Nick Fuller Googins Launches THE FREQUENCY OF LIVING THINGS at SPACE
Aug
12
7:00 PM19:00
Readings & Talks

Nick Fuller Googins Launches THE FREQUENCY OF LIVING THINGS at SPACE

SPACE, Back Cove Books, and Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance present the book launch for The Frequency of Living Things, the new forthcoming novel by author Nick Fuller Googins. Nick will be in conversation with Taryn Bowe, Associate Director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

The Frequency of Living Things is a heartbreaking American epic about three sisters who unearth lifetimes of family tensions as they are forced to rescue one of their own from peril, testing the limits of sacrifice, sisterhood, and forgiveness from the author of the “profound work of great wisdom” (Alice Elliott Dark) The Great Transition.

Josie may be the youngest sister, but she takes care of everyone. She is the left-brained scientist to her twin sisters’ right-brained artistic chaos. She makes sure their rent gets paid on time, they make their therapy appointments, and has also been their de-facto band manager since she was a teenager. When Ara, her middle sister (by a few minutes), calls from jail, it isn’t exactly a surprise, and Josie knows exactly how to snap into action.

Emma is the quintessential frontwoman, complete with looks and attitude. But the success of The Twins’ first (and only) album—gold records, Grammy nominations, and diehard fans—is two decades behind her. Hiding under the surface of her swagger is a long-held guilt that has turned her into her sister’s enabler. Emma knows she needs Ara’s creative genius and thinks a jailhouse record could be just the thing to get Ara her freedom and their band back on the main stage.

Ara is detoxing, not only from her opioid habit but also from her family. The truth is, as crazy as it sounds, she’s not in a hurry to get out of lock-up. In the most unlikely and dangerous of places, this could be her chance to face the demons of her past and disentangle herself from her family. Bertie, who raised her three daughters as a single mother, has always taught them that family won’t always be around to take care of you. A former defense attorney and perennial do-gooder, she’s committed to taking care of everyone less fortunate even if that means putting her girls’ needs second. But now Bertie must decide if she should reenter her daughters’ lives in their greatest time of need—or watch to see if the resilience she’s taught them will help carry them through.

A story both intimate and sweeping, The Frequency of Living Things explores the timeless question of how our individual destinies are intertwined with our family, our siblings, and our history no matter how we try to untangle ourselves from them.

Nick Fuller Googins has published short stories and essays in The Paris Review, the Los Angeles Times, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Maine and works as an elementary school teacher. He is the author of The Great Transition and The Frequency of Living Things.

Taryn Bowe’s work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, on NPR’s Selected Shorts, and in literary journals, such as The Sewanee Review, Epoch, Indiana Review, and Joyland. She currently serves as the associate director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

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Noir at the Ba
Sep
26
6:30 PM18:30

Noir at the Ba

Noir at the Bar

SEPTEMBER 26TH AT 6:30 P.M.

On the night before the Maine Crime Wave, join us for a night of suspense, betrayal, and retribution from Maine's crime writing community at Novel Bar & Café. Hosted by Matt Cost and Jule Selbo, the night will feature a criminally phenomenal line up of writers including Brenda Buchanan, Richard Cass, Bruce Robert Coffin, Paul Dorion, Mo Drammeh, Julia Spencer Flemming, Kate Flora, Chris Holm, Barbara Ross, Gabriela Stiteler, and Katie York.

Doors open at 6:30, but the event starts at 7:00! The event will take place in the Speakeasy at Novel Bar and Cafe, not in the main area.

Arrive at 6:30 to grab a drink, connect with members of the crime writing community, purchase some books from Kelly's Bookstore, and settle in for twisted tales read by masters of the craft, trivia, and prizes.

Investigate the featured writers below!

Hosts:

Matt Cost has owned a video store, a mystery bookstore, a gym. Matt taught junior high, and coached just about every sport imaginable. Now he writes histories and mysteries. He has eighteen published books and is busy writing his twenty-second. 

