WinterMAINE Issue 2006 in printFREE for MWPA Members 10 Questions with publishers “on apprenticeship” Maine in Print asked a sampling of small publishers approach: a query letter with a SASE, a table of about the industry in Maine today, what works for contents with summaries, a sample chapter or by Bill Roorbach them and what does not. We received responses two, or previous writing samples. For children’s I wrote “On Apprenticeship” from Down East Books, Tilbury House, and Moon books, we like to see the manuscript, rather in 1994, a time when I was Pie Press, and their answers offer insight into an than just a query letter. It’s very important to just learning about some of the often misunderstood profession. do your homework before submitting material disappointments of the literary to a publisher—we probably get twenty- life—my first book had come 1. What is it about small publishing in Maine that five unsolicited manuscripts a week that are out, for one example, published gets you most excited? completely unsuited to what we publish. Authors by Houghton Mifflin, and my Down East Books: I would say that the most should consult a publisher’s editorial guidelines life hadn’t changed much at all, exciting thing is to publish a book that strikes such and peruse its online catalog before making a none of the heavenly trumpets a positive note with our readers that we end up submission. We receive a lot of email submissions, I’d expected, merely more work ahead of me. I ordering a reprint within a few weeks of publication, and few of them are prepared with the same care detect some of that in the tone of this piece as I re- but a close second is when the freshly printed new that usually goes into a traditional submission. We read it today, a bit of a chip on the shoulder, a feeling book arrives from the printer looking great and we do not open email attachments. that the world should appreciate what I was trying to crack it open to the delightful smell of fresh ink and do. With middle age comes wisdom: that the world the look of wonderful new book. Moon Pie Press: I would rather have an inquiry doesn’t much care is a given in my writing life now, letter or email rather than a manuscript. no longer a surprise. “On Apprenticeship” has been Tilbury House: It’s a wonderful opportunity to reprinted dozens of times since its first appearance meet interesting people and hear their stories—each 4. What is the worst way you have ever been in Maine in Print, first inPoets and , later in new book project seems to open up a new world and approached? publications from the Romance Writers Newsletter introduces us to some fascinating people. Down East Books: Persistent phone calls to a sociology journal, and just about every odd little insisting on a personal interview to discuss the publication in between. I think the message is still Moon Pie Press: Publishing the work of fine poets project in detail. important, these days when so many conversations who have not had a book before. with aspiring writers are part of my life, and so many Moon Pie Press: Getting unsolicited, really bad, of them are about careers rather than sentences, 2. What is the biggest challenge facing small really scary manuscripts in the mail with phone paragraphs, and drafts. publishers today? calls! Down East Books: Small markets and being able to Also, I’ve been amused over the years to see the gauge investments profitably. 5. Could you summarize what sort of work you are central anecdote of the piece, about the brain interested in publishing? surgeon, become something of a ’s urban Tilbury House: The bottom line is definitely a Down East Books: We are primarily interested myth. I’ve heard several speakers use it in the years challenge in today’s marketplace, but the workload in books that illuminate the experience of can also be a challenge. We call it publishing-by- living life “Maine-style.” This can range from “Roorbach” continued on page 6 triage. We have a small staff, and setting good children’s books, to history to biography to art priorities is critical. and photography that are connected to Maine. We now have a national distributor who can help us Moon Pie Press: Not going broke. achieve maximum exposure for our books in the In this Issue: national market as well as in the Maine market. Small Publishers...... 1 3. How do you like to be approached by an author? We also publish a few books that bring Maine “On Apprenticeship”...... 1 Down East Books: We get hundreds of unsolicited “values” in a general way to the whole country, Director’s Notes...... 2 manuscripts every year. And many people expect such as with a new book in the works now called Winter Calendar...... 5 instant answers. Far and away the best approach is At Home By the Sea, by Brian Vanden Brink and Health Insurance for Writers...... 7 to send a letter in which, in one page, the idea of Bruce Snider. This book will feature homes by the Book Notes...... 8 the book is crisply presented so that it is clear who sea that fit naturally into their setting in ways that Living Twice:Thoughts About ...... 10 the intended audience/reader is and what makes the the houses featured in At Home in Maine, by Brian Book Club...... 11 author’s project unique and saleable. An outline and Vanden Brink & Chris Glass, do. All the houses Longfellow Days...... 13 two or three sample chapters should be available if in At Home in Maine are in Maine, but the houses Network News...... 14 requested. The author should also include a resume in At Home By the Sea are located all over the Query Warehouse...... 15 listing previous books, magazine articles, and other northern hemisphere. With this new book we will Hot Leads ...... 16 writing. be “exporting” the idea of respecting the land and What’s Happening...... 17 building homes in thoughtful ways that integrate Writer’s Tool Kit...... Back Page Tilbury House: We still prefer the traditional Publishers continued on page 3 Director’s Notes I have the gift of remembering half bits of things--part of someone’s name, a Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance is a nonprofit, film that might have starred Cary Grant...or maybe it was someone wholooked tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) educational organization. Our like Cary Grant, a song with “summer” in it. With that in mind, I’ve carried mission is to enrich the cultural life of Maine by sup- the gist of a particular poem in my mind for years. It goes something like “the porting writers and the literary arts. writer’s words in the singer’s mouth made that little girl dance.” I think about the phrase when I get discouraged or overwhelmed. That line reminds me of Board of Trustees my greater purpose at Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Wayne Sheridan, Interim President Adam Krea, Secretary/Treasurer Anne Bowman Words are pervasive, shaping our culture in unseen ways. In addition to the Kirsten Cappy very big deals, the classics and the bestsellers, there are the little words: the Karen Douglas Annie Finch grocery lists, the holiday catalogs, and the note that says your husband will be back by eight and please Jan Grieco save him some supper. Without words and their makers, we’d be without email, without telephone Cally Gurley books, song lyrics, and without nutrition labels. Written communication is a powerful thing. Jim Hayman Macklin

Without Maine writers, and some of you have read this before, we’d have no Longfellow. We wouldn’t Staff take to the woods or live the good life. No Tess Gerritsen thriller for the airplane, no Ray Lamontagne, Shonna Milliken Humphrey and no spooky Stephen King to scare us on Halloween. Monica Wood would not put the muse in our Executive Director pockets, and Baron Wormser would not fly airplanes with Carthage. No Maine Sunday Telegram, no Mary Herman Echoes in the north country, and there would be no Egypt in Maine. Membership Coordinator

Rebecca Fraser-Thill It’s a pretty heady concept, and it’s proof that words matter. Let me repeat that: words matter. With- Administrative Coordinator out them, we lose our voice. Jessica Takach Publications Coordinator Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance has been supporting words and their makers for more than 30 years. We are the only organization in the state that serves as a one-stop resource for writers and pub- lishers in Maine. We offer workshops, events, conferences, and retreats that are relevant to YOU, our Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance members. We do this statewide. 318 Glickman Family Library University of Southern Maine PO Box 9301 So, when you receive a letter in the mail asking for your support this year, please give generously. Your Portland, ME 04104 donations comprise more than half of our budget. We depend upon our members to speak and speak loudly with their contributions. Your money funds the Maine Literary Awards, keeps the statewide con- (207)228-8263 (207)228-8150 fax ference for high school writing teachers affordable, promotes Maine writers at two major public author www.mainewriters.org signings, hosts craft workshops, and sponsors events like “Perdita” or “Power of the Word: Domestic [email protected] Violence” that raise awareness of personalities and issues affecting Maine’s culture. Your money brings Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance offers its pro- aspiring writers together with industry professionals at the annual “Business of Writing” conference. gramming with the generous support of the Maine Arts Your money pays for Maine in Print’s publication and mailing. Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

We do a lot, with a little. We count on you to help.

Thank you, in advance, for your support this year. DATES to Remember Shonna December 2 NB: I’m willing to give a copy of any one of the Holiday Book Sale Maine in Print is the newsletter of Maine Writers & books winning a 2007 Maine Literary Award to Publishers Alliance. MWPA members receive a sub- the first person who can tell me the source of that and Author Signing scription to Maine in Print as a benefit of membership. Maine in Print welcomes articles and essays on the line of poetry. It’s driving me nuts. 11-2 subjects of writing and publishing, specifically writing and publishing in Maine. Maine in Print rarely pays Portland, Maine for these articles, and no submissions will be returned.

To advertise in Maine in Print, please contact us for And by the way, everything in life is rates and schedules. December 15 writable about if you have the outgoing Contributors to this issue include: Annaliese Jakimides, DEADLINE for David Nolf, Val Hart, Jessica Takach, Tanya Whiton, guts to do it, and the imagination to Mary Herman, Bill Roorbach, Bonnie Mason, and Wes Maine Literary Award McNair. improvise. The worst enemy to creativ- Nominations Printed by The Times Record, Brunswick, Maine. ity is self-doubt. ~ Copyright 2006 Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Reproduction, in whole or in part, without permission is prohibited. 2 Publishing, continued from page 1 will develop sample pages and a cover design, which has gotten tougher, so there is plenty of excellent we share with the author (and illustrator, if it’s a material for small presses to publish. the house into its environment. children’s book), the book layout is completed, the author gets a long, final look at it all, and then it goes 11. You have the opportunity to dispel any myths Tilbury House: Children’s Books: Picture books off to the printer. Of course, this is just the beginning about the publishing process. Is there anything about cultural diversity, social justice, nature, of the process—next comes sending out review you’d like to say? environmental issues. We’re looking for books that copies, setting up author events, and deciding how to Down East Books: Publishing is hard work, but it will appeal to the trade and education markets both, promote the book. can be very satisfying. It is not, however, glamorous books that have enough content so that teachers will as many people sometimes think. Also, many want to use them in their classrooms, but also books Moon Pie Press: We accept the ms., work with the authors, especially first-time authors, often don’t that are engaging for kids. We tend not to publish author on book design, do editing, proofreading, understand that, as one wag once said, fables, fantasy, folklore, or talking-animal stories. getting an ISBN, etc. for free, and have the books “There is no such thing as writing; there is only Adult Books: Regional non-fiction--history, maritime printed. Our first run is usually 100 copies of a rewriting.” The best writing comes from rewriting. history, environmental, or cultural--with enough chapbook and more for a bound book, perhaps 250. appeal to sell throughout the state and beyond. We Moon Pie Press: Anyone can self-publish a book, sometimes partner with museums or organizations to 8. How do you decide how much of an advance to but I think one needs experience and close attention publish more specialized books. give an author? to detail to ensure that a book is as error-free as Down East Books: We pay advances on fewer than possible, aesthetically pleasing, and does justice to Moon Pie Press: We publish poetry, but may branch half the books we publish. If there is a good reason/ oothe writing.n ie out to other literary forms in the future. need to pay an advance, we pay small advances.M P Press 6. On average, how many manuscripts do Tilbury: We take a variety of things into you receive and how many do you choose for consideration: our bank account, expected first-year publication? earnings for the book, whether the author has been Down East Books: We receive about 1,000. published before, etc. SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS Tilbury: We probably receive 20-30 submissions Moon Pie Press: Are you kidding ? An advance for a week and typically publish two or three picture a poetry book ? We “advance” the publication costs books for children, and six to eight adult books. ourselves. oo Moon Pie Press: We have published an unusual 9. What is a typical advance amount offered at your n number of books - more than 25 in about three years. M publishing house? ie I would say that we turn down at least two for each P Down East Books: $1,000 and up (but not by ress one we accept. much). P

7. How does your individual publication process Tilbury: $0 to $3,000 work from start to finish? www.moonpiepress.com Down East Books: This is hard to answer in a few 10. How has publishing in Maine changed over words, but the basic steps are: the years? Is publishing in Maine different from 1. Conceive the idea. elsewhere? 2. Find an author or evaluate the unsolicited Down East Books: Publishing everywhere has proposal. gotten more competitive than ever. Small niche 3. Sign a contract and agree on a schedule. publishers have the advantage (sometimes) of less Tilbury House 4. Get to work on the final title and cover concept. competition, but the markets are smaller. Every year 5. Make a marketing and publicity plan. over 200,000 new titles are published. The Publishers 6. Get the book written. portion of those that are reprinted is miniscule. www.tilburyhouse.com 7. Begin the publicity and promotion. Publishing in Maine is not different from niche 8. Review, fact-check where appropriate, revise and markets elsewhere except that usually the Maine edit the manuscript. market is one of the smaller markets a writer can aim oo 9. Design the book. n at. 10. Manufacture/ Print the book. M P ie 11. Continue marketing and publicity. Tilbury: The biggest allies of independent ress 12. Sell the book. publishers have always been independent P bookstores, and they are having a difficult time Tilbury: When we’re intrigued by a manuscript with increasing competition from the big chains and or query, we talk with the author to discuss the from internet purchasing. Knowledgeable bookstore Down East Books process, talk about any substantive editing issues, staffers who read books and keep on top of what’s www.downeast.com talk about illustration, etc. When we’ve decided that available are a wonderful resource for book buyers- we’re on the same page, so to speak, we draw up a -they can steer you towards just the right book. contract and the work begins. Substantive editing The big chains seem more focused on national is done in house or sometimes with a specialist. A bestsellers, and it’s difficult for a small publisher copyeditor/proofer will also work on the manuscript. to capture their buyers’ attention (but we try!). The All changes are reviewed by the author. Illustrations publishing industry in Maine is small, but friendly are gathered or assigned. If we’re working with a and accessible. We certainly have a wealth of children’s book illustrator, we also ask for input from wonderful writers and illustrators in this state! the author (and vice versa), sharing the book dummy and working out the details in a way that’s respectful Moon Pie Press: There are a great number of of each person’s role in the process. A book designer good writers in Maine, and mainstream publishing 3 The following businesses offer a BECOME A MAINE WRITERS & PUBLISHERS ALLIANCE MEMBER! 10% discount to members of Maine JOIN TODAY AND RECEIVE: Writers & Publishers Alliance. qQuarterly subscription to Maine in Print, Maine’s only literary trade publication devoted to sup- porting Maine writers and publishers of all levels. qDeep discounts on all MWPA programs, including the Fall Writing Retreat at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the Writing Retreat in Camden, Literary Award reading fees, confer- ences like “The Business of Writing: everything you need to know about writing professionally in 40 Washington Ave. Maine” and “Writing in the Classroom: Tools for Writing Teachers.” Portland, ME qMerchant discounts from participating businesses like Sherman’s Bookstore, Silly’s reastaurant, www.silly’s.com Bass Cove Farm Bed & Breakfast, and the Kenniston Hill Inn. qFree classified listing to announce your writing event. qInformation about upcoming events and literary news. qThe satisfaction of supporting Maine’s only literary arts organization.

