Please note: This event has been postponed until next week due to reports of messy commutes in the Portland area and throughout the state. If you have signed up for this event, you should receive updates via email. You can also check back in here and on social media for more details to come. We apologize for the frustration and disappointment of this last-minute decision. We just want everyone to stay safe.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

In honor of the priceless and intangible legacy left to us by the beloved ancestor Ashley Bryan (left) and upheld by so many BIPOC creatives, our next LORE event will be a reading and discussion, cohosted by our partners at Indigo Arts Alliance and featuring (clockwise from top left) Dania Bowie, Kendric Chua, Liz Iversen, Minquansis Sapiel, and Stacey Tran. These Fellows will be sharing their original writing with us and connecting with each other and with our community though conversation about their work and approaches to writing in these uncertain times.

Please note: This event is open to the public, and all who celebrate our diverse creative community are welcome and invited to attend.

This event is free to the public, but seating is limited, and we ask that you RSVP by clicking on the button below.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

POSTEPONED

Please note: This event has been postponed until next week due to reports of messy commutes in the Portland area and throughout the state. If you have signed up for this event, you should receive updates via email. You can also check back in here and on social media for more details to come. We apologize for the frustration and disappointment of this last-minute decision. We just want everyone to stay safe.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

In honor of the priceless and intangible legacy left to us by the beloved ancestor Ashley Bryan (left) and upheld by so many BIPOC creatives, our next LORE event will be a reading and discussion, cohosted by our partners at Indigo Arts Alliance and featuring (clockwise from top left) Dania Bowie, Kendric Chua, Liz Iversen, Johan Alexander F, Minquansis Sapiel, and Stacey Tran. These Fellows will be sharing their original writing with us and connecting with each other and with our community though conversation about their work and approaches to writing in these uncertain times.

Please note: This event is open to the public, and all who celebrate our diverse creative community are welcome and invited to attend.

This event is free to the public, but seating is limited, and we ask that you RSVP by clicking on the button below.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

Please join us for the hybrid edition of MWPA’s beloved GATHER event series! On Wednesday, March 20, 2023 at 6:00 PM, MWPA members & friends can attend an in-person Gather at one of several locations around the state OR chose 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 COVID 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
Hosts: Kathryn Olmstead & Kim Wright (olmstead@maine.edu, bkwrights75@gmail.com)
Location: Governor’s (350 Main St, Presque Isle)

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

BLUE HILL
Host: Marie Epply (mmepply@yahoo.com)
Location: Martilini’s Grill (83 Mines Rd, Blue Hill)

BRUNSWICK
Host: Claire Baldwin & Katie Coppens (clairelucebaldwin@gmail.com , ktcoppens@gmail.com)
Location: The Abbey (87 Maine St, Brunswick)

DAMARISCOTTA
Host: Andrea Vassallo (andrea.granted@gmail.com)
Location: The Damariscotta River Grill (155 Main St, Damariscotta)

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

SOUTH PORTLAND
Host: Cheryl Gillespie (cherylgillespie88@gmail.com)
Location: Bridgeway Restaurant (71 Ocean St, South Portland)

WATERVILLE
Host: Tyler French & Catie Joyce Bulay (tfrench@colby.edu, catiejoycebulay@gmail.com)
Location: Lounge of Front & Main (9 Main St, Waterville)

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

Ashley Bryan Fellow Stacey Tran invites local Writers of Color to come together and create in a new, safe-space writing group.

"I'm imagining a long table where we can all sit together quietly to write and talk about writing over tea, snacks, gentle music in the background...If this kind of atmosphere is enticing to you, and if you'd like to have a communal writing space to connect with fellow writers of color in the area in person or on Zoom, I'd love to invite you to (the second of these) meetups on Tuesday, March 5, 6-8pm at Indigo Arts Alliance in Portland, ME. If you know someone who would appreciate a space like this, please feel free to invite them, as well."

RSVP to join this group and to receive updates.

Time: 6:00 PM

Date: Tuesday, March 5

Location: Indigo Arts Alliance (60 Cove St, Portland, ME 04101) AND online. Please email Stacey for the join link: stactran@gmail.com.

There will be light refreshments and time for connecting with each other and quiet writing.

Questions about this event and other LORE happenings can be addressed to Samara Cole Doyon at samara@mainewriters.org.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

Please join Print: A Bookstore, MWPA, and Mechanics’ Hall for a celebration of Maine winter through poetry.

