Mary Norris is concerned about the future of the apostrophe.

“The apostrophe is most vulnerable to the march of progress,” said Ms. Norris, a query proofreader for the New Yorker since 1993.

Bob Ryan calls it how he sees it. Hold the sugar. Give an audience the truth and nothing but the truth, plain and simple. At the end of the day, the voice of Boston sports wanted it no other way.

Ginny Gilder is a self-described challenge seeker. As a young woman, she set her sights on a goal that most told her was impossible — to become an Olympic medalist in rowing.

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Charles Blow was a 20-year-old college student when he had an epiphany that freed him to let go of his past and fully accept himself.

Junot Diaz burst onto the literary scene in 1996 with the publication of Drown. In 2007 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his second book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. And on Thursday, July 30, he will read at the Noepe Center for Literary Arts in Edgartown.

This year’s Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival takes place August 1 through August 2 and features a mix of fiction and nonfiction authors, including former congressmen and chefs and best-selling authors.