Our History

In 2010, The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing opened its doors as a home for writers. The Institute was founded with the belief that writers need a supportive community to flourish—one based in compassion rather than competition. 

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The center of our offerings is our annual Summer Writers’ Conference, which began as a single week-long program. Over the past decade, our Summer Writers’ Conference has grown to become an internationally respected program that each year brings together writers from around the world.

 

As we enter our second decade, we continue to expand our impact as a Vineyard nonprofit and adapt to the needs of our ever-growing community.

 

In 2016, we launched our Summer Reading Series and Visiting Writers Program which provide free public readings and writing workshops to island residents and visitors.

 

As the coronavirus pandemic changed the landscape for writers, many in our community found themselves struggling financially, emotionally, physically, and artistically. In response, we partnered with The Oak Bluffs Public Library in 2020 to host a free week-long virtual Creative Writing and Literature Festival. In 2021, we transformed our annual conference into a fully immersive virtual program which safely brought together the voices and work of more than 400 writers from a wide array of educational and cultural backgrounds. 

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As for the future, we are continually looking at creating innovative programming as we expand our mission to help all writers.

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Our Fellowships

Since our founding, MVICW has provided over $300,000 in fellowships to support over 700+ writers from around the world. Our fellowship recipients are talented individuals who need the time and financial support to create the work they are capable of. As fellows, they receive full and partial fellowships to our Summer Writers’ Conference, where they take craft classes, meet other writers, and learn how to prepare their work for publication.

 

Our support begins during our conference, but continues well after our time together, when writers return to their own communities to build additional opportunities and support networks. As we’ve expanded our program, we continue to make financial support and diversity a central focus of our philanthropy.