It’s a rare opportunity to gather in one restaurant and enjoy specialty dishes sourced from the Island by seven distinct chefs. All of which are, by the event’s design, also cookbook authors. And for these cooks, the stories are as important as the recipes.

More than 100 people gathered in the West Tisbury Grange Hall on Tuesday to hear David McCullough talk about his new book, The Wright Brothers. Tickets sold for $100, with all profits going to the West Tisbury Library.

“If there is one thing that brings Vineyarders together, male and female, rich and not-so rich, across ethnic and social lines, it is and has been basketball. That is Martha’s Vineyard’s best-kept secret.”

It is a big week for words on the Vineyard. One could say that all summer long, but this week two Vineyard authors take the stage.

Gail Rodney will be hosting a reception for her new book, A Martha’s Vineyard & Chappy Sketchbook, at the Old Sculpin Gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 12.

On Thursday evening, as part of the Summer Institute Speaker Series at the Hebrew Center, Jane Harman, former congresswoman and president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, will discuss terrorism and foreign policy relating to the Middle East.