Shara McCallum

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

McCallum's reading took place in Freeport during the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January, 2008. This is the last recording from the winter residency that we will post. (The summer residency is less than one month away!) We'd love to hear what you thought of this series of podcasts, and whether or not you're interested in hearing more from Stonecoast writers.

Lewis Robinson

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

Robinson's reading took place in Freeport during the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January, 2008.

Ashley Bryan

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

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

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Amy Hand

Amy Hand is the children's librarian at the Camden Public Library. In April, 2008, she read aloud from some of her favorite children's books for Humanities on Demand. She also shared some songs and rhymes that go along with the books.

We hope you can find some children or grandchildren to listen with you, then let us know what they think!

Jody Fein

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

Andrew Walkling

Andrew Walkling is Dean's Assistant Professor of Early Modern Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he teaches in the departments of art history, English, and theater and is affiliated with the faculties of history, music, and philosophy. He earned a Ph.D. in British history from Cornell. A Fellow of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, he works in an interdisciplinary field focusing on the courts of Charles II and James II (1660-88). He is writing a book entitled Masque and Opera in Restoration England.

Two handouts accompanied Dr. Walkling's talk at Winter Weekend, "Dido's Lament: Virgilian Epic and 17th Century English Opera." These can be downloaded on the main Humanities on Demand website.

Art for Justice

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

Please use this forum to weigh in on any of the issues raised by the panelists and facilitator.