Jule Selbo loves stories in all forms; she started as a playwright, became a screenwriter in Los Angeles, and then moved to Maine to write novels. 7 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery, is the fourth of a crime/mystery series that follows 10 DAYS and 9 DAYS, 8 DAYS. The books have received recognition that includes being listed on Kirkus’ Top 5 Mysteries from Small Publishers, winning the Silver Falchion Award, a Foreword Review Honorable mention, a Maine Literary Award nomination, and more

Featured Crime Writers:

Brenda Buchanan sets her novels in and around Portland. Her three-book Joe Gale series features a contemporary newspaper reporter with old-school style who covers the courts and crime beat at the fictional Portland Daily Chronicle. Brenda’s short story, “Means, Motive, and Opportunity,” was in the anthology Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories 2021 and received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022. Her story “Assumptions Can Get You Killed” appeared in Wolfsbane: Best New England Crime Stories 2023 and a new short story, “Cape Jewell,” will be included in Snakeberry: Best New England Crime Stories 2025, to be released in November. An active member of Sisters in Crime, Brenda also serves on the organizing committees of both the New England Crime Bake and the Maine Crime Wave. She's also a longtime member of the Maine Crime Writers blog.

Richard Cass is the author of seven Elder Darrow jazz mystery books and The Last Altruist, a crime novel. His books have won the Maine Literary Award and the Nancy Pearl Librarian’s Award for Genre Fiction. Hard as a Headstone will be published by Islandport Press in 2026.

Bruce Robert Coffin is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. A retired detective sergeant, Bruce is the author of the Detective Byron Mysteries, co-author of the Turner and Mosley Files with LynDee Walker, and author of the forthcoming Detective Justice Mysteries. Winner of Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Awards for Best Procedural, and Best Investigator, and the Maine Literary Award for Best Crime Fiction, Bruce was also a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel. His Anthony Award nominated short fiction has been published in a dozen anthologies, including Best American Mystery Stories, 2016.

Paul Doiron is the best-selling author of the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels set in the Maine woods. His first book, THE POACHER'S SON, won the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award and was nominated for an Edgar for Best First Novel. PopMatters named it one of the best novels of the year. His second, TRESPASSER, won the 2012 Maine Literary Award. His novelette “Rabid” was a finalist for the 2019 Edgar in the Best Short Story category. Paul’s twelfth book, DEAD BY DAWN won the New England Society's 2022 Book Award for Fiction, as well as his second Maine Literary Award. It was also a finalist for the Barry Award. Paul is the former chair of the Maine Humanities Council, Editor Emeritus of "Down East: The Magazine of Maine," and a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing. He lives on a trout stream on the Maine midcoast.

Mo Drammeh is a student at the University of Maine and a member of the Honors College. He was among Maine Magazine's Mainers of The Year in 2022 for his writing, was the winner of the 2022 Crime Flash Competition, and is a 2023 Macklin Fellow. Mo grew up in Bangor, Maine, and has lived there all his life. 

Julia Spencer Fleming is the New York Times bestselling author of One Was a Soldier, and an Agatha, Anthony, Dilys, Barry, Macavity, and Gumshoe Award winner. She studied acting and history at Ithaca College and received her J.D. at the University of Maine School of Law. Her books have been shortlisted for the Edgar, Nero Wolfe, and Romantic Times RC awards. Julia lives in a 190-year-old farmhouse in southern Maine.

Kate Flora’s fascination with people’s criminal tendencies began in the Maine attorney general’s office. Deadbeat dads, people who hurt their kids, and employers’ discrimination aroused her curiosity about human behavior. The author of twenty-eight books spanning many genres, including crime fiction, true crime, memoir, and nonfiction, and many short stories. Flora’s been a finalist for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer awards. She won the Public Safety Writers Association award for nonfiction and twice won the Maine Literary Award for crime fiction.

Chris Holm is the author of the cross-genre Collector trilogy, which recasts the battle between heaven and hell as old-fashioned crime pulp; the Michael Hendricks thrillers, which feature a hitman who only kills other hitmen; thirty-odd short stories that run the gamut from crime to horror to science fiction; and the standalone CHILD ZERO, a biological thriller in the vein of Michael Crichton. His work has been selected for THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES, named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, garnered praise from Stephen King, and won a number of awards, including the 2016 Anthony Award for Best Novel. He lives in Portland, Maine.

Barbara Ross is the author of twelve mystery novels and six novellas in the Maine Clambake series, all published by Kensington. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She has also written the Jane Darrowfield Mysteries.  In her former life, Barbara was a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of successful start-ups in educational technology. She and her husband live in Portland, Maine.

