Humanities on Demand

Was There a Troy and Why Does It Matter?

amedeiros — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:39:42 +0000

This year’s Winter Weekend selection, Homer’s The Iliad, translated by Robert Fagles, takes place over 51 days, somewhere in the 9th or 10th year of the Trojan War. Amid a huge cast of memorable characters—and a crew of scheming Olympians sublimely indifferent to human suffering — three warriors stand out: the godlike and self-absorbed Achilles, the Tony Soprano-like Agamemnon, and the doomed Hektor, tamer of horses.

Peter Aicher, professor of classics at the University of Southern Maine presented a lecture entitled “Was There a Troy and Why Does It Matter?.”

The Council’s annual Winter Weekend, a humanities seminar on a classic text, provides an opportunity for readers to confront, in a group setting, an important work of literature. Held at Bowdoin College in early March, the program begins with a Friday evening lecture and dinner (a gastronomic taste of the time and culture reflected in the chosen text). The group reconvenes Saturday on various aspects of the book, from cultural context, to critical analysis, to explorations of specific themes.

Winter Weekend 2012 took place March 9 and 10, 2012 at Bowdoin College.

Reading the Iliad in 2012

amedeiros — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:59:30 +0000

This year’s Winter Weekend selection, Homer’s The Iliad, translated by Robert Fagles, takes place over 51 days, somewhere in the 9th or 10th year of the Trojan War. Amid a huge cast of memorable characters—and a crew of scheming Olympians sublimely indifferent to human suffering—three warriors stand out: the godlike and self-absorbed Achilles, the Tony Soprano-like Agamemnon, and the doomed Hektor, tamer of horses.

Caroline Alexander, author of The War That Killed Achilles presented a lecture entitled “Reading the Iliad in 2012.”

What is the role of Margaret Chase Smith in Today’s American Politics?

amedeiros — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:34:34 +0000

In an encore performance, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine Farmington, Jim Melcher spoke to a class on the legacy of Senator Margaret Chase Smith.

This talk was originially performed at the September 30, 2011 event The Politics of Conscience: Margaret Chase Smith and Today’s Political Climate at G.W. Hinckley, Hinckley, Maine.

Maine Festival of the Book Opening Night: Stewart O’Nan and Julia Glass

amedeiros — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:32:36 +0000

Wonder what writers really think about? Get ready for a literary extravaganza! The Maine Festival of the Book, brought to you by Maine Reads brings together writers and readers to enjoy readings, panel discussions, book signings, and performances. With the exception of Opening Night and Youth Outreach, festival events are first-come, first-served, un-ticketed seating, and are free. Almost 2000 people attended this year’s three-day event. In its four years of existence, the Maine Festival of the Book has featured more than 200 authors, including five Pulitzer Prize winners.

For more information about The Maine Festival of the Book and to join the mailing list for 2012, check out Maine Read’s website.

Stewart O’Nan, author of Snow Angels and Julia Glass, author of Three Junes read from their novels, talk openly and field questions from Maine Reads CEO, Sarah Cecil.

The Maine Festival of the Book is an annual festival brought to you by Maine Reads with support from the Maine Humanities Council.

To End all Wars with Adam Hochschild

amedeiros — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:21:34 +0000

As the opening event of the newly minted Mechaya Center, Director Jonathan Lee, invited Adam Hochschild to Maine to discuss new new book To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914 – 1918, where he focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of World War I critics, alongside its generals and heroes.

This event was sponsored by the Mechaya Center and was hosted at the University of Southern Maine, Portland campus.

From Far East to Old West: True Tales of the American Frontier

amedeiros — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:24:50 +0000

For more information about The Maine Festival of the Book and to join the mailing list for 2012, check out Maine Read’s website.

Christopher Corbett, author of Poker Bride and Colin Sargent, author of Museum of Human Beings explore frontier history and legend: the Pony Express and the Chinese experience in the of the American West, and the story of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, child star of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

The Maine Festival of the Book is an annual festival brought to you by Maine Reads with support from the Maine Humanities Council.

The Crisis of Intellectual Property

amedeiros — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:45:45 +0000

The Center for Global Humanities is a public forum dedicated to the study of human destiny in the 21st century. Because new discoveries in science and technology are changing our understanding of human nature and raising burning questions about the future of our civilization, the Center uses the lenses of the humanities to provide insight into this emerging human condition. Analyzing the state of our cultures today is as important as any medical or technological breakthrough.

Global in perspective and connected to similar national and international programs, CGH offers seminars and lectures by leading scholars from around the world who are doing innovative scholarship. Various international seminars enhance our regular program. Because the Center believes in the vital necessity of a humanities culture to civic and democratic life, it works closely with the local community to encourage reading, discussion, and debate.

Adrian Johns, Professor of History and Chair of the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science, presented his talk The Crisis of Intellectual Property as part of the Center for Global Humanities annual lecture series.

The Center for Global Humanities is a partner of the Maine Humanities Council.

How The Great Depression Changed America

amedeiros — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:01:25 +0000

Ted Gup, Chair of the Department of Journalism at Emerson College, presented his talk How The Great Depression Changed America as part of the Center for Global Humanities annual lecture series.

The Center for Global Humanities is a partner of the Maine Humanities Council.

How To Lose Your Head When All About Are Keeping Theirs: Julien, Mathilde, and the Agony of Romanticism

amedeiros — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:00:14 +0000

This year’s Winter Weekend selection, Stendhal’s The Red and the Black follows a young intellectual man from a provincial town who tries to make it in 19th century Paris. Stendhal’s psychological portrait of Julien Sorel and his love affairs mesh well with a satiric depiction of religious and society life.

Charles Calhoun, independent scholar for the Maine Humanities Council presented a lecture entitled “How To Lose Your Head When All About Are Keeping Theirs: Julien, Mathilde, and the Agony of Romanticism.”

The Council’s annual Winter Weekend, a humanities seminar on a classic text, provides an opportunity for readers to confront, in a group setting, an important work of literature. Held at Bowdoin College in early March, the program begins with a Friday evening lecture and dinner (a gastronomic taste of the time and culture reflected in the chosen text). The group reconvenes Saturday on various aspects of the book, from cultural context, to critical analysis, to explorations of specific themes.

Winter Weekend 2011 took place March 11 and 12, 2011 at Bowdoin College.

There and Back: The Journey to Write a Memoir

amedeiros — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:21:05 +0000

For more information about The Maine Festival of the Book and to join the mailing list for 2012, check out Maine Read’s website.

Melissa Coleman, author of This Life Is In Your Hands, Susan Conley, author of The Foremost Good Fortune and Caitlin Shetterly, author of Made For You and Me read from their debut novels and talk about their personal paths: one through cancer, one through the recession, and one back to the land.

The Maine Festival of the Book is an annual festival brought to you by Maine Reads with support from the Maine Humanities Council.

The Hare and the Tortoise: A General Biocultural Theory of Why People Have So Many Problems

amedeiros — Fri, 27 May 2011 20:03:30 +0000

David P. Barash, Professor of Psychology and Biology at the University of Washington, presented his talk The Hare and the Tortoise: A General Biocultural Theory of Why People Have So Many Problems as part of the Center for Global Humanities annual lecture series.

The Center for Global Humanities is a partner of the Maine Humanities Council.

Wrestling a Book Into the World

amedeiros — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:10:15 +0000

For more information about The Maine Festival of the Book and to join the mailing list for 2012, check out Maine Read’s website.

Paul Harding, 2010 Pulitzer prize winner for Tinkers and Sarah Braunstein author of Sweet Relief of Missing Children read from their debut novels and talk about art, hysteria, and the long process of bringing a book into existence.

The Maine Festival of the Book is an annual festival brought to you by Maine Reads with support from the Maine Humanities Council.

Desperate for Some Kindness: A History of Asking for Help in Hard Times

amedeiros — Fri, 06 May 2011 20:43:46 +0000

Elizabeth De Wolfe, Chair of the History Department at the University of New England, presented her talk Desperate for Some Kindness: A History of Asking for Help in Hard Times as part of the Center for Global Humanities annual lecture series.

The Center for Global Humanities is a partner of the Maine Humanities Council.

