Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing 2025: what an AMAZING group of attendees last week!!! I never take enough photos myself, but here are a few which people kindly shared. What an inspirational, engaged, energized, exciting, supportive group of writers! Wowsers!
Two weeks after teaching in Kefalonia, Greece, I taught at the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, my 13th year! What a joy and a delight to teach alongside awesome faculty and friends Hannah Bae, Donald Quist, Vogue Robinson, and Alexander Weinstein! The week went by too quickly!
Eight days in a magical place, Kefalonia Greece, made all the more magical by the wonderful people who shared it all. I’ll carry those days in my heart. May our paths cross again. 🙏❤️
Day 9 Poetry Teaching Trip to Kefalonia Greece: morning boat excursion to swim in the sea beside the island of Ithaca, lunch in Vathi, then a swim in a magical cave at magical Myrthos Beach with the magical marble pebble beach.
Day 6 Poetry Teaching Trip to Kefalonia Greece: Skyline lunch at il Borgo, visiting the mountaintop Byzantine Castle of Agios Georgios, Argostoli nightlife including a live performance of Astor Piazzolla tangos. Sigh…
Day 5 Poetry Teaching Trip to Kefalonia Greece: After reading my poem at the Zervati Cave, a boat ride through Melisani Cave, a swim at Antisamos beach, sea bass for lunch in Sami, crawling around Ayioi Fanetes Monastery / the Acropolis of Kyatis, first views of Myrtos Beach, and basically a lot of adoring the Kefalonian mountainous countryside.
Day 5 of my Poetry Teaching Trip to Kefalonia Greece: I read my poetry in a Greek cave! I read my poetry in a Greek cave! I read my poetry in a Greek cave!
The poem: “Hawk Shadow Here to Help,” temporarily retitled “κότσυφας Shadow Here to Help” in honor of the blackbirds singing around us.
The cave: Zervati Cave on Kefalonia Island.
Day 3 of my 10-day teaching poetry trip on Kefalonia Island Greece: 1st visit to Argostoli port town, a walk along the De-Bosset Bridge, shopping, a beautiful walkway with lemon tree and cat outside the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture in Metaxata where I stayed and taught.
Day 2 of my 10-day teaching poetry on Kefalonia Island Greece trip: Arriving at The Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture for the Arts and Culture in Metaxata, my first dip in the Ionian Sea, a beachside lunch with a view!
I just returned from a 10 day trip to Greece to teach poetry on the island of Kefalonia. My first time overseas. An experience I will never forget. Kefalonia, an island that I fell in love with and will hold close to my heart. Here’s travel and day one in the Athens suburb of Artemida (you know, Artemis, goddess of the hunt).
