Sherry Sidoti will be "On the Porch" at Edgartown Books for a meet + greet and book signing for her newly released memoir: A Smoke and a Song 

Saturday August 5, 2023

2:00-4:00pm

event is in conjunction with Islanders Write Event @Featherstone on 8/20-21

free and open to the public

Sherry Sidoti’s A Smoke and a Song Book Launch Blessing & Celebration!

Tuesday August 15, 4:00-6:00pm

Salte MV

6 South Water St. Edgartown

invocation + moderation w/Anita Kopacz

Lomar Farms Pop-up

Music w/DJ Dern

free and open to the public

"Behind the Book" A Smoke and a Song

Join author Sherry Sidoti in this informal chat to learn the nitty-gritty "behind the scenes” of writing and publishing her memoir, including:

what inspired her to write

fun facts about A Smoke and a Song

the publishing journey

what she has learned in the process

chat and Q + A moderated by author Paul Samuel Dolman

Edgartown Public Library

August 19 10:30am-noon

free and open to the public

Book Sales by Edgartown Books

"Take Five: Meditation as Muse for Inspired Writing"

Oh, to be in “the zone,” filled with spontaneous inspiration, riding the sweet spot of creative flow! But equal to the elation that comes with writing come the roadblocks— overthinking, stress, dullness, mental restlessness, to name a few. Creativity is too easily hijacked by the mind-stuff.

The mystics have practiced meditation, mindfulness, and movement for centuries to harness the mind and merge with the “Divine Creator Within,” and so can we. Sometimes we just need to take five. Join yoga teacher and author Sherry Sidoti in this 90-minute workshop to learn how meditation can serve as muse for inspired writing.

Through three five-minute exercises we will explore how marrying meditation and writing can:

·  Nourish the writing experience as writers

·  Enliven the writing/storytelling itself

·  Bring focus and clarity to the editing process

Workshop includes conversation, gentle seated movement, contemplation, and writing.

Open to all—no prior meditation practice necessary. Bring something to write on/with, any writing pieces you may be working on, and an open mind

August 21, time TBD

Islanders Write @ Featherstone

free and open to all

Book Sales by Edgartown Books

Book Talk with Sherry Sidoti: A Smoke And A Song

Memory is not a neatly sequenced timeline of events, and neither is a memoir. Memory is complex and it is fallible. What we remember will always be deeply personal, subject to the complexities of who we are and the lens we look through. What is memory and what is “truth”? What do we chose to tell, what do we leave out, and why? How do weigh the risks with the rewards of telling our stories? These conundrums are enough to paralyze any memoirist from writing and publishing their book! Join Sherry Sidoti in this informal chat where will discuss how she approaches this inquiry. Perhaps it is in the fallibility of memory itself, that therein lies the writing craft.

September 8, 2023

5:30-6:30pm

Oak Bluffs Public Library

free and open to the public

Book sales by Bunch of Grapes Bookstore

"Artistic Motivation"

Join author Sherry Sidoti in this informal chat and Q & A about her newly released memoir A Smoke and a Song moderated by Mathea Morais, author of There Your Are and director of Literary Arts at Featherstone, including:

Contextualizing our stories

Artistic influences in our lives

Island Inspiration in our writing

The publishing journey

and more!

West Tisbury Public Library

September 21, 2023

4:30-5:30pm

free and open to all

Book sales by Bunch of Grapes Bookstore

"All Things Memoir"

Join Sherry Sidoti in this author's talk and Q & A session with author and memoir writing teacher Nancy Slonim Aronie. 

The two memoirists will chat about Sidoti's new book and all things memoir, including: 

the inspiration behind A Smoke and a Song, what motivates us to share our stories, weighing the risks and rewards of writing memoir, writing as a healing practice, Martha's Vineyard as Memoir Muse, and more. 

Come with all your memoir writing questions!

October 4, 2023

4:00-5:00pm

MV Museum

links for tickets below

Book sales by Bunch of Grapes Bookstore

“A Smoke and a Song is a winning book! Sherry Sidoti’s prose is absolutely gorgeous—lyrical and tender, moody and insightful, mystical and relatable. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. A memoir told with such nuanced self-awareness; you’ll find yourself needing to put the book down at moments just to pause, take in her reflections, and make meaning of your own story through hers.”

—Nancy Slonim Aronie, author of Writing from the Heart and Memoir as Medicine

Womencrafts, Provincetown, MA

Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Vineyard Haven, MA