Pens and Pistol Shots: Crimes of Passion in Stendhal’s France

amedeiros — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:31:31 +0000

Mary Rice-DeFosse, Professor of French at Bates College presented a lecture entitled “Pens and Pistol Shots: Crimes of Passion in Stendhal’s France.”

The Council’s annual Winter Weekend, a humanities seminar on a classic text, provides an opportunity for readers to confront, in a group setting, an important work of literature. Held at Bowdoin College in early March, the program begins with a Friday evening lecture and dinner (a gastronomic taste of the time and culture reflected in the chosen text). The group reconvenes Saturday on various aspects of the book, from cultural context, to critical analysis, to explorations of specific themes.

Winter Weekend 2011 took place March 11 and 12, 2011 at Bowdoin College.

Intimate Matters: Sex and Social Class in Post-Revolutionary France

amedeiros — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:01:11 +0000

Theresa McBride, Chair of the History department at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts presented a lecture entitled “Intimate Matters: Sex and Social Class in Post-Revolutionary France.”

The Council’s annual Winter Weekend, a humanities seminar on a classic text, provides an opportunity for readers to confront, in a group setting, an important work of literature. Held at Bowdoin College in early March, the program begins with a Friday evening lecture and dinner (a gastronomic taste of the time and culture reflected in the chosen text). The group reconvenes Saturday on various aspects of the book, from cultural context, to critical analysis, to explorations of specific themes.

Winter Weekend 2011 took place March 11 and 12, 2011 at Bowdoin College.

Two Heads and the Things They Carried with Tim O’Brien

amedeiros — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:00:03 +0000

Tim O’Brien has been hailed as “the best American writer of his generation” (San Francisco Examiner). A Vietnam veteran, he is the author of eight books. He received the National Book Award in Fiction in 1979 for his novel Going After Cacciato. In 2005 The Things They Carried was named by The New York Times as one of the twenty best books of the last quarter century. It received the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award in fiction and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The French edition of The Things They Carried received the prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, and the title story was selected by John Updike for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. In the Lake of the Woods, published in 1994, was chosen by Time magazine as the best novel of that year. The book also received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians and was selected as one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times. Tim O’Brien’s other works include If I Die in a Combat Zone, Northern Lights, Tomcat in Love and July, July. His short fiction, which received the National Magazine Award, has appeared in numerous journals, including The New Yorker, Atlantic, Esquire, Playboy, and Harper’s.

This talk was part of the Literature & Medicine program’s national conference, After Shock: Humanities Perspectives on Trauma, held on November 12 & 13, 2010 in Washington, D.C.

The Bad News and the Good News with Kate Braestrup

amedeiros — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 10:00:25 +0000

Kate Braestrup is a Unitarian-Universalist chaplain to the Maine Warden Service, joining the wardens as they search the wild lands and fresh waters of Maine for those who have lost their way, and offering comfort to those who wait for the ones they love to be rescued, or for their bodies to be recovered. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Here If You Need Me, won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award for nonfiction. Her magazine articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and O, The Oprah Magazine.

This talk was part of the Literature & Medicine program’s national conference, After Shock: Humanities Perspectives on Trauma, held on November 12 & 13, 2010 in Washington, D.C.

Learning About Combat Trauma From Homer’s Iliad with Dr. Jonathan Shay

amedeiros — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:04:55 +0000

Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD is a clinical psychiatrist whose treatment of combat trauma suffered by Vietnam veterans combined with his critical and imaginative interpretations of the ancient accounts of battle described in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are deepening our understanding of the effects of warfare on the individual. His book, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (1994), draws parallels between the depiction of the epic warrior-hero Achilles and the experiences of individual veterans whom he treated at a Boston-area Veterans Affairs’ Outpatient Clinic. In Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (2002), using Odysseus as metaphor, Shay focuses on the veteran’s experience upon returning from war and highlights the role of military policy in promoting the mental and physical safety of soldiers. A passionate advocate for veterans and committed to minimizing future psychological trauma, Shay strives for structural reform of the ways the U.S. armed forces are organized, trained, and counseled.

Respected by humanists and military leaders alike, Shay brings into stark relief the emotional problems faced by military combatants and veterans, ancient and modern. In 2007, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” for his work with veterans.

This talk was part of the Literature & Medicine program’s national conference, After Shock: Humanities Perspectives on Trauma, held on November 12 & 13, 2010 in Washington, D.C.

Margaret Chase Smith and Cold War America

amedeiros — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:12:15 +0000

History Camp is a one week seminar for high school students who enjoy history. Each history camp theme is related to a Maine person, historical site, or event in United States history and may be offered in collaboration with a history-related organization.

One of this year’s camps, titled “The Cold War, McCarthyism, and Margaret Chase Smith’s ‘Declaration of Conscience’ ” was held at the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan. This podcast, Margaret Chase Smith and Cold War America was from a lecture by Gregory Gallant, Ph.D, the Director of the Margaret Chase Smith Library.

The Cold War, McCarthyism, and Margaret Chase Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience” took place June 28 – July 2, 2010 at the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, Maine.

There Are No New Stories: Nicole Chaison, Debra Spark and Elizabeth Searle

amedeiros — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:48:10 +0000

For more information about The Maine Festival of the Book and to join the mailing list for 2011, check out Maine Read’s website.

There are no new stories, just new ways of telling the old ones. Or so some people say. In this panel presentation, three authors whose work involves the retelling of old stories discuss their inspiration. Graphic novelist Nicole Chaison will talk about Joseph Campbell and hero journey stories, author Elizabeth Searle will talk about her fascination with stories of celebrities in disgrace, and novelist Debra Spark will talk about reading The Book of Esther on the eve of the Iraq War.

The Maine Festival of the Book is an annual festival brought to you by Maine Reads with support from the Maine Humanities Council.

The Reawakening of Ayn Rand, Anne C. Heller

amedeiros — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:55:11 +0000

For more information about The Maine Festival of the Book and to join the mailing list for 2011, check out Maine Read’s website.

This lectured entitled “The Reawakening of Ayn Rand” featured Anne C. Heller, author of Ayn Rand and the World She Made, offers a new perspective on the novelist-philosopher’s life and work and why she is still popular today.

The Maine Festival of the Book is an annual festival brought to you by Maine Reads with support from the Maine Humanities Council.

Franco-American Women’s Words in Maine, Rhea Cote Robbins

amedeiros — Mon, 24 May 2010 18:56:46 +0000

For more information about The Maine Festival of the Book and to join the mailing list for 2011, check out Maine Read’s website.

This lectured entitled “Franco-American Women’s Words in Maine” featured author, Rhea Côté Robbins, reading from works in progress as well as from previously published titles weaving stories of the French woman’s life on the landscapes in Maine. Trudy Chambers Price was unable to attend, but pieces of her works were also read.

The Maine Festival of the Book is an annual festival brought to you by Maine Reads with support from the Maine Humanities Council.

Middlemarch by George Eliot, Winter Weekend 2010, part 3

amedeiros — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:00:03 +0000

This year’s selection, George Eliot’s Middlemarch is an English masterpiece the follows the social and intellectual lives of very human characters in a small provincial town.

Dianne Sadoff, professor of English at Rutgers University presented third on Saturday morning with a lecture entitled “The Reading Nation at Mid-Century: George Eliot’s Critics, Contemporaries, and Publishers.”

Winter Weekend 2010 took place March 12 and 13, 2010 at Bowdoin College.

Middlemarch by George Eliot, Winter Weekend 2010, part 2

amedeiros — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:05:07 +0000

This year’s selection, George Eliot’s Middlemarch is an English masterpiece the follows the social and intellectual lives of very human characters in a small provincial town.

Charles Calhoun, the charming Scholar in Residence at the Maine Humanities Council presented second on Saturday morning with a lecture entitled “Why Was There No British Revolution? The Political Economy of Middlemarch.

Winter Weekend 2010 took place March 12 and 13, 2010 at Bowdoin College.

Middlemarch by George Eliot, Winter Weekend 2010, part 1

amedeiros — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:09:02 +0000

This year’s selection, George Eliot’s Middlemarch is an English masterpiece the follows the social and intellectual lives of very human characters in a small provincial town.

Amy A Kass, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and senior lecturer in the humanities at the University of Chicago opened Saturday’s program with her lecture entitled “Sympathy, Love and Marriage: Effective Reform in Middlemarch“.

