thus the advent of volume 1, number 1, of Martha's Vineyard Writing is especially welcome. Island writers have a venue for their stories, essays, and poems; island readers have a way to find out what island writers are up to. Martha's Vineyard Writing is sponsored by the Howes House Writers, under the guidance of journalist and mystery novelist Cynthia Riggs. In her introduction, editor Riggs notes that the journal was "financed in part by private funding and in part by a grant from the Martha's Vineyard Arts Council." The premier issue is a handsome volume. Fabric artist Jeanne Hewett, who is also one of the Howes House Writers, furnished the design for the striking cover; her husband, Ted, well known to islanders for his paintings, painted chests, and murals, provided several witty cartoons for its pages. Among the literary stand-outs are Donald Nitchie's "Beetlebung," whose branches reach forth and gather in some keen insights about island life, and Margaret Knight's "You Are a Winner!," which will delight anyone who's received one too many such notifications by e-mail or snailmail. Daniel Waters's "Love of Place," addressed to West Tisbury, whose "dewy cedars proffer / No answer to your townsman's silent praise," affirms an essential kinship between man and land. Brooks Robards's "Blue Clouds" celebrates the joyful persistence of a master artist -- Albert Alcalay, if the dedicatory initials and the "joyful buzz of colors" guide us true. In "Coal Mine," Cynthia Riggs takes us underground, conveying with precisely observed details the dangers of venturing so deep down in the earth. Perhaps the most moving work is the first, in which poet Ivy Marcella speaks of her openness to life: "I am a soul rebel, a wave / crashing, gliding across / my imagination. . . ." Marcella's life was cut short by a boating accident last June, eight days before her 20th birthday. I hope Martha's Vineyard Writing will flourish, and not only because the first issue contains two of my own Persephone poems, "Two Women on the Road" and "End of the Rainbow." (You can find some of the other Persephones in the Writing section of this website.) With luck and persistence, the new journal should expand the audience for island writers and introduce more island readers to the writers in their midst. One question for the editors to ponder, however: Does the journal aim to showcase island writing in general or that of the Howes House Writers in particular? About half the contributions to Martha's Vineyard Writing come from members of the Howes House group, and the editorial board is drawn entirely from their ranks. I hope a broader spectrum of Vineyard writing will be represented in subsequent issues.
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