Cuttyhunk!

I’m very fond of islands. I’ve been to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket off Cape Cod; Amelia, the southernmost Sea Island off the Florida coast, over which eight different flags have supposedly flown including French, Spanish, British, Mexican, Confederate, and U.S.; Whidbey in the Puget Sound where I ate myself silly on wild blackberries; Madeline, one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior where our host said canoeists sometimes spot black bears out for a swim; and Ireland where I hitchhiked one rainy weekend in college.

I wrote a little about islands last summer when I reviewed my friend Jennifer Tseng’s novel Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness.

This summer I’ll be adding an entry to my list of islands visited: Cuttyhunk!

Cuttyhunk is the outermost of the Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. I’m spending eight days this June at the Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency.

Thirteen writers will stay in the Avalon Inn built in 1909. We’ll take a writing workshop with Pulitzer Prize winning author Paul Harding, participate in a salon reading series and eat beautiful food prepared by award-winning author and chef Didi Emmons.

And walk on the beach and rock on the porch and swim. And due to a generous scholarship, all this goodness is on the house!

I’m truly grateful and incredibly excited for this summer’s island adventure.