Please join Mechanics’ Hall, MWPA, and PRINT: A Bookstore for a celebration of the launch of Threshold: A Memoir of Crossing Through the Terrain of Loss by poet and writer Deborah Cummins. After Cummins passed away suddenly in 2023, her family found a home for her manuscript with She Writes Press, and it was published earlier this year.
Award-winning poet Andrea Hollander calls the memoir “…unputdownable and unforgettable.” This intimate, poignant, and compelling memoir tells the story of a woman—a “reluctant examiner” of death—navigating grief while caring for her dying brother and aging parents, inviting the reader into a journey of hope, growth, and resilience.
The evening will be held in the historic library at Mechanics’ Hall and include readings from the book and conversations with writers and friends who knew Deborah well, including Gibson Fay-LeBlanc and Chelsea Conaboy., All are welcome to this free event, and there will be snacks and drinks. Please RSVP by clicking the orange button below.
PRINT: A Bookstore will be on hand to sell copies of Threshold.
Deborah Cummins authored three poetry collections and a collection of linked essays, one of which was listed as Notable in Best American Essays 2013. She received her MFA in creative writing, and her work has appeared in eight anthologies and more than 60 journals, including Yale Review, Gettysburg Review, Orion, Fourth Genre, and New England Review.
From 2001 to 2005, she was the Board Chair of the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, and more recently, from 2016 to 2023, she served as Board President of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. In 2014, Deborah and her husband, Bob, relocated from Chicago to Maine, dividing their time between Portland and Deer Isle. She passed away in 2023.