 The poems in Mike Bove’s newest collection, EYE, were written over the course of a nor’easter that buried Southern Maine in heavy snow. Meditations on memory, grief, family, and nature, they reveal the power of icy weather to inspire reflection and exploration.

 Part poetry reading, part conversation, this event will feature Mike in poetic discussion with six acclaimed Maine poets, joining together in warm, wintry community.

Please RSVP for this free event by clicking on the button below.

Mike Bove is the author of four books of poems, most recently Soundtrack to Your Next Panic Attack (forthcoming from Aldrich Press, 2024) and EYE (Spuyten Duyvil 2023). His work has appeared in journals in the US, UK, and Canada. He was winner of the 2021 Maine Postmark Poetry Contest and a 2023 finalist for a Maine Literary Award in poetry. He is Professor of English at Southern Maine Community College and lives with his family in Portland, Maine where he was born and raised.

Samaa Abdurraqib lives in Brunswick - ancestral land of the Abenaki people. Recently, her work can be found in Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, Writing the Land: Streamlines, and Cider Press Review. She was a finalist for the 2022 Maine Writers & Publisher’s Alliance Maine Chapbook Series. She is the editor of the collection From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast.

Ken Craft ‘s poems have appeared in The Writer's Almanac, Spillway, Pirene's Fountain, Pedestal Magazine, and numerous other journals and e-zines. He is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Reincarnation & Other Stimulants (Kelsay Books, 2021).

Judy Kaber is the author of three chapbooks, most recently “A Pandemic Alphabet.” Her poems have appeared in journals such as The Worcester Review, Hunger Mountain, Poet Lore, and Spillway, as well as many other places. Recently, her poem, “Sword Swallowing Lessons,” was featured on “The Slowdown” and was read by Major Jackson. Judy won the 2023 Maine Poetry Contest. She is a past poet laureate of Belfast, Maine (2021-2023).

Jefferson Navicky is the author of four books, most recently the novel-in-prose-poems, Head of Island Beautification for the Rural Outlands (2023), as well as Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose (2021), which won the 2022 Maine Literary Book Award for Poetry. He is the archivist for the Maine Women Writers Collection.

Betsy Sholl’s tenth collection of poetry is As If a Song Could Save You (University of Wisconsin Press in fall of 2022). Her ninth collection of poetry is House of Sparrows: New and Selected Poems (University of Wisconsin, 2019), winner of the Four Lakes Prize. Other awards include a Maine Book Award for Poetry, The Felix Pollak Prize, the AWP Prize for Poetry. She teaches in the MFA in Writing Program of Vermont College of Fine Arts and served as Poet Laureate of Maine from 2006 to 2011. She was awarded the 2020 Distinguished Achievement Award from Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.

David Stankiewicz is the author of two poetry collections: My First Beatrice (Moon Pie Press, 2013) and Night Garden (Deerbrook Editions, 2024). A graduate of the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast MFA program, David is a professor of English at Southern Maine Community College. He lives in Cape Elizabeth with his family.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

Ashley Bryan Fellow Stacey Tran invites local Writers of Color to come together and create in a new, safe-space writing group.

"I'm imagining a long table where we can all sit together quietly to write and talk about writing over tea, snacks, gentle music in the background...If this kind of atmosphere is enticing to you, and if you'd like to have a communal writing space to connect with fellow writers of color in the area in person or on Zoom, I'd love to invite you to the first of these meetups on Thursday, January 25, 6-8pm at Indigo Arts Alliance in Portland, ME. If you know someone who would appreciate a space like this, please feel free to invite them, as well."

RSVP to join this group and to receive updates.

Time: 6:00 PM

Date: Thursday, January 25

Location: Indigo Arts Alliance (60 Cove St, Portland, ME 04101) AND online. Please email Stacey for the join link: stactran@gmail.com.

Questions about this event and other LORE happenings can be addressed to Samara Cole Doyon at samara@mainewriters.org.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

Please join MWPA & Mechanics' Hall in showcasing exciting voices in Maine's rich literary legacy with six of MWPA’s Ashley Bryan Fellows. This night’s featured readers include Linda Ashe-Ford, Johan Alexander F, Liz Iverson, Coco McCracken, Leila Christine Nadir, and Minquansis Sapiel.

