2023 MLA Interviews
Book Award for Anthology & John N. Cole Award for Maine-themed Nonfiction (co-winner)
Breaking Bread: Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family
Deborah Joy Corey & Debra Spark (editors)
MWPA Staffer Phoebe Little talked with Deborah Joy Corey and Debra Spark about how their anthology came to be, how they put the book together, the small anti-hunger nonprofit that the editors, writers, and press donated their time and proceeds to, and more.
Spark notes, "Everyone has to have some thought about food. You can't get away from it." Corey adds, “Food is almost a jumping-off point or a prompt for a much larger story...That was the agenda--to start a conversation about hunger in Maine."
Show Works Award for Nonfiction
“Grief Almanac for an Apocalypse”
Jacquelyn Gill
MWPA Staffer Phoebe Little talked with Gill about her essay, which appeared originally in the Sun and braids together her work as a climate scientist, her experience not being able to get pregnant, losing her mother, and keeping a pandemic garden going. About her advice for other writers starting out, Gill notes, “My mom died always wanting to be a writer but never taking the step of submitting anything…She would have lost nothing by putting [her work] out into the world. To me, reaching 40, I don’t know how many decades of life I have left. But there are these things that I have always wanted to do, and it’s time for me to stop letting fear get in the way of that. I would just say [to other writers], you’re going to be afraid, so just do it afraid. Just submit it afraid.”
MWPA Staffer Phoebe Little talked with Kaufman about her life as a middle school teacher and how that influences her writing, her cover art, how Sardines differs from her other books, using sensitivity readers, writing for young people, and many other subjects. She notes, “Every time I have an idea for a book it comes from a question, something I want to know more about or something I want to explore, and a lot of times that starts with the kids I’m around every day. In a different way from being their teacher—being a teacher is about figuring out what’s standing in their way and what some of the things I can give to help them be successful. But I think their emotional worlds that I might have question about that I don’t answer in my day-to-day teaching world that I might try to answer in a book. So, for example, what’s it’s like for a kid who has a twin brother who is a autistic and they’re always grouped together? …It’s a constant source, not necessarily of material but of questions.”
Book Award for Excellence in Publishing
Where the Avonley Seed Falls (Maine Authors Publishing)
Amelia Garretson-Persans
MWPA staff member Phoebe Little sat down with Michelle Hodgdon, the graphic designer behind Amelia Garretson-Persans, Where the Avonley Seed Falls, (Maine Authors Publishing). Hodgdon talks about her design process and how she collaborates with writers. She notes, “I try to make sure that my designs are…something that the author can really show off…something that they love. Amelia brought to me covers that she found inspiration from—that created a really good visual in my head.”
Award for Drama
“All the Good They Gave Us”
Jayne Decker
MWPA staff member Phoebe Little sat down with Decker to discuss why she is a playwright, her inspiration, and which elements make for a great play. About what goes into a worthy play, Decker notes, “It’s the words, it’s the dialogue, it’s the beats and the pauses and the silences on the page. It’s writing the way people speak, [capturing] the conversational tone. It might be broken sentences…. Playwriting also involves lighting…, staging, what something looks like, all of that is part of creating the visual image.”
Short Works Award for Youth Fiction
“To Lend a Hand”
Charlotte Schatz
MWPA staff member Phoebe Little sat down with Charlotte to discuss the inspiration for her story, living on a farm, having writers for parents, and other topics. Charlotte notes, “What I was trying to do [in my story] was explore things that I hadn’t explored before, things that I was curious about…I was trying to explore relationships between people. [The story] is about a murder, but really it isn’t about a murder. It’s more about what that does to the people in the story.”
Book Award for Speculative Fiction
Death By Disguise
E.L. Bates
MWPA staff member Phoebe Little sat down with E.L. Bates to discuss her work and the inspiration for her award-winning book. About the best writing advice she has ever received, Bates notes, “Write what you love—without worrying about whether it’s original, without worrying about whether it’s popular or going to sell. If you write what you love, you’re going to find that that love comes through and makes it engaging for other people.”
Book Award for Nonfiction
Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders
Kathryn Miles
MWPA staff member Phoebe Little sat down with Kathryn Miles to discuss her award-winning book and her writing process. About the process of entering the story of her book, Miles notes, "My editor was quick to call BS on my attempts at objectivity and my attempts to claim that I wasn’t a part of the story. And so she really pushed me to include myself. I worried that readers might think I was trying to appropriate the stories of Lollie and Julie. I worried that they might think I was trying to compare my own experience of sexual assault to what was obviously a much more significant crime…I usually feel safer behind the walls of research and reporting."