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Signature______Please return membership form to: www.kennistonhillinn.com Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance 318 Glickman Family Library University of Southern Maine If your business would like to trade an PO Box 9301 Portland, ME 04104 advertisement for a member discount, please If you have any interest in volunteering at Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, please contact us. We need contact MWPA at (207)228-8263. volunteers and interns for copy-editing, research, grantwriting, and web-related projects. Volunteer hours can be exchanged for participation in MWPA programming. Call or email for more details. 4 MWPA 2006 Winter Calendar MWPA Craft Workshop THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE SOMEWHERE ELSE Travel writing with Jaed Muncharoen Coffin November Saturday, December 10 15: Maine in Print 9a.m.-Noon mail date Describing a foreign place is a fine way to sharpen your writer’s mind. In a different country or in a strange town, 15: Annual Appeal our sense of awareness often becomes sharp and nearly surreal. We witness a different kind of detail in a different mail date kind of world, and the very feel of experience is elevated by our status as a stranger. In this workshop, we’ll use a series of exercises and discussions to help us translate the beautiful strangeness of our travels into effective pieces 20: Joyce Maynard of writing. We’ll discuss the role of exoticism in your writing, and how it can and must pertain to places both 7 pm far away and right down the road. The following questions will be addressed: How is being a writer like being a Books Etc. tourist? How can we use our traveler’s mind to reveal the strangeness of what is most familiar? How do we make Portland familiar what is most strange? A background in world-traveling is not required for this workshop. A memory of a trip to the next town over, or to the woods behind your house, will be more than sufficient. 21: John Connolly, author of The Book of Lost Things About the instructor: 12:15-1:15 p.m. Jaed Muncharoen Coffin has lived and traveled in dozens of countries and off the radar locations: sometimes as a boxer Portland Public Library* fighting in the fishing villages of Southeast Alaska, and sometimes as a monk living in the forest temples of Northeast Thailand. His work has been published in numerous travel magazines and periodicals. His first novel, about hitch hiking cross-country and into Mexico at the age of 19, was a runner up for the Story Line Press Three Oaks Award in Fiction. His first memoir, about living as a Buddhist monk in his ancestral village in Thailand, is under contract with Da Capo Press and December due for publication in Fall of 2007. 2: Holiday Book Sale and Author Signing 11 a.m.-2 p.m. WORKSHOP REGISTRATION FORM Portland Name______6: Clint Willis, author of The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington Title of Workshop______and the Tragedy of Climbing’s Greatest Generation Noon-1 p.m. Address______Portland Public Library*

15: DEADLINE for Maine Literary Award City______State______Zip______Nominations Statewide Telephone______Email______

20: Phillip Hoose, author of Perfect Once Re- moved Cost Noon-1 p.m. o Member...... $25 Portland Public Library* o Non-Member...... $45 TOTAL $ ______

January oMy check is enclosed. oPlease charge my VISA or MASTERCARD. Reading Month for Maine Literary Awards Account Number______Expiration Date______10: Stacy Mitchell, author of Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for Signature______America’s Independent Businesses Noon-1 p.m. Please return registration form to: Portland Public Library* Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance 318 Glickman Family Library 17: , author of The Lay of the Land University of Southern Maine Noon-1 p.m. PO Box 9301 Portland Public Library* Portland, ME 04104 24: Wesley McNair, author of The Ghosts of Upon registration, participants will receive an email confirmation with details specific to the workshop. In the event that a workshop is canceled for lack of You and Me Noon-1 p.m. participation, weather, or related cause, MWPA will notify participants as soon a possible and distribute a prompt refund. Other than for the causes stated, Portland Public Library* MWPA workshop registration fees are non-refundable.

*Although not part of MWPA’s official programming, we are pleased to help support the Portland Public Library’s “Brown Bag Lecture Series” (Bangor Public Library’s Author Series will continue in the Spring--Contact directly for special events this winter) 5 Roorbach, continued from page 1 Montana (and a doctor at Stonecoast and a doctor at a real living. If you ask her what she’s sold, she’ll Steamboat Springs and a doctor at every conference look puzzled, tell you (with aplomb and a little pity since its publication in MIP, and have had several I’ve ever braved teaching – doctors are famous at your ignorance): Sold? I’m an apprentice. Sold? published essays or news articles sent to me because offenders) strode up to me during cocktails and I’m proud to be able to sweep up around here. Sold? a friend recognized the borrowed story, sometimes announced that – now that she was established as I know I’ll be able at length to blow the perfect barely disguised. I even had the story told to me a surgeon (in fact, perhaps a little bored with it by lamps the masters blow now. Oh, god, let me show in Australia, where my host told me he’d heard now, the glamour having worn off) – yes, now that you the lumpy vase I’ve made before I smash it to it from another visiting American writer, one, no she had control of her time, she was going to take make shards to melt for the next try! I’m working on doubt, with a subscription to Maine in Print! Well, six months off and write her story. Mine had inspired necks, now; I’m working on making my vase necks here it is again, and with any luck it will be as the her, she said. perfectly graceful. old crooner sings: “Love is lovelier the second I said I was pleased to be her inspiration. I Imagine the glass apprentice taking vase- time around.” My apologies again for the world- wished her luck. Then there was a pause. The rattling marketing courses before she’s learned to make the weariness unearned! of ice cubes. I knew how smart it would be to keep glass. Imagine an entire Book-of-the-Minute club --Bill Roorbach, Farmington, August 7, 2006 silent, but I gulped my drink and said, “You know, devoted entirely to books aimed at glass apprentices you’ve inspired me! I’m going to take six months off and titled “Selling Your First Weak Attempts at Every time I run a workshop at a writing and become a surgeon like you, since I admire you, Glasswork.” First – and any apprentice to any master conference and every time I make small talk and since neurology seems most up my alley – after can tell you this – learn the craft. (And where does at gatherings of professors or family or old all, I work with my brain practically every day! Yes! one find a master when it comes to writing? In the acquaintances or friends I’m reminded how little our That’s it! Now that I’m an established writer, I think library, for starters.) culture appreciates artistic apprenticeship, how little I’ll just take six months off and heal a few brain We’ve heard that writing is a talent, that we writers (members, after all, of an unappreciated wounds!” one is born to it, that it can’t be learned. Malarkey! culture) admire our own apprenticeships, how much, Imagine the glass apprentice’s parents saying, “Glass even, we hate them. Yes! That’s it! Now that I’m an blowing? Glassblowing takes talent! You can’t At a Christmas gathering back home in the learn glassblowing.” Or the medical student’s: “If flatlands of Connecticut I got stuck at a house party established writer, I think I’ll you can’t do a heart transplant when you’re in high talking to a real estate lady and her banker husband. school you’ll never do one.” Every apprentice in Nice folks. She had read my book, a memoir just take six months off and any endeavor arrives with certain talents, certain called Summers with Juliet, which chronicles eight heal a few brain wounds!” facilities, all intermixed with flaws. One hopes to summers spent traveling with my now wife, the hang onto talents while correcting deficits. Perhaps painter Juliet Karelsen. He had not read the book, She didn’t get the joke. Didn’t even smile. our glassblower is lucky enough to be naturally good even grinned and admitted he hadn’t actually read “You can’t become a doctor in six months time,” she at goblet stems (goblet stems are hard!). Should she a whole book since college. Maybe not even in said. quit because she’s bad at vase necks? college, ha ha. I just looked amazed at her and watched her No. She goes to work; she learns. And when And she said, “We could have written that walk away. she fails she smashes the faulty lamp or pitcher, book.” But even among the enlightened, among musters all she’s learned, and tries again. No one “Yes!” he cried, “All the adventures we’ve the best students I’ve ever had, among the best suggests she keep working on the flawed apprentice had!” new writers I have ever talked to (and certainly work, just as no one suggests that a medical student “And the long courtship, too,” she said. within my younger self) contempt for the many continue to work on her assigned cadaver until it I liked her. Who wouldn’t? Lovely, years of apprenticeship (fully equal to the years comes to life. (Or worse, that she try to sell the intelligent, active, charming, successful. required for an M.D., usually twice again more) bestitched and bloodless thing, or send it a bill.) He said, “Always wanted to take off a month seems a devastating undercurrent. We’ve all of us Here is the only rule I’m willing to make and write the darn thing!” He really said this. A internalized our parents’ question, our dentists’ about writing: Honor your apprenticeship. Call pleasant banker who hadn’t read a book maybe ever. question, the competitive question at conferences: yourself a learner. When your goblets are good they “This is before we settled down,” she said. “Oh, you say you’re a writer.” Wry face. Then: will sell (first at yard sales, then in better and better “Rent a little cabin, write the darn thing,” “What have you published?” boutiques, then to the fine museums). Before that he said, dreamily. Some of his rough edges, most of And no matter if you’ve published two time, smash them and use what you’ve learned to the possibility of personality, had been rubbed off by feeble stories in the Wrinkly Elbow Review or ten make the next. One day, people will clamor for what banking, but not all. There was enough of a man left spectacular books: “Why, no, I haven’t heard of that you do. But first you must – we all must – learn to there to take him seriously. one.” The next question (we don’t ask doctors this!): write. When some well-meaning banker asks what I smiled, said nothing. I’m not entirely “Huh. How much do they pay you?” you’ve published, look shocked. Say, “But I’m an churlish sometimes and I know people say dumb And bless you if you haven’t published at apprentice!” Be proud of this, be glad of it. Buy things sometimes. I do have a sense of humor. And I all. The smirk, the little anecdote about the aunt who yourself a beer. Write yourself an acceptance letter. have had such conversations before: thought herself a writer (before her suicide, poor Cultivate patience. Quote Shinryu Suzuki: “In the Graduate Student in English: “When I finish thing), about the strange brother who wrote stories beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in my dissertation I’m going to write just such a book! no one could make the least sense of. The anecdote the expert’s mind there are few.” I’ve got a whole summer before I’m off to Oxford.” about that spy writer guy who made ten million on At the MWPA autumn retreat, an older Zoology professor: “So you see, my story is his first book. Why don’t you write about spies? So woman stopped to ask me , manuscript in just as interesting as yours: I’ll get it written when I it’s no wonder that the first question many a new hand. She didn’t ask for my agent’s phone number, finish my treatise on color distribution in weasels.” writer asks of her (usually struggling) teachers is: didn’t ask about “markets,” didn’t want to know if Nearly everyone: “If I only had time like “How do I sell this thing?” her story was publishable. She wasn’t all bruised you!” and cowering from periodical rejection, wasn’t sure Folks don’t quite see the difference between Consider the apprentice of a glassblower. she’d been misread by the editors of . the story and the work of its telling. People don’t No one condemns her. No one says she should be She simply (and cheerfully) showed me a section of quite see the enormous price of all that seeming free blowing spy figurines. She’s paying to learn, hoping dialog – one page in the middle of the story – even time. to reach the point where she can earn wages as gave me time to read it aloud. A physician at a conference I won’t name in journeyperson so that after a prescribed number of She said, “How do I make this better?” We got down to work. 6 years she’ll be a master at her craft and able to make RECAP: ‘Perdita’ HEALTH INSURANCE INFORMATION FOR WRITERS On November 1st at the Many professional trade associations offer health 568 Broadway 4th Floor, , NY 10012, (212) 334- University of Southern Maine’s insurance programs at discounted rates. Trade 1660, www.pen.org An association for poets, playwrights, Abromson Center, Pierre-Marc essayists, editors, and novelists; membership includes associations work with insurance brokers that provide Diennet performed the one- access to group health insurance. man show that he wrote about health insurance policies for association members , New York City, 19 W. 34th RBA Insurance Strategies his mother’s extraordinary life. at a discounted rate. Many insurance companies Street, Suite 816, New York, NY 10001, (212) 594-1500, work with the same brokerages and if a broker does [email protected] Provides insurance consultation Although Perdita Huston was not provide coverage for a state, it may be difficult for artist associations as well as the self-employed. a native of Maine, her travels to find an association that can provide health care Working Today took her all over the world--she for that state. Many associations do not have strict 45 Main Street, Suite 710, Brooklyn, NY 11201, (718) worked for the Tunisian Minister membership requirements, so it is not necessary 532-1515 www.workingtoday.org National nonprofit and was a medical social worker to limit a search to groups specifically in one field. freelancer’s union offers independent workers in any in rural Algeria. She went on to work for Time Inc. The following is a brief list of health care resources, industry three group-rate health insurance plans through and Life Magazine in Paris, and published three books. the Health Insurance Plan of New York. trade associations, and other government health The performance was fantastically moving. care options. For a complete listing of professional Pierre-Marc Diennet captured his mother at different associations, consult the literary marketplace, Emergency funds for writers stages of her life, all the interesting and diverse people available at public libraries or online at www. * This list is not comprehensive, and the Authors Guild that Pedita brought into their lives, as well as himself is not responsible for the information compiled. If you literarymarketplace.com. at different ages. have further information that might be helpful to writers in The event was co-sponsored by Maine Writers need, please contact [email protected] & Publishers Alliance, USM’s Center for Continuing Non-Governmental Programs Advertising Industry Emergency Fund Education, and USM’s Glickman Family Library. ABG Business Associates Ltd. 6404 Wilshire Blvd., #1111, Los Angeles CA 90048, (323) 154 Commack Road, Commack, NY 11725, (631) 655-1951 www.aief.org, [email protected]. 499-6100 Group plans are available to self-employed Emergency and medical aid available for Southern individuals for a fee. California ad/media employees who have worked in the The Chicago Manual of Style Goes Online Alliance for Affordable Services industry for at least one year and have not been absent for Box 815099, Dallas, TX 75381, (888) 748-7092 the advertising industry for over a year. If you have ever used the Chicago Manual of Membership costs $479.40 per year, includes health care Aid for Aids Style you have probably wished for a handy “search” options for an additional fee. Call Midwest National Life 8235 Santa Monica Blvd, #200, West Hollywood CA button on the inside cover that would whisk you Insurance for a quote (800) 733-2242. 90046, (323) 656-1107, ext. 105 www.aidforaids.net, through the 984-page American Association of Retired Persons [email protected]. Provides grants for people with 601 East Street, NW, Washington, DC 20049, (800) 523- HIV who are disabled, cannot work, and have exhausted volume to the exact page, 5800 [email protected], www.aarphealthcare.com financial resources. paragraph, and sentence Products offered include Medicare Supplement, Medicare American Society of Journalists and Authors you need to dispel your Select, Hospital Indemnity, and Long-term Care Insurance Writers Emergency Assistance Fund editing troubles. 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Artists’ Health Insurance Resource Center Dramatists Guild Fund This manual c/o The Actors’ Fund, 729 Seventh Ave., 10th Floor, New 1501 Broadway, New York NY 10036, (212) 398-9366 York, NY 10019, (800) 798-8447 [email protected], Provides interest-free loans to professional and published has come a long way; www.actorsfund.org/actors/ahirc Provides a state-by-state playwrights, composers, and lyricists during emergencies. the first edition was health insurance database, especially for artists, low-income Lifebeat published in 1906 with people, seniors and children. 72 Spring Street, #1103, New York NY 10012, (212) 965- only 200 pages, and Editorial Freelance Association 8900 Provides individual grants for people with HIV and was known simply as the Manual of Style. 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This is a pretty Insurance Information Institute 568 Broadway, New York NY 10012, (212) 334-1660 www. reasonable rate, considering that the print version 110 William Street, New York, NY 10038, (800) 331-9146 pen.org. Provides financial assistance to published writers. goes for $55 and the online version will always be up- Provides facts and assistance to individuals and Pen Fund for Writers and Editors with AIDS to-date. For groups larger than 5 people, discounts organizations. 568 Broadway, New York NY 10012, (212) 334-1660 will be given, the highest being 20% off for a group National Association for the Self-Employed www.pen.org. Offers emergency funds of up to $1,000 of between 16 and 20 people, which comes to $20 Box 612067, DFW Airport, Dallas, TX 75261-2067, (800) to professional writers, including screenwriters, within six each. Libraries and corporations should contact the 232-NASE www.nase.org Serves non-commercial and weeks of application. University of Chicago Press directly at 1-888-472-2744 commercial visual artists in Chicago, the Midwest and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America or [email protected]. other regions. Members obtain group health insurance Emergency Medical and Legal Fund, 1436, Altamont through MEGA Life and Health. Health insurance is not Avenue, PMB 292, Schenectady NY 12303 www.sfwa.org. available in all states. Medical fund offers interest-free loans to members facing National Writers Union, 113 University Pl. 6th Fl., New unexpected medical expenses. Also makes loans available York NY 10003, (212) 254-0279 www.nwu.org, nwu@ to authors who must take a writing-related dispute to court. nwu.org Offers health plans to associate and regular members living in New York State. PEN American Center 7 Maine Book Notes Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance happily promotes Maine writers or publishers and their recent publications. While MWPA does not publish book reviews, we are happy to print the synopsis and image of any recent book by a Maine author or publisher. The only fast criterion is that each book must have an ISBN, so that our members can access the title from a local bookstore. While we make every effort to publish books in a timely fashion, MWPA receives many more titles than Maine in Print has space, so we cannot guarantee placement in a particular issue. To submit your book, please send a copy to: MWPA Book Notes, 318 Glickman Family Library, PO Box 9301, Portland, ME 04104

