Upcoming events, literary news, workshops, and more
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#1 Guide to Literary Professionals + Guide to Writing Groups
Did you now that we maintain both a Guide to Literary Professionals and a Guide to Writing Groups? The former includes many professionals who hire themselves out as editors, designers, photographers, and more; the latter includes writers groups around the state, sorted by county. Both are available as resources to you by logging into your member account.
If you are a literary professional and would like to add a listing or edit your existing listing, please email us at info@mainewriters.org.
If you are part of a writing group and would like to add a listing or edit your existing listing, please email us at info@mainewriters.org. If you're hoping to start a writing group, please email us a short description of the group, and we will add that as a listing.
The Maine Mountain Ponds Project and the Maine Mountain Collaborative has launched a new interactive map and podcast series about the science, scientists, and conservation surrounding Maine’s high-elevation mountain ponds. High Water: Stories from Maine’s Mountain Ponds is a four-episode podcast series that delves into the environmental stories that these lakes record and the people who have been dedicated to monitoring them for over 40 years. Maine mountain ponds are ecological and recreational hotspots, yet half of these lakes are not within conserved watersheds and protecting them is an emerging conservation priority.
#3 t love smith on Developing a More Embodied Voice
This week we continue our series of brief interviews with 2026 Maine Literary Award winners with t love smith, who won the MLA for Short Works Poetry for their poem "from the barrens."
smith says, "When I first started writing poetry it was for the stage. I started as a slam poet and competed in local, regional and national poetry slams through Poetry Slam Inc., a national poetry slam organization that curated most of the national slams. Academic study and practice of technical poetics has helped me learn how to say more with less words. I believe my voice has developed into one that is more embodied, clear and confident."
+ Agents Who Are Full/Waitling List Only: Nicole Cunningham, Christopher Combemale, Zoe-Aline Howard, Lauren Liebow, Phoebe Rhinehart, & Madeline Ticknor
+ Agents & Editors with Limited Space Available: Amanda Annis, KJ Grow, Ali Lake, Marin Takikawa, & Mackenzie Williams
"[Writers who get blocked] seem to believe you have to know what you’re going to write—that there’s some unique and beautiful idea that just needs to be transferred from your brain to the page. People think they have to write something that nobody ever thought of, but you can write about ordinary stuff. If you start with a rule and then break the rule, it’s possible to surprise yourself. I like that the rule is there for me to mess with. You can take a text, do something to it, do something else to it, like Jasper Johns painting the flag. This is something I talk about with my creative writing students—you can transform something that already exists.” —Harryette Mullen
Wednesday, July 22 | 6 to 9 PM | Mechanics' Hall, Portland
So you have a first draft. Congratulations! But...now what? Revision can seem like a daunting process. In this one-day intensive workshop we will demystify the work of revision, focusing on: making broad structural changes, integrating feedback, deepening character development, and granular sentence-level polishing. Through exercises, mentor texts, and craft discussions we will collaborate to make your draft shine for publication. This one-day workshop is suited to writers of all levels looking to get a fresh perspective on an existing draft...MORE
Kay Amato has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts in Teaching from The University of Pittsburgh. They live in Maine with their wife, one dog, two cats, and far too many houseplants. Kay has taught high school English, middle school health, and elementary school everything. Kay was born in Florida and lived in twelve different houses before they turned eighteen. Kay's work has been supported by We Need Diverse Books, Porter Square Books, Macondo, VCFA, and the Warren Memorial Foundation. When they’re not writing or reading, Kay can be found running slowly, hiking quickly, pulling weeds in their garden, or cooking recipes from their enormous cookbook collection. You can read Kay's thoughts on books, writing and running on their newsletter Tourist Season.
Instructor: Nour Sallam Dates: Monday, August 24 | 6 to 9 PM Location: Online
TONIGHTat 7 PM Cassandra Neyenesch and Jessica Berger Gross discuss Neyenesch’s debut novel, A Little Bit Bad, at Left Bank Books in downtown Belfast.
TONIGHT at 5:30 PM Friends of Acadia hosts Catherine Schmitt talking about her new book Trees of Acadia with Pints for a Purpose at Terramor Outdoor Resort in Bar Harbor. INFO
TONIGHT at 7 PM Freeport Speech hosts two celebrated authors and master storytellers, Jennifer Finney Boylan and Ernest Thompson, for a conversation about the ways Maine has shaped their lives and stories. Boylan is a best-selling memoirist (She's Not There) and novelist (Mad Honey, co-authored with Jodi Picoult). Thompson is an Academy Award winner (On Golden Pond), and his latest book is a thriller, Out Clause. The event will be held at the Kresge Auditorium at Bowdoin College, and ticket sales benefit the MWPA.INFO
SATURDAY, JULY 18 at 3 PM Jeri Theriault and Phil Carlson will bring poetry and music to Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization, 92 Congress St, Portland.
