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Michael Steinberg

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

Please leave your comments on Steinberg's January 2009 Stonecoast reading here.

Gray Jacobik

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

This reading took place in Freeport, Maine, during the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January, 2009. We welcome your feedback!

Colin Sargent

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

India and Pakistan

The goal of India and Pakistan: The History Behind the Headlines, a day-long program for Maine teachers that took place on December 4, 2008, in Brunswick, Maine, was to provide an introduction to the complex web of politics, culture, and religion that has made South Asia both a volatile area and an emerging power. Rachel Sturman, Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College, was the featured scholar. The recording is offered here in two parts: an overview from the beginning of the day and a question-and-answer session from the end.

Ying Chang Compestine

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

Lynne Jonell

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

Fear and Civil Liberties

On October 20, 2008, the Maine Humanities Council hosted a symposium entitled Fear, Civil Liberties, and the Rule of Law. The program began with an overview of the topic by Joel Rosenthal, President of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and member of the Maine Humanities Council board. Rosenthal is a frequent lecturer and writer on ethics, U.S. foreign policy, and international relations.

The next speaker in the program was Jeff McCausland, U.S. Army Colonel (Retired) and Carnegie Council Senior Fellow. During his military career, McCausland served in a variety of command and staff positions both in the United States and Europe, including as Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control on the National Security Council Staff during the Kosovo crisis. He has published and lectured broadly on military affairs, European security issues, the Gulf War, and leadership throughout the United States and abroad.

The program concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Joel Rosenthal. Panelists Shenna Bellows (Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union), Paula Silsby (U.S. Attorney for Maine), and Steve Podgajny (Executive Director, Portland Public Library) explored what the pressure on civil liberties means for Americans.

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Blaine House

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

Do you have a story to tell about the Blaine House? We'd love to hear from you!

David Richards

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

Do you have a story about someone who stayed or worked at Poland Spring? David would love to hear it! Please leave it in the "Comments" section.

Moon Runner

School librarian Connie Burns of South Portland is a steadfast supporter of the Maine Student Book Award. Here, she presents one of the books on the list of contenders from the 2006-07 school year: Moon Runner by Carolyn Marsden (Candlewick, 2005). After Connie introduces the main character, Mina, then reads the first chapter and previews the rest of the story, it’ll be hard to resist finding a copy of the book at your library and finishing it. If you do, or if you've already read the book, leave your comments here!

Blue Hill Authors

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

Eve LaPlante

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

Schair Memorial Lecture

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

The Schair Memorial Lecture took place at the University of Southern Maine on April 8, 2008. The Lecture Committee is already planning next year's lecture! Please leave your feedback here.

Linda Greenlaw

Linda Greenlaw's three books about life as a commercial fisherman—The Hungry Ocean (1999), The Lobster Chronicles (2002), and All Fishermen Are Liars (2004)—have climbed as high as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. Her first novel, Slipknot, began a mystery series whose second installment is Fisherman’s Bend (2008). Before becoming a writer, Greenlaw was the captain of a sword boat, the career that earned her a prominent role in Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm and a portrayal in the subsequent film. She now lives on Isle au Haut, where she captains a lobster boat. She stopped at the Portland Public Library in August to promote her new mystery and accept Q&A. What would you have liked to ask her if you'd been there?

Emerson Baker

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

Vietnam in Context

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

Margaret Sweat

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

Annaliese Jakimides

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

Jakimides is a Bangor, Maine-based writer who has led numerous programs for the Maine Humanities Council and also contributes to Bangor Metro Magazine. To leave your comments on her poems, or the Coastal Companion project, please add a comment below.

Portland Freedom Trail

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