A1 Diner: Real Food, Recipes & Recollections Child is Working to Capacity by T.A. Delmore Just for Elephants By Carol Buckley Tilbury More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Maine By Sarah Rolph, Moonpie Press 2006 House Publishers Women By Kate Kennedy Photography by Jeff Chapbook $8.00 ISBN November 2006 ISBN The Globe Pequot Press Giberson Tilbury 0-9769929-8-1 Maine 0-88448-283-9 2005 Nonfiction $10.95 House Publishers 2006 Publisher Maine Publisher ISBN 0-7627-3147-8 Nonfiction $20.00 ISBN Diane Nardfors writes, When Shirley arrives at Maine Writer 0-88448-277-4 Maine “These sensitive, The Elephant Sanctuary This book tells the stories Writer, Publisher perceptive poems will in Hohenwald, TN, after of thirteen strong and In 1946 Worcester Diner enrich the readers’ a lifetime of working determined women who #790 arrived by truck and lives with their in circuses and zoos, broke through social, was installed at 3 Bridge Street in Gardiner, piercing honesty, their ability to elicit ahs of everyone is surprised cultural, or political Maine. Under the name of Heald’s, it served recognition, and their love of life. The poems when she recognizes Jenny, an elephant whom barriers. Through their passions for art, employees of Gardiner’s mills and factories questioning the past spark remembrances in she knew from a circus many years ago. The exploration, literature, politics, music, and with an emphasis on ample portions served us, the examination of the ordinary objects two greet each other with joyful trumpeting, nature, these women made contributions to quickly. It’s still at 3 Bridge Street, still a like porches, baked apples, and ladybugs spend the night awake with trunks entwined, society that still resonate today. marvel of efficiency and art modern design, still change forever our perceptions, and the and in the morning, Jenny leads Shirley around a local gathering place, still serving the same delightful observances of crows bring smiles of the Sanctuary and introduces her to her new Ocean Drinker By Carl Little warm, flaky biscuits. appreciation to us.” home and elephant friends. Deerbook Editions 2006 Poetry $14.00 ISBN A Rebel Redeemed By Philip B. Turner Confluence: Merrymeeting Bay By Franklin Letters of E.B. White, 0-9712488-5-0 Maine Sponsored by The Caribou Burroughs, Photography Revised Edition. Writer, Publisher Historical Society and by Heather Perry Tilbury Originally edited by Often marked by The Haystack Historical House Publishers 2006 Dorothy Lobrano Guth, wordplay, Carl Little’s Society 2006 Historical Nonfiction/Photography revised and updated by poems offer a sense Novel $30.00 ISBN 0-88448- Martha White. Harper of existence that is ISBN 1-896775-24-1 282-0 Maine Writer, Collins Publishers sometimes surreal and Maine Writer Publisher December 2006 always engaging. From Phil Turner was born on Robert Kimber writes, Collection. $35 ISBN Captain Ahab transported to a modern-day a dairy and potato farm “Franklin Burroughs—my 0060757086 Maine Writer whale watch, to “Calvin Trillin,” a poem that in Mapleton, Maine in the early 1920’s. After nominee for Maine’s Essayist Laureate—and Now updated with newly-released letters from revolves around mistaken identity, Little casts a high school, he left for the University of Maine. photography Heather Perry have combined 1976-1985 and many new photographs, Letters curious eye on the world around him. Turner’s I AM General Eaton! was nominated their considerable talents to show us in word of E.B. White is better than ever. Because he for the William Young Boyd Military Novel and image the rich life of Merrymeeting writes about what lasts and what matters, E.B. Out of Bounds By John R. Corrigan Award. He received the Golden Book Award Bay—its frogs and sturgeon, its eels, eagles, White never seems to go out of style. University Press of New for the Maine Round Table Writers for the best ducks, and wild rice, its time and tides, its England 2006 Mystery regional historical novel. scenic beauty, the good people who live on it Lessons from a Golfer by Susan L. Young Just $24.95 ISBN 1-58465- and around it. Write Books June 2006 544-5 Maine Writer Bailey’s Bluff By Elsie O’Dell Dinsmore Nonfiction $17.95 ISBN In the fifth installment of Belleisle Books 2006 Fresh Maine Salads By Cynthia Finnemore 0-9777614-6-0 Maine John R. Corrigan’s Jack Fiction $15.95 ISBN Simonds Down East Writer, Publisher Austin Mystery series, 0-9772871-1-4 Maine Books June 2006 Recipe Susan Young weaves our hero investigates the Writer, Publisher $18.95 ISBN 0-89272- the lessons of golf possible use of steroids A mystery novel of 700-4 Maine Writer, through the lessons of in professional golf. Pro obsession, deception, Maine Publisher life, as taught to her by golfer Jack Austin has built his career on his revenge, and a bitter- Move over main dishes! her father, Ray Lebel, ability to drive the ball a long distance, but as sweet joy, Bailey’s Cynthia Finnemore who played jazz horn, completed a career as younger, stronger players enter the game, he Bluff tells the story of Simonds shows how an oral surgeon and is a golf champion. He finds that the pack is catching up. He’s not the Caitlin’s determination to discover the truth, a to make salads into is the winner of the Maine State Amateur six only player to feel the heat; Jack’s friend Hal determination that takes her from Tennessee, mealtime stars. In Fresh Maine Salads, the times, holds the national record for most club “Hurricane” McCarthy, a middle-aged player, her adopted home, to the island village of innovative caterer from Newcastle, Maine wins, and listed in Sports Illustrated as one has been struggling to hold on for several Trafton Harbor, Maine, a place she comes to also draws on ingredients that are indigenous of Maine’s top atheletes. His eldest daughter seasons. Lately, however, McCarthy and a few know as “a hard, cold land of deep water and to the Pine Tree State, including blueberries, shares these stories with you. other players have enjoyed significant—even soaring gulls.” A place where her own life is cranberries, fiddlehead ferns—and lobster, of mysterious—improvements to their play. at risk. course. Not only does Simonds provide easy- Maine: A Portrait Photography by Lucian to-follow recipes but she adds appendixes Niemeyer, text by Snowed In By Christina Bartolomeo Capturing Paris By listing ingredient sources, measurement Rachel Carson and St. Martin’s Press 2004 Katharine Davis information, and more. Louise Dickinson Rich Fiction $24.95 ISBN 0- St. Martin’s Press 2006 Down East Books 2006 312-32088-4 Maine Writer Fiction $13.95 ISBN 0- Hammer of Chalk By Steve Masone Coffee-table book $35 Imagine having always 312-34098-2 Maine Writer Malleus Publications ISBN 0-89272-697-0 lived in Washington, Married for twenty-five 2004 Nonfiction ISBN Maine Publisher D.C., and suddenly being years, American expats 0-9748352-1-8 Maine Lucian Niemeyer has stuck in Portland, Maine, Annie and Wesley Reed Writer, Publisher wowed photography for a year. With pipes are living an elegant, The reading should bring book buffs with freezing—inside the sophisticated life in Paris. about an understanding of outstanding volumes that focus on New house. And a husband Their apartment is filled with food, wine, and why the author refers to his Mexico, the Chesapeake Bay, and on birds who seems to have his eye on a hiking-booted accomplished friends. But when Wesley loses colleagues as both victim in various natural environments. In his new L.L. Bean femme fatale rather than you. Lucky his job and a sexy, mysterious woman enters and most vulnerable. coffee-table book, Maine: A Portrait, he for Sophie her new life is about to throw in their lives, suddenly the sights, smells, and It is hoped that the turns his lens on America’s northeastern-most her lap some weird and valuable opportunities sounds of Paris may never be the same understanding will engender an improvement in state—with results that are nothing short of to trample down her fears and transform her the plight of his teaching colleagues. remarkable. prospects for happiness. 8 an arrest? What are the consequences if has intimately followed for twenty years, view a stormy autumn night in Silver Creek Lodge Spiderling By K. Spirito Peter E. Randall your protagonist admits guilt to his defense the last decade. It is a tumultuous moment: at Mount Washington, Professor Sanjih shares Publisher 2006 Fiction attorney? Jury voir dire sounds great—but the party in power since independence has just his esoteric view on life and divinity with his $16.95 ISBN 978-1- what is it? For plain English answers to these been thrown out in a startling election. People young friend, Christopher. Utterly intrigued, 931807-53-1 Maine and many other questions, read The Criminal are dancing in the streets. Christopher begins to reexamine his notion of Writer, Maine Publisher Law Handbook: Know Your Rights, Survive success, happiness, and accomplishment. And The world is on the the System. Designed to help defendants, The Road Washes Out that is the beginning of his journey toward self- verge of destruction victims and their families navigate the in Spring By Baron discovery and self-actualization. and the epicenter complex maze of the criminal justice system, Wormser University lies beneath Granite The Criminal Law Handbook is also an Press of New England The Way Women Walk By Marcia F. Brown Mountain, New invaluable resource for writers! October 2006 Poetry Sheltering Pines Press Hampshire. While $24.95 ISBN 1-58465- Poetry 2006 $6 ISBN attending Ecology Camp, Katrina Waters gets The Desire Line By Michelle Lewis Moonpie 607-7 Maine Writer 0-9776158-3-9 caught up in a terrorist sleeper cell. All she Press 2006 Chapbook In The Road Washes Maine Writer wants is her own identity and destiny—not $8.00 ISBN 0-9785860- Out in Spring: A Poet’s Debut collection the one her father wants for her and not the 0-X Maine Writer, Memoir of Living by Cape Elizabeth one that terrorists intend for her. Who will Publisher Off the Grid, Baron Wormser presents the poet, Marcia F. stop Judgment Day? The forces within the Gray Jacobik writes, experience of living deliberately—without Brown and Winner of government, an overprotective father, or a “The elation I feel conventional power—in a series of linked the 2005 Sheltering bunch of brainwashed kids? when a new poet essays and narratives. The book is a beautifully Pines Press Chapbook Competition. Former begins speaking in this written memoir of nature, community, and Maine Poet Laureate, Baron Wormser describes Summer Lines: A Decade of Tenants Harbor ancient and ever-new poetry. Brown’s work as “subtle, yet possessed of a Poetry Readings Edited conversation—and this new poet is truly very genuine fire.” by Christopher Fahy ingenious, and furthermore, has learned to The Same River Twice: A Limerock Books 2006 bring weight to bear upon each and every Boatman’s Journey Home The Very Best Bed By Poetry Collection $12.00 word, line, stanza, indeed, the gestalt of By Michael Burke The Rebekah Raye Tilbury ISBN 0-9746589-2-8 an entire poem—such an experience is University of Arizona House Publishers 2006 Maine Writer, Publisher a homecoming for me. I feel again the Press Memoir 2006 ISBN 0-88448-284-7 In the summer of 1997, excitement I first felt when the first poem of $16.95 ISBN 0-8165- Maine Publisher the first of what would my existence spoke to me. 2531-5 Maine Writer The moon is rising become an annual In the summer of 1991 higher as the bushy gray evening of poetry The Fifth Voice Michael Burke, an squirrel looks for a place readings was held in the Jackson Memorial Toadily Press 2006 experienced river guide, to sleep. He explores Library in Tenants Harbor, Maine. In Poetry Collection embarks on a three-week journey down a series the forest and the coast, celebration of our tenth anniversary of these $14.00 ISBN 0- of remote rivers in British Columbia. Leaving but each potential bed he discovers is occupied readings, this book brings together some of the 9766405-1-1 behind his pregnant wife, he embraces the by other animals--a great big bear in a cozy poems we have presented over the years. Maine Writers perils of a voyage with a companion he barely den, a family of bats hanging upside down... Illya Kaminsky writes knows in a raft that may not weather the trip. Squirrel’s seach concludes when he finds an (Sweet) By Dave Morrison JukeBooks 2006 in her forward, “It He attempts to reconcile the shifting fates of his empty woodpecker’s nest, lines it with moss Poetry $12.95 ISBN 978- is a brilliant idea to life—his transition from river guide to husband, and leaves, and snuggles up with his own fluffy 1-84728-189-0 Maine put together a festival of four different lyrical father, and academic. tail to keep warm--the very best bed, indeed! Writer voices between the same covers. There is A hardy weed in the just enough room to give the reader an idea The Symphony of Aging By Jean Labelle, Tuscany Light By M. Kelly Lombardi garden of American of each poet’s range and sensibility while at M.D. Self Help ISBN Moonpie Press 2006 poetry, Dave Morrison’s the same time allowing for more than one 1-59872-278-6 Maine Chapbook $8.00 ISBN 0- work is equal parts blue such sensibility to be appreciated in the single Writer, Publisher 9785860-1-8 Maine Writer, collar skepticism, jazzy volume.” Dr. Jean Labelle teaches Publisher dreamscapes, and dark in this book how to use Richard Miles writes, humor. Dave has been The Ghosts of You and Me By Wesley McNair the wisdom gained from “Ms. Lombardi’s Tuscany extensively published in on-line literary David R. Godine living longer to clear a Light poems combine to magazines, plays Fender guitars and amps, Publisher 2006 Poetry path to successful long give us an actual heaven. and lives on the beautiful and rugged coast of $17.95 ISBN 978-1- series of satisfactory In the Tuscan Hills, San Maine. 56792-293-6 senior years. Old age is a disease and The Gimignano (and its convento) is a retreat to Maine Writer Symphony of Aging will teach you the true which she withdraws periodically, both in The Burning of Troy By Richard Foerster In this new collection, way to arrest it on your own. Aging is a daily person and in imagination while at home on the BOA Editions, Ltd. 2006 Wesley McNair offers deterioration. It does not happen suddenly. Maine coast. Lending shape to these poems Poetry $15.50 ISBN his fullest vision of You do not feel it creeping up on you. Loss of are the bones of Italy--figs, persimmons, dogs, 978-1-929918-83-6 human life, both its memory and intellectual capacity happens over walnuts, bread, apples, wine, brothers and their Maine Writer hardships and its rich possibilities. Opening a very long period. It only seems to suddenly chants--in this enchanted, time-stopped town The Burning of Troy with poems about growing up with family surface. It only seems that suddenly you are where the physical and the spiritual overlap.” was catalyzed by the conflict in a New England of broken farms old. You can arrest and reverse the damage of rapid death of Richard’s and towns, McNair explores the limits of the sands of time. partner of fifteen years. personal wishes and American dreams. Here However, Foerster’s too are haunting encounters with ghost selves, The Tombland’s Tale By Ali Alavi Portland-based free- lines are less a private testament of loss and the dead, and the gangsters in old movies, 2006 Suspense $12.95 grief than the universal voicing of a lover’s lighter fare such as a poem about the poignant ISBN 978-1-933556-44-4 lance writer offers fast, confrontation with mortality. To connect to hopefulness of comb-overs, and a transcendent Maine Writer this universal experience, Foerster consciously series of lyrics that celebrate self-acceptance On the verge of reliable line editing, employs various distancing devices, voices, and and the spiritual dimension of “life on the becoming the youngest mythic allusions. ground.” project champion of critiques, rewrites. Salem Technologies, a The Criminal Law The Ostrich Wakes: Struggles for Change multinational corporation Fiction, non-fiction. Handbook Nolo 2006 in Highland Kenya in Portland, Maine, Law/Criminal Procedure By Jean Davison Christopher Wayne, a lifetime aspiring novelist, Reasonable rates. $34.99 ISBN 1-4133- Kirinyaga Publishers finds the audacity to abandon his hard-earned 0514-8 Maine Writer June 2006 Nonfiction career in order to pursue his old dream of vhart001@ You’ve got everything: $14.95 ISBN 0- becoming a professional writer. The source of winning story, vivid 9785150-0-5 his inspiration is a Harvard-educated mystic, maine.rr.com. characters, compelling Maine Writer Professor Rashid Sanjih, who teaches Forensic setting, conflict, Author Jean Davidson Psychology at the University of Southern and—of course—crime. returns to her home Maine and from time to time serves the FBI The trouble is you’re not quite clear on the base in Mt. Kenya’s verdant foothills to and the local police as a criminal profiler. On real-world details. What really happens during discover how Gikuyu farmers, whose lives she 9 LIVING TWICE: THOUGHTS ABOUT POETRY stand into the cadences and tones of an intimate subjectivity. By Wesley McNair conversation. Then there was Sigmund Freud, who in his early work in psychoanalysis sought to engage And who is deeply attracted to the excitement of an the deeper consciousness of his patients through idea in formation -- the process of thinking, rather Thanks to Wesley McNair and editor Robert Nazarene, we a technique derived from his experiments with than the finished thought, in all its self-satisfaction are able to bring this piece to Maine in Print. This piece hypnosis, speaking from a chair behind the patient and complacency. can also be found at the Margier Review online. lying on a couch, “seeing him,” as Freud wrote in an intriguing passage of his autobiography, “but not Looking back on graduate school, I realize that Lived once, the events we experience come and go, seen myself.” many of my professors, schooled in the approaches in disorder and confusion. But as poets we have the of New Critical scholarship, had trouble with alcohol luck of living twice, the second time when we recall Again and again in her poems Elizabeth Bishop finds and suffered disappointment in their personal lives. through our work what happened to us, learning in just the right tone of voice to take the reader into Could this be in part because they had learned a this way the event’s true meaning. her confidence. There is nothing more pleasurable language that kept at arm’s length the thing