Down East News by David Nolf
SUMMER 2011
Beloit Poetry Journal poet Eduardo C. Corral, whose bilingual corrido “Variation on a Theme by Jose Montoya” appears in the Spring 2011 issue of the magazine, has been awarded this year’s Yale Younger Poets Prize. Mary Jo Thompson’s “Thirteen Months,” which appeared in the Winter 2010/2011 issue, will appear in The Best American Poetry 2011.
The electrifying Summer 2011 issue of the BPJ includes poems by Fady Joudah, Margaret Aho, Arthur Bull, Ranjani Neriya, Alex Quinlan, Gary Fincke, Nicelle Davis, Weston Cutter, Susan Tichy, and more, plus very contemporary sonnet sequences by Jenny Johnson and Tracy Zeman. The back-of-the-book symposium,“Gay Poetry, Politics, and Poetics,” with Jeff Crandall, Garth Greenwell, Peter Pereira, and Brian Teare ran through June on their Poet’s Forum, www.bpj.org. The fall issue will be devoted to a single long poem by Michael Brook called "The Logic of Yoo," which considers the moral logic of George W. Bush's legal counsel at the time prisoners were being tortured in Iraq (and the U.S.) as it reflects on the poem's protagonist, a graduate student who supplements his income by writing academic papers for hire.
Maine mystery writer Gerry Boyle is doing final corrections in page proofs for Port City Shakedown, his second crime novel in the Brandon Blake series. Shakedown will be published in September by Down East Books. It recounts the adventures of Blake as a rookie cop with the Portland P.D. As Gerry puts it, "This ain't your father's Portland, Maine." Gerry shot a promotional trailer for the book in Portland in late June. And he has a couple of appearances scheduled: Saturday, July 23, at the Rockland Lighthouse Museum, noon to 4 p.m., and Aug. 16 at the Wells Public Library, where his talk will begin at 6 p.m. Read the blog @ gerryboyle.com Follow gerryboyle on Twitter
Sharon Bray, who had her poem, Maybe Tomorrow, published in the Uni-Verse section of the Bangor Daily News on June 13, wrote to report that The Salt Coast Sages, founded by Kelly Lombardi, started with 6 poets. Now they are 4. They lost Kelly in 2008. In May 2011, poet Philip Rose died in a vehicle collision in Belfast. He was also a sea captain who delivered yachts between New England and the Caribbean. He built his house at Starboard, out beyond Machiasport, to resemble the prow of a boat. Bowdoin graduate, retired English teacher, active in local education (Senior College) and town politics, Phil wrote especially eloquent poems about Maine life. His dialog poems captured conversations heard at local wharf and country store settings.
Poetry, barbeque, and the beach will all be part of the Sixth Annual Roque Bluffs Poetry Festival on July 30 in the Down East seaside town of Roque Bluffs, Maine. The festival will feature a day-long workshop led by a prizewinning poet, an outdoor barbeque supper with all the trimmings near the ocean in beautiful Roque Bluffs State Park, and an open-mic poetry reading in the evening. The workshop is open to all poets, including novices, and the supper and evening reading are open to the general public. Kirstin Hotelling Zona will conduct the workshop and lead off the reading. She is associate professor of English at Illinois State University, where the subjects she teaches include creative writing. She is also editor of the Spoon River Poetry Review and author of numerous published poems and essays on poetry. She grew up in Maine and now summers in Machiasport. Her poem “Riptide” won the Elizabeth Matchett Stover Prize in 2005. Other poems of hers have been contest finalists. A chapbook of her poems, selected in a contest, will be published later this year. University presses have published two books of hers, Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, and May Swenson: The Feminist Poetics of Self-Restraint, and a book she edited entitled Dear Elizabeth: Five Poems and Three Letters from May Swenson to Elizabeth Bishop. She also co-hosts a program called Poetry Radio on a station affiliated with NPR.
The special barbeque will be prepared by members of the Roque Bluffs Chapel in celebration of the chapel’s 110th anniversary. In the event of inclement weather the supper will be served in the chapel’s dining facility. Roque Bluffs is a few miles south of Machias in Washington County. The fee for all events at the festival will be $44; or for just the workshop, $35; or for just the supper, $9. Registration checks made out to the Salt Coast Sages, a poetry group that hosts the festival, may be sent to them at P.O. Box 263, Cutler, ME, 04626. For more information contact Gerald George at (207) 255-6800 or geraldwgeorge@msn.com.
WERU’s Writers Forum, hosted by Joan Clemons of Belfast, will introduce a different program format on Thursday, July 14. Instead of writer Gerald George reading his own work, actors will present a dramatic performance of two of George's one-act plays. The program airs from10-11 a.m. on community radio station WERU, and may also be heard streaming live at weru.org.
