Matthew Clark Davison has a reputation among Bay Area writers as one of those teachers you never forget — insightful, funny, immune to excuses, and with an uncanny talent to […]
Books & Poetry
POETRY
Finding Freedom Through the Power of the Page
Poet, playwright, memoirist, and lawyer Reginald Dwayne Betts knows text is transformative
Reginald Dwayne Betts was a reader growing up, devouring Sherlock Holmes mysteries and scouring encyclopedias for basketball stats. But he didn’t give much thought to writers. “I thought books were […]
THE BUZZ
Scratching an Itch to Tell Stories
Mosquito slam’s audience keeps coming back to see ‘empathy on the stage’
The audience hummed with anticipation on Tuesday night last week at Provincetown’s WOMR Davis Space. They were waiting for Vanessa Vartabedian, the creator of the Mosquito, to take the stage. […]
PLANTS WITH PROMISE
Peter Del Tredici Looks to the Flora of the Future
‘It’s a myth that we can restore what used to exist,’ says the botanist
TRURO — As the climate changes and ecosystems evolve, plant species are adapting to the conditions of their environments. “There is real information here that we need to pay attention […]
LINE BREAK
Mad Libs Poetry: To Spring on Cape Cod
Jessica Smart brings Mary Oliver home with peepers, lilacs, and whales
Mary Oliver’s voice, vision, and words are beloved around the world and uniquely tied to Provincetown, where she lived for many decades. Her poems have introduced countless readers to ponds, […]
BOOK REVIEW
A Place of Quiet Beauty Reveals Its Lively Past
Sharon Dunn combines poetry and history in writing about Bound Brook Island
In the same week that we came to live in a cottage halfway between Lombard and Paradise hollows, on the Wellfleet-Truro line, Christopher and I took a walk on Bound […]
WRITING LIFE
Frank X. Gaspar Returns to the Space of His Imagination
The Provincetown-born writer is here for this year’s Portuguese Festival
“There’s all this beauty around you,” Frank X. Gaspar says of the Provincetown he grew up in in the 1950s and ’60s. “Not a gentle beauty but a rugged beauty.” […]
BOOK REVIEW
A Clear-Eyed History of a Collective Bacchanal
Ike Williams navigates The Shores of Bohemia
The history of the Outer Cape is notable. This narrow strip of sand has hosted wave after wave of wanderers and settlers who, since the “first encounter” with the Nauset […]
BOOK REVIEW
A Painter and Minister Embraces New Colors
In her memoir, the Rev. Anne Ierardi explores faith, her upbringing, and her sexual identity
In her memoir, Anne Ierardi chooses to paint in contrasting colors, literally and figuratively. “If you’re just Catholic, and you never walk into a Protestant church and have a conversation, […]
BOOK REVIEW
Refusing to Go Gentle Into The Kingdom of Sand
Andrew Holleran’s new novel is a latter-day queer classic
In his new novel, Andrew Holleran writes, in a scene set at a North Florida Thanksgiving dinner attended by older gay men, “There is a delicate undercurrent beneath get-togethers among […]
LINE BREAK
Rereading History in Poetry
John Bonanni explores the truth of ‘Patient O’
When I was a kid, history class bored me. It was all dusty, musty dates, laws, and names. I have a hunch I’d have been more interested if I’d been […]
BOOK REVIEW
Discovering Hope in the Midst of Terror
In Vigil Harbor, Julia Glass’s characters face their own mistakes
Julia Glass has never set out to write a political novel. “But if I write about contemporary life,” she says, “my characters are going to intersect with politics. Something is […]
MARATHON
Finding Theater, Blubber, and Community in Moby-Dick
A town reads aloud for everything from esoteric insights on blubber to racy bits
PROVINCETOWN — “We don’t want thunder, we want rum!” bellowed reader Larry Williams, channeling the urgency of a stormy scene from Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. When […]
FICTION
Twists of Fate That Aren’t Simple
Randi Triant’s new novel, What We Give, What We Take, traces the lives of a mother and son
“I’ve known women and men — it’s kind of genderless — who think they’re making the right decision, then realize it was one of the worst,” says Provincetown author Randi […]
BOOK REVIEW
Why Writing About Writing Matters
Nicholas Delbanco shares wisdom from his literary life
You, reader of the Independent, grasping a newspaper or squinting at your laptop, probably already believe that writing matters. But not everyone does. Defending the written word’s worth is exactly […]