Winter Weekend 2010 took place March 12 and 13, 2010 at Bowdoin College.

Cuba and the United States

amedeiros — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:14:15 +0000

David Carey, Jr. is an associate professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Southern Maine. He holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University; his publications include Ojer taq tzijob’äl kichin ri Kaqchikela’ Winaqi’ (A History of the Kaqchikel People) (Q’anilsa Ediciones, 2004) and Engendering Mayan History: Mayan Women as Agents and Conduits of the Past, 1875-1970 (Routledge, 2006).Professor Carey is the second in our series of podcasts from our December, 2009 event: Cuban Exceptionalism: Reflections on Latin American History. This one day event examined the colonial history of Cuba, the Revolution and the post-revolution era of the region. Professor Carey’s lecture entitled Cuba and the United States, informs us on Portland’s important connection with Cuba at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Professor Carey’s lecture was part of the Cuban Exceptionalism symposium which took place on December 4, 2009 in the Albert Brenner Glickman Library at the University of Southern Maine.

Colonial Legacies: Cuba and Latin America

amedeiros — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:07:12 +0000

Allen Wells, the Roger Howell, Jr. Professor of History at Bowdoin College, scholarship has focused on modern Mexican history, especially Yucatán. His most recent book is Tropical Zion: General Trujillo, FDR and the Jews of Sosúa. Professor Wells is the first in our series of podcasts from our December, 2009 event: Cuban Exceptionalism: Reflections on Latin American History. This one day event examined the colonial history of Cuba, the Revolution and the post-revolution era of the region. Professor Wells’ opening lecture entitled Colonial Legacies: Cuba and Latin America, set the scene of Cuba’s history of colonialism and how baseball played a role in politics.

Professor Wells’ lecture was part of the Cuban Exceptionalism symposium which took place on December 4, 2009 in the Albert Brenner Glickman Library at the University of Southern Maine.

First Mainers and New Mainers: Dignity in Diversity

amedeiros — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:40:05 +0000

Listen to the inaugural event that launched the new minor of Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies at the University of Maine, Augusta. This program was hosted by the Director, Abraham Peck at the Michael Klahr Center in Augusta. The panel discussion: First Mainers and New Mainers was part of a project entitled The Dignity of Difference: First Mainers and New Mainers that allowed Maine’s First Nations and Maine’s most recent immigrants and refugee communities the opportunity to showcase their cultures, history and communities to the broader UMA and Central Maine populations. This panel was moderated by Reza Jalali and included Ismail Ahmed, Paul Bisulca, Grace Valenzuela and Pious Ali all leaders in their communities.

For more information on the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies minor please visit their website. This program was made possible through a Community Outreach grant from the Maine Humanities Council.

The Politics of Zora Neale Hurston

amedeiros — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:04:46 +0000

Tess Chakkalakal, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and English at Bowdoin College, is the last in our series of podcasts from our October, 2009 event: Looking for Zora: The Many Lives of Zora Neale Hurston. This one day event explored the life and lasting work of Hurston, an anthropologist with a literary sensibility. Chakkalakal led an interactive lecture entitled, The Politics of Zora Neale Hurston and its Resonance Today which closed the day discussing the political context of Hurston’s most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Professor Chakkalakal’s lecture was part of the Looking for Zora symposium which took place on October 17, 2009 in Pettengill Hall at Bates College. This program was made possible through the We The People initiative, a program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Seeing Green

amedeiros — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:18:20 +0000

Kate Miles, Associate Professor of Environmental Writing at Unity College, is the third in our series of podcasts from our October, 2009 event: Looking for Zora: The Many Lives of Zora Neale Hurston. This one day event explored the life and lasting work of Hurston, an anthropologist with a literary sensibility. Miles’ lecture, entitled, Seeing Green: Their Eyes Were Watching God from an Environmentalist’s Perspective explored how Hurston used her settings within nature to give a potent and passionate context to the work.

Professor Miles’ lecture was part of the Looking for Zora symposium which took place on October 17, 2009 in Pettengill Hall at Bates College. This program was made possible through the We The People initiative, a program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Worlds in their Mouths

amedeiros — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:11:33 +0000

Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, the John D. and Catharine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at Colby College, is the second in our series of podcasts from our October, 2009 event: Looking for Zora: The Many Lives of Zora Neale Hurston. This one day event explored the life and lasting work of Hurston, an anthropologist with a literary sensibility. Gilkes’ lecture, entitled, Worlds in their Mouths: The Mighty Anthropology of Zora Neale Hurston’s Novels explored how Hurston used novels to report her studies of the lives and cultures of Southern Blacks at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Professor Gilkes’ lecture was part of the Looking for Zora symposium which took place on October 17, 2009 in Pettengill Hall at Bates College. This program was made possible through the We The People initiative, a program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Looking for and Finding Zora Neale Hurston

amedeiros — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:48:54 +0000

Cedric Gael Bryant, Lee Family Professor of English at Colby College, is the first in our series of podcasts from our October, 2009 event: Looking for Zora: The Many Lives of Zora Neale Hurston. This one day event explored the life and lasting work of Hurston, an anthropologist with a literary sensibility. Bryant’s lecture, entitled, Looking for and Finding Zora: Literacy Legacy and Influence of Zora Neale Hurston opened the day discussing the literary context of Hurston’s most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Professor Bryant’s lecture was part of the Looking for Zora symposium which took place on October 17, 2009 in Pettengill Hall at Bates College. This program was made possible through the We The People initiative, a program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Thinking Heart: A Performance in Two Voices, with Cello

amedeiros — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:37:46 +0000

The Thinking Heart is a performance piece in two voices, with cello, based on the journal and letters of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch woman who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation and died in Auschwitz in 1943. The performance is an original arrangement of her journal and letters in the form of poems written by Martin Steingesser. The Maine Humanities Council awarded a grant for this piece to be performed at four locations, including the Rockland Public Library, the Bangor Public Library and the Belfast Free Library.

Poets Writing Memoir: A Conversation with Elizabeth Garber and Dawn Potter

amedeiros — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:27:00 +0000

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.”

That Old Cape Magic, Richard Russo

amedeiros — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:37:48 +0000

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.

Faculty Flash Reading

brita — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:37:07 +0000

In the “flash reading” by Stonecoast MFA program 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 Stonecoast’s summer residency in July 2009 began with an introduction by director Annie Finch. Joan Connor started the reading with her “Three-Minute Love Story.” Aaron Hamburger read an excerpt from his story “Ludmilla in the New World,” published in the anthology Between Men 2. The next reader was Richard Hoffman, who read from his collection, Interference and Other Stories. Barbara Hurd shared the opening of a novel, Slow Dance on a Slanted Floor, then Michael Kimball read from his novel Mouth to Mouth. Debra Marquart read the essay “Whisker Meditations,” and finally, Suzanne Strempek Shea closed the reading with an excerpt from a story published in “Golf World” magazine.

This reading took place in Brunswick, Maine, on July 10, 2009. Stonecoast is the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine. For more readings from faculty members, including other flash readings, click on the “Stonecoast” tag, below.

Today’s Challenges on the Korean Peninsula

brita — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:56:05 +0000

Brad Babson is a consultant on East Asia and global development issues. He served 26 years with the World Bank, most recently as Senior Advisor for the East Asia and Pacific Region, with assignments including Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. He has published widely on topics related to East and Southeast Asia, including the topic of this talk: the integration of North Korea into the international community. Babson holds an MPA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a BA from Williams College.

This talk was part of the 2009 Views of the East teacher program in Brunswick, Maine, which was co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Maine. Views of the East is a program of the Five College Center for East Asian Studies through the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia, funded by the Freeman Foundation and Unum. We welcome your feedback on this episode.

Not Norman

brita — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:32:47 +0000

Not Norman by Kelly Bennett, illustrated by Noah Z. Jones, is one of five books that Raising Readers included in an anthology of Maine stories for pediatricians to give to 5-year-olds. Noah Z. Jones lives in Maine, and recently read Not Norman aloud for the Born to Read program. You can find this book, or the Raising Readers anthology, at your local library.