Gerald (Jerry) George is the leader of the Downeast Salt Coast Sages poetry group. He has also published four books, as well as many articles and poems. He is on the Editorial Board of Off the Coast poetry magazine. In 2010, he was selected poet laureate of the Maine Senior College Network. George formally studied Japanese Noh Theatre, which inspired him to write plays combining elements of Noh with stories of Maine.
The first play, "Bailey's Mistake," to be presented was accepted by Acorn Productions of Portland, Maine, in a competition for the 2008 Maine Short Play Festival and was given four performances there. The second play, "The White Heron," borrows from two stories, "A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett and "Feather Mantle," a 16th century Japanese Noh play of unknown authorship. Michael R. Brown, who directed the plays for this broadcast, has published four books of poetry. He has also been an editor, folk singer, actor, journalist, playwright, director, and an academic. Recently, Brown has become affiliated with the Eastport Arts Center, Stage East, and the St. Croix Theatre Company. Other actors reading are Valerie Lawson, poet and Executive Director of the Eastport Arts Center, who has performed poetry for many years, and appeared in theatrical productions with Stage East Theater Company in Eastport; actor Greg Williams; and artist Dan Butler, who has been active in Eastport's community theater and is directing their production of Butterflies Are Free opening July 29. Michael R. Brown will also be reading a part. WERU's Program and Operations Manager, Joel Mann, provided technical engineering expertise for this performance of "Writers Forum." "Writers Forum," focusing on writers who live in Maine or write about Maine, airs the second Thursday of every month from 10-11:00 a.m. "Writers Forum" programs are available streaming live and podcast at weru.org. Past programs are also archived at weru.org. Writers who wish to appear on future "Writers Forum" programs should contact the station at writersforum@weru.org.
Jean Davison writes that her fifth book, Mother of Fire: An Iraqi Woman’s Journey from Mosul to Malawi, has been published. It is a late 19th/early 20th century historical novel, based on a real person's life.
Sandy Cohen of the Deer Isle Writers Group writes to say there will be a reading by the Group’s members at the Brooklin Friends Library on July 28 from 7 to 8:30 p. m. Readers include Anne Burton, Sandy Cohen, Jean Davison, Nancy Hodermarsky, and Phil Schirmer.
Linda Greenlaw, along with her mother, Martha Greenlaw, has just published a new cookbook, The Maine Summers Cookbook. They published Recipes from a Very Small Island in 2005. The new book celebrates summer with recipes for Strawberry-Mint Sparkling Lemonade, Grilled Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms, and Blackened Swordfish with Blueberry Chutney. The cooking duo’s essays, salted with Linda’s wit and seasoned with Martha’s wisdom, accompany the recipes. Island Readers and Writers held a culinary extravaganza and book signing, featuring Linda Greenlaw and Martha Greenlaw, at the Islesford Dock Restaurant on July 3. Recipes from their new book, The Maine Summers Cookbook, were part of the menu. Afterwards, the authors signed copies of the book.
The IR&W will host a book party and author presentation at the Northeast Harbor Library on Sunday, July 24, from 4 to 6 p.m. The speaker will be Gary Schmidt, author of the newly published book, Okay for Now. Schmidt is a two-time winner of a Newbery Honor Award and has won a Printz Honor Award.
Candi Joyce, the intrepid Swan’s Island librarian, writes to say the Library has a chapbook, published for their grand re-opening on July 7. It is entitled The Tarantula and includes the poem of the same name by Gary Rainford and a brief history of the Old Atlantic Schoolhouse, which was the home of the old library. Island Institute Fellow, Meghan Vigeant, in conjunction with the Swan’s Island Library, has published Guts, Feathers and All: Stories of Hard Work and Good Times on Swan’s Island, Maine.
From shearing a bucking ram to drag racing on curvy island roads, Island Institute fellow Meghan Vigeant reveals how Swan’s Islanders have approached life with a “guts, feathers and all” attitude, making the most of their limited resources and tapping into their creativity for both work and fun. Spanning over one hundred years, the stories in this collection connect us to the history of a Maine island and the humanity of its people. This book is a reminder of the importance of cherishing the ordinary people living extraordinary lives. To order a copy of the book, please call the Swan’s Island Educational Society at (207) 526-4330. The cost is $10 per book, plus $5 for shipping and handling. For more information about Guts, Feathers and All, or to schedule an interview with the author, please contact Meghan Vigeant at email mvigeant@islandinstitute.org
The Swan’s Island Library will hold a Book Bash on the island on July 16th, at 7 pm in the Odd Fellows Hall; it will include a live reading by community actors, a book auction of signed Swan's Island related books, a photo exhibit, and refreshments.