SATURDAY, JULY 18, 6-8 PM, The Belfast Poetry Festival hosts an intimate outdoor concert featuring acclaimed singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke. Bring your own summertime picnic (tents, tables and chairs will be set up), and enjoy on-site specialty beverages and delicious dessert bites in a sweet garden setting steps from Penobscot Bay. Tickets
MONDAY, JULY 20 at 5:30 PM The Auburn Public Library hosts two local authors and friends, Jennifer Braunfels and Jen Dupree, for one author talk! Jennifer Braunfels will be discussing her new novel Everything You Love Ends Up in a Yard Sale which explores love, loss, and the art of starting over. In the same evening, Jen Dupree will be discussing her new memoir, Slow Motion, a heartfelt homage to a life-changing friendship with Marcel, a man with cerebral palsy. INFO
TUESDAY, JULY 21 at 7 PM Tomás Q. Morín presents Cat Love with Jessica Anthony at Print: A Bookstore, in Portland. A contemporary dystopian elegy narrated by a cat imprisoned in a Schrödinger’s box, by the prizing-winning poet and memoirist whose writing "cuts to the core with electrifying force." INFO
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22 at 7 PM Marilyn Moss Rockefeller and Susan Conley celebrate the launch of Marilyn’s new collection of essays, Time is the Substance, at Left Bank Books in downtown Belfast.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22 at 7 PM Blue Raven Gallery in Rockport opens its summer poetry series with David Baker, author of twelve collections of poetry and longtime editor of The Kenyon Review, and Page Hill Starzinger, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review. RSVP
THURSDAY JULY 23 at 5:30 PM Margie Patlak will give a PowerPoint presentation on her new book Insect Safari: Exploring the Wondrous World of Everyday Bugs at the Jesup Library in Bar Harbor. INFO
THURSDAY, JULY 23 at 7 PM Matthew Quick presents Dad, Love, Me with Ron Currie at Print in Portland. Written in the form of a letter to his ailing father, this debut memoir from the bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook explores the complicated burden of caring for an abusive parent who is dying—this is Matthew Quick’s most personal and potent work to date. INFO
SATURDAY, JULY 25th at 3 PM Alice Hotopp, author of Atlas of Kinship, will join poet and artist Leslie Moore for an afternoon of art, poetry and bird talk at Local Color Gallery, 135 High St, Belfast.
SATURDAY, JULY 25, 11 AM to 1 PM Rylan Hynes will be signing copies of Grafting at Letterpress Books & Gifts in Portland.
MONDAY, JULY 27 at 6 PM Chelsea K. Madeline presents In Her Own Right at Print: A Bookstore (273 Congress St., Portland), a lyrical reckoning with the myths, silences, and inherited stories that shape women’s creative lives. INFO
MONDAY, JULY 27 at 6 PM Please join the Maine Humanities Council, Maine State Library, and MWPA for an online conversation featuring author Lewis Robinson for the Read ME project. His novel The Islanders is also one of the titles representing Maine at the Library of Congress' National Book Festival in 2026. Robinson will read passages from his book, reflect on his writing, and answer questions from participating libraries and readers across the state. INFO
TUESDAY, JULY 28 at 7 PM Julia Cooke discusses her new book, Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing, and the World, at Left Bank Books in downtown Belfast.
THURSDAY, JULY 3 at 4 PM Woody Hanstein will be one of the writers featured at the Wiscassett Art Walk. Catch up with him at Fiction: A Novel Bookstore, 49 Water St, Wiscassett.
THURSDAY, JULY 30 at 6:30 PM Join Maine writers Lewis Robinson, CB Anderson, and Cynthia Reeves, with special guest William Torrey, Millay House Rockland's Writer-in-Residence, for the panel "What Is a Novella?: Writers on Fiction's Most Elusive Form" in-person at The Arctic Tern Sanctuary, Rockland or virtually. INFO + REGISTRATION
Save the Date: TUESDAY, AUGUST 4 at 6 PM Please join Johanna Franzel, MWPA, and PRINT: A Bookstore for a joyful celebration of the launch of Write Yourself Home at Broadturn Farm in Scarborough. The evening will include a conversation with award-winning and bestselling author Susan Conley, as well as snacks, and fun surprises. For those who want to stay, a dance party will round out the night! INFO + RSVP
Save the Date: TUESDAY, AUGUST 18 at 6 PM Please join Mechanics’ Hall, MWPA, and PRINT: A Bookstore for a celebration of the launch of Threshold: A Memoir of Crossing Through the Terrain of Loss by poet and writer Deborah Cummins. Award-winning poet Andrea Hollander calls the memoir “…unputdownable and unforgettable.” The evening will include readings from the book and conversations with writers and friends who knew Deborah well, including Chelsea Conaboy, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc and Sandell Morse. INFO + RSVP
Marpheen's essay is of course about the horrific killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a young father and husband, who was here in this country from Columbia, working legally and starting his Monday morning in Biddeford. Is this what safety really looks like?
MWPA is a member of and stands with the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition (MIRC) and the many other members of this coalition and the statement they released, which includes a link to a fundraiser for Mr. Guerrero's family.
MIRC also recently launched LighthouseME, a resource hub that is described as "A lighthouse for immigrant experiences in Maine —and for the neighbors who stand with them."
+ Agents Who Are Full/Waitling List Only: Nicole Cunningham, Christopher Combemale, Zoe-Aline Howard, Lauren Liebow, Phoebe Rhinehart, & Madeline Ticknor
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