Join MWPA for RISE: an Evening with The Ashley Bryan Fellows with Cocktail Mary in the penthouse above Oun Lido’s! RISE celebrates the work of diverse literary voices upholding the legacy of beloved, late Maine artist Ashley Bryan. The writers who will be sharing their work, all selected for distinction through MWPA’s Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, include Sophia Kapita, Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz, Jenna Dela Cruz Vendil, Dania Bowie, Annelise Parham, Maya Williams, and Johan Alexander. All proceeds from the evening will be donated to ILAP Maine. Suggested donation is $5.

Sophia Kapita is a writer and political science student based in Portland, Maine. A Michael Macklin Fellow at The Telling Room and a Maine NEW Leadership alum, her work explores identity, displacement, and the challenges and resilience of Black womanhood. She is currently pursuing her Associate’s degree at Southern Maine Community College and developing a collection of poems about migration and belonging.

Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz was born in Monterey, Mexico, grew up in Colorado, and completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in California, Massachusetts, and Texas. Her first "real" job was with the United States Foreign Service, and her first "overseas" assignment in Mexico City. The experience was transformative, and is the inspiration for the literary novel she hopes to complete as an Ashley Bryan Fellow. Clarisa moved to Maine in 2009 to work at Bates College. Her research examines the impact of emigration on the politics of communities that are "left behind." She teaches Latin American politics, Latino politics, and international migration and is also founding a member of the College's Latin American and Latinx Studies Program. Clarisa has received recognition for her teaching and mentoring, including a national award for mentoring Latino undergraduates. She's been a writer since she was a kid, but it's only in the past five years that she's convinced herself that some stories about politics and immigration are better told through fiction than through scholarly work.

Jenna Dela Cruz Vendil is an award-winning organizer, activist, and engagement strategist who works to build inclusive systems through community engagement. Jenna believes in the power of storytelling to shape our social fabric, creating portals to new dimensions that liberate memory and illuminate who we are becoming.

Following an 18 year hiatus and a career shift, Jenna found their way back into creative practice. Jenna’s writing practice explores grief, parenting, disability, spiritual practice, and their family’s experience of colonization and diaspora from the Philippines.

Dania Bowie (she/they) is a community and resource organizer, working in social movements on Wabanaki land. She is a 2023 Ashely Bryan Fellow, often writing poetry and short stories. When she is not creating, you can find her on the water, on a mountain, playing Dungeons & Dragons, or at home being terrorized by her cat.

Annelise Parham is a daughter, sister, spouse, mother, and writer of African-American, German, and Irish descent. She writes as she lives, at the intersection of race, class, and culture; at the overlap of poetry and prose, fiction and memoir, remembered song lyrics and forgotten corporate memos. Annelise holds a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from NYU and a master’s degree in business from MIT Sloan. She shifted to full-time writing in 2023 after leaving a decade-long career in corporate biotech. Annelise is a student of The Writers Studio and the 2025-26 GrubStreet’s Memoir Incubator program. In 2025 Annelise received the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance Ilgenfritz and Christina Baker Kline Scholarships. After a lifetime spent searching for a place that feels like home, Annelise has happily settled in Maine’s Midcoast with her husband, two kids, and the family Collie.

Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who served as Portland, Maine's poet laureate for a 2021-2024 term. Maya has four published poetry collections. Maya has also written prose for Talk Death, The Rumpus, The Daily Beast, LGBTQ Nation, Black Girl Nerds, and more. Follow more of eir work at mayawilliamspoet.com

Johan Alexander's written work has received support from Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Periplus Collective, StoryStudio Chicago, and Anaphora Arts Writing Residencies, and he was an inaugural Maine Lit Fest Fellow in 2022. His most recent work appears in print in The Telling Room’s 20th Anniversary Anthology, and online at The Other Maine, and are forthcoming in ON PAPER Literary Art Zine and LatineLit Fall 2026. Born in Medellín, Colombia, Johan Alexander currently lives in Portland, Maine.

Please join us for MWPA’s beloved GATHER event series! On Wednesday, May 20th at 6:00 PM, MWPA members & friends can attend an in-person Gather at one of several locations around the state OR join an online Poetry Gather.