Gabriela Stiteler is a writer and educator based in Portland, Maine. She has been shortlisted for the Robert L. Fish Award and inclusion in the Best American Mystery and Suspense twice. You can find her writing in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Rock and a Hard Place, Stone's Throw, and Dark Yonder as well as numerous anthologies.

Katie York writes queer thrillers. She was nominated for UCLA’s James Kirkwood Award in 2023 and received both the 2024 StoryStudio PubCrawl Scholarship and the 2024 Darcy Scott Award. 

Top Row from L-R: Jule Selbo (Host), Matt Cost (Host), Paul Doiron, Bruce Robert Coffin, Kate Flora

Middle Row from L-R: Richard Cass, Brenda Buchanan, Katie York, Chris Holm, Gabriela Stiteler

Bottom Row from L-R: Mo Drammeh, Julia Spencer Fleming, Barbara Ross

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Gather 64
Jul
16
6:00 PM18:00
Gather

Gather 64


Please join us for MWPA’s beloved GATHER event series! On Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at 6:00 PM, MWPA members & friends can attend an in-person Gather at one of several locations around the state as the online Poetry Gather is taking a break for the month of July.

To join an event, find the most convenient location below, and gather with us!

Please note: A couple of our regular Gather locations will not be meeting this month, and some new Gathers have begun or recently rejoined the mix. Please check the details below very closely. You can reach out to your local Gather host for questions and concerns surrounding illness protocols and precautions, and we encourage you to join an online Gather if in-person events become unsafe or inaccessible for you. For more information, contact Samara at: samara@mainewriters.org.

About GATHER: GATHER encourages members (and their friends!) to meet and mingle with fellow members in locations around Maine for camaraderie and conversation. There is no agenda to GATHER besides getting together with your community of fellow writers and literary professionals to talk writing, reading, and life.

While GATHER events are not open readings, manuscript exchanges, or organized writing-prompt sessions, they are opportunities for literary-minded folks to meet and plan any of those things and more. Food and drink is most always available for purchase.

In-Person Events:

BANGOR
Host: Annaliese Jakimides (a.jakimides@gmail.com)
Location: Sea Dog Brewing (26 Front St, Bangor)

BELFAST
Host: Beckie Weinheimer (beckieweinheimer@gmail.com)
Location: Anodyne Book Shop (175 W Main Street, Searsport, ME)

BLUE HILL
Host: Marie Epply & Sarah Pebworth (mmepply@yahoo.com, sapebworth@gmail.com)
Location: Marlintini's Grill (83 Mines Rd, Blue Hill)

BRUNSWICK
Host: Peter Owen (peterowen326@gmail.com)
Location: Flight Deck Brewing (11 Atlantic Avenue, Brunswick )

SOUTH PORTLAND
Host: Kathy Eliscu (kathyeliscu@outlook.com)
Location: Bridgeway Restaurant (71 Ocean Street, South Portland)

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POSTPONED - In Relation: Poets & Writers on the Traditions that Shaped Them
Jul
8
7:00 PM19:00
Readings & Talks

POSTPONED - In Relation: Poets & Writers on the Traditions that Shaped Them

POSTPONED

Please join the MWPA and SPACE and six writers in celebration of Kristen Case’s new book, Daphne.

In celebration of Kristen Case’s new book, Daphne, forthcoming from Tupelo Press in June,  six accomplished and award-winning poets and writers will gather to share work and talk about how their work is in conversation with various poems and traditions and what that means. The poets & writers include Samaa Abdurraqib, Kristen Case, Kate Colby, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Nina MacLaughlin, and Jeffrey Thomson.

In Daphne, Case writes, “The story goes like this: a girl/woman is chased after and lost. She becomes a lost thing. The man becomes a poet.”

The editors of Tupelo Press call Daphne “a powerful decolonization of the imagination” and note that in the book she “explores the relationship between predation and the lyric, particularly within the Western canon…[S]he does not merely critique or gesture at problems, but instead, works toward more just and equitable forms of discourse. By challenging the boundaries between literary criticism, prose poetry, hybrid forms, manifesto, and the lyric, Case ultimately works within received literary forms to expand what is possible within them.”

Please join us for what will be a one-of-a-kind reading and conversation. PRINT: A Bookstore will be on hand to sell copies of Kristen Case’s book and books by the others. Tickets are $5 with some free community tickets available at the button below.