In honor of award-winning writer and artist Ashley Bryan’s life, the MWPA offers the Ashley Bryan Fellowships, which support emerging Maine writers who are Black, people of color, and/or members of one of the Wabanaki Nations or other Native peoples.

“I love to celebrate the artistry of people around the world in whatever material or form they work” —Ashley Bryan

For more information about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship, visit here.

Please RSVP for this free event by clicking on the button below.

Linda Ashe-Ford is a veteran in the early education field and was a classroom teacher for over 45 years. She is a past president of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children as well as a past treasurer of the New England Association for the Education Of Young Children. Linda holds a Master’s in Education from Antioch New England Graduate School and a BA in Theater and Communications from the University of Hartford. Using her background in theater, she has written, produced and performed both original and scripted materials on various topics. Linda is a storyteller who brings the history and folktales of people of color to life. She believes that through story we can begin to deepen our understanding of each other.

Johan Alexander F has been an Ashley Bryan Fellow in 2021, and was a Maine Lit Fest Fellow in 2022. His writing has also received support from the Periplus Collective and Anaphora Arts Writing Residencies, both national organizations supporting BIPOC writers. His short stories have been published in various places, with his last three works appearing in LatineLit Journal Winter '24 (forthcoming), Eunoia Review, and the Periplus Anthology '23. Born in Medellin, Colombia, he lives in Portland, where he mentors Young Writers and Leaders at the Telling Room.

Liz Iversen was born in the Philippines and grew up in South Dakota. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Creative Nonfiction, Passages North, Room, and J Journal: New Writing on Justice. She has received support from Tin House and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Currently based in Portland, she is a copywriter for a radio and podcast advertising agency. You can find her online at liziversen.com.

Coco McCracken is a Chinese-Canadian author living in Portland. Her chapbook, The Rabbit, was selected by bestselling author Melissa Febos as the winner of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance’s 2021 Maine Chapbook Series. She is a 2022 Ashley Bryan Fellow and was named a Lit Fest Fellow by the MWPA, in which capacity she helped organize the state’s first inaugural Maine Lit Fest. She also serves on the Community Advisory Board for the MWPA. She was accepted for a residency for the 2022 summer season at Hewnoaks, where she was additionally awarded a grant from the Maine Arts Commission to complete her first manuscript. In 2023, she was chosen to be on the jury for the Maine Literary Awards.

Leila Christine Nadir is an Afghan-American artist and writer whose work appears in literary and scholarly journals, in museums and galleries, and in forests, classrooms, and kitchens. Her writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Khôra, Black Warrior Review, North American Review, ASAP, and Aster(ix), and has been supported by awards and fellowships from MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Bread Loaf, Tin House, the de Groot Foundation, and Aspen Words. More info: https://leilanadir.xyz/. Instagram: @afghan_vegan.

Minquansis Sapiel is a Passamaquoddy TribaI member, mother of three daughters and has a Masters in Social Work. Her daughter also illustrated the children’s book she wrote Little People of the Dawn. She grew up on the Sipayik Reservation and moved off to go to college at the University of Maine. She also has her Captain’s license and offers whale watching tours.

Please join us for the hybrid edition of MWPA’s beloved GATHER event series! On Wednesday, January 17, 2023 at 6:00 PM, MWPA members & friends can attend an in-person Gather at one of several locations around the state OR chose 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 COVID 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
Hosts: Jefferson Navicky and Jeri Theriault
RSVP HERE

BELFAST
Host: Maya Stein
RSVP HERE

In-Person Events:

AROOSTOOK
Hosts: Kathryn Olmstead & Kim Wright (olmstead@maine.edu, bkwrights75@gmail.com)
Location: Governor’s (350 Main St, Presque Isle)

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

BRUNSWICK
Host: Claire Baldwin & Katie Coppens (clairelucebaldwin@gmail.com , ktcoppens@gmail.com)
Location: One Sixty Five (165 Park Row, Brunswick)

DAMARISCOTTA
Host: Andrea Vassallo (andrea.granted@gmail.com)
Location: The Damariscotta River Grill (155 Main St, Damariscotta)

SOUTH PORTLAND
Host: Cheryl Gillespie (cherylgillespie88@gmail.com)
Location: Bridgeway Restaurant (71 Ocean St, South Portland)

WATERVILLE
Host: Tyler French & Catie Joyce Bulay (tfrench@colby.edu, catiejoycebulay@gmail.com)
Location: Lounge of Front & Main (9 Main St, Waterville)