A live reading, art viewing and panel discussion celebrating the ways creative ideas echo across mediums. Northeast Harbor Library commissioned three authors to write short pieces inspired by this year’s Maine Lit Fest theme - “responding to the moment” - then commissioned three artists to reinterpret their work visually, for publication in their very first reWorks zine! Copies of the zine will be distributed at the start of the event, and artwork will be displayed while our authors read from and discuss their entries with each other and the audience.
This program is an Open Call Event of the 2026 Maine Lit Fest and was made possible through the support of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.
Free event with RSVP.
Samaa Abdurraqib
Samaa Abdurraqib currently serves as the Executive Director of the Maine Humanities Council. Prior to working at Maine Humanities, Samaa held positions at the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, the ACLU of Maine, and was a Visiting Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College. She has served on the board of several Maine-based nonprofits, and has worked with many nonprofits and organizations as a contract consultant, a coach for BIPOC leaders, and a facilitator. Samaa is a certified as a Maine Master Naturalist, which allows her to lead outdoor teaching experiences for people who want to learn about the beings (plants, insects, animals) in this region. Recently, Samaa’s poetry can be found in Cider Press Review, december magazine, and Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora. She’s the editor of From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast (2023) and the forthcoming collection Cape Cod to Nova Scotia: Art, Ecology, Poetry of the Gulf of Maine (2027). She has been supported by residencies at Hewnoaks, Monson Arts, and Hog Island Audubon. Samaa’s chapbook, Towards a Retreat, was published by Diode Editions in August 2025, which was named as the 2026 Eric Hoffer Chapbook Award winner. Samaa was named as a finalist for the 2026 CAAPP Book Prize.
Gary Rainford
Gary Rainford, author of three poetry collections, Adrift, Salty Liquor, and Liner Notes, lives on Swan’s Island year-round. Gary's poems, shaped by tides, saltwater, music, and experience, are published in a wide range of literary magazines, university journals, and newspapers. Adrift is a love story, says Poet Sharon Doubiago, and his poems tell the story of his mother’s Alzheimer’s disease.
Josie Sibara
Josie Sibara has received a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant. The draft of her first novel won the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. Her most recent fiction appears in Ploughshares, Crazyhorse, and the Master’s Review.
Katherine Emery
Katherine Emery is a photographer, educator, and writer, with a Master's Degree in Learning Design and Technology. Her photography business began in San Francisco nearly 15 years ago, with private commissions -- documenting family stories and portraiture -- and soon grew to include clients such as Stanford Children's Hospital and The George Lucas Educational Foundation.
In 2020 Katherine moved from San Francisco to Somesville, Maine, where she now lives in an 1800s farmhouse with her husband, their two daughters, and a two pound bunny named Chestnut Mochi. She has been fortunate enough to meet and collaborate to help tell stories of artists, authors, musicians, families, elopements, weddings, small businesses, schools, and non-profit organizations in Maine.
Jen Judd-McGee
Jennifer Judd-McGee is the creator-proprietor of Swallowfield and an artist based in Northeast Harbor, Maine.
Active in numerous media, JJM is best known for her hand-rendered original papercuttings and has exhibited her original artwork in galleries across the U.S. Created in a freehand style, each piece aims to achieve a cohesive, rustic-yet-modern look. While her work appears delicate, it is intentionally designed to be sturdy and lasting.
Along with making art, JJM owns and runs Swallowfield where, since 2016, she has sold her designs alongside the work of numerous carefully selected independent artists and makers. Her inspiriation comes from the natural beauty of Maine's Mount Desert Island, the concept of home, and the strength of community–especially in small towns. JJM also has a deep love for mid-century Scandinavian design, particulary textiles and patterns.
Kaitlyn Miller
Kaitlyn Miller is a painter, potter, poet, singer-songwriter and art teacher for the children of The Cranberry Isles School. After getting her BFA in ceramics at Maine College of Art and Design, she moved to Little Cranberry Island, Maine where she lived year round for 15 years. She now lives in Northeast Harbor with her son Bode, where she makes pottery in her kitchen studio and paints en plein air up and down the coast of Maine.
In 2025, Kaitlyn created a line of pottery called Bluetale Pottery. Bluetale Pottery is a collaboration in clay with her mother Martha Miller. Together they create decorated functional pottery with conjured imagery inspired by dreams, myth, art history, astrology, tarot and nature. Kaitlyn makes the pottery forms which are handbuilt and wheel thrown. Martha brings her vision and drawings to the clay surface with sgraffito carving. Living three hours away from each other, they carefully pack the unfired pieces for transport and make plans regularly to meet up and swap the work. Kaitlyn finishes the pieces by glazing and firing them.
Bluetale Pottery can be found at Islesford Pottery on Little Cranberry Island, ME and Sassafrass Cafe in Town Hill, ME, as well as online in Kaitlyn’s Etsy shop.