Although I grew up on Cape Cod, I spent two years living in New York City when I graduated from college. I had a brandy new BFA in painting under my belt and stars in my eyes. My new boyfriend had a BFA in theater and stars in his eyes, too. I could tell you the city overwhelmed us, that I missed the wide open spaces of the beaches and the wildlife I’d grown up alongside, but to be honest, I was in love with t...

Maria Marelli, a local bartender, has worked on several shellfish farms and is looking to get on a commercial fishing vessel, so when a call came at 4 a.m. she picked up. But when the captain asked if she wanted to go out that day, she said no. She was attending the Fishermen Training program she had told him about. “Awesome,” was his response. Marelli told her story on a recent sunny Saturday at the Fis...

Author Joanne C. Parsons of Harwich has just won a 2021 Genre Fiction Award given by the Independent Publishers of New England for her novel “Predator in the House” (Bowker, 2020). With the novel, Parsons aims to raise awareness of the signs of child trafficking. “The book is especially timely during this pandemic with so many kids spending hours on social media, messaging apps, and playing online games,” she ...

If you grew up on Cape Cod, your mom or dad probably told you the same thing mine did whenever I got a scratch, cut, or bump at the beach. “Just go soak it in the water,” they said, “saltwater heals everything.” And so, we did, and they were right. Within minutes we forgot about our pain or itch and became firm believers in the same mantra. I’ve since read that this is not a true thing, that indeed saltwater d...

Sometimes the circumstances and timing of a theatrical performance work together to create something that speaks to an audience in a way that is uniquely suited to the moment. After a long wait due to the pandemic, “Once” at the Academy Playhouse speaks to audiences returning to live theater in just that way. “Once” opened on Nov. 27 to a sold out crowd, and with its combination of knockout musical talent and u...

Rev. Wesley Williams of Orleans, retired minister of the Orleans Methodist Church, doesn't look upon retirement as a time to just relax and watch the world go by. On the contrary, Rev. Williams serves as convener of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Action Team of the Nauset Interfaith Association, and he has recently been named as a new director on the 15-member board of directors of Outer Cape Health Services (OCHS)....

CHATHAM – Even though it's been 15 years since author Bernard Cornwell's last book featuring British rifleman Richard Sharpe, taking up the character's story again was as easy as slipping on a familiar and comfortable piece of clothing. “He's been in my head forever,” said Cornwell, a Chatham resident. His first Sharpe novel, “Sharpe's Eagle,” came out in 1981, “so I know him quite well.” “Sharpe's Assassin...

Author Amy Pershing, a summer resident of Orleans, has just released her second fun Cape Cod Foodie mystery, “An Eggnog to Die For” (Berkley, 2021). This follows on the heels of “A Side of Murder,” released last February. Local readers will delight in the town Pershing calls Fair Harbor — a reimagined Orleans with pieces of Chatham and Wellfleet mixed in, Pershing said in an email interview last week. “I...

Some of the best stories sometimes seem to be heading in one direction, and then, without warning, they spin and swoop you off into another direction with all the grace of a dancer on a gleaming dance floor. That's exactly what recently happened to one of our very own local storytellers, bestselling author Anne D. LeClaire, and it came close to sweeping her off her feet. LeClaire recently competed in the Common...

The Chatham Drama Guild has a first class winner on its hands in the form of its final production of the season, "Murder on the Orient Express." With a talented and seasoned cast that loves what it is doing and exceptionally creative staging, "Murder" is an engaging and entertaining mystery complete with drama, comedy and surprises. The show is also the Cape Cod premiere of a new adaptation by playwright Ken L...

HARWICH PORT — Here’s a fact that may surprise you: As of 2020, only 219 women had ever been elected to the Massachusetts House, as opposed to over 20,000 men. Kathleen Teahan, a Harwich Port resident for the past 13 years and one of those 219 women, has written a memoir, “For the People, Against the Tide: A Democratic Woman’s Ten Years in the Massachusetts Legislature” (2021). The book offers a fascinating in...

CHATHAM PORT —  Anyone who has visited the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center is acquainted with the groundbreaking work of Guglielmo Marconi in developing wireless service, particularly ship-to-shore communications. But when Marconi's radio station assets were purchased by RCA after World War I, what came next for Marconi is less well known. Paul Hawkins, the author of "Point to Point – A History of Internati...