To sign up for the 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. 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:

AROOSTOOK
Host: Kim Wright (bkwrights75@gmail.com)
Location: Governor’s Restaurant (350 Main Street, Presque Isle)

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

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

BRUNSWICK
Hosts: Molly McGrath, Alix Morris, Peter Owen (alix.morris@gmail.com, peterowen326@gmail.com)
Location: Ram & Bull *SECOND FLOOR* (123 Main St, Brunswick)

DAMARISCOTTA
Hosts: Andrea Vassallo (andrea.granted@gmail.com)
Location: Damariscotta River Grill (155 Main Street, Damariscotta)

LUBEC
Hosts: Stephanie Gough (stephgough@gmail.com)
Location: Lubec Brewing Co. (41 S Water Street, Lubec)

MIDCOAST
Host: Chris Friden & Lee Reilly (chrisfriden@me.com, reillytide@yahoo.com)
Location: 40 Paper (40 Washington Street, Camden)

PORTLAND
Host: Katie Bonadies (katie@belleflowerbrewing.com)
Location: Belleflower Brewing (66 Cove Street, Portland)

SOUTH PORTLAND
Host: Dodie Hamblen (dodiehamblen@yahoo.com)
Location: Lambs (695 Broadway, South Portland)

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 to Gardiner for the first time. 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.

On the night before the Maine Crime Wave, join us for a night of suspense, betrayal, and retribution from Maine's crime writing community. Hosted by Matt Cost and Jule Selbo, the night will feature a criminally phenomenal line up of writers including Tess Gerritsen, Allison Keeton, Travis Kennedy, Robert Kelley, Joanna Schaffhausen, James Ziskin, Zakariah Johnson, Gabriela Stiteler, Mo Drammeh, and Rebecca Turkewitz.

Doors open at 6:30, but the event starts at 7:00! The event will take place at Belleflower Brewing Company.

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.

The theme of the 2026 Maine Crime Wave is Sharpening the Blade: Craft. Community. Career. Through moderated roundtables, structured interactions, and an in-depth conversation with our Crime Master, the goal of our day together is to take our work to the next level.

During the conference we’ll focus on:

• Honing our craft to become the strongest writers we can be.

• Strengthening our community with others who understand our drive and dreams.

• Polishing our approach to building the writing career we desire.

Please see below for more information about a tour of the Maine Historical Society archives, Noir at the Bar as well as the full schedule for the Crime Wave and participating authors. If you’re ready to register, just click the button below.

Register now below to save yourself a seat and plan to join us on May 30th!

Please join the MWPA and ISLANDPORT as we celebrate the launch of Rylan Hynes’ debut novel about second chances, forbidden love, and the courage to cultivate beauty in unforgiving soil at the Equality Community Center on Wednesday, June 3rd.

When Eben Turner returns to his family's apple orchard in rural Maine after his parents' death, he faces more than just the weight of inheritance—he confronts the love he left behind. A decade has passed since he and Chris Hartley, the Methodist minister's son, were torn apart in their final year of high school, their secret relationship severed by the forces of faith and small-town judgment. Now, as adults navigating the crossroads of identity and belonging, they must reckon with both their buried past and an uncertain future.

Set against the Edenic beauty of New England, Grafting unfolds through dual perspectives in a lyrical narrative that mirrors the delicate art of joining two trees to create something stronger. As Eben and Chris work to understand how they came to be parted, they discover that healing requires more than forgiveness—it demands the courage to cultivate love in hostile ground.

"Grafting, Rylan Hynes's new novel, is not just a deeply moving, heartfelt love story, but also a rich, satisfying love letter to the earth itself, from which the two lovers—indeed all lovers—grow."
—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath “Fool” novels

"Grafting is a gorgeous novel, as full of beauty, brutality, and gentleness as the New England landscape it so brilliantly describes. By turns lush and sparse, violent and tender, pastoral and urbane, this is a complex queer love story that will sweep you up completely. Chris and Eben are characters I won’t soon forget."—Rebecca Turkewitz, author of Here in the Night

Rylan Hynes (they/them) and their work have been a finalist for Proximity's 2024 Essay Contest, the 2024 Maine Chapbook Series, Tin House’s 2024 Summer Residency for Trans Writers, and longlisted for The Masters Review’s 2023 Novel Excerpt Contest. Hynes has received multiple accolades from the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, such as a Martin Dibner Fellowship and an inaugural Maine Lit Fest Fellowship. Most recently, Hynes was a writer-in-residence at Monson Arts and they are an alum of the Tin House Workshop. Their debut novel, Grafting, is forthcoming from Islandport Press in spring of 2026.

