At age 21 Rick Herrick wrote a letter to Princeton University’s religion department declining his acceptance into their New Testament PhD program.

Michael G. West wrote a talking blues song and it goes a little something like this. “I was born in 1947 / North of hell and south of heaven / About that time the sun went down / On San Francisco, my hometown . . . .”

On the northeast coast of Ireland in the small suburb Howth, Lara O’Brien spent her childhood days riding horseback with friends through the hillsides.

The Chilmark library offers a nearly monthlong book sale just in time for the holidays and maybe a snowy night of reading. The sale continues every day until noon on Dec. 28.

By annual tradition, contributor Ginny Jones offers her picks, some new some old, for maritime reading enthusiasts. This year's theme is whaling.

Welcome to the parlor of Cleaveland House in West Tisbury. For at least half a century, this cozy room has served as a salon of sorts for Island poets who gather to share and critique each others' work.