Maine Humanities Council

Michael Steinberg is a memoirist and the founding editor of the award-winning literary journal Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction. His latest book, Still Pitching, was chosen by ForeWord Magazine as the 2003 Small and Independent Press memoir/autobiography of the year. Other books include Peninsula: Essays and Memoirs from Michigan, The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers Of/On Creative Nonfiction (now in its third edition), and Those Who Do, Can: Teachers Writing, Writers Teaching (the latter two with Robert Root). Steinberg is the recipient of The Missouri Review Editor’s Prize, a Roberts Writing Award, the Harness Race Writers of America award for feature writing, and a Writer’s Voice Residency/Fellowship. His essays and memoirs have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and have been cited several times in Best American Essays and Best American Sports Writing.

This reading took place in Freeport, Maine, during the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January, 2009.

Standard Podcast [ 42:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4147)

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas was nineteen when her father took his family to live among the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Fifty years later, after a life of writing and study, Thomas returns to her experiences in The Old Way: A Story of the First People. She recalls life with the Bushmen, one of the last hunter-gatherer societies on earth, and discovers among them an essential link to the origins of all human society. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas is the author of many books, including The Hidden Life of Dogs. She lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care. We welcome your feedback on this Elizabeth Marshall Thomas podcast.

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas [ 52:10 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4386)

Six years ago, at the age of twenty-one, Jaed Muncharoen Coffin left New England’s privileged Middlebury College to be ordained as a Buddhist monk in his mother’s native village of Panomsarakram—thus fulfilling a familial obligation. Part armchair travel, part coming-of-age story, his debut book A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants (Da Capo Press, 2009) chronicles his time at the temple. Jaed Coffin holds a B.A. in philosophy from Middlebury College and an M.F.A. from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast Writing Program. A boxer, sea-kayaker, and lobster fisherman, he lives in Brunswick, Maine. In this recording, he is introduced by Shonna Milliken Humphrey, Executive Director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care. We welcome your feedback on this Jaed Coffin podcast.

Jaed Coffin [ 55:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (643)

Meredith Hall graduated from Bowdoin College at age forty-four and wrote her first piece, “Killing Chickens,” in 2002. Two years later, she won the $50,000 Gift of Freedom Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation. Her other honors include a Pushcart Prize and “notable essay” recognition in Best American Essays; she was also a finalist for the Rona Jaffe Award. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, the Southern Review, Five Points, Prairie Schooner, and several anthologies. She teaches writing at the University of New Hampshire and lives in Pownal, Maine. Without A Map: A Memoir is her first book.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care. We welcome your feedback on this reading.

Meredith Hall [ 57:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (169)