Love and Kisses

brita — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:28:01 +0000

Love and Kisses by Sarah Wilson, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, is one of five books that Raising Readers included in an anthology of Maine stories for pediatricians to give to 5-year-olds. Melissa Sweet lives in Maine, and the Born to Read program recently visited her studio, where she read Love and Kisses aloud. You can find the book or the Raising Readers anthology at your local library.

Library Lion

brita — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:22:24 +0000

Library Lion by Michelle Knudson, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, is one of five books that Raising Readers included in an anthology of Maine stories for pediatricians to give to 5-year-olds. Kevin Hawkes lives in Maine, and the Born to Read program recently visited his studio, where he talked about Library Lion and read the first few pages aloud. You can find a recording of the entire book in audiobook read-along format from Live Oak Media here, or at your local library.

Looking North

brita — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:46:25 +0000

Donna Cassidy is Professor of American & New England Studies and Art History at the University of Southern Maine. Her most recent book, Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation, led to her current research on U.S. artists in Quebec and Atlantic Canada from 1890 to 1940. In this talk, co-sponsored by the Yarmouth and North Yarmouth historical societies, Cassidy descibes the travels of those artists in the region, and discusses the influence of the landscape and people on their work. (The images that accompanied the talk are protected by copyright, but searching any of the artists’ names in the Artcyclopedia or Google Images should yield some samples.)

This presentation took place in Yarmouth on June 15, 2009. Please leave your feedback below.

Jane Austen’s Gardens

brita — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:48:53 +0000

Kim Wilson is the Wisconsin-based author of two books: Tea with Jane Austen and In the Garden with Jane Austen. Her presentation at the Maine Festival of the Book, “Jane Austen’s Gardens: Love in the Shrubbery,” was beautifully illustrated by a slide show. The images are not captured by this audio recording, but her comments about the roles of gardens in the lives and loves of Austen and her characters are nevertheless enlightening.

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

The Craft of Writing: A Panel Discussion

brita — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:48:40 +0000

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.

A Librarian’s Introduction to Rules

brita — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:48:25 +0000

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.

Meeting of the Apes

brita — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:26:09 +0000

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.

Ann Hood

brita — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:17:36 +0000

Ann Hood is the author, most recently, of The Knitting Circle and Comfort: A Journey Through Grief. Both new books deal with the loss of her 5-year old daughter, one through fiction and one through memoir. In this talk, she compares the two approaches and recalls episodes—both tragic and very, very funny—from her life. Hood is the author of seven other novels and a collection of short stories.

This talk by Ann Hood took place at the Maine Festival of the Book, sponsored by Maine Reads, on April 4, 2009.

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

brita — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:39:01 +0000

To close the Lincoln Bicentennial Symposium on March 21, 2009, former Maine Governor Angus King read Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. He also shared some thoughts about Lincoln, whom he includes in his course on “Leaders and Leadership” at Bowdoin College. Governor King served two four-year terms as Maine’s independent 71st governor. He works as an attorney at Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson and is involved with a number of alternative energy development projects.

Governor King’s reading was part of the Legacy of Lincoln symposium co-presented by the Maine Humanities Council, Maine Historical Society, and American & New England Studies Program at USM.

The Afterlife of Abraham Lincoln

brita — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:37:52 +0000

Thomas J. Brown is Associate Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Institute for Southern Studies. He is a Distinguished Lecturer with the Organization of American Historians. In this lecture, Brown examined the ways in which debates over regionalism, race relations and governmental power have influenced how America has remembered Abraham Lincoln, particularly in public monuments. Brown’s research on Civil War monuments has produced a variety of publications, including The Public Art of Civil War Commemoration: An Introduction with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004).

This lecture was part of the Legacy of Lincoln symposium co-presented by the Maine Humanities Council, Maine Historical Society, and American & New England Studies Program at USM on March 21, 2009.

In the Aftermath of the Lincoln Assassination

brita — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:36:40 +0000

Elizabeth D. Leonard is the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History at Colby College, where she has taught since 1992. Leonard is the author of three books on the Civil War era, and she is under contract to write the biography of Joseph Holt, Lincoln’s judge advocate general. In this talk, she explores Holt’s role in the manhunt that followed the assassination. She also delineates the arguments that took place between those who were determined to avenge Lincoln’s death (and the war itself) and those who aimed to forgive the rebel South and forget the plight of the recently freed slaves.

This lecture was part of the Legacy of Lincoln symposium co-presented by the Maine Humanities Council, Maine Historical Society, and American & New England Studies Program at USM on March 21, 2009.

The Rise of Abraham Lincoln

brita — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:47:54 +0000

Before he was the leader of a nation torn apart by a Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was a young man growing up during tumultuous times in Illinois. In the first presentation of the Lincoln Bicentennial Symposium, historian Bruce Chadwick explained Lincoln’s rise to power from his first unsuccessful race for the state legislature to his election as President. Chadwick spent 23 years as a journalist before earning a doctorate in American history in 1994 at Rutgers University. He is a professor, historian, lecturer and author of 28 books, including a lengthy series on baseball history.

This lecture was part of the Legacy of Lincoln symposium co-presented by the Maine Humanities Council, Maine Historical Society, and American & New England Studies Program at USM on March 21, 2009. Victoria Bonebakker of the Maine Humanities Council and Richard D’Abate of the Maine Historical Society introduced Professor Chadwick’s talk.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

brita — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:42:53 +0000

To open the Lincoln Bicentennial Symposium on March 21, 2009, Portland Mayor Jill Duson read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Mayor Duson is the Director of Rehabilitation Services, Maine Department of Labor. She is serving her third term on the Portland City Council. She has also served one term on the School Committee, where she was elected Chair.

Mayor Duson’s reading was part of the Legacy of Lincoln symposium co-presented by the Maine Humanities Council, Maine Historical Society, and American & New England Studies Program at USM.

Sarah Caldwell and Prokofiev’s War and Peace

brita — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:13:37 +0000

James T. Morgan was a long-time friend and colleague at The Opera Company of Boston of the late Sarah Caldwell, the most innovative opera director of mid-20th-century America and the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera. He worked with Caldwell on a production of the War and Peace opera by Sergei Prokofiev (pictured at right), which he described in this Winter Weekend talk. Morgan moved to Maine in 1999 and became director of development and marketing for PCA Great Performances. He now serves on its board and the board of the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He lives in Freeport.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Tolstoy’s War and Peace in March 2009.

Tolstoy and the Broken Body

brita — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:58:23 +0000

Charles Calhoun is an independent historian and biographer who is Scholar in Residence at the Maine Humanities Council. He is working on books about Longfellow and Whitman in Civil War Washington and on the history of horsemanship in North America. Born in Monroe, Louisiana, he studied history at the University of Virginia and law at Christ Church, Oxford; he now lives in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Here, he discusses the death of Prince Andrei, with reference to other deaths in other wars.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Tolstoy’s War and Peace in March 2009. Download the related handout as a Word document.

Thin Blue Lines

brita — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:54:24 +0000

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.

Shall We Dance? A Close Reading

brita — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:51:03 +0000

Sheila McCarthy is Associate Professor of Russian at Colby College. She has a B.A. in Russian from Emmanuel College, an M.A. from Harvard in Russian Area Studies, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in Russian literature. She teaches 19th-century Russian literature in Russian and in English. Here, she performs a close reading of three dance scenes in War and Peace as a way of exploring Tolstoy’s opinion of art.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Tolstoy’s War and Peace in March 2009.

Love and War in War and Peace

brita — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:33:32 +0000

Justin Weir is Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. He received a B.A. in Russian from the University of Minnesota and his master’s and doctoral degree in Russian literature from Northwestern University. He is co-editor and co-translator of Eight Twentieth-Century Russian Plays (2000) and author of The Author as Hero: Self and Tradition in Bulgakov, Pasternak, and Nabokov (2002). His book Leo Tolstoy and the Alibi of Narrative is due out from Yale University Press in spring 2010.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Tolstoy’s War and Peace in March 2009.

Chris Bohjalian

brita — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:32:39 +0000

Chris Bohjalian is the author of eleven novels, including the New York Times bestsellers The Double Bind, Before You Know Kindness, The Law of Similars, and Midwives. Bohjalian won the New England Book Award in 2002. His work has been translated into 25 languages and has sold over three and a half million copies. He lives in Vermont, where he has been a Sunday columnist for the Burlington Free Press since 1992. In this excerpt from his reading in Portland, Bohjalian comments on the state of reading in the U.S., shares an anecdote from a previous book tour, and explains the inspiration for his World War II love story, Skeletons at the Feast.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care. Please feel free to add your comments below.