Hynes studied creative writing, theatre, and visual art at College of the Atlantic, and has worked at independent bookstores and publishers across the country. Currently Hynes serves on the Community Advisory Board for the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and is the Communications & Editorial Director at The Telling Room, a nationally recognized youth-serving creative writing nonprofit based in Portland. 

Gia Drew is the Executive Director at EqualityMaine, leading the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in Maine. Gia has been with EQME since starting as a volunteer on the 2012 marriage equality campaign. She serves on multiple committees and boards, including the MaineCare Advisory Committee, a Trustee of Maine Health Access Foundation, and board chair of Equality Federation, a leading national LGBTQ+ organization. Gia was previously a high school teacher and coach for twenty years. During her time in education, Gia transitioned on the job, becoming the first out transgender public school teacher in Maine and one of the first trans high school athletic coaches in the country. Born and raised in the Boston area, Gia has called Maine home for nearly 25 years.

MWPA, Longfellow Books & Mechanics' Hall host Sarah Braunstein & Nick Fuller Googins in conversation.

"Baby in a Box is a book of masterful stories. As their wise plots unfold in wildly original ways, we watch how cold-hearted or sweetly lucky a character turns out to be, just as we’re stirred by the poignance of human strategies. A terrific book."

— Joan Silber, author of Improvement

"Prescient and idiosyncratic stories about the cost and joys of caretaking from a “sharp-witted, ravishing” (New York Times) writer. These stunning stories, steeped in black humor, startle and dismay. Unexpected encounters confine and define the lives of strangers, while parents and partners navigate blended families and modern love: An older woman tells her waitress that she once left a newborn on church steps. A motel housekeeper makes a radical proposal to a guest. A teenager grapples with atheism, grief and eBay. A mother’s world is disrupted and recharged after a neighborhood man gives her young daughter a telescope.

Throughout this bracing collection, we see parents doing their not-so-great best, breakups going wrong, obsessions getting out of hand—and yet moments of healing too, often where we least expect them. Strange, heartfelt, and wryly funny, Sarah Braunstein’s stories ask us to confront the ways we try to make sense of our lives—and what happens when we escape from these preconceptions.

Tuesday, June 9 at 7:00 PM (doors 6:30 PM). Free to the public. Please register in advance as space is limited.

Sarah Braunstein is the author of Bad Animals and The Sweet Relief of Missing Children..Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Best American Short Stories,,among other publications, and she received a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 prize. She lives in Maine and teaches at Colby College. For more: www.sarahbraunstein.com

Nick Fuller Googins is the author of the novels, The Frequency of Living Things and The Great Transition. His short fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Men’s Health, The Sun, The Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. He lives in Maine, and works as an elementary school teacher. He is a member of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, as well as the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the United States.

Please join the MWPA and Belleflower Brewing as we celebrate the launch of Judson' Merrill’s debut novel PARANOID STORYTELLING.

After Judson Merrill publishes a story that becomes fodder for conspiracy theorists and fuels a violent clash, he’s desperate to write something—anything—that rises above our toxic online hysteria. When he discovers a daring and brilliant researcher studying the poisonous effects of conspiracy theories, Merrill is convinced she holds the key to diagnosing America's demented culture. But shortly after she agrees to an interview, she vanishes, and any possible diagnosis vanishes with her. Merrill’s search for her takes him across Europe and turns up a trail of unsettling research and confounding clues. The story he pieces together offers an explosive explanation for our collective sickness and reveals the many ways in which our media, our communications, and our very beliefs have become fatally diseased. If he can unravel the sprawling conspiracy behind our affliction, he’ll still have to convince a paranoid world in which everyone believes what they want to believe.

Pre-order from Under the BQE press

Inspired by the way the novel began—as a fraud and a thief, stealing and repurposing popular storytelling forms—Judson Merrill seeks to make visible the changing and dangerous ways we tell stories. He has taught writing for the past 15 years, at Brooklyn College, the University of Southern Maine, and privately. His work has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Massachusetts Review, Unstuck, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and other publications. He has been an Artist in Residence at Millay Colony, Ox-Bow, Lighthouse Works, Hewnoaks, and Guild Hall. He is currently co-producing a film he wrote about coming of age in an anxious, demented country.

Chelsea Conaboy is a writer and editor focused on health and science. Her work has been published by The New York Times, The Guardian, Mother Jones, Politico, The Boston Globe, WBUR, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and others. Her book, Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood (Holt 2022), has been called "a game-changer" and is set to be published in 20 languages. She is creative director of the media production company Strewn Wonder. She lives in South Portland with her husband, their two children, and her own changing parental brain.