Carl Little has two poems in the spring edition of The Binnacle, the literary journal of the University of Maine at Machias. His interview with artist and poet Kate Cheney Chappell appears in Words & Images, published
by the University of Southern Maine. “Fairfield Porter and James Schuyler: Painting, Poetry and Passion on Great Spruce Head” is featured in The Island Journal. Little will be giving a slide talk on “Animals in Art” at the Wendell Gilley Museum in Southwest Harbor on August 11 as part of its 30th anniversary programming. His book on painter Eric Hopkins is due from Down East Books in late September.
Mark of the Golden Dragon, the ninth in Louis A. Meyer's Bloody Jack series, is set for release by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in late September 2011. The audio book, read by Katherine Kellgren, and issued by Listen and Live, will be released the following month.
Lou Meyer and his wife Annetje own and operate Clair de Loon at 75 Main Street, Bar Harbor. All of his autographed books along with limited edition prints of his paintings are available there or from clairdeloon.com and/or jackyfaber.com
The Monarch Review, Seattle's literary and arts magazine, will publish Jacqueline Michaud’s poem "Topical" in a forthcoming issue. The Review can be read online at: www.themonarchreview.org/.
Sandy Phippen’s book, Kitchen Boy is now available on Amazon Kindle, his first e-book. He is completing work this summer on his second novel, The Race Riots of Syracuse, and on his third book of short stories. He hopes they both will be published in the coming year. Phippen continues as editor of The Puckerbrush Review and will be publishing the next issue in the fall. He and his staff are currently reading through the many submissions. There's still time to submit. Sandy Phippen read at Verve, the new coffee house in Orono, in June. He will be speaking at the "Ruth Moore Celebration Week" at the Bass Harbor Library on Sunday, July 17 at 7 p.m. He will also be speaking/reading at the Surry Historical Society on July 18 at 6 p.m. This fall he will begin his 48th year of teaching English!
This summer, Phippen's University of Maine colleague, Judy Hakola, is using his book, High Clouds Soaring, Storms Driving Low: The Letters of Ruth Moore, in a four-week course on Moore. On Saturday, July 23, he will join several other Maine authors at the Mr. Paperback store for a group book signing in Ellsworth at the Maine Coast Mall.
Gary Rainford reports that his poem, “Localvores,” appeared this spring in Red Line Blues, a literary journal published in Asheville, North Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York. “True Blue,” appeared in the Spring 2011 edition of The Island Reader, Vol. 6, published by Maine Sea Coast Mission. “Thunder Hole,” “No Rest for the Weary,” and “Clover,” are forthcoming this summer in Omphalos.
The Swan's Island Library bookstore is launching Old Atlantic Schoolhouse Press, a pilot publishing project. OASP is publishing The Tarantula, a poem he wrote about the library fire. He will read this poem at the grand opening on July 7. The Swan's Island Lecture Series will host his poetry reading on July 19, and he will read again on August 19 with Don Junkins, a friend and fellow poet.
Norma Voorhees Sheard's, "Blackcaps," won first place in the General Federation of Woman's Clubs Creative Writing contest, recently. Her poem, "Green Yarn," was published in U.S. 1 Worksheets, issue #56. Also, her poem, "The Moment," will appear in the next issue of The Patterson Literary Review. "April Rain," was published in the Narramissic Notebook, Issue 11.
Sheard's two short poems, "Cast Iron Stove" and "Evensong" appeared in the May 4th online issue of New Maine Times. Also, some of her haiku will appear in the upcoming Maine Haiku Anthology.
Sherman’s Books & Stationery in Bar Harbor is offering a full program of Summer book signings. The authors include James Kaiser on July 8; Jeannie Brett, July 9; Douglas Tallamy, July 12; Marian Hersrud, July 15; Kristen Britain, July 16; Ellen Prager, July 17; Ray Charbonneau, July 19 and October 15; Jennifer Jacobson, July 23; Sisters in Crime, July 28; Carolyn Cooke, July 30; Marcus Librizzi, August 4, September 11, October 9, and October 21; Ardeana Hamlin, August 6; Dan Burt, August 10 and August 27; Earle Shettleworth, Jr., August 13; Don Carrigan, August 26; and Philip Conklin, September 1. Please call the Bookstore at 288-3161 for more information.
David Nolf is the author of a book of poetry entitled Surviving the Raw and the Cooked. For more than a decade, he wrote the Down East Wine Companion, a wine column, for the Bar Harbor Times. He was also the English editor for a number of years of The Neva News, a newspaper in St. Petersburg, Russia. He now lives on Mount Desert Island, Maine.
Please send your literary news to David Nolf, P.O. Box 878, Mt. Desert, Maine 04660 or e-mail him at nolfdowneast@yahoo.com