Patricia Smith

brita — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:08:52 +0000

Patricia Smith is a 2008 National Book Award Finalist for Blood Dazzler, also the basis of a forthcoming dance/theater performance with Urban Bush Women. Her other books of poetry are Teahouse of the Almighty, winner of the National Poetry Series, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize; Close to Death; Big Towns, Big Talk; and Life According to Motown. She has read her work at venues around the U.S. and around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and tours of Germany and Austria. Smith is a four-time national individual Poetry Slam winner, the most successful competitor in slam history. Her first children’s book, Janna and the Kings, was a Lee & Low Books New Voices Award winner.

A graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program, Smith joined the Stonecoast faculty in January 2009. Annie Finch, Director of the Stonecoast program, introduced her for this, her first reading as a faculty member.

Marilyn Nelson

brita — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:39:43 +0000

Poet Marilyn Nelson is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks. She has won numerous awards, including two Boston Globe—Horn Book Awards, and is a three-time National Book Award Finalist. From the American Library Association, her books have received Newbery, Coretta Scott King, and Michael L. Printz Honors. Other honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, two Pushcart Prizes, three honorary doctorates, and a fellowship from the J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Nelson is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut; founder and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small writers’ colony; and the former (2001-2006) Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut.

Nelson was a visiting writer at the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program when she gave this reading in January 2009.

Suzanne Strempek Shea

brita — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:23:26 +0000

Suzanne Strempek Shea is the author of five novels: Selling the Lite of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna, Lily of the Valley, Around Again, and Becoming Finola. She has also written three memoirs, Songs From a Lead-lined Room, Shelf Life, and Sundays in America. Winner of the 2000 New England Book Award, which recognizes a literary body of works’ contribution to the region, Strempek Shea began writing fiction in her spare time while working as reporter. Her freelance work has appeared in Yankee magazine, The Bark, Organic Style, and ESPN the Magazine. She lives in Bondsville, Massachusetts.

At the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January 2009, Strempek Shea read from a work-in-progress, Make a Wish, but Not for Money.

Stonecoast Faculty Flash Reading, Part 2

brita — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:55:58 +0000

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.

Stonecoast Faculty Flash Reading, Part 1

brita — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:02:45 +0000

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.

Michael Steinberg

brita — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:32:40 +0000

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.

Gray Jacobik

brita — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:32:23 +0000

Gray Jacobik is author of three collections of poetry: The Double Task (University of Massachusetts Press), winner of the Juniper Prize, nominated for the James Laughlin Award and The Poet’s Prize; The Surface of Last Scattering (Texas Review Press), winner of the X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize; and Brave Disguises (University of Pittsburgh Press), winner of the AWP Poetry Series Award for 2001. Gray served as the 2002 Poet-in-Residence at The Frost Place and is a Professor Emeritus at Eastern Connecticut State University. She is also an accomplished painter.

This reading took place in Freeport, Maine, during the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January, 2009. As always, we welcome your feedback on the reading.

India and Pakistan: The History Behind the Headlines

brita — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:59:59 +0000

The goal of this day-long program was to provide an introduction to the complex web of politics, culture, and religion that has made South Asia both a volatile area and an emerging power. Rachel Sturman, Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College, was the featured scholar. The recording is offered here in two parts: an overview from the beginning of the day and a question-and-answer session from the end.

India and Pakistan: The History Behind the Headlines took place on December 4, 2008, in Brunswick, Maine. We welcome your feedback on this program.

Colin Sargent

brita — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:56:30 +0000

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.

Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party

admin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:31:21 +0000

Another contender for a Maine Student Book Award in 2008-09 is Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party (Random House, 2007) by Ying Chang Compestine (pictured at right). This novel about life in China during the Cultural Revolution is based on the author’s own experiences. The first chapter from the audiobook, performed by Jodi Long and published by Listening Library (an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group), is excerpted here. South Portland school librarian 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.

We welcome your feedback on this book talk.

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat

admin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:24:03 +0000

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell, illustrated by Jonathan Bean (Henry Holt, 2007), is intended for children ages 8-12, but its whimsy and wit broaden its appeal. The novel was chosen as one of School Library Journal’s Best Books of 2007, and now it’s a contender for a Maine Student Book Award in 2008-09. Here, school librarian Connie Burns introduces the story and reads the first chapter aloud. You can find the book at your library. A complete professional recording by Full Cast Audio will be available in the fall of 2009.

We welcome your feedback on this book talk.

Landscapes of Poland Spring

Donna — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:06:09 +0000

David Richards earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of New Hampshire. His research for the 2006 book Poland Spring: A Tale of the Gilded Age (University Press of New England) forms the basis of this presentation at the Yarmouth Historical Society. Richards is the assistant director of the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, Maine. He has also served as executive secretary of the Androscoggin Historical Society in Auburn, and curator of collections at the United Society of Shakers in New Gloucester.

We welcome your feedback on this podcast.

Blaine House Oral History

Donna — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:10:18 +0000

The Blaine House is the Governor’s residence in Augusta, Maine. At the 175th anniversary celebration of this historic house on August 16, 2008, historian Jo Radner interviewed some of its former residents and staff.

Phyllis H. Siebert was the Blaine House chef from 1972 until her retirement in 2001. Cass Longley-Leahy is one of James B. Longley’s children. Governor Longley was in office from 1975 to 1979. Burton Cross served as Governor of Maine between 1953 and 1955. Margaret (Peggy) Gardiner’s father, William Tudor Gardiner, was the Governor of Maine from 1929 to 1933. Nancy Catlin is the great-granddaughter of Edwin Chick Burleigh, U.S. Senator (1913-1916) and Governor of Maine (1889-1893). Several other descendents of the Burleigh family—Mary J. O’Connor, Dr. Susan O’Connor, and Mari McGuire—joined her for this interview. Nicholas S. Sewall occupied the wartime Blaine House while his father, Sumner Sewall, served as the Governor of Maine between 1941 and 1945.

Children’s Authors at the Blue Hill Library

Donna — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:58:58 +0000

Maine is home to many children’s authors and illustrators. Fans are usually only fortunate enough to see one at a time, but in July 2008, three of the best-known—Cynthia Voigt, Ruth Freeman Swain, and Rebekah Raye—appeared together at the Blue Hill Library. In this recording, they are introduced by Brook Ewing Minner, the library’s Assistant Director, who then leads a lively conversation among the writers and artists and their audience. (For an interview with Cynthia Voigt, pictured at right, by Maine Humanities Council facilitator Annaliese Jakimides, see this Bangor Metro site.)

We welcome your feedback on this event.

A Librarian’s Introduction to Moon Runner

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:40:55 +0000

School librarian Connie Burns of South Portland is a steadfast supporter of the Maine Student Book Award program. She presents one of the books on the list of contenders from the 2006-07 school year: Moon Runner (Candlewick, 2005) by Carolyn Marsden (pictured at right). After Connie introduces the main character, Mina, then previews the story and reads the first chapter, it’ll be hard to resist finding a copy of the book at your library and reading the rest.

Eve LaPlante

Donna — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:44:20 +0000

Samuel Sewall, the only judge to publicly repent his decision to condemn twenty people to death as witches in 1692, is the subject of Eve LaPlante’s new biography, Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall (HarperOne, 2007). LaPlante counts Sewall as her sixth great-grandfather, a family connection that gave her access to rare documents not previously available. Using these papers, as well as Sewall’s extensive personal diaries and letters, she vividly recreates Sewall’s life and times. LaPlante is the author of two previous books, Seized (a multidisciplinary exploration of temporal lobe epilepsy) and American Jezebel (a biography of Anne Hutchinson), and essays for The Atlantic, the New York Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, Gourmet, and Boston.

This talk was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series. We welcome your feedback on this Eve LaPlante reading.

