Upcoming events, literary news, workshops, and more
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#1 Deadline for Lit Fest Proposals
July 15 is the deadline for proposals for "Everything Everywhere All At Once," our night of events happening all around on the state on Saturday, October, 5th. If you have a fun, unusual, and/or commuity-centric idea for an event, please send it our way.
As part of our Pitch Conference on September 21, Leah Pierre, an agent at Ladderbird Literary Agency, will lead a workshop for those who need help revising their queries.
Do you have a query but need help revising? How is your query different from your synopsis? Does your pitch land, but need help with clarity, arc, and poignancy? Leah Pierre can provide query feedback for agent readability, and help pitch the piece you’re marketing – not writing. This workshop is open to the first 8 registrants.
The Maine Postmark Poetry Contest seeks previously unpublished poems sent through the postal service with a Maine postmark no later than August 1, 2024. The Belfast Poetry Festival committee will screen entries and forward ten finalists to this year’s judge, poet and recent Portsmouth, NH Poet Laureate Diannely Antigua, who will choose first, second, and third place winners. First-place winner will receive a $100 cash prize. The winner and finalists will be invited to read their poem and be honored at this fall’s Belfast Poetry Festival.
This and other Maine-based calls for submissions are also listed under Member Resources if you log into your membership account.
Ray Marcotte, the “Reference & Technology Librarian” at the Windham Public Library, is seeking interested writers for an Author Talk. All genres (both fiction and non-fiction) are welcome. They can pay $75 for the talk. If interested, please send an email to rmarcotte@windhammaine.us.
Ellen Baker's novel The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson was recently listed on Bookbub's list of the 30 most wish-listed books of 2024 so far. INFO
Delvyn C. Case, Jr.'s play Graduation was produced by the Crowbait Club in Portland in July and The Ghost was produced at The Playground Experiment in New York City in July.
Diana Coleman's "Readers Write-Uniforms" entry was published in The Sun, June 2024 issue. INFO
Joy Krinsky's essay "In One Box" appears in the current issue of Epistemic Literary. INFO
Carlos Perez's screenplay "The Decision" won First Place in the feature category of Canada's Yes! Let's Make A Movie Film Festival. Hollywood Just4Shorts Screenplay Competiton selected Perez's short screenplay, "A Fine Day Out" as Winner in the Best Screenplay category.
Frank O. Smith wrote about Jennifer Lunden’s nonfiction book, American Breakdown for the Maine Sunday Telegram. He writes, “A gripping and hopeful read, “American Breakdown” is a vital addition to the literature on health.” INFO
Megan Williams’s forthcoming memoir One Bad Mother: One Mother’s Search for Meaning in the Police Academy (Sibylline Press, September 2024) was a finalist in the Pacific Book Awards 2024 Best Memoir Contest.
Monica Wood and Lily King will read and share their work at the Stone Mountain Arts Center for the Annual Evening with Maine Authors to benefit Camp Susan Curtis on August 9th. There will be a cocktail hour, dinner, reflections on the camp, followed by the authors.All proceeds from the event will benefit Camp Susan Curtis, a non-profit organization that provides a free 10-day overnight summer camp experience to Maine children facing economic hardship. INFO
+MORE PITCH--6 agents have filled up and have waiting lists and 4 agents and one editor still have space available!
“All novels have clocks built into them — the time in which the story unfolds, be that in the form of generations, the duration of a single day, the span of a season, a pregnancy, a journey, a homecoming or reunion. It was the writer Sabina Murray, a master of fictional time, who shifted my attention to clocks during two weeks we spent teaching in Mexico. In Murray’s latest novel, The Human Zoo, the clock is the narrator’s return to the Philippines for research, during which other clocks are set in motion: the repeating time of family meals, the disruptive time of tragedy, the hazy time of an affair. Around the time I read Murray’s novel, I started thinking about a book that would be comprised of different clocks running at different speeds.”–Ayeşgül Savaş
A Prose & Poetry Workshop Half Full Saturday, July 27 | 11 AM to 4 PM | USM in Portland
You want to have as many tools as possible, when you start to write that story/novel! During the first part of this intensive, we will read variant short fiction or portions of short fiction and a one-act play that successfully use many tools of the poet, from writers Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Tim O'Brien, Harold Pinter, James Joyce, Gabriel García Márquez, Amy Hempel, and Kathy Fish. We'll then discuss what poetry tools these writers are using.
