Maine Humanities Council

Denise Pendleton, Maine Humanities Council’s Program Director of Born To Read and poet, sat down at the Belfast Free Library with two of Maine’s best-known poets, Elizabeth Garber and Dawn Potter. In addition to reading from their memoirs, the poets spoke about why they turned to prose and how their poetry background has influenced their current writing. Elizabeth W. Garber is the author of two collections of poetry and is currently writing a memoir, The Architect’s Daughter, about growing up in a modern glass house in the 1960’s. Her chapter “Stones” won the Maine Writer’s and Publishers Alliance 2009 Literary Award for unpublished Non-Fiction.  She was voted 2009 Best Writer in Waldo County in a Reader’s Poll conducted by The Village Soup/Republican Journal. Dawn Potter is the author of two collections of poetry and, most recently, a memoir, Tracing Paradise: Two Years in Harmony with John Milton. It recounts her project of copying out every word of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost while living an everyday life in the central Maine town of Harmony. According to writer Sam Pickering “Potter writes beautifully. . . . [Her book] made me ponder my life as well as literature, as a good book should but few books do.”

 

 Poets Writing Memoir: A Conversation with Elizabeth Garber and Dawn Potter [78:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1086)

For the kick-off of the new season of the Portland Public Library’s brown-bag lunch series, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Richard Russo, came back to Portland to read from his new novel That Old Cape Magic. Despite being a Yankees fan, Russo lives in Coastal Maine. Here, Russo reads a colorful chapter of his newly released and critically acclaimed novel.

This talk was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series. We welcome your feedback on this Richard Russo podcast.

 

 Richard Russo [35:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1284)

Moderated by the publisher of Warren Machine Company, Ari Meil, this event was a discussion of why Maine provides such rich inspiration for writers, and what has brought the writers Lewis Robinson, Andrew McNabb, and Lisa Carey to their respective places in the literary world today. Lisa Carey is the author of Every Visible Thing, The Mermaids Singing, In the Country of the Young, and Love in the Asylum. She lived in Ireland for five years and now resides in Portland. Andrew McNabb (pictured at right), author of The Body of This, lives in Portland with his wife and four young children. His short stories have appeared in a range of literary venues including The Missouri Review and Not Safe, But Good: Best Christian Short Stories, 2007. He is currently at work on a memoir and treatise to his children. Lewis Robinson is the author of the novel Water Dogs and the story collection Officer Friendly. He lives in Portland and teaches in the Stonecoast MFA program.

This panel discussion took place at the Maine Festival of the Book, sponsored by Maine Reads, on April 4, 2009.

 

 Panel Discussion [53:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (773)

School librarian Connie Burns of South Portland is a steadfast supporter of the Maine Student Book Award program. Here, she presents the winning book from the 2006-07 school year: Rules (Scholastic, 2006) by Maine’s own Cynthia Lord. Part of the first chapter from the audiobook, performed by Jessica Almasy and published by Recorded Books, is excerpted here. Connie Burns introduces the excerpt, then previews the rest of the story and explains how you can get involved with the Maine Student Book Awards.

The audiobook excerpt is included with permission from Recorded Books. You can find the full audiobook at your library. We welcome your feedback on this book talk.

 

 A Librarian's Introduction to Rules [12:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (339)

In this three-part episode, two particularly quick-witted and talkative apes, Hannah Holmes (The Well-Dressed Ape) and Bill Roorbach (Temple Stream), address their collisions with the rest of the natural world. Roorbach’s recent work has taken him into the woods and fields behind his own house, a primitive but not always private domain. Holmes has turned inward, primarily, to consider the fundamental animalness of this ape we so often mistake for something extraordinary. Here, they each share their own work before turning their practiced analytical eyes on one another.

This conversation between Hannah Holmes and Bill Roorbach took place at the Maine Festival of the Book, sponsored by Maine Reads, on April 4, 2009.

 

 Bill Roorbach reading [14:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (218)

 

 Hannah Holmes reading [10:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (107)

 

 Meeting of the Apes [23:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (104)

Thin Blue Lines is a project of Portland’s Arts & Equity Initiative. The project brings local poets and photographers together with Portland police officers and detectives to create poems and photographs that increase the public’s knowledge and appreciation of police work. The first product of this collaboration was a calendar that was sold as a fundraiser for the family of Sgt. Rob Johnsey, who died of an accidental gun discharge in May of 2008.

This recording is from a reading that the participants—poets and police officer-poets—gave at the Portland Public Library. To learn more about this project, or to obtain a copy of the 2009 calendar, please visit Arts & Equity online.

 

 Thin Blue Lines [48:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (378)