Beyond the Clash of Civilizations

Donna — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:10:00 +0000

The 2008 Douglas M. Schair Memorial Lecture on Genocide and Human Rights was a dialogue for Muslim-Jewish understanding, presented in cooperation with the Islamic Society of Portland and the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine. The featured speakers were Judea Pearl and Akbar Ahmed. Pearl, a computer scientist from Israel, and Ahmed, a social scientist from Pakistan, share a concern about the deterioration of relationships between Muslim and Jewish communities around the world. They have become partners in a dialogue project in memory of Pearl’s son, journalist Daniel Pearl, under the auspices of the Daniel Pearl Foundation. Through their public dialogue, they aim to inspire ongoing conversations in the communities they visit that are similarly honest and respectful. They were recognized for this project in 2006, with the first annual Purpose Prize.

The Schair Memorial Lecture took place at the University of Southern Maine in Portland on April 7, 2008. We welcome your feedback.

Linda Greenlaw

Donna — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:50:01 +0000

Linda Greenlaw’s three books about life as a commercial fisherman—The Hungry Ocean (1999), The Lobster Chronicles (2002), and All Fishermen Are Liars (2004)—have climbed as high as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. Her first novel, Slipknot, began a mystery series whose second installment is Fisherman’s Bend (2008). Before becoming a writer, Greenlaw was the captain of a sword boat, the career that earned her a prominent role in Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm and a portrayal in the subsequent film. She now lives on Isle au Haut, where she captains a lobster boat.

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

The Devil of Great Island

Donna — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:14:52 +0000

Emerson ‘Tad’ Baker of York, Maine, is a former chair of the Maine Humanities Council. An author and Professor of History at Salem State College, he directs several archaelogical excavations in New England and also served, from 2002 until its premier in 2004, as a lead consulant for the Emmy-nominated PBS TV series, “Colonial House.” In August, 2008, Baker visited Cousins Island to read from his 2007 book, The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England. His appearance was sponsored by the Yarmouth Historical Society.

We welcome your feedback on this podcast episode.

Vietnam in the Context of the American Way of War

brita — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:20:02 +0000

Patrick Rael is Associate Professor of History at Bowdoin College. His areas of interest include antebellum America, Civil War and Reconstruction, and comparative slavery. Among other publications, he has edited a volume of scholarship on African-American Activism Before the Civil War (Routledge, 2008). In this talk, Rael places the Vietnam conflict in a continuum of U.S. military engagements, considering the impacts of war on society, and vice versa.

This talk was part of the 2008 Teaching American History teacher program in Brunswick, Maine. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat

Donna — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:19:05 +0000

Connie Burns is a school librarian in South Portland with a hidden passion: the lives of Victorian women. In pursuit of her passion, Burns researched Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat (1823-1908) for her Master’s thesis in the American and New England Studies program at the University of Southern Maine. Sweat is best remembered for her bequest of the mansion that would become the Portland Museum of Art, but she was also a published author and an influential member of Portland’s elite during her life. Here, Burns reads from Sweat’s diary and letters (held in the Maine Women Writer’s Collection) and discusses her role in Victorian society.

We welcome your feedback on this Margaret Sweat podcast.

First Anniversary of the Portland Freedom Trail

Donna — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:25:13 +0000

“Weaving History and Literature: the African American Oral and Written Tradition” brought five writers together to read from their work and discuss how African American history is revealed through storytelling and literature. The speakers were JerriAnne Boggis, founder and director of the Harriet Wilson Project; Kate Clifford Larson, biographer of Harriet Tubman; novelists Michael C. White and David Anthony Durham; and poet Patricia Smith. Biographies of the speakers are available here; download the walking tour map of the Portland Freedom Trail in PDF format here.

This event was held at the Portland Museum of Art on July 11, 2008. We welcome your feedback.

Annaliese Jakimides and A Coastal Companion

Donna — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:22:01 +0000

A Coastal Companion: A Year in the Gulf of Maine, from Canada to Cape Cod (Tilbury House, 2008) is part field guide, part almanac; a celebration of the natural world that also highlights people who have chosen the Gulf of Maine as the setting for their life’s work. Poems by contemporary Maine poets open each chapter, and illustrations by two Maine artists, Kimberleigh Martul-March and Margaret Campbell, are featured throughout the text. Author Catherine Schmitt, a science writer for the Maine Sea Grant College Program, opens this reading with an excerpt from the book, then introduces contributor Annaliese Jakimides (pictured at right) for a poetry reading.

This reading took place at Borders in South Portland on July 22, 2008. We welcome your feedback.

Interview with Lizz Sinclair

admin — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:17:42 +0000

Created by the Maine Humanities Council, Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care® is a national award-winning reading and discussion program for health care professionals. The Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s Tom Porter interviewed Literature & Medicine Program Officer Lizz Sinclair when the Literature & Medicine anthology, Imagine What It’s Like, was published by the University of Hawai’i Press in the summer of 2008. Here, with permission from MPBN, is a re-broadcast of the interview.

Nalo Hopkinson

admin — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:40:03 +0000

Nalo Hopkinson is one of the world’s best known fantasy and science fiction writers. She is the author of four novels (most recently The New Moon’s Arms, Warner, 2007) and numerous short stories, and editor or co-editor of several anthologies, including So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2004). Hopkinson was born in Jamaica and lived in the Caribbean until the age of 17, when her family moved to Toronto. Here, she is introduced by fellow science fiction writer Michaela Roessner Herman.

This reading took place in Brunswick, Maine, during the summer residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in July, 2008. Stonecoast is the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine. We welcome your feedback on this Nalo Hopkinson podcast.

Alison Hawthorne Deming

admin — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:29:17 +0000

Alison Hawthorne Deming is the author of three books of poetry, three nonfiction books, and two limited-edition chapbooks. Her place-based writing has earned her fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown , the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Tucson/Pima Arts Council; as well as many awards, including the Bayer Award in science writing from Creative Nonfiction for the essay “Poetry and Science: A View from the Divide.” Deming was born and raised in Connecticut, but currently lives near Aqua Caliente Hill in Tucson, where she serves as Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Arizona. Here, she is introduced by Stonecoast faculty member Barbara Hurd.

This reading took place in Brunswick, Maine, during the summer residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in July, 2008. Stonecoast is the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine.We welcome your feedback on this Alison Hawthorne Deming podcast.

A Conversation about Thanks to the Animals

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:19:29 +0000

When the Born to Read program selected books for its anti-bias initiative, Many Eyes, Many Voices, there was a distressing gap in the field of contenders: a suitable children’s book about Maine Native Americans. The few titles available were either too stereotypical or too distant—tales populated by warriors with headresses, or set amidst Plains buffalo or Southwest deserts. That changed in 2005, when Tilbury House publishers in Gardiner, Maine, published Thanks to the Animals by Passamaquoddy storyteller Allen Sockabasin. Born to Read Program Officer Brita Zitin sat down with Sockabasin and his editor, Audrey Maynard, to talk about the story behind this important book. To learn more about Sockabasin, see this newsletter article.

We welcome your feedback on this book conversation.

Sleep Tight, Little Bear

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:13:58 +0000

Here is another story by Martin Waddell about Little Bear and Big Bear. It is read aloud by Rachel Davis, children’s librarian at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth. Then Rachel shares two fingerplays.

Text copyright 2005 by Martin Waddell. Illustrations copyright 2005 by Anita Jeram. Reproduced by permission of Candlewick Press, Inc., Somerville, MA, on behalf of Walker Books Ltd., London. We welcome your feedback on any of Rachel Davis’s readings.

You Can Do It, Sam

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:10:25 +0000

Amy Hest’s third book about the bear named Sam is read aloud by Rachel Davis, children’s librarian at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth. Rachel then teaches two fingerplays that you can do after you read the book.

Text copyright 2003 by Amy Hest. Illustrations copyright 2003 by Anita Jeram. Reproduced by permission of Candlewick Press, Inc., Somerville, MA. We welcome your feedback on any of Rachel Davis’s readings.

Baby Brains

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:10:24 +0000

Here’s a funny book by British author Simon James, read aloud by Rachel Davis, children’s librarian at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth. After she reads the book, Rachel teaches a fingerplay called “The Baby Grows” and a poem called “Bend and Stretch.”

Kiss Good Night

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:03:49 +0000

This is the first book that author Amy Hest wrote about the bear named Sam, a character inspired by her own son, Sam. Here, the book is read aloud by Rachel Davis, children’s librarian at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth. Rachel then teaches two fingerplays about kisses.