Samaa Abdurraqib is the editor of From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast (2023). Recently, her poetry has appeared in Cider Press Review, december, Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, and in the edited collection Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic (2022). Her newest chapbook, Towards a Retreat will be published by Diode Editions in 2025. Samaa is a certified Maine Master Naturalist and she is always listening for birdsong. 

Kristen Case’s latest poetry collection, Daphne, will be published by Tupelo Press in June. Her first, Little Arias was published by New Issues Press in 2015, and her second collection, Principles of Economics, published by Switchback Books, won the 2018 Gatewood Prize. She is the recipient of the Maine Literary Award in Poetry (2016 and 2020), a MacDowell Fellowship, and the UMF Trustee Professorship. She is Executive Director of the Monson Arts Seminar, and she is also the author of the book American Poetry and Poetic Practice: Crosscurrents from Emerson to Susan Howe (Camden House, 2011) and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Henry David Thoreau (in development, Oxford UP), William James and Literary Studies (forthcoming, Cambridge UP), Thoreau in an Age of Crisis: Uses and Abuses of An American Icon (Fink, 2021), 21|19: Contemporary Poets in the 19th Century Archive (Milkweed Editions, 2019), and Thoreau at 200: Essays and Reassessments (Cambridge UP, 2016). Her current book project is Keeping Time: Henry David Thoreau’s Kalendar (forthcoming, Milkweed Editions). She is Scholarship Research and Grants Manager at the Mitchell Institute.

Kate Colby’s books of poetry include I Mean and Reverse Engineer. Paradoxx is forthcoming from Essay Press in September. She has received awards and fellowships from the Poetry Society of America, Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, the Dodd Research Center at University of Connecticut, and the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University. Her poems and essays have recently appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Conjunctions, Harper’s, Lana Turner, LitHub and The Nation. Colby was a founding board member of the Gloucester Writers Center in Massachusetts, where she now serves on the advisory board. She grew up in Massachusetts and currently lives in Providence, where she teaches at Brown and UPenn, and performs with the ad hoc poets’ theater group, Spatulate Church Emergency Shift.

Nina MacLaughlin is the author of Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung (FSG/FSG Originals), a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the Massachusetts Book Award, as well as Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice (Black Sparrow), winner of the Massachusetts Book Award. Her first book was the acclaimed memoir Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter (W.W. Norton), a finalist for the New England Book Award. Formerly an editor at the Boston Phoenix, she worked for nine years as a carpenter, and was also a books columnist for the Boston Globe. Her work has appeared on or in The Paris Review Daily, The Virginia Quarterly Review, n+1, The Believer, The New York Times Book Review, Agni, American Short Fiction, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Meatpaper, and elsewhere. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc's first collection of poems, Death of a Ventriloquist won the Vassar Miller Prize, and his second, Deke Dangle Dive, was published by CavanKerry Press. His poems have appeared recently in magazines including Narrative Magazine, Poetry Northwest, and Orion, and he received the 2025 Marvin Bell Memorial Poetry Prize from december magazine and Maggie Smith. He has helped lead community arts organizations including The Telling Room, SPACE Gallery, and Hewnoaks and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

Jeffrey Thomson is a poet, memoirist, translator, and editor, and is the author of multiple books including Museum of Objects Burned by the Souls in Purgatory (Alice James, 2022) and Half/Life: New and Selected Poems (Alice James, 2019), his memoir, fragile, The Complete Poems of Catullus: an Annotated Translation, and an anthology, From the Fishouse. He has been an NEA Fellow, the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Poetry Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Fellow at Brown University.  He is currently professor of creative writing at the University of Maine Farmington.

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A Celebration of Write ME
May
31
7:00 PM19:00
Readings & Talks, Write ME

A Celebration of Write ME

Please join the MWPA and Maine Poet Laureate Julia Bouwsma for a celebration of the Write ME project!

With support from the MWPA, the Maine Arts Commission, The Telling Room, and many public libraries and organizations around Maine, and funding from the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation, Julia Bouwsma created Write ME, a Maine-wide epistolary poetry project that 1) introduced the form through a series of 23 free public workshops across the state during the fall and early winter of 2024 and then 2) paired up hundreds of participating individuals as “poetry pen pals” to communicate with one another during the winter.