The second part will be to begin a first draft, utilizing the poetry tools, as well as, of course, tools of fiction. You'll have the chance to read your drafts out loud, and we'll have the chance to respond. New rich work for all!..MORE
Estha Weiner's newest poetry collection is This Insubstantial Pageant, (Broadstone Books, 2022). Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including The New Republic and Barrow Street. Estha is founding director of Sarah Lawrence College NY Alumni Writers Nights. She is a professor at City College of N.Y. Dept. of English and Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute, and serves or has served on the Poetry/Writing faculties of The Frost Place, Hudson Valley Writers Center, Stone Coast Writers Conference, Poets and Writers, Poets House, and The Writers Voice. She also serves on the Advisory Committee of Slapering Hol Press, Hudson Valley Writers Center. In her previous life she was an actor and worked for BBC Radio.
A Poetry and Publishing Workshop 1 Space Left! Instructor: Lauren Saxon Dates & Times: Wednesdays, August 14 and 21 | 6 to 9 PM Location: USM in Portland and Online
A Poetry Workshop Half Full Instructor: Sidney Wade Dates & Times: Saturday, August 24 | 1 to 4 PM Location: Gilsland Farm, Maine Audubon
TONIGHT at 6PM Chelsea Diehl will talk about her travelogue Just Up The Road at Belleflower Brewing Company in Portland. Tickets Required. INFO
TONIGHT at 6:30 PM Lily King and Laura McNeal will be in conversation for Laura's new novel The Swan's Nest at Left Bank Books in downtown Belfast. The event will be held at The First Church of Belfast. INFO
FRIDAY, JULY 12 from 11 AM to 1 PM Children's author Chris Van Dusen signs books at Left Bank Books in downtown Belfast. INFO
SATURDAY, JULY 13, from 1PM to 3PM Kathy Eliscu will be signing copies of Brain Tumor: A Love Story at Sherman’s Bookstore, 49 Exchange Street, Portland. INFO
SATURDAY, JULY 13 at 2PM SICK Magazine launches its sixth issue featuring a reading and performance from Dead Gowns, Catriona Morton, & Emerson Whitney at Greene Block + Studios in Waterville. INFO
SATURDAY, JULY 13 at 1 PM The Bailey Public Library in Winthrop presents An Open Mic Poetry Reading. The Bookey Readings at the Bailey welcome poets to come and read their work in a fun, open mic session for all. Bring the best of your best for a 7-10 minute per-poet read.
SATURDAY, JULY 13 from 7 AM to 4 PM Philip Baker will have copies of Hunger Hill for signing and sale at the Moxie Festival in Lisbon Falls.
SUNDAY, JULY 14 at 11:30 AM Editorial Consultant Mark Chimsky will be giving a free talk on "What Everyone Needs to Know About Getting Published" at Brickyard Hollow in Portland. The one hour presentation will be followed by a half-hour Q&A. Mark is a publishing professional who headed imprints at a number of major publishing companies and edited bestsellers.
SUNDAY, JULY 14 AT 1PM Scot Lehigh will sign copies of his book Just East of Nowhere at the South Portland Barns & Noble in South Portland. INFO
MONDAY, JULY 15 at 6 PM Mockingbird Books in Bath hosts Maine novelist Lily King and her friend Laura McNeal to talk about her book, The Swan's Nest, which is based on the story of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. INFO
TUESDAY, JULY 16 at 6:30 PM Sam Sifton and A.O. (Tony) Scott in conversation, "The Craft of Cooking and the Art of Criticism," at Left Bank Books in downtown Belfast. *Event will be held at The First Church of Belfast. INFO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17 at 10:30 AM Author Jennifer Comeau and Illustrator Suzi Linden will read from their children's book The Inside of ME at Denmark Public Library in Denmark. INFO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17 at 7 PMMWPA, PRINT: A Bookstore, and SPACE co-host a launch for Bill Roorbach’s new novel Beep at SPACE in Portland. Novelist Kate Christensen says, "Wildly beautiful, funny, moving, entrancing, and hopeful, this is a story for our times, a ray of warm and generous light, a stern warning, a triumph of storytelling." Tickets $5 or $32 with a copy of the book. INFO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17 at 6PM Chelsea Diehl will talk about her travelogue Just Up the Road at the Windham Public Library in Windham.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17 from 4 to 6 PM Hilary Bartlett will be hosting a book launch of Mushroom Mania at Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library. WEDNESDAY, JULY 17 at 5:30 PM As part of Ruth Moore Days, The Bass Harbor Library in Bernard hosts the Second Annual Ruth Moore Invitational Poetry Slam with Guest MC Gary Lawless. All interested writers are invited to read poetry or passages by Ruth Moore, or write and share their own poems and stories. For more information, or to sign up to present your work, please contact bob.delsandro@bassharborlibrary.com.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17 at 5 PM Ellen Baker will discuss her novel The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson at the Bristol Area Library in Bristol. THURSDAY, JULY 18 at 7 PM Maine Crime Writers Kate Flora, Maureen Milliken and Jule Selbo will CREATE A MYSTERY and talk about the writing process and their books at Vinalhaven Library. INFO
THURSDAY, JULY 18 at 4 PM Mary Morton Cowan will present a program featuring her book, Trouble in Nathan’s Woods, at Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library in Lovell. INFO
THURSDAY, JULY 18 at 7 PM PM Print: A Bookstore hosts Ben Shattuck to discuss his collection of interconnected stories set in New England, The History of Sound, with Morgan Talty. INFO FRIDAY, JULY 19 from 1PM to 3PM Kathy Eliscu will be signing copies of Brain Tumor: A Love Story at the Yarmouth Clam Festival, at the Maine Authors Publishing tent. INFO
FRIDAY, JULY 19 at 5:30PM Martha Tod Dudman will sign and discuss her book Sunrise and the Real World at Anodyne Bookshop in Searsport. INFO
FRIDAY, JULY 19 at 5:30 PM As part of Ruth Moore Days, the Bass Harbor Library in Bernard hosts Dean Lunt, editor-in-chief of Maine-based publishing company lslandport Press, to speak on lslandport's commitment to reissuing select Ruth Moore works and the unique challenges of marketing and selling mid-century novels to the modern reader.