they in her work than that tone, her unique contribution most loved? I only know that to write poetry I had A poem depends on reticence and smallness. It to poetry. “Somebody loves us all,” she famously to unlearn New Criticism -- not only the language consists of just a few sentences grouped around writes in “Filling Station” about the humorous and of , but the poetry they wrote about, an insight. Left without fanfare in the silence of rather hopeless family who own the station. The whose objective was, following Eliot’s model, a page, it is discovered by a solitary reader who confidential tone with which she describes them, “depersonalization.” Poetry did not want me to keep finds it important enough to pass on to a friend who loving as it is, seems by itself to suggest what she my materials at a distance so much as to embrace may also benefit from it. The new reader perhaps means. them. makes a copy of it to pin on his wall, then hands it on to another, who learns it by heart. By this slow How much do fellow writers love the new book of Yet the Eliot who called for depersonalization in process, the little poem eventually finds its way to poetry? The inevitable blurbs on the back cover, ever his essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent” also a community of appreciation, acquiring a scale and multiplying, explain. Not so long ago, collections advised that poets should be guided not only by the an authority that in the beginning might have been seemed obliged to include one or two blurbs. Now work of their own generation, but should write with, unsuspected. many poetry covers feature three or more. Why so in his words, “the whole of literature” in their minds. much boasting? What do we have to hide? In a lazy period such as ours when so many editors In a nation like ours that honors the big, the and poets value novelty above all things, Eliot’s noisy and the quick, the poem has no supporting And why do the titles of poetry books open with advice reads like a long-needed call to ambition. mythology. But since the poem’s strength arises from an abstract noun and link it by way of a preposition precisely what this mythology rejects, its power to another to contrive an atmosphere of portent and A veteran Maine woodcarver in a radio interview continues, even here, undiminished and unabated. profundity: The Authority of Water, The Imperatives makes this observation with implications for veteran of Desire, The Importance of Light, The Uses of poets: “Sometimes a rut can feel like a groove.” I attend a writers conference billed as one of the Rain? Why do the titles of poetry books so often largest in America among whole classes of area sound like the titles of poetry books? The back-cover The poet takes a journey that opens his heart in two high school students attending with their teachers, blurbs are similarly abstract and precious, favoring ways, deepening first his intuitive awareness, from poetry enthusiasts from all over the country, and verbs like “nourish” (as in “poems that nourish which his poetic insights come, and secondly, his of course poets, those who write regularly and feelings of”) and “informs” (as in “the generosity compassion for fellow humans and all the living those who want to write more. The many panels that informs her vision”); adjectives like “luminous” things with which he shares the planet. Without the about the craft feature poets with brand names and or “numinous”; and descriptive combinations like development of this second thing, his poems may meet concomitantly to discuss the writing process, “quirky grace” and “harrowingly wise”? For general turn inward and lose contact with the very audience methods of revision, publishing, and the writer’s readers examining the covers of or books in libraries to which poems must be addressed. development. “If you had known who I was when I or bookstores, such titles and blurbs are likely to The poems that move us most are the most complex began as a poet, you would not believe a person such confirm the suspicion they have had all along about in their emotion, containing a counterweight or as I could be here occupying this chair,” says one at poetry: that they will never “get it,” and that there counteraction of feeling: I am convinced and I can’t her panel. There are so many poets at one afternoon might not be much point for them in getting it quite believe; how could he have done this to me and reading, they must be listed on two sides of a anyway. I love him; this beauty is endless and I will die. program. There are so many listeners, all scanning , speaking to, and about, their programs to pick out their favorites, the faces I have never found a better place to seek the poem’s of the poets must be presented on giant TV screens the reader in the introduction to his book, Lyrical Ballads: “I have wished to keep the reader in the muse than the side of a quiet pond, whose protean as they read from their work. Every poem draws surface, like the imagination, shifts and changes the applause. In an old joke, a man who prays to God company of flesh and blood, persuaded that by so doing, I will interest him.” images of shore and sky and then goes still, like a asking Him for a way to gain entrance into a church mind in concentration, lengthening the trees, docks that will not let him in. “Don’t worry,” God says, and canoes along its shore by its reflection. “I’ve never been in that church myself.” Who could Without a reader, the life of the poem does not exist. So poets should do their best to be clear. object to building this huge church for poetry, which, Creative thinking II, lawyers and poets: asked about unlike the church of the joke, welcomes all who Yet the most memorable insights of poems do not come from direct speech, but from obliqueness and the process by which he arrives at approaches to wish to enter? So why, in the middle of my own legal issues he researches, the professor and lawyer enthusiasm and applause, do I miss poetry? indirection. So poems can also suffer, as they often do today, from being too open to readers, and from Peter Strauss tells me he always begins with a series of questions -- “just as you do, I’d guess.” Places where poetry is invoked and may not an accompanying desire to be liked by them. come: a presentation by a guest poet during But it is no use to suggest, as do the poets asked “As they grow older, do composers, like poets, feel National Poetry Month in an auditorium full of the need to impart whatever wisdom they have to students, with teachers patrolling the aisles; a in a recent issue of a literary journal to write about audience, that poets are not obligated to an audience, their listeners?” I ask the composer Jon Appleton at bookstore reading beginning with what the poet a retreat for artists. “I don’t know if there is a way terms “a long sequence of poems”; weekend only to the truth of their inspiration. There are few writers, poets or otherwise, who have not tried to to express wisdom in music,” he replies. “But what workshops in poetry writing called “Finding Your about the feeling that you’re up against the ultimates Voice.” straighten out a tangled sentence by posing as a reader of their work, rather than the writer of it. and you want only to speak the truth as you know There is inspiration, and there is the need to make it?” I ask. “That,” he says with his finger in the air Still, developing a speaking voice, which happens -- “that, I have felt and done.” over time rather than through the seven-step program sense. of the workshop, is crucial to engaging an audience, Several years ago I had a residency at a writers and not only for writers. The jazz musician Lester At the academic conference, I am struck by the difference between the literary specialist and retreat in Ireland, becoming acquainted there with Young, who learned how to “speak” with his the Irish love of language. In an instant, the Irish tenor sax, turned public performance on the band the writer, who distrusts the abstraction and methodology that the specialist so prizes, and writers I met could wax articulate about any issue, 10 who acquires his objective distance by the deepest McNair, continued on opposite page McNair, continued from page 10 their opinions leaping fully formed into sentences. Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance BOOK CLUB Meanwhile, I spoke haltingly or not at all, dazzled CAPTURING PARIS and intimidated by their facility. I finally discovered the apparent failure of her marriage. How does that it was not only my ineptitude that made me different For this issue of advice influence Annie’s ultimate decision to start a from them, but my attitude toward language. While Maine in Print new life in the United States? they trusted it utterly to express what they meant, we are featuring a I both trusted and distrusted it, as other American novel by Katharine 4. Is Daphne merely sexually manipulative, selfishly writers tend to do. Our ambivalence toward language Davis. Davis was wanting to break up the Reeds’ marriage? How gives us a special feeling for free verse, its line- born in Summit, might her past experiences have contributed to her breaks, sentences broken across stanza divisions, New Jersey, and behavior? Does Daphne bring anything positive to and spaces just beyond the lines and stanzas -- all of grew up in Europe. Annie and Wesley’s lives? which bring the not-said into the poem and indicate For the last thirty meanings that exist beyond the power of language to years she has lived express them. 5. Paul Valmont recognizes Annie’s artistic potential in Washington, and offers her a wonderful opportunity. Would Annie Which is to say that the very form of free verse D.C., where she have succumbed to an affair with him if Wesley calls us to the deepest communication possible has worked at the had remained faithful to her? What keeps her from in literature: to bring language to the edge of National Gallery continuing their affair? Why aren’t Valmont and articulation, revealing feelings words cannot express. of Art, taught the intoxicating city of Paris enough to keep her in French, written a cooking column for The York Europe? There is, however, another way of writing free verse Weekly, and raised two children. This is her first among American poets which conveys its meanings novel. 6. What makes Annie want to rebuild her marriage? more through what the ear hears than what the eye 1. Why is Annie more inspired now by her Will her family and career suffer or prosper from her sees. Those who have written the best free verse for work as a poet, and what factors might be decision? the ear -- Theodore Roethke, say, Sylvia Plath, James contributing to her success at mid-life? Is Wright, or -- were trained as formalists, she selfish to want to put her artistic life 7. Annie returns to God House at the end of the book. learning from their verse in rhyme and meter that first? Why is it important for Annie to see Daphne again? the line was a musical unit, self-contained. Is their free verse therefore limited? No more than the free 2. Throughout the long, dreary Paris winter, 8. Francois Naudin captures Paris in photographs and verse of so many eye poets who have followed them, what does Annie fear most? What does she Annie captures the city in her poems. In giving up writing for the page and losing more and more of want most? poetry’s music. her life in Paris, what has Annie lost? What has she gained? Ultimately, did she compromise too much? How long will we poets have readers who know 3. Helene and Celeste, Annie’s friends, offer the difference between language for the eye and her advice when she is confronted with the ear, or for that matter, care enough to know? According to a recent study of entering high-school students, the average fourteen-year-old in 1949 knew The stars about my Head I felt plants throughout the house. The distraction has its exactly two and a half times as many vocabulary About my Feet the Sea. own rhythm, breaking my concentration, though words as the average fourteen-year-old in 1999. In each time it resumes, I am reminded of something just 50 years, the verbal culture has been stripped I knew not but the next new to say. away layer by layer by the culture of the screen: TV, Would be my final inch -- movies, videogames, and the Internet. This gave me that precarious Gait * Some call Experience. In a reminiscence about studying to be a writer with II. On thoughts about poetry, by Theodore Roethke: other early students at the Iowa Writers workshop on literary celebrity and making “For poetry, my dear, is not in the mid-60s, Robert Lacy writes, “Little did poems: “If fame belonged to me, I could not escape What other people said & thought...” we know that within two decades aspiring to be her.” * a famous literary novelist would be, to use Gore There has been a great deal written and said about Vidal’s analogy, comparable to aspiring to be ‘a the influence of one poet’s work on another’s, but famous ceramicist’” since “the coming triumph of III. T.R., on conveying thoughts about poetry: the work that most influences a poet is the poetry he “He teaches a class like an animal trainer...The cage pop culture over the higher varieties would soon writes himself. Poets grow by choosing challenging become an American way of life.” Do we poets and is open: material that forces them to do things they have not you may go.” writers forty years later simply hasten the death of done before. “the higher varieties” by drawing our source material from the popular culture, as we often do? Except that other writers can embolden a poet through their writing, and the best ones can help him The last words to go if language continues to die discover and claim what has all along been inside among our readers will surely be the “heart-words,” him waiting to be transformed. The result is called as one writer has called them: the words of one his original work. or two syllables inherited from primitive German Substitute “damn” every time tribes that form the base of English. Referring to Was it Annie Dillard who once said that the these ancient words, the linguist Otto Jespersen once best subject matter asks the writer to resolve a you’re inclined to write “very;” wrote that when we are drowning, we do not cry contradiction between two contraries that cannot out “Assistance!” We cry “Help!” In his illustration possibly be brought together? Jespersen was demonstrating how much closer to your editor will delete it and the our feelings simple Anglo-Saxon words are than the More contraries poets must resolve: the disorder of French words of three or four syllables that came external events and the poem’s interior arc of feeling; writing will be just into the language after the Norman conquest. Emily the heart’s urgency and the denials of the shaping Dickinson made expert use of the two kinds of mind; living the life of a right-brain person in a left- as it should be. language in her poems, often beginning with heart- brain world. words and reserving the ones with multiple syllables ~Mark Twain for concluding turns that open the mind to larger I write this from the side of a quiet a pond, in the considerations: mess of my study at home in front of a computer screen. The door is wide open; my wife talks nearby I stepped from Plank to Plank on the kitchen phone, lets the whining dog in, then A slow and cautious way turns on the tap over and over, carrying water to her 11 I look forward to getting the chance to meet and work with you. I do hope that you’ll attend many MWPA WELCOMES NEW STAFF Rebecca MWPA events. When I was a member, I often felt Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance is pleased to shy about attending events, as if my sparse publishing announce its newest staff members: Mary Her- Fraser-Thill record made me some sort of an imposter of a man, Jessica Takach, and Rebecca Fraser-Thill. I switched from member. I hope you don’t feel that way; now that the member side I’m in the office I see the range of members – from of the desk to the published writers, to writers just dipping their toes Mary Herman Administrative in the water, to people who simply love to read, to Like to read? I sure do! In fact, I’ve been wishing that Coordinator side publishers, and so forth – and I can assure you that MWPA would change their rather quickly. This everyone is more than welcome to take part in all that name to Maine Readers,Writers and Publishers fall, I attended the Fall MWPA has to offer. Alliance. Although I haven’t been able to convince the Conference at Haystack Board to add “Readers,” I have succeeded in landing a as a member, and then job at MWPA. just over a week later found myself working here. I Jessica A. Takach think this quick about-face gives me a unique insight I am proud to announce that upon Jaed’s I have interned for into what members want and need, so my primary departure, Shonna had enough faith in me to hire MWPA since last January, goal as Administrative Coordinator is to facilitate the me as our Membership Coordinator. That’s the but becoming the new best communication between you and MWPA that official title. It really means membership “cultivator,” Publications Coordinator I possibly can. Since I do only work once a week, “fawner,” “appeaser,” “listener,” and the list could go has still been a huge however, I hope that you will understand when it takes on. I also do marketing and outreach, and generate learning experience! I me some time to return your calls or emails. new ideas. am very excited to work When I’m not at MWPA, I’m up at Bates As such, I urge/need you to HELP US on Maine in Print and College teaching psychology. I’ve been there for GROW and be IN TOUCH; let me know how to make it the best resource three years now, ever since I received my master’s in make MWPA more responsive to member’s needs and possible. I also work as a developmental psychology from Cornell University. expectations. legal assistant in downtown Portland, and serve on the As for creative writing, I focus on fiction and have I’m thrilled to be here and look forward to Board of Directors for Literacy Volunteers of Greater attended a number of workshops and conferences, hearing from you all. [I must be kidding!] Saco-Biddeford. I am also in the process of getting including the Wesleyan Writers Conference and the my MFA in Creative Writing at USM’s Stonecoast Solstice Writers Conference. I’ve been published program. Feel free to let me know of any comments in The Georgetown Review and was awarded the Sadie or suggestions regarding MIP! Newfield Scholarship to attend the Stonecoast Writers Conference.

