Taxing Maine

Through different historical characters, humor, little known facts, and thought-provoking stories, Taxing Maine explores what taxes mean for Maine communities, the state government, the Maine landscape, and Mainers’ wallets. The performance, featuring David Greenham and Dennis A. Price from the Theater at Monmouth, encourages us to consider how history and a range of opinions and beliefs about taxes have influenced our current taxation system. Thanks to Jon James of TheVoiceGuy.net for making this recording.

We welcome your comments!

Jennifer Gilmore

Spanning the first half of the twentieth century, Jennifer Gilmore's Golden Country tells the intertwining stories of three immigrants seeking their fortunes. Gilmore’s reinvention of the Jewish American novel, captures the exuberance of the American dream while exposing its underbelly—disillusionment, greed, and the disaffection bred by success. It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Gilmore's work has appeared in magazines, journals, and anthologies, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Allure, BookForum, CutBank, Nerve, Salon, and The Stranger. She works in publishing and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care.

Thank you for listening. Please leave your thoughts and questions in a comment on this blog post.

Joseph Wensink

Jack Burden and the Limits of Political Idealism

Joseph Wensink is a PhD candidate in English at Brandeis University, where he teaches writing. He has written on the links between intellectual history and the modern American novel, and is particularly interested in studying Warren’s Jack Burden as a failed idealist. In his talk, he offered a close reading of several passages from the book that shed light on Burden’s character.

Tricia Welsch

Filming American Politics

Tricia Welsch is Associate Professor of Film Studies at Bowdoin College. Welsch used clips to compare the 1949 film version of "All the King’s Men" starring Broderick Crawford and the 2006 re-make starring Sean Penn. Since those clips are protected by copyright, this excerpt from her talk includes only the background material she gave on Hollywood’s treatment of politics and film adaptations of novels.

Ray Arsenault

The Huey Long-Willie Stark Connection

Ray Arsenault is Professor of History at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. He is an expert on contemporary Southern politics, notably the phenomenon of the political demagogue. He appeared as part of the Organization of American Historians’ Distinguished Lecturer series, which honors major scholars who are also outstanding teachers. Here, he discusses the life and times of Huey Long, Louisiana’s governor and U.S. Senator in the depths of the Depression, and a potential rival to FDR as a presidential candidate.

Share Our Wealth

In 1934, Huey Long organized the Share-Our-Wealth Society, which advocated a populist program for redistributing wealth. In this April 1935 radio address, Long sharply criticized FDR and the New Deal and then sketched out his alternative program. (From the collection of Andy Lanset – used with permission.)

Bill Roorbach

Like other authors in this podcast, Bill Roorbach has written about a very personal part of Maine. Temple Stream (Dell, 2005) considers the stream that borders the fields below his house in Farmington; it won the nonfiction Maine Literary Award. His stories and novels deal with equally real and natural people. And he produces “teacherly tomes” on memoirs, essays, and Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: The Art of Truth (Oxford University Press, 2001).

This interview with Roorbach by Charlotte Albright was included on the Council’s 30th Anniversary CD, “Maine Writers Speak.”

You can leave your feedback in the comments section, below.

Masha Hamilton

The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton is a tale about an American librarian, Fiona Sweeney, who leaves Brooklyn to work for a relief organization in Africa that sends books on the backs of camels to forgotten villages. Fiona’s intentions are entirely pure but, when the bookmobile causes a feud among the nomadic tribe it aims to help, she realizes her good deeds may come with a high price. Hamilton worked as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press for five years in the Middle East, spent five years in Moscow where she was a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, then traveled to Afghanistan as a freelance journalist. She currently lives with her family in Brooklyn. To donate books to the real camel bookmobile in northern Kenya, visit the Camel Book Drive.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care.

Please leave your questions and comments here.

Wesley McNair

The Council sponsored a poetry reading by Wesley McNair at the State Street Church in Portland during the Fall of 2002. He was introduced by fellow Maine writer Cathie Pelletier. McNair has a long-standing relationship with the Council. He has led workshops for Maine teachers about using poetry in the classroom, designed a poetry series for the Let’s Talk About It program, and granted an interview for our Fall 2001 newsletter.

Whether you saw the reading live or heard it for the first time on the podcast, please leave a comment below to let us know what you thought.

Have you attended other Council events that you'd like to see on this podcast? Feel free to post suggestions! We might be able to locate recordings in our archives.

Richard Russo

Richard Russo retired early from Colby College in order to write full-time. He has set several novels in New York and Pennsylvania, but given his fascination with decaying towns and their struggling inhabitants, he was bound to write of a Maine mill town sooner or later. Empire Falls (Knopf, 2001) won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize. It was followed by The Whore’s Child and Other Stories (Knopf, 2002).

This interview with Richard Russo by Charlotte Albright was included on the Council’s 30th Anniversary CD, ‘Maine Writers Speak.’

Please leave a comment here to share your thoughts on this interview.

Monica Wood

Monica Wood learned her craft early, growing up in a family of Irish Canadian storytellers and ballad singers in Mexico, Maine. Her short stories and novels are well known; the latest is Any Bitter Thing (Chronicle, 2005). She also writes for writers, on her website and in works like The Pocket Muse (F & W Publications, 2006). “The best advice I have for aspiring writers is to read, read, read. Read everybody.”

This interview with Monica Wood by Charlotte Albright was included on the Council’s 30th Anniversary CD, ‘Maine Writers Speak.’

Leave your comments on this interview here.

Cathie Pelletier

Now living in Tennessee, Cathie Pelletier remains a very Maine writer. Born here and educated at the University of Maine, she speaks in her novels, including most recently Running the Bulls (University Press of New England, 2005) of northern Maine. Pelletier also writes screenplays, poetry, and short stories. Writing as K. C. McKinnon, she has produced some of her most popular work, notably Dancing at the Harvest Moon (Doubleday, 1997).

This interview with Cathie Pelletier by Charlotte Albright was included on the Council’s 30th Anniversary CD, ‘Maine Writers Speak.’

Please add a comment to let us know what you thought of this interview!

Meredith Hall

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

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care.

Please add your thoughts and feedback!

Eric B. Martin

Eric B. Martin wrote The Virgin’s Guide to Mexico from 2001-2006 in Mexico City and California. Raised in Maine, he was educated in Austin, Durham, and Quito, Ecuador. He has worked on vineyards, beer trucks, tobacco fields, and in homeless shelters. The recent recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, he is the author of the novels Luck and Winners, which was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. He lives in San Francisco on the corner of Mission and Cesar Chavez.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care.

You can share your thoughts on this podcast recording by adding a comment to this blog post.

Elizabeth Edwards

Elizabeth Edwards is originally from Pittsburgh and now lives in Kittery, Maine. She earned an M.A. in writing from the University of New Hampshire and has published poems in many journals including The Southern Review, Witness, The Antioch Review, The Carolina Quarterly, The Cream City Review, Sycamore Review, and The Florida Review. She was the Maine Arts Commission Poetry Fellow in 2001.

This reading was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by Martin’s Point Health Care.

Please share your thoughts on this poetry reading using the "comments" link, below.