SATURDAY, JULY 20 at 5:30 PM As part of Ruth Moore Days, the Bass Harbor Library in Bernard hosts Dennis Damon, friends, and all welcomed participants share their favorite writings and stories of our favorite Maine writer from the village of Gotts Island. Afterward, they'll conclude the evening with another spectacular Ruth Moore-themed birthday cake baked by Board Member, Kathie Pratt.
SATURDAY, JULY 20 from 10 AM to 1 PM Mary Morton Cowan will be autographing copies of her book, Trouble in Nathan’s Woods, in the Maine Authors Publishing booth at the Yarmouth Clam Festival.
SATURDAY, JULY 20 at 1 PM Philip Baker will be signing copies of his novel Hunger Hill, Maine Public's Book Club selection for August, at Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shop in Freeport.
SATURDAY, JULY 20 at 1 – 3 PM Hilary Bartlett will be signing copies of her new book Mushroom Mania at Sherman’s Bookstore in Boothbay Harbor.
SATURDAY, JULY 20 at 1:30 PM Storyteller Jo Radner brings Wit and Wisdom to Hiram Historical Society. Her new book brings out a forgotten New England tradition of gathering to display knowledge, opinion and humor – what rural folks of all ages did on cold winter Saturday nights before Tik Tok.
SATURDAY, JULY 20 at 7 PM Print: A Bookstore hosts three writers to talk about their new novels, Rufi Thorpe, Clare Beams, and Tessa Fontaine, with novelist Annie Hartnett. These four writers are part of a writing group called The Finishers. They meet every two weeks for creative camaraderie and support (no workshopping). They have made a pact that if any of them dies before their time, the others will finish the book the deceased was working on, hence, the Finishers. INFO MONDAY, JULY 22 at 6PM Tamra Wight will sign copies of her Cooper & Packrat series at the Windham Public Library in Windham. INFOTUESDAY, JULY 23 at 5 PM The Authors Guild Foundation returns to the Midcoast for the the Pascal Hall Authors Series in partnership with the Lesher Family Foundation and Maine Media Workshops + College. This edition features Andrew Sean Greer in conversation with Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman. Seating is limited, and registration is required (and free) at the link. INFO
TUESDAY, JULY 23 at 5 PM The Millay House in Rockland hosts a reading, reception, and book signing with Mark Doty, distinguished poet and essayist alongside poet Bruce Willard at the CMCA. Doty is the first guest in the Millay House Writer-in-Residence series and served as a judge for the first residency competition and seleted the poet Melissa McKinstry. The event is free and open but space is limited so please register. REGISTER TUESDAY, JULY 23 at 6 PM The Gardiner Public Library will host a reading and discussion of Douglas Rooks' Calm Command: U.S. Chief Justice Melville Fuller in His Times, 1888-1910, detailing the life and career of Maine's most important judge, a neglected figure despite his prominence and the turbulent times through which he steered the court. Historian Paul Mills calls it "a great book." INFO
TUESDAY, JULY 23 at 6:15PM Celebrate the paperback release of Chasing Shadows - Unravelling the Mysteries of the Great White Shark with science writer and Rockland-based author Ret Talbot at Longfellow Books. INFO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 at 7 PM The Blue Raven Gallery in Rockland continues their new Poetry Series featuring Jennifer Grotz and Samaa Abdurraqib. Grotz is the author of four books and the Director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences, and teaches at the University of Rochester. Abdurraqib is the editor of From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Maine Humanities Council. INFO + RSVP
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 at 7 PM Print: A Bookstore hosts novelist J. Courtney Sullivan to talk about her new book The Cliffs with Rebecca Traister at Mechanics’ Hall. INFO WEDNESDAY JULY 24 at 10:30 AM Jennifer Comeau will lead children's activities in support of her book, The Inside of ME at Graves Memorial Library in Kennebunkport. INFO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 at 4PM Cynthia Thayer will sign and read from her book We're Going Home at Hancock Point Library in Hancock. INFO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 at 6:30PM Scot Lehigh will talk about his book Just East of Nowhere at the C M Bailey Library in Winthrop. INFO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 at 6:30 PM The Bailey Library in downtown Winthrop will host columnist and author Scot Lehigh to discuss his debut novel Just East of Nowhere, a coming-of-age story about growing up in coastal Maine published by Islandport Press.