Why Are Some Biographies So Good?

brita — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:14:51 +0000

Charles Calhoun is Scholar in Residence at the Maine Humanities Council. He is the author of Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life (2004), A Small College in Maine: 200 Years of Bowdoin (1993), and the volume on Maine in the Compass American Guide Series (4th ed., 2005). Born in Monroe, Louisiana, he studied history at the University of Virginia and law at Christ Church, Oxford. In this talk, Calhoun identifies storytelling techniques (such as suspense, fulfillment, gratification, and apt quotation) that biographers can adopt in their own writing. With input from Teaching American History Through Biography participants, he analyzes passages from three contemporary biographies—Claire Tomalin’s Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, Blanche Wiesen Cook’s Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 1: 1884-1933, and Peter Guralnick’s Searching for Robert Thompson—for examples of these techniques.

This talk was part of the 2008 Teaching American History teacher program in Brunswick, Maine. What do you think of Charles’ answer to the question of what makes a good biography, and what would your answer be? Please leave your thoughts here.

Family and Gender in Contemporary China

brita — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:06:55 +0000

Nancy Riley is a professor of sociology at Bowdoin College whose work focuses on family, gender and population, and China. She has completed years of research in Dalian on the family lives of women factory workers, and taken groups of students (and one group of faculty) to Asia with the support of the Freeman Foundation. Publications include (with James McCarthy) Demography in the Age of the Postmodern (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and “Challenging Demography: Contributions from Feminist Theory” (Sociological Forum, 1999). In de-mystifying cultural practices such as foot binding and arranged marriage, Riley explains how she encourages students to get beyond the assumptions they’ve made about women in China.

This talk was part of the 2008 Views of the East teacher program in Brunswick, Maine, which was co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Maine. Views of the East is a program of the Five College Center for East Asian Studies through the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia, funded by the Freeman Foundation and Unum. We welcome your feedback on this episode.

Miriam Colwell

Donna — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:53:56 +0000

Miriam Colwell was born in Prospect Harbor in 1917 and still lives in the house built by her great-great-grandfather in 1817. She is the author of Wind Off the Water (1945), Day of the Trumpet (1947), and Young (1955). As a small town resident and long-time postmistress, she has watched change upon change wash over the fabled coast for nearly nine decades. She explores those themes in her fourth novel, Contentment Cove (Islandport Press, 2008), which is set in a Down East coastal village in the 1950s, when social clashes and changing values were starting to tear at the fabric of Maine’s traditional way of life.

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

Robert P. Tristram Coffin

Donna — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:34:11 +0000

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert P. Tristram Coffin (1892-1955) was a native Mainer, Bowdoin College graduate, and longtime Bowdoin faculty member. Though a popular writer and speaker in his time, his work is not widely known today. In this podcast episode, Kevin Belmonte, who recently completed a Master’s thesis on Coffin for the American and New England Studies program at the University of Southern Maine, considers why. In the process, he shares pieces of Coffin’s correspondence and, with permission from Coffin’s literary executor, reads three poems aloud. Kevin Belmonte is the author of William Wilberforce, A Hero for Humanity (Zondervan/HarperCollins, 2007), for which he received the John Pollock Award for Christian Biography, and has served as a script consultant for the BBC and PBS. He lives in York, Maine, where his family has resided since the 1630s.

Permission to read Coffin’s poems was granted by the Estate of Robert P. Tristram Coffin. Photo courtesy of Kevin Belmonte. We welcome your feedback on this Robert P. Tristram Coffin podcast.

The Good Life of Helen K. Nearing

Donna — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:29:46 +0000

For her doctoral dissertation in American history, scholar Mimi Killinger researched the life of homesteader and writer Helen Nearing. Her dissertation became the biography The Good Life of Helen K. Nearing (University of Vermont Press, 2007). Here, Killinger uncovers the roots of her project at the Good Life Center in Harborside, Maine, and reads excerpts from the biography. Killinger earned her Ph.D. from the University of Maine, where she is now Rezendes Preceptor for the Arts at the Honors College. The photo of Helen Nearing is courtesy of the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods.

Neil Rolde

Donna — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:57:09 +0000

Neil Rolde’s 2006 book, Continental Liar from the State of Maine, is a biography of James G. Blaine, the Maine politician who dominated the American political stage from just before the Civil War and almost until the twentieth century. A former Maine politician himself, Rolde is a prize-winning historian and author of Unsettled Past, Unsettled Future: The Story of Maine Indians; The Interrupted Forest: A History of Maine’s Wildlands; Maine, Down East and Different; and many other books. A former Board member of the Maine Humanities Council, Rolde won the Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2005.

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

Jeff Shaara

Donna — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:31:22 +0000

The Steel Wave is the second novel in what will be a trilogy of World War II stories by Jeff Shaara, who has also written about the Civil War, the American Revolution, the Mexican War, and the first World War. Shaara is the son of the late Michael Shaara, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Killer Angels, and got his start as a novelist when he was asked to write both a sequel and a prequel to his father’s bestseller.

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

Lewis Robinson

admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:50:59 +0000

Lewis Robinson is the author of Officer Friendly and Other Stories and the forthcoming novel Water Dogs, due out from Random House in January 2009. A graduate of Middlebury College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award and a PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles Award. Here, he is introduced by fellow fiction faculty member Lesléa Newman.

This reading took place in Freeport, Maine, during the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January, 2008. Stonecoast is the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine. We welcome your feedback on this Lewis Robinson podcast.

Shara McCallum

admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:45:59 +0000

Shara McCallum is the author of two poetry collections, The Water Between Us (University of Pittsburgh, 1999, winner of the 1998 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize) and Song of Thieves (University of Pittsburgh, 2003). McCallum was born in Jamaica, where she lived until she was nine with Afro-Jamaican and Venezuelan parents. She directs the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University. Here, she is introduced by fellow poet Charles Martin.

Interview with Ashley Bryan

brita — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:20:05 +0000

Born and raised in New York City, Ashley Bryan is another author “from away” who has found a home in Maine. Folklorist, writer, illustrator and performer, Bryan draws on African myths and tales, his own and others’ experience, and his literary, artistic and thespian talents to create children’s books (enjoyed by adults, too) and storytellings in schools and other venues, sometimes under the auspices of the Maine Humanities Council. (Read about his appearance at the 2005 Born to Read conference here). Bryan’s newest book is Let it Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals (Simon and Schuster, 2007).

This interview with Ashley Bryan by Charlotte Albright was included in the Council’s 30th Anniversary ‘Maine Writers Speak’ project. To hear more from Bryan, see the Children’s Book Council.

Don’t You Feel Well, Sam?

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:29:10 +0000

Here is one of Amy Hest’s popular books about a bear named Sam, read aloud by Amy Hand, children’s librarian at the Camden Public Library.

Text copyright 2002 by Amy Hest. Illustrations copyright 2002 by Anita Jeram. Reproduced by permission of Candlewick Press, Inc., Somerville, MA. We welcome your feedback on any of Amy Hand’s readings.

In the Rain With Baby Duck

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:26:09 +0000

Amy Hest is the author of this book about a duck who learns to love the rain. Here is Amy Hand, children’s librarian at the Camden Public Library, reading the book aloud and sharing a rhyme and two songs. For more children’s books about rain, see this Born to Read booklist.

Text copyright 1995 by Amy Hest. Illustrations copyright 1995 by Jill Barton. Reproduced by permission of Candlewick Press, Inc., Somerville, MA. We welcome your feedback on any of Amy Hand’s readings.

Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear?

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:19:01 +0000

Owl Babies is not the only bedtime book by Martin Waddell. He also wrote this book about a bear who cannot fall asleep. Amy Hand, children’s librarian at the Camden Public Library, reads the story aloud, then shares two rhymes and a song about the night sky.

Text copyright 1988 by Martin Waddell. Illustrations copyright 1988 by Anita Jeram. Reproduced by permission of Candlewick Press, Inc., Somerville, MA, on behalf of Walker Books Ltd., London. We welcome your feedback on any of Amy Hand’s readings.literature, Maine, parenting, bedtime, storytime, reading

Dido’s Lament: Virgilian Epic and 17th Century English Opera

Donna — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:16:32 +0000

Andrew Walkling is Dean’s Assistant Professor of Early Modern Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he teaches in the departments of art history, English, and theater and is affiliated with the faculties of history, music, and philosophy. He earned a Ph.D. in British history from Cornell. A Fellow of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, he works in an interdisciplinary field focusing on the courts of Charles II and James II (1660-88). He is writing a book entitled Masque and Opera in Restoration England. Two handouts accompanied his talk on 17th-century interpretations of the Aeneid. You can download them both in PDF format: Handout 1; Handout 2.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Virgil’s Aeneid in March 2008. We welcome your feedback on this Andrew Walkling podcast.

Art for Justice: Using Writing to Create Social Change

admin — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:54:37 +0000

Jennifer Hodsdon, a 2008 graduate of the Stonecoast program who now coordinates the Maine SpeakOut Project, led this discussion of some of the rewards and challenges that come from using writing as a transformative exercise to effect social change. The panelists were three Maine-based writer-activists—Gary Lawless (pictured at right), Cathy Plourde, and Chiara Liberatore—whose experiences range from writing workshops with homeless youth, veterans, and immigrant populations to theatrical performance with incarcerated youth and adults. You may have seen Lawless at Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, which he co-founded in 1979. Plourde founded Add Verb Productions, and co-wrote that organization’s play “When Turtles Make Love: Real Talk Between Parents and Teens” with Liberatore.

This panel discussion took place in Freeport, Maine, during the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January, 2008. Stonecoast is the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine. We welcome your feedback on this Art for Justice podcast.

Peaceable Stories with Jody Fein

admin — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:29:57 +0000

Storyteller Jody Fein visited the East End Community School in Portland on May 15, 2008, to tell stories to the Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade. She selected the stories “Abiyoyo,” “Stone Soup,” and “The Wind and the Sun,” all of which tie into the Born to Read initiative Peaceable Stories. This event was part of the Maine Festival of the Book. Audio recordings of other Festival events are on the MPBN website.

We welcome your feedback on this storytelling performance.

Believing Shakespeare: Religion in Shakespeare’s World and in his Plays

Donna — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:38:11 +0000

David Scott Kastan is the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities and Chair of the English Department at Columbia University. He specializes in 16th- and 17th-century literature and culture, Shakespeare, and the history of the book. He is the first American to serve as General Editor of the Arden Shakespeare, and he also served as General Editor of the 5-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, which was published in 2006. Kastan is presently working on a book called The Invention of English Literature, a project for which he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004.

This talk was part of the Portland Public Library’s Poetry Festival in April, 2008. We welcome your feedback on this Poetry Festival events.

Moon Pie Press

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:18:55 +0000

Three poets whose work has been published by the small, Maine-based Moon Pie Press, read together as part of the Portland Public Library’s Poetry Festival in April, 2008.

Alice N. Persons, founder of Moon Pie Press, is a sometime English teacher and an adjunct instructor of business law at the University of Southern Maine. A Maine resident since 1983, she volunteers for animal welfare organizations and also works with Port Veritas, a spoken word collective in Portland. Six of her poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac on NPR. Her first two chapbooks were Be Careful What You Wish For (2003) and Never Say Never (2004); in June 2007, Sheltering Pines Press published her third, Don’t Be A Stranger.

Michael Macklin of Portland works as a carpenter, edits reviews for the Cafe Review, and dreams of spending time at the ancient monastery of the island of Sceilig Mhichil off the west coast of Ireland. He received his MFA from Vermont College. He has published poems in the Cafe Review, The Aurorean, Animus, Rattle and other journals, and several anthologies. He owes a great deal to the support of his wife Donna and his son Gabriel, a hip-hop DJ.

Kevin Sweeney has degrees from California (PA) State College and the University of Massachusetts. He is the chair of the English Department at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, where he has been for more than twenty years. He is a native of Pittsburgh and dreams of retiring someday to be an old gringo in Mexico, watching Steelers games via satellite. Kevin lives in South Portland with his wife and pets. He has been on a diet, with lapses, for 46 years.

Ford In Focus

Donna — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:46:55 +0000

Michael C. Connolly and Kevin Stoehr are the editors of John Ford in Focus, a collection of essays that offers a comprehensive examination of Ford’s life and career, revealing the frequent intersections between Ford’s personal life and artistic vision, including his roots in Portland. Stoehr is associate professor of humanities at Boston University and lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Connolly teaches History and Political Science at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine. He is the author of They Change Their Sky: The Irish in Maine.

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 John Ford podcast.

Annie Finch and Patricia Hagge

Donna — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:42:40 +0000

Patricia Hagge and Annie Finch opened the library’s 2008 Poetry Festival with this reading. Hagge earned her MFA from the Stonecoast MFA program. She serves on the boards of SPACE Gallery and The Telling Room. Finch, who directs the Stonecoast program, is a professor of English at the University of Southern Maine.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Poetry Festival in April, 2008. We welcome your feedback on this Poetry Festival events.

How Did You Get Here?

brita — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:37:42 +0000

Playwright Victoria Mares-Hershey’s “How Did You Get Here?” gives voice to Africans in Maine, during the period of slavery and beyond, by giving audiences a sense of their everyday lives. This reading of the play’s first act was recorded on March 21, 2008, at the Museum of African Culture on Brown Street in Portland. Museum Director Oscar Mokeme welcomes the audience and architect Stephen Oliver introduces the show, then volunteer actors join with Mares-Hershey to perform the excerpt.

We welcome your feedback on this performance of “How Did You Get Here?” which was supported by a Maine Humanities Council & Maine Arts Commission grant.

Cowboy Baby

admin — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:39:41 +0000

This bedtime story by Sue Heap is set in the Wild West. As Rachel Davis, children’s librarian at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth, reads the book aloud, you can follow along in your own copy or a copy borrowed from the library. Then, listen to some fingerplays about cowboys.

Oliver Finds His Way

admin — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:35:50 +0000

While walking through the woods in autumn, Oliver chases a leaf and gets separated from his parents. This is the story of how he finds them again. It is read aloud by Rachel Davis, children’s librarian at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth, who then shares two fingerplays about leaves.

Text copyright 2002 by Phyllis Root. Illustrations copyright 2002 by Christopher Denise. Reproduced by permission of Candlewick Press, Inc., Somerville, MA. We welcome your feedback on any of Rachel Davis’s readings.

Only Joking, Laughed the Lobster!

admin — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:30:40 +0000

Colin West is a prolific British author who writes nonsense verse and humorous books, such as this one, about a lobster who takes his joking one step too far. Rachel Davis, children’s librarian at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth, reads the book aloud and then teaches two fingerplays about the ocean.

Translating Virgil

Donna — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:26:23 +0000

Barbara Weiden Boyd is the Henry Winkley Professor of Latin and Greek at Bowdoin College, where she has taught since 1980. She earned her Ph.D. at Michigan and has written extensively on Latin literature, notably two books on the poet Ovid. In recent years she has prepared a series of school texts and teachers’ guides to Virgil’s Aeneid. She has also been a visiting professor twice at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome. Her talk on translation relies on a handout, which you can download here in PDF format.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Virgil’s Aeneid in March 2008. We welcome your feedback on this Barbara Boyd talk.

The Rome of Augustus

Donna — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:33:15 +0000

Peter Aicher is Professor of Classics at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, where he frequently teaches courses on Homer and Virgil, in translation and in Greek and Latin. He combines these literary interests with a fascination with the city of Rome, which has resulted in several books and numerous articles and talks. He recently designed a course entitled “The City of Rome: Romulus and Mussolini,” which explores how an architectural language of power has evolved and persisted over the millennia. This is only the first part of Professor Aicher’s talk. In the second part, he used maps of Rome and the ancient world to show where the events described in the Aeneid took place.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Virgil’s Aeneid in March 2008.We welcome your feedback on this Peter Aicher podcast.

Virgil and History

Donna — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:37:32 +0000

Michael C. J. Putnam is MacMillan Professor of Classics and Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University, where he has taught since 1961. Educated at Harvard, he has written 11 books on Latin literature and has edited four others. He is widely regarded as one of the leading interpreters of the work of Virgil. He has been closely associated with the American Academy in Rome for many years and is a summer resident of Rockport, Maine.

This talk was part of the Winter Weekend seminar on Virgil’s Aeneid in March 2008. We welcome your feedback on this Michael Putnam keynote.