Maine Community Foundation Martin Dibner Writing Fellowships

Fellowships of up to $1,000 are given in alternating years to Maine poets and fiction writers to attend writing workshops or complete writing projects.

For this year’s fellowships, poets may submit a writing sample of five to seven pages and a resumé by January 15, 2007. There is no entry fee.

Visit www.mainecf.org or call (877) 700-6800 (toll free) for complete guidelines.

Maine Community Foundation, 245 Main Street, Ellsworth, ME 04605 12 The Tide Turns for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Society’s events occur all year. Go to www. intimately familiar with the works of writers from By Bonnie Mason hwlongfellow.org for more information. all over the world. He gave, through his poems as “The very air itself during The guiding light behind Brunswick’s well as his translations, an international dimension to Longfellow Days becomes Longfellow Days is Maryli Tiemann, a former American literature which it has never quite regained charged . . . that energy, that English teacher, drama since.” vividness [is] a wonderful boost teacher, and adjunct instructor for all of us who are writing.” at Bowdoin College who -- Poet Maggie Finch, Bath now is program director at Maine Campus Compact in If Henry Wadsworth Lewiston: “I felt inspired to Longfellow Events Longfellow, the most popular gather folks together poet of the 19th century, were Longfellow’s Study to honor this man who spent Special Guest Speaker alive today two hundred years after his birth in such formative years in Dr. Christoph Irmscher, author of the recently Portland, could he get published? Maine and in Joyce Pye published Longfellow Redux, will present a Yes, says poet Annie Finch, director, Brunswick.,” she says. “He’s frequently lecture followed by a question/ answer session Stonecoast Brief-Residency MFA in Creative pictured as an old gray beard, but we had the during Longfellow Days, the Brunswick Legacy, Writing and professor of English at the University of spirited 15- year-old, who skipped chapel or ran February, 2007. Dr. Irmscher, a professor Southern Maine. “Longfellow would have an easier to class, both those classes he took, and those he of English at Indiana University, will autograph time getting published now than at any time in the taught. Brunswick was also the home of his first books following his lecture. last half-century,” Finch says. “There is more of an romance, as a newlywed—those moments that audience for musical, crafted and accessible poetry shape who one becomes.” Poets in the Community Read than at any time since the height of Modernism.” Claudia Knox, who retired to Brunswick The following poetry readings sponsored by Christoph Irmscher, from the Washington DC area, joins Tiemann Longfellow Days, the Brunswick Legacy, will take professor of English at Indiana as co-chair of Longfellow Days. She is also a place on Sunday afternoons, 1:00-2:00, at Curtis University, agrees. “Prominent former English teacher, one whose career led Memorial Library, followed by refreshments poets, including Pinsky, ultimately—via Jordan and the Ivory Coast—to andbook signings. McClatchy, Richard Wilbur, and Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Knox says more recently Mark Jarman, that her interest in Brunswick’s downtown and February 11: Poets Herb Coursen, Courtney Hill have voiced their support for her previous experience with community arts and David Adams Longfellow and implicitly, the organizations led her to offer her expertise along type of poetry he represents.” with that of other volunteers from Bowdoin February 18: Poets Maggie Christoph Irmscher Longfellow wrote with an College, the Pjepscot Historical Society, and Finch, Annie Finch, Joyce ear to the music of the universe, many area businesses, dance and theatre groups, Pye, and Arnold Perrin and crafted and marketed his work so that it was schools, and churches in creating the community- understandable, accessible, and affordable for his building event that Longfellow Days has become. February 25: Poets Anne readers. This, of course, made him successful. But it is not just local areas that honor Hammond, Jeniferlee Like the tide evoked in his poem, “The Longfellow. On a national level, the U.S. Postal Tucker, Bob Chute, and Tide Rises, the Tide Falls,” Longfellow’s reputation Service will celebrate the poet in March, 2007 David Matson experienced its ups and downs, the latter especially with a commemorative stamp, chosen from Herb Coursen after his death in 1882. 50,000 suggestions. Today, two highly respected scholars have Poets from the Longfellow Days Longfellow in Schools helped turn the tide: Charles C. Calhoun, with Community Read are excited about participating. Free Lesson Plans developed by 30 teachers and the first biography of Longfellow in 40 years, “As an art form, poetry asks only the barest coordinated by Charles C. Calhoun, Scholar-in- Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life (Beacon Press, essentials of language to evoke the deepest Residence, Maine Humanities Council, and author 2004) and Christoph Irmscher, with Longfellow response in the reader,” says poet Jeniferlee of Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life, can be found Redux (University of Illinois Press, 2006), a study of Tucker. “A truly great poem stuns us in the at the Maine Historical Society website: www. Longfellow’s work which provides new insights into moment that a mundane or overlooked aspect of hwlongfellow.org/teachers_overview.shtml its transnational, multi-cultural value. our world is suddenly fresh or even transcendent. “For Longfellow,” says Richard D’Abate, Longfellow achieved all this and more.” Longfellow Outreach Programs: Any teacher Executive Director of Maine Historical Society, “The most important thing about within 60 miles of Portland can contact Jane “there was never a contradiction between being an Longfellow Days (which began in 2005),” says Foden at the Maine Historical Society to request American and being a citizen of the world.” poet Maggie Finch, “is that, clearly and simply, that a Longfellow educator bring a poetry “There are many mansions in the house of it celebrates a poet. And so, workshop to her/his classroom. Call: 207-774- poetry,” Dr. Irmscher says, “and some of them, after in a sense, the very air itself 1822 x 230. having fallen into disrepair have recently beome becomes charged, becomes habitable again now that the academic grip on concerned with poetry, and Poets in the Schools: Longfellow Days literary history has been loosened, and obscurity is each year that energy, that 2007 sponsors local poets in February to work no longer the criterion an acceptable poem needs to vividness, returns stronger with Brunswick fourth graders to learn more about fulfill.” than ever: a wonderful boost Longfellow and to write poetry. Today, two hundred years after his birth on for all of us who are writing.” February 27, 1807, the Maine Historical Society in Perhaps Longfellow’s Portland and Longfellow Days in Brunswick have gift to us as writers, says Maggie Finch planned musical, theatrical, and literary events to Christoph Irmscher, is that he saw literature as a celebrate his birth. Longfellow Days takes place the civic obligation, as something to be enjoyed by last two weeks of February. The Maine Historical people from all walks of life. “At the same time, Longfellow was fluent in multiple languages and 13 George Drew (The Horse’s Name Was Poems and Paintings of Maine. BANGOR NORTH Physics) and Paul Corrigan (At the Paintings of Maine addresses the Grave of the Unknown Riverdriver) Maine landscape as interpreted by by Annaliese Jakimides read at Thirteen Moons in Millinocket 100 artists over the last 150 years. PO Box 741 In other Pelletier news, her to a small but very appreciative Engaging commentary by Little and Bangor, ME 04402 most recent novel, Running the Bulls, audience. I’ve heard these two read the juxtaposition of the works create 207.262.9358/ together before, but this was a treat, a masterfully curated feel to the [email protected] won the 2006 Prize. Other finalists includedJames Salter, trading poems, ricocheting off each presentation. And recently while I was Well, it makes me very William Boyd, Judy Budnitz, other, rummaging through the pages driving the back roads of Piscataquis happy when the news I can report Anthony Varallo, Edith Pearlman, looking for the poem that speaks to the County (now that’s a stunning journey reaches up into the northern climes and Frederick Busch. Last year’s co- voice of the other’s poem. in October!), I caught him reading an of my region: Allagash native Cathie winners were John Updike and Philip The poets from the Illuminated essay on Maine Public Radio--I know, Pelletier’s Candles on Bay Street Roth. Sea Press, Elizabeth Garber, Linda it’s just Maine Public Broadcasting (her second K.C. McKinnon book) is Cathie’s also involved Buckmaster, Barbara Maria, and Network now; I’m a slow learner. now a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie with the Maine Literary Festival, Karin Spitfire, have been reading in (If I met you as “Shondu” in 1965, (filmed in the summer of 2006 in Nova in Camden, November 3–5, with many locations, including Borders in I’m sorry, you’re Shondu in my head Scotia, starring Alicia Silverstone), the likes of Monica Wood, Bill Bangor and the Skidompha Library in forever). to be broadcast November 26. And Roorbach, Richard Russo, Franklin Damariscotta. Buckmaster launched And now as winter drives us in celebration, the town of Fort Kent Burroughs, Betsy Sholl, Wesley her latest book, Heart Song and Other inside, both literally and figuratively, it (the setting of the novel) is hosting a McNair, Charlotte Albright, and Legacies, at Waterfall Arts in Belfast. strikes me that now is when the work wine and cheese get-together with a many more. Pulitzer Prize-winning You can catch her at Gulf of Maine really begins again. I have pulled out big screen viewing at the University of Russo delivers the E.B. and Katharine Books (Belfast’s Gary Lawless’s great the coats and boots, and dumped the Maine at Fort Kent. A party follows at White Memorial Lecture to launch the book mecca in Brunswick) December thick wool gloves and all manner of BeeJay’s Tavern. It’s a big hoopla with festival Friday evening. From there 2 at 4 p.m. Joining the lengthening hats into the old potato basket by the everyone invited. What else would on, it’s a packed program, beginning list of poems by Maine poets to be front door. Somehow I find it much one expect from the generous, funny, at 7:30 a.m. the next morning. My featured on Garrison Keillor’s The easier to prevent the breaks from brilliant Cathie Pelletier? It’ll be a guess is it will wend into the wee Writer’s Almanac is Buckmaster’s becoming distractions once the basket good time, even if it is on the Sunday hours. Cathie was a driving force in “Before I Was Born,” broadcast is by the door. It’s a beginning. How night of Thanksgiving weekend. the extraordinary Voices in the North October 16. grateful I am for them. All of them. Let And there’s more to come: Country Conference in Presque Isle In the final poetry reading at me know where your beginnings lead Her Funeral Makers began filming that brought amazing writers into the Borders for 2006, Carl Little will be you. in the Hudson Valley of New York in County for a number of years, and I reading in Bangor on November 15 November, with the screenplay written expect great things from this launch at 7 p.m. His most recent books are by CP herself. also. Ocean Drinker, New and Selected In other northern news, poets DOWNEAST Sharon Bray won a first prize Maine at Farmington’s BFA program, from the Maine Poets Society fall members of the Deer Isle Writers readings by Baron Wormser and session for a narrative poem Orion Collective), she read a short story and by DavidDavid Nolf Nolf Lola Haskins, two poets they Rising, judged by Robin Merrill (now poem at Mr. York’s Book Shoppe in P. O. Box 878 admire and have published over the of western Maine but once a student at Stonington during the summer, and Mt. Desert, Maine 04660 years. Wormser’s reading, and an Maine Maritime Academy in Castine). gave an author’s talk in early August [email protected] afternoon discussion about poets Sharon has just returned from her about The Ostrich Wakes in which she Kyra Alex is headed to and poetry he led with area writers, annual fall trip to Atlantic Canada compared common issues that Mainers Presque Isle on November 19th to do culminated in the Poets Come to Town where the owners of cottages at and Kenyans share. She has also given a cooking demonstration and lecture project that brought Betsy Sholl, Savage Harbor, Prince Edward Island, the talk at the