WEDNESDAY, July 24 AT 1:30 PM Mary Morton Cowan will present a program, “Logging in Maine,” at Coastal Landing Retirement Community in Brunswick.WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 AT 6 PM LeCain Smith will read from his series of children's books The Amazing Adventures of the Sea Cat Chowder at the Brooksville Free Public Library in Brooksville.
SATURDAY, JULY 27 AT 1 PM “Poetry in the Friary,” at St. Anthony Franciscan Monastery, 28 Beach Ave., Kennebunk. Hear Julia Bouwsma, Maine’s sixth Poet Laureate; Mihku Paul, Wolastoqey poet and visual artist, Stonecoast graduate and 2022 Maine Lit Fest Fellow; Jefferson Navicky, author of four books of poetry, won 2022 Maine Literary Award for poetry; Sandra Regan, poet author, MWA artist; Joao R. Victor, winner of 2019 Maine Poetry Out Loud. Free admission.
SATURDAY, JULY 27 at 1 PM Cathie Pelletier will read and sign books at the 2024 Summer Reading Series for the Freedom Community Historical Society in Freedom.
SUNDAY, JULY 28 at 4PM Ron Joseph will sign copies and talk about his book Bald Eagles, Bear Cubs, and Hermit Bill at Bell Hill Meeting House in Otisfield.
TUESDAY, JULY 30 at 6 PM Left Bank Books in downtown Belfast hosts Poet Richard Blanco reading from his collected works at The First Church of Belfast. INFO
TUESDAY, JULY 30 at 7 PM Print: A Bookstore in Portland hosts Karla Cornejo Villavicencio to discuss her debut novel, Catalina. Villavicencio is the author of the National Book Award finalist The Undocumented Americans and her work, which focuses on race, culture, and immigration, has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vogue, Elle, etc. INFO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 at 5:30 PM Deborah Spark reads and talks about her new novel Discipline at the Northeast Harbor Library.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 at 7 PM PRINT: A BOOKSTORE hosts the launch of Jessica Anthony’s new novella, The Most. Anthony will be in conversation with writer and novelist Sarah Braunstein, who just published Bad Animals.
THURSDAY, AUG 1 at 6:30 PM Cathie Pelletier will read and sign books at the Gray Public Library in Gray.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 at 6 PM Ryan Brod will read from his book Tributaries: Essays from Woods and Waters at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, in conjunction with their new exhibit Upta Camp. INFO
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 at 7PM Deborah Spark reads and talks about her new novel Discipline at the Blue Hill Public Library.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 at 7PM Join Local Author Lynne Spriggs at Print: A Bookstore in Portland to celebrate the release of her new memoir Elk Love with Rebekah Lowell. INFO
As much as I love a good literary conversation piece, count me a little bit skeptical about the New York Times' list of 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. The full list is still being announced, and there are many great books there already, some I've read and some I'd like to read. Skeptical or not as I am about the project, reader, you know I'll peruse the list.
But I'm actually much more interested in the big bunch of writers who agreed to have their lists of their top ten books (of the 21st Century) publicly listed. Such lists are like literary fingerprints--they tell us who loves which books; they give us a snapshot of writers' literary tastes at this moment. There are a number of writers connected to Maine among those here, including Stephen King, Elizabeth Hand, Anthony Doerr, Jonathan Lethem, Roxana Robinson, and Douglas Preston, but I'm equally intrigued to see the lists of Roxanne Gay, Min Jin Lee, Nana Kwame Adjei‑Brenyah, and Paul Tremblay here. (That's Min Jin Lee's list in the photo above.)
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