This project brought together people in different parts of Maine to exchange letter poems. This project was open to anyone in Maine (or connected to the state) ages 18 and up, with additional youth participation happening through The Telling Room, the Monson Arts High School Program, and assorted Maine high school teachers.

Now we’ll gather together, both virtually and in person, to celebrate the project, hear from people who exchanged poems, and celebrate the power of poetry to connect us all.

A free reception will begin at 6 PM. To watch the livestream of the event, click on the button below or go to YouTube.com and find the Waldo Theatre’s channel.

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Maine Literary Awards Ceremony
May
29
7:00 PM19:00
Maine Literary Awards, Readings & Talks

Maine Literary Awards Ceremony

Please join the MWPA for our favorite night of the year, a community celebration of great writers and publishers from all over Maine. We will laugh, cry, and applaud excellent work from the last year. We are excited to bring the awards back to the Bangor Area for the first time since 2019. Special guests will help announce this year’s winners as we celebrate talented writers, editors, and literary professionals.

Doors open at 6 PM for a reception with snacks and a cash bar; the ceremony begins at 7 PM. Finalist books will be for sale.

The event is free, but we ask that you RSVP by clicking the orange button below. Seating is limited. If you would like to make a suggested ticket donation, we appreciate it!

To to attend online, please click the yellow button below to register for the Zoom link.

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Gather 63
May
21
6:00 PM18:00
Gather

Gather 63


Please join us for the hybrid edition of MWPA’s beloved GATHER event series! On Wednesday, May 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM, MWPA members & friends can attend an in-person Gather at one of several locations around the state OR choose to participate in an online Gather.

To sign up for an online Gather, click the corresponding RSVP link below. On the afternoon of the Gather date, you’ll receive an email with a link to join your Gather on Zoom.

To join an in-person event, find the most convenient location below, and gather with us!

Please note: A couple of our regular Gather locations will not be meeting this month, and some new Gathers have begun or recently rejoined the mix. Please check the details below very closely. You can reach out to your local Gather host for questions and concerns surrounding illness protocols and precautions, and we encourage you to join an online Gather if in-person events become unsafe or inaccessible for you. For more information, contact Samara at: samara@mainewriters.org.

About GATHER: GATHER encourages members (and their friends!) to meet and mingle with fellow members in locations around Maine for camaraderie and conversation. There is no agenda to GATHER besides getting together with your community of fellow writers and literary professionals to talk writing, reading, and life.

While GATHER events are not open readings, manuscript exchanges, or organized writing-prompt sessions, they are opportunities for literary-minded folks to meet and plan any of those things and more. Food and drink is most always available for purchase.

Online Gathers:

POETRY
Host: Jeri Theriault
RSVP HERE

In-Person Events:

AROOSTOOK
Host: Kim Wright (wrightk@sad1.org)
Location: The Library House potluck (228 state St, Presque Isle)

BANGOR
Host: Annaliese Jakimides (a.jakimides@gmail.com)
Location: Sea Dog Brewing (26 Front St, Bangor)

BELFAST
Host: Rob Bywater (robbywater@fastmail.us )
Location: anodyne book shop (175 W Main St, Searsport)

BLUE HILL
Host: Marie Epply & Sarah Pebworth (mmepply@yahoo.com, sapebworth@gmail.com)
Location: Marlintini's Grill (83 Mines Rd, Blue Hill)

BRUNSWICK AREA
Hosts: Alix Morris, Peter Owen ( alix.morris@gmail.com, peterowen326@gmail.com)
Location: Sea Dog Brewing (1 Bowdoin Mill Island, Topsham)

DAMARISCOTTA
Host: Andrea Vassallo (andrea.granted@gmail.com)

Location: Newcastle Publick House (52 Main St, Newcastle)

LUBEC
Host: John Rule (jdrule@lubecscribbler.com)
Location: Lubec Brewing Co. (41 S Water St, Lubec)

SOUTH PORTLAND
Host: Jeanne Julian (jmcjulian@yahoo.com)
Location: Bridgeway Restaurant (71 Ocean St., South Portland)

WATERVILLE
Host: Holly Zadra (hollyzadra@gmail.com)
Location: The Lounge of Front & Main (9 Main St, Waterville)

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