Ellsworth Public Library based on her newest book, Cooking Maine’s current Poet Laureate, to have arranged to show and sell poems and the Bucks Harbor Yacht Club. In the Moment. She will sign copies Farmington last spring. custom-printed with photos of PEI. She gave readings and signed books at of Cooking in the Moment on Sunday, The Journal’s fall interns, Half the members of the Salt Coast North Light Books in Blue Hill and at November 12, at Port In A Storm Emily Young and Mark Rice, are Sages of Washington County read the Blue Hill Library in September. Bookstore in Somesville. fourth-year students in the BFA on Betty Duff’s Writers’ Forum on Elsie O’Dell Dinsmore, The Beloit Poetry Journal program at Farmington. BPJ’s Winter WERU Oct. 12; the other half will read who mysteriously and unfortunately has awarded the fourteenth annual 06/07 issue features poems by Brian on the same program on November 9 appeared as Elsie O’Donnell in the Chad Walsh Poetry Prize of $3,000 Komei Dempster, Kevin Ducey, at 10 a.m. last issue, will publish her third to Sam Reed for his poem “From Shawn Durrett, Paul Gibbons, The #7 issue of the mystery novel, Jerusha’s Tree, at the The Book of Zeros,” published in Holly Iglesias, Rhoda Janzen, Narramissic Notebook will be the final end of November. She is planning a the spring 2006 issue. Each year the Charity Ketz, Daniel Lusk, Kathleen issue unless Sharon finds someone book signing at the Eastport Senior editor’s of the BPJ select a poem or Mayberry, Kate Martin Rowe, else to sell ads and do business Center on Boynton Street on Saturday, group of poems they have published Hillel Schwartz, Natasha Sajé, management for the yearly publication. December 2, from 1 to 3 p.m., as part in the calendar year on the basis of its Young Smith, Ross Whitney, Steve Anyone interested please send e-mail of the Eastport Festival of Lights. The excellence to receive the award. Wilson, Scott Withiam, Marion to [email protected]. date happens to be her 79th birthday. This fall has been a busy one K. Stocking’s review of The Best Jean Davison has published What a way to celebrate! for the Journal. In addition to the American Poetry 2006, and a cover her fourth book, The Ostrich Wakes: The film ofMartha Tod daily work of screening manuscripts by Maine artist Abby Shahn that is Struggles for Change in Highland Dudman’s book, Augusta, Gone, will and preparing the Winter issue for guaranteed to chase away the cold Kenya, which was reviewed in receive the 2006 Spirit of Youth from the printer’s, they sponsored, in weather blues. Selections from the the Ellsworth American. She is an the National Runaway Switchboard at conjunction with the University of issue, and the full-text on-line archive, anthropologist who has worked in their 35th Anniversary Celebration in 1950-2005, can be accessed on the BPJ many places. Along with Norma website, www.bpj.org. DOWNEAST, continued on page 15 14 Sheard and Judi Beach (fellow DOWNEAST, continued from page 14 CD out entitled Tim Sample 2006, Chicago. The Runaway Switchboard Maine Humor in the 21st Century at a THE QUERY WAREHOUSE is a nationwide nonprofit organization signing on November 25th from 2 to 4 In each issue of Maine in Print, we try to feature a sample query letter or proposal. Some that reunites runaway children and p.m. on December 9th. Rebekah Raye, are more complicated than others. Below is a letter submitted by Chris Fisher of Hunstville, their parents. who illustrated Allen Sockabasin’s Texas, who is a fiction student at the Stonecoast MFA program here in Maine. He has been Brenda Gilchrist’s poem Thanks To The Animals, will sign published in other genres than fiction, such as this horror piece which was published in the Thou Shalt Not Anthology, by Dark Cloud Press. Chris uses the first paragraph to Banquet Sea will be published in copies of her new book, The Very Best briefly outline his most outstanding accomplishments and writing credits. The second para- Bed. The bookstore also plans to host the December, 2006 issue of Bangor graph gives just the right amount of background information on the piece. He also lets the Metro. signings by Maine authors Sanford publisher know that he wrote this piece specifically for the anthology, which lets them know that Ellen Herrling of Orland Phippen, Pat Ranzoni, and Wayne he is most likely not submitting it elsewhere until he hears from them. will lead a 6-week series of seminars and Libhart over the holiday for poets using Natalie Goldberg’s season. Writing Down the Bones; sessions to Sandy Phippen has big Lee A. Howard, Editor be held at BookStacks on Main St. news: he is the new editor of the in Bucksport. In January, she plans Puckerbrush Review, now being TSN Anthology, Dark Cloud Press to offer a one-day workshop “What published twice a year by the English P.O. Box 99 I Learned from the Laureate,” based Department of the University of McKeesport, PA 15134-0099 on a workshop led by Betsy Sholl in Maine Press, in cooperation with the September at Boothbay Harbor. Puckerbrush Press, which is run by Dear Mr. Howard, Carl Little will sign copies of Sam Hunting, son of the late editor, I am an editor for the Office of International Criminal Justice and associate Paintings of Maine: A New Collection Constance Hunting. The memorial editor of Crime and Justice International Magazine. I am also a three-time winner at Port in a Storm Bookstore in issue to Constance Hunting has just of the Era Miller Writing Contest for prose and was a finalist in the 2003 New Somesville on Sunday, November 12, been published and the special double Century Writer Award contest. I have recently published in The Wittenburg Door, and at L.L. Bean in Freeport on Friday, issue is on sale for $15. The next Infuze Magazine, and The Sam Houston State Review, and have work pending December 1. Upcoming readings issue will be published in the spring publication in a writing textbook titled, One Art: Reading and Writing. (Ed. Ronald from his book Ocean Drinker: New of 2007. Submissions should be sent & Selected Poems are set for Borders to: Puckerbrush Review, 413 Neville F. Lunsford and Bill Bridges. New York: Pearson/Longman. Publication expected in Bangor on November 16 and at the Hall, University of Maine, Orono, Me. 2007.) Belfast Public Library on Tuesday, 04469. November 28. His feature profile of Sandy’s news doesn’t stop Please consider the enclosed story for your Thou Shalt Not anthology. The story Mount Desert Island painter Richard there. He reports that the Maine is titled “Tattletale” and is based on the 9th commandment, “You shall not give Estes is forthcoming in Maine Boats, Historical and Geographical Atlas is false testimony against your neighbor.” I wrote this story specifically for the Thou Homes & Harbors. A review of the almost finished and will be published Shalt Not project (not from a “story drawer”), and I hope you can use it in the filmCleophas and His Own: A North in late winter or early spring by the anthology. Thanks for your time and consideration. Atlantic Tragedy (based on a narrative University of Maine Press. It will be by Marsden Hartley) will appear an extraordinary work, ten years in the Sincerely, in an upcoming issue of Art New planning and execution, with over 40 Christopher Fisher England. The latest issue of Ornament scholars involved. Sandy worked with magazine includes a preview piece Burt Hatlen on the literary maps of on the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Maine. Craft Show. Maine Public Radio He is also busy with the sequel recently featured one of Little’s humor to his acclaimed novel, Kitchen Boy, pieces on “Maine Things Considered,” entitled The Race Riots of Syracuse, Notice to MWPA which he wrote after hearing David which he hopes to finish by the end Sedaris read at Merrill Auditorium in of the year, along with a children’s Members October. book, and a third book of Maine short Looking for a byline? M Kelly Lombardi, of stories. Maine in Print is searching the Salt Coast Sages, read recently The Fabulous Four Poets for columnists to cover on WERU and is cutting a CD that of Belfast will read at Mr. York’s includes poems from her recent Book Shoppe in Stonington on both the Midcoast Area book, Tuscany Light, along with Saturday, November 11, from 7:30 and Southern Maine for other Moon Pie Press poets. Kelly to 9 pm. The poets include Karin has recently started writing a column Spitfire, Elizabeth Garber, Linda our Network News pages. called Poetry Land for the Machias Buckmaster, and, they hope, Barbara If you are interested in Valley News Observer and is looking Maria. Owner Stephen York has contributing a quarterly for submissions of shorter poems to also announced the 1st Annual Down include in the column. East Writers Conference of Deer Isle colum to MWPA, please Jacqueline Michaud, along scheduled for June 14-16, 2007. For send a writing sample to information and registration for this with fellow Maine poets Candice Jessica Takach, Stover and Kathleen Ellis, read at A national conference contact: Stephen Jazz & Poetry Concert at the Blue Hill York, Mr. York’s Book Shoppe, Post Publications Coordinator, Farm Country Inn in Blue Hill that Office Box 460, Stonington, Maine at maineinprint@maine- celebrated the relationship between 04681. Telephone: 207.367.2415 writers.org jazz and poetry. The concert also (phone answered by and shared with featured the “A” Train Jazz Quintet. Café Suzy Q’s). Mr. Paperback in Ellsworth Please send literary news to David will host Tim Sample, who has a new Nolf, [email protected] 15 HOT LEADS: Submission Information Worth Noting Hunger Mountain Ruth Stone Prize While Maine Writers & Pulbishers Alliance makes every attempt to publish accurate information, we cannot accept responsibility for incorrect information A prize of $1,000 and publication in provided to us. Please double check the specific submission information and process with the sponosring agency. Hunger Mountain is given annually Alice James Books Boulevard Emerging Writers The Crazyhorse Fiction Prize and for a single poem. Cynthia Huntington Beatrice Hawley Award Contest the Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry will judge. Submit up to three poems A prize of $2,000 and publication Simultaneous submissions are Prize $2000 each and publication in totaling no more than six pages with a by Alice James Books, a nonprofit allowed, but previously accepted Crazyhorse. To enter, please mail a $15 entry fee, which includes a copy poetry publisher, is given annually or published work is ineligible. manuscript of up to twenty-five pages of the prize issue. Send an SASE, call, for a book-length poetry collection by Boulevard Emerging Writers Contest, of fiction or up to three poems (up to or e-mail for complete guidelines. a poet residing in the United States. PMB 325, 6614 Clayton Road, 10 pages poetry). All manuscripts must Hunger Mountain, Ruth Stone Prize, All entries will be considered for Richmond Heights, MO 63117. No be original and unpublished. All entries Vermont College, 36 College Street, publication. Submit a manuscript of manuscripts will be returned. Entry fee are considered for publication. Include Montpelier, VT 05602. (802) 828- 50 to 70 pages with a $25 entry fee. is $15 for each individual story, with a self-addressed stamped envelope for 8633. Caroline Mercurio, Managing Send an SASE or visit the Web site for no limit per author. Entry fee includes notification of winners. Each entry Editor. [email protected] complete guidelines. a one-year subscription to Boulevard. should have a cover page placed on the www.hungermtn.org Deadline: Alice James Books, Beatrice Hawley Make check payable to Boulevard. top of the manuscript with the entrant’s December 10 Award, 238 Main Street, Farmington, There is no maximum length. The name, address, e-mail, and telephone ME 04938. (207) 778-7071. Lacy winning story will be published in the number. $15 for new entrants, $12 Lambda Literary Foundation Simons, Managing Editor. Spring or Fall 2007 issue of Boulevard. for renewing entrants (indicate you Debut Literary Awards www.alicejamesbooks.org/BH.html $1,500 and publication in Boulevard are renewing on your cover page). For Two prizes of $1,000 each will be Deadline: December 1 awarded to the winning story by a each additional fiction or poetry entry given annually for debut books of writer who has not yet published a sent, your subscription to Crazyhorse fiction by a gay writer and by a lesbian American Library Association book of fiction, poetry, or creative non- will extend by one year. Deadline: writer published in the current year. W. Y. Boyd Literary Award fiction with a nationally distributed December 16 Submit four copies of a first novel A prize of $5,000 is given annually to press. Deadline: December 15 