50 Years of MWPA Memories
50 years of stories, laughs, pride, and joy from some of our most valuable friends—past and present—on staff and not!
Shonna Humphrey - Executive Director from April 2004 to September 2010
What is your most cherished MWPA memory?
I met Jessica Gilpatrick through MWPA. She became an intern, then the communications director, and she remains one of my closest friends.
What are you most proud of from your time working with or being a part of MWPA?
I am proud of a few things. In no particular order:
Conceiving the Maine Literary Awards. The event has changed and evolved in lovely ways, but it began with an idea from then-Board member Jan Grieco over a cup of coffee. The first events were hosted by the ever-iconic Alfred DePew.
The 2010 PEN/New England Friend to Writers award was made to MWPA during my last year, and it was a nice cap to an almost 7-year tenure.
Partnering with the USM library to bring MWPA to an accessible physical location that better represented its membership at the time.
When Mary Herman asked to work for MWPA. Having Mary’s expertise and mentorship on the staff for a few years was a terrific asset. Bringing Jaed Coffin, Jessica Gilpatrick, and Elisabeth Wilkins into the team was pretty excellent, too. We had a lot of fun.
Establishing the event that evolved into what is now Pitch. It evolved from a speed-dating event with literary agents, and I am so pleased with the direction it has taken. I met the woman who would become my first agent while coordinating the first event, and she sold my first manuscript.
We tried partnerships to amplify other agencies/issues, and one of those was to raise awareness during Domestic Awareness Month. We called the series “Power of the Word” and had regional celebrities to read the words written by regional violence/abuse survivors. That was a powerful event.
We tried a symbolic gifts appeal (similar to the Heifer Fund) with literary references and the art done in Edward Gorey style. While that wasn’t too successful financially, it was fun to think of the “items.” A Clean Well Lighted Place was my favorite.
What major change or changes happened at MWPA during your time there?
We established a partnership with the USM library and moved MWPA’s physical location from Bath to Portland. That was probably the biggest change. It was strategic, with the majority of the membership residing in Cumberland County, not Sagadahoc County. We started the very first social media account (Facebook) when social media was in its infancy.
What is the funniest moment you can recall from your time at MWPA?
The funniest moments are also the most unprintable! However, I will confess to being treated for fleas after an encounter with a very famous person’s dog.
Anything else to share?
I took the position when the organization was near bankruptcy and in a bit of an identity flux. I was also very young. Looking back with 20+ years of experience, I would have made some different choices, but older me recognizes that younger me did the best I could with the resources we had at the time.
Maya Williams - presently an occasional workshop facilitator and moderator. They are also an Ashley Bryan Fellow and were a Maine Lit Fest Fellow.
What is your most cherished MWPA memory?
The Black Poets Laureate Panel at SPACE Gallery in 2024.
What are you most proud of from your time working with or being a part of MWPA?
Loads of collaboration during my time as poet laureate of Portland.
Monica Wood - has been a member as well as a writing teacher at retreats since about 1990
What is your most cherished MWPA memory?
This is going to sound at first like an UNcherished memory, but stay with me. The annual MWPA Writing Retreat, at which I taught many times, used to be held at various Girl Scout camps on various lakes around Maine, until we got all fancy in the 21st century and found higher-falutin' quarters. This particular year--and unbeknownst to any of us until it was far too late--the host camp had run clean out of cash and was about to close forever; as a result the place was low on everything, most notably toilet paper and food. The glowingly pretty teenager staffing the food line actually RAPPED THE KNUCKLES of a prominent writer when he attempted to score an extