Please join us for MWPA’s beloved GATHER event series! On Wednesday, January 21, 2026 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.

Online Gather:

POETRY
Host: Jeri Theriault & Jefferson Navicky
RSVP HERE

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 (molly@pinkeraserpress.com, 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: Chelsea Conaboy (cconaboy@gmail.com)
Location: Lambs (695 Broadway, South Portland)

This month, we would like to express our deepest gratitude for seasoned Maine writer and long-time Gather Host John Rule who has made his exit from this realm; not before leaving an indelible mark on our community. John will be profoundly missed. Stephanie Gough has agreed to host the Lubec Gather, which we believe is a perfect salute to John and his dedication to creative writing community.

Please join us for MWPA’s beloved GATHER event series! On Wednesday, November 19, 2025 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 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 & Jefferson Navicky
RSVP HERE

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 (molly@pinkeraserpress.com, alix.morris@gmail.com, peterowen326@gmail.com)
Location: Flight Deck Brewing (11 Atlantic Avenue, Brunswick )

DAMARISCOTTA
Hosts: Kay Campbell & Caroline Janover, (kayhardycampbell@gmail.com, cjanover@aol.com)
Location: Damariscotta River Grill (155 Main Street, Damariscotta)

LEWISTON / AUBURN
Host: Darren Deth (darren.deth@vcfa.edu)
Location: 84 Court Pizza & Restaurant (84 Court Street, Auburn)

LUBEC
Hosts: John Rule & Sheila Post (jdrule@lubecscribbler.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: Chelsea Conaboy (cconaboy@gmail.com)
Location: Lambs (695 Broadway, South Portland)

In June 2025, the federal government initiated a new travel ban restricting travel from people from 19 countries.

This ban, which predominantly targets countries with Black, Brown, and/or Muslim-majority populations, is designed to spread hate and fear by creating the impression that people of certain races, religions, and nationalities are more likely to cause violence and disruption than others.

Please join MWPA, SPACE, and friends as we flip the script and showcase the vibrant prose, poetry, and culture that has come out of targeted nations, such as:

Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Myanmar, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Lao, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Palestine.

Featured readers & presenters:

Sarah Braunstein, Colin Cheney, Kerem Durdag, Sharif Elmusa, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Myronn Hardy, Zahir Janmohamed, Gary Lawless, Nicole Pomeroy, Ryan Bani Tahmaseb, Maya Williams, and The Telling Room Alums: Nazik Adam, Sultan Alluhaidan, and Jules Vazquez.

With:

• Presente! Maine

• The Lucky Fox Bookshop

• Asmara: An Eritrean Restaurant

• Musician Hadith Bani-Adam (oud)

$5 general admission/Limited free community ticket

Doors open at 6:30 PM/Readings begin at 7:00 PM.

Drinks, snacks, and community. Tears and laughter welcome!

”Universe, vast universe,

my heart is vaster.”

Carlos Drummond de Andrade

Fall of Freedom is an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation. Our Democracy is under attack. Threats to free expression are rising. Dissent is being criminalized. Institutions and media have been recast as mouthpieces of propaganda.

Fall of Freedom is an open invitation to artists, creators, and communities to take part—and to celebrate the experiences, cultures, and identities that shape the fabric of our nation.

Art matters. Artists are a threat to American fascism.

Please join Back Cove Books and MWPA as we celebrate Sarah Braunstein and her short story, “Abject Naturalism,” first published The New Yorker and featured in this year’s The Best American Short Stories, edited by Celeste Ng.

“Short stories can act like little tuning forks, helping us to clarify our own values,” writes guest editor Celeste Ng. “In a time when our values are being tested daily, it’s hard to think of anything more important.” The Best American Short Stories 2025 resonates precisely at this pitch: twenty pieces that upend expectations and test the foundation of our beliefs. From a bereaved medical actress obsessed with a student in her rotation to a mysterious sickness that ignites a lethal running mania in its victims, and from the grounds of a wild animal estate to a celebrity look-alike mother-for-hire, these stories transport readers to the impossible edges of our world and vivify characters who reflect the spectrum of human experience.

Sarah will read from her work and discuss all things short stories with Taryn Bowe, MWPA’s Associate Director.

Sarah Braunstein's new novel, Bad Animals, was published by W. W. Norton in March 2024 and described by Claire Luchette in the New York Times Book Review as  "...a red-hot poker that skewers the limits of the white imagination…[A] sharp-witted, ravishing novel.” Sarah is also the author of The Sweet Relief of Missing Children (W. W. Norton), winner of the 2012 Maine Literary Award for Fiction.

Her short stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, The Harvard Review, The Cincinnati Review, AGNI, Ploughshares, The Sun, Nylon Magazine, The Nervous Breakdown, and in other publications. She co-wrote a play, String Theory: Three Greek Myths Woven Together, with Michael Barakiva and Amy Boyce Holtcamp.

Sarah has been the recipient of a “5 Under 35” award from the National Book Foundation and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and an MSW from Smith College School for Social Work. She is associate professor of English and creative writing at Colby College.