or a short story collection (or bound Del Sol Press Poetry Prize honor a novel set in a period when the galleys) with a $20 entry fee. Send A prize of $1,200 and publication by United States was at war. Publishers Carolina Wren Press an SASE, call, e-mail, or visit the Del Sol Press is given annually for a or authors may submit seven copies of Poetry Contest Web site for the required application poetry collection. All entries will be books published in 2006 . There is no A prize of $1,000 and publication and complete guidelines. (See considered for publication. Submit a entry fee. Send an SASE, call, e-mail, by Carolina Wren Press is given Recent Winners.) Lambda Literary poetry manuscript of 50 to 100 pages or visit the Web site for the required biennially for a first book of poetry. Foundation, Debut Literary Awards, with a $24 entry fee by January 15, application and complete guidelines. Evie Shockley will judge. Submit two 16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10E, New 2007. Send an SASE, e-mail or visit American Library Association, W. Y. copies of a manuscript of 48 to 64 York, NY 10001. (212) 239-6575. the Web site for complete guidelines. Boyd Literary Award, 50 East Huron pages with an $18 entry fee. Send an Charles Flowers, Executive Director. www.webdelsol.com/delsolpress/dsp- Street, Chicago, IL 60611. (800) SASE, e-mail, or visit the Web site for [email protected] poetry-competition.htm 545-2433, ext. 3247. Cheryl Malden, complete guidelines. Carolina Wren www.lambdaliterary.org Deadline: Program Officer. [email protected] Press, Poetry Contest, 120 Morris Ellen Meloy Fund Desert Writers December 1 www.ala.org Deadline: December 1 Street, Durham, NC 27701. (919) 560- A prize of $1,000 will be given 2738. Andrea Selch, President. annually to provide support to poets, Livingston Press Black Caucus of the American [email protected] fiction writers, and creative nonfiction Tartt Fiction Award Library Association Deadline: December 1 A prize of $1,000 and publication by Literary Awards writers to spend creative time in a desert environment. Submit up to 10 Livingston Press is given annually Three prizes of $500 each are given Center for Book Arts pages of poetry, fiction, or creative for a first collection of short stories. annually for a book of fiction, a Poetry Chapbook Competition nonfiction, a project description, and Fiction writers who have not published first novel, and a book of creative A prize of $1,000 and publication of a biography. There is no entry fee. a short story collection may submit nonfiction written by an African a letterpress chapbook in an edition Call or visit the Web site for complete 160 to 325 pages of fiction with a American and published in the United of 100 copies is given annually for guidelines. Ellen Meloy Fund, Desert $15 entry fee. Send an SASE, e-mail, States during the current year. The a poetry collection. Half of the prize Writers Award, P.O. Box 484, Bluff, or visit the Web site for complete awards, presented at the annual money is given as an honorarium for UT 84512. (435) 669-5326. Greer guidelines. Livingston Press, Tartt meeting of the American Library a reading the winner will give at the Chesher, Contact. www.ellenmeloy. Fiction Award, Station 22, University Association, honor original works Center for Book Arts in New York com Deadline: December 31 of West Alabama, Livingston, AL of literature that depict the “cultural, City. Sharon Dolin and Jane Hirshfield 35470. Joe Taylor, Codirector. jwt@ historical, or sociopolitical aspects will judge. Submit a manuscript of up Fence Books Motherwell Prize uwa.edu www.livingstonpress.uwa. of the African Diaspora.” Publishers to 24 pages or one poem of no more A prize of $1,500 and publication by edu Deadline: December 31 may nominate books published in than 500 lines with a $20 entry fee.. Fence Books will be given annually 2006. There is no entry fee. E-mail Send an SASE or visit the Web site for for a first or second book of poetry by Maine Community Foundation for complete guidelines and the list of complete guidelines. a woman. Submit a manuscript of 48 Martin Dibner fellowships jurors to whom the books should be Center for Book Arts, Poetry to 60 pages with a $25 entry fee during Fellowships of up to $1,000 are given sent. Black Caucus of the American Chapbook Competition, 28 West November. Send an SASE or visit the in alternating years to Maine poets Library Association, Literary Awards, 27th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY Web site for the required application and fiction writers to attend writing 3003 Van Ness Street NW, W522, 10001. (212) 481-0295. and complete guidelines. www. workshops or complete writing Washington, D.C. 20008. John Page, www.centerforbookarts.org/newsite/ fencebooks.com Deadline: November projects. For this year’s fellowships, Awards [email protected] opportunities Deadline: December 1 30 poets may submit a writing sample www.bcala.org Deadline: December 31 of five to seven pages and a resumé. There is no entry fee. Call or visit the 16 Web site for complete guidelines. Maine Community Foundation, Submit a work of creative nonfiction of Martin Dibner Fellowships, 245 Main up to 4,000 words with a $10 entry fee. Street, Ellsworth, ME 04605. (877) Send an SASE, call, e-mail, or visit the WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE STATE 700-6800. Carl Little, Director of Web site for complete guidelines. Communications and Marketing. Rosebud, X. J. Kennedy Award, c/o WRITER’S GROUPS/OPEN MIC EVENTS [email protected], www.mainecf.org Roderick Clark, N3310 Asje Road, Deadline: January 15 Cambridge, WI 53523. (608) 423- Bangor: Small dedicated writers group meets Wednesday mornings. Fiction, 4750. J. Rod Clark, Editor. Nonfiction, Poetry. FMI: Karl Norton 947-7248 Merton Foundation: Thomas [email protected] th Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award www.rsbd.net Deadline: December 31 Bangor: Open Mic Poetry Night, 7pm 4 Tuesdays, Bangor Borders. Poets A prize of $500 and publication in encouraged to read from original compositions. Monthly featured poet. FMI Troy Michael Casa 990 3300. Merton Seasonal is given annually for a single poem. Submit a poem Ruth Hindman Foundation BELFAST: The Bull meets 6-8pm, 1st Mondays, in the Abbot Room of the of no more than 100 lines. There is H.E. Francis Short Story Belfast Library to read poetry and enjoy good eats and good company, all free no entry fee. Send an SASE, call, e- Competition $1000 prize. of charge. Bring your poems to read or read someone else’s. FMI call 342-3254 mail or visit the Web site for complete Manuscripts must be unpublished or email: [email protected] guidelines. www.mertonfoundation. and may not exceed 5000 words nd th org Deadline: December 31 in length. Multiple submissions DEXTER: Writer’s Web, 7pm, 2 and 4 Mondays, Universalist Church in are acceptable so long as we are Dexter. Usually have some refreshments. All genres, wide open. FMI: Patti Harris 876 4166 National Council of Teachers of notified immediately in the event that English Donald Murray Prize a manuscript is selected by another Dover-Foxcroft: Heart of Maine writers group meets at Thompson Free A prize of $500 is given annually to competition or publication. Check Library. 1pm, 1st and 3rd Fridays. FMI: Ann Kucera 285-7358 honor an essay about teaching and/or or money order for $15.00 for each writing published during the previous submission, made out to the Ruth Ellsworth: Open Mic for poets, storytellers, performers and musicians year. Lynn Bloom, Rebecca Faery, Hindman Foundation, a philanthropic at Ellsworth Unitarian Universalist Church. 6pm music, 7:30pm words. 3rd and Doug Hesse will judge. Anyone institution which awards scholarships Saturdays. $2 requested donation, refreshments. FMI: Dusty Bailey 422-0980 or may nominate essays of any length nationwide to undergraduate and email: [email protected] published in 2006. Submit four copies graduate students. Mail submissions to nd of each essay with the source and date Department of English, University of Farmington: Spice Mountain Writers for Children meeting at 5:30pm, 2 Thursdays, Ricker Annex at UMF. FMI: Joyce Lucas 634-5623 of publication. There is no entry fee. Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL Send an SASE or e-mail for complete 35899 Deadline: December 31 Fryeburg: Library Writers Meeting, 1st and 3rd Wednesdays. All genres. 98 guidelines. [email protected] Maine Street. FMI: 935 2731 Deadline: January 15 The W.Y. Boyd Literary Award “For Excellence in Military Fiction” Kennebunk: Writer’s Roundup. Creative writers and novice poets. We National Writers Union Poetry An annual award consisting of $5,000 welcome you to share your writing in an informal and peaceful setting. 7-9pm, Contest and a 24k gold-framed citation of 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. 139 Summer St. FMI: Dani Connely 985-9999 A prize of $1,000 and publication in achievement honoring the best fiction Poetry Flash is given annually for set in a period when the United States Lake Region: Writers Group 1st and 3rd Saturdays. If interested in joining, a single poem. will was at war. It recognizes the service leave name and phone number, and you will be contacted as openings in group judge. Submit a poem of any length of American veterans and military permit. FMI: 693-4978 with a $5 entry fee. Send an SASE personnel and encourages the writing Portland: Maine Organization of Storytelling Enthusiasts meet for or visit the Web site for complete and publishing of outstanding war- storytell/spoken word open mic for grown-ups at 10 Mayo St. 7pm open mic. related fiction. Publishers or authors guidelines. www.coordinator.nwu7. 8pm featured performer, 2nd Wednesdays. FMI: Jean Armstrong: 879-1886 or org Deadline: November 30 are requested to submit seven copies [email protected] of books which meet the following Reed Magazine criteria: novel has been published Portland: Baxter Society meeting, 7:30pm, 2nd Wednesdays, 4th floor John Steinbeck Award during the year prior to the award; Glickman Library, USM Portland Campus. FMI: Baxter Society, PO Box A prize of $2,000 and publication in incidents of war can constitute the 10538, Portland, ME 04104. Reed Magazine is given annually for main plot of the story or merely a short story. Kate Braverman will provide the setting. Please send seven PORTLAND: WordCirkus is held the last Thursday monthly at Geno’s Rock judge. Submit a story of up to 6,000 copies of this application and 7 books Club, 625 Congress Street, Portland. $3 at the door. You must be 21 to attend. FMI, email: Peter Manuel at [email protected]. words with a $15 entry fee. Send an to:ALA Awards Program Governance Office 50 East Huron SASE, call, e-mail, or visit the Web Portsmouth, NH: Beat Night, Spoken Word and Music at The Press site for complete guidelines. Reed Street Chicago, IL 60611 Deadline: Room, 77 Daniel St. 7pm, 3rd Thursdays. FMI: 603-431-5186 Magazine, John Steinbeck Award, December 1 English Department, San Jose State Sebago Area: Writers group meets twice monthly, 7-9pm, Monday or University, 1 Washington Square, Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Tuesdays in Windham. Established group looking to add one or two members San Jose, CA 95192-0090. reed@ Competition. A prize of $3,000 is this Spring. All genres welcome. FMI: Rick Roberts 893-8251 or email email.sjsu.edu www2.sjsu.edu/reed/ given annually for a short story. A [email protected] steinbeck.htm Deadline: December 1 second-place prize of $1,500 is also awarded. Submit a story of no more Alligator Juniper Writing and Photography Rosebud than 1,500 words with a $12 entry fee. X. J. Kennedy Award Send an SASE, call, e-mail, or visit the A prize of $1,000 and publication in Web site for the required application Rosebud is given biennially for a work and complete guidelines. Terri Boes, of creative nonfiction. Rosebud editor Contact. short-short-competition@ Roderick Clark and Cambridge Book fwpubs.com Deadline: December 1m Review editor Robert Wake will judge. as wele for the historical fiction prize. 17 A small press is defined as one that in the preceding year has published no fewer than five and no more than Rules of the game Maine writers and publishers are encouraged to participate. For these purposes, a Maine writer must have resided in the state of Maine for at 2007 Maine Literary Awards least a portion of 2006. Summer and seasonal residents qualify. A Maine publisher may submit work from non-Maine residents, but the CALL FOR NOMINATIONS publisher must have an official Maine address. All books and manuscripts must be postmarked by December 15. MWPA is not responsible for Nomination Form lost or damaged submissions. No manuscripts Author’s Name______or books will be returned.

