Maine Humanities Council

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 [ 12:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3430)

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 [ 14:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2691)

Hannah Holmes reading [ 10:15 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (251)

Meeting of the Apes [ 23:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (260)

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 [ 48:38 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4244)

This episode is the continuation of the Stonecoast MFA Faculty “flash reading” from the winter residency in January 2009, in which each writer gets three minutes in which to share his or her work before introducing the next writer in the queue.

The first reader is Richard Hoffman, who writes in multiple genres and here shares both a short short, “Phototaxis,” and two poems, “A Good While” and “Watching.” Fantasy fiction writer Nancy Holder reads a short story about the character Zorro, and Charles Martin reads his poem “Poison.” April Ossman closed the reading with two poems, “Whose Fragile Lips” and “The Name of the Mold,” from her collection Anxious Music.

Richard Hoffman [ 4:25 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2749)

Nancy Holder [ 7:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (284)

Charles Martin [ 7:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (294)

April Ossman [ 3:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (322)

One of the highlights of each 10-day residency in the Stonecoast MFA program is the “flash reading” by faculty members. Each writer gets three minutes in which to share his or her work before introducing the next writer in the queue.

The flash reading from the winter residency in January 2009 began with Jaed Coffin reading an excerpt from his memoir, A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants. The next reader was David Durham, who read from his forthcoming novel The Other Land. Annie Finch shared one poem from her collection Calendars, and another from her new manuscript, American Witch. Poet Jeffrey Harrison read “Ivan Ilyich at the Lake” and “Shaking Off the Snow.” This reading continues in the next episode of the podcast.

Jaed Coffin [ 4:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2765)

David Durham [ 4:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (287)

Annie Finch [ 5:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (352)

Jeffrey Harrison [ 4:03 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (298)

Colin Sargent is a playwright and author of three books of poetry. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he earned a Stonecoast MFA in creative writing and was awarded the Maine individual artist fellowship in literature. His screenplay “Montebello Ice” is under option at Gideon Films. Sargent is founding editor and publisher of award-winning Portland Magazine, as well as a board member of the literacy organization Maine Reads. As a guest reader for the Stonecoast program, he read from his first novel, Museum of Human Beings. Stonecoast alumnus and faculty member Jaed Coffin introduced the reading.

This reading took place in Freeport, Maine, during the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January, 2009. Stonecoast is the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine. We welcome your feedback on the reading.

Colin Sargent [ 36:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4273)