Nominator’s Name, if different______Please forward TWO COPIES of each book or manuscript, along with a registration form and Address______entry fee, to:

City/State/Zip______Maine Literary Awards MWPA Telephone______Email______318 Glickman Family Library 314 Forest Ave. Title of Work______Portland, ME 04102

Publisher, if applicable______All manuscripts must be typed, double-spaced, and on clean white paper. All manuscripts must be accompanied by a registration form indicat- Category (choose ONE) ing the category for consideration. One entry Published Books per registration form, please. The author’s name q Fiction Checklist should not appear on any page of the manuscript q Nonfiction itself. Prose manuscripts should not exceed 20 q q Poetry Nomination Form pages. Poems should be no longer than 2 pages, q Maine-Themed but may be single spaced if necessary. q Children’s/Young Adult q Manuscript (two copies) OR q Self-Published* q Book (two copies) For book awards, MWPA must receive two cop- ies of each book for consideration. Books must Unpublished Manuscripts q Reading Fee must been commercially published within two q Fiction years of deadline. Unpublished work will be q Nonfiction judged blindly by prominent professional writ- q q Poetry Postmarked by December 15? ers; published work will be judged by prominent q Screenplay/Script professional writers who reside out of state, with the exception of the “Maine-Themed” award. Youth/High School q Fiction Reading Fees are as follows: q Nonfiction q Poetry Unpublished Manuscripts MWPA Members $7 per entry Teacher’s Name and Contact Information, if nominating on behalf of student(s) Non-Members $15 per entry ______Book Awards Please note that teachers may submit a batch of nominations for the Youth/High School categories, separated by genre with a simple cover sheet attached. MWPA Members $20 per entry Non-Members $40 per entry Example: Mrs. Teacher Jones Youth/High School Maine Country School For office use only FREE

Jane Student “A Flower” Poetry Date Received______Winners will be honored at a public ceremony in Joe Student “My Cat” Poetry April 2007 with a $100 cash prize. Sam Student “Dad” Nonfiction Number ______18 HOLIDAY BOOK SALE & AUTHOR SIGNING

Jennifer Finney Boylan Hannah Holmes Lily King Sarah Sherman McGrail Amy MacDonald Wesley McNair Scott Nash Elizabeth Peavey Betsy Sholl Amy Sutherland Maria Testa Sara Thomson Lea Wait Monica Wood Moon Pie Press Poets .....and many others

With signed books available by many more Maine authors...William Kotzwinkle, Tess Gerritsen, and Richard Russo. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2nd 11 am - 2 pm The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies (corner of Federal and Exchange Streets) Portland, Maine 19 Writer’s Tool Kit: From the Department of Self-Promotion . I don’t think so. What we’re going to do is GET OVER IT. And getting by Tanya Whiton over anything requires a place to vent, a supportive group of listeners, a Most writers are aware of the unpleasant but necessary work involved in plan for productive action, and peer acknowledgment for having followed promoting their writing: it’s a second job, or a third or fourth. Me, I’m a through on one of the many steps it takes to achieve any goal, particular- writer and a teacher. Promoting my work — submitting to journals, contests, ly one as challenging as hawking your own creative product. So, first, send agents, independent publishers; notifying people about achievements; and me your reasons for NOT tending to the business aspect of your writing just generally blowing my own horn — is job number three, and quite frank- career. Vent away. In the next installment of this column, I will discuss ly, my least favorite. Aside from the fact that my time is limited, I’m simply some common reasons for avoiding this important work, and then, we’ll not comfortable with self-promotion. It’s not because I’m insecure about the make a plan of action. All names and identifying details will be changed. quality of my work, but rather that I find self-promotion to be, well, tacky. Email me at [email protected]. And a bit invasive. And sort of…arrogant. Maine Writers & Publishers is pleased beyond recognizable belief to welcome Tanya These are strong words, I realize. These attitudes present a formidable block Whiton as a regular Maine in Print contributor. You might remember her regular to actually getting that necessary work done. And I’m guessing (pardon me “Inkslingers” column in the Portland Phoenix, where she kept the community cur- for making the assumption) that I’m not alone. So what are we shrinking rent on all literary news in and around the state. Well, she’s back, and her keyboard violets to do? Languish in the shadows of more assertive artists? Wring our is loaded. If you can, send her an email and let’s give her a big MWPA Membership hands over the current state of publishing? Give up? welcome! -SMH Join writing, publishing, and marketing professionals from Maine and New England. Meet literary agents, editors, and SAVE THE DATE distribution professionals. Network with your peers as you learn specific information about the publishing industry. “The Business of Writing: Registration materials, to include a full list of conference participants, will be available online beginning January 1. Everything You Need To Know About Writing Professionally in Maine” Wednesday, April 11 Cost 8 a.m.-3 p.m. $75 MWPA Members and $120 Nonmembers The Stone House Conference Center in Freeport, Maine

Join Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance MWPA Members receive: Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) educational orga- • One-year subscription to Maine in Print nization. Our mission is to enrich the cultural life of Maine by supporting writers and the • Discounts on all MWPA workshops and seminars literary arts. •25% discount on advertising rates • Discounts at local merchants and services Our goals include: • Use of MWPA’s publishing resource library 1) Creating a network of writers, readers, and publishers. 2) Promoting opportunities for writers to improve their writing and marketing skills. And the satisfaction of supporting Maine’s only statewide 3) Informing members and the Maine public of literary news. literary arts organization!

Nonprofit Organization Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance 318 Glickman Family Library US Postage PAID University of Southern Maine Brunswick, ME 04011 PO Box 9301 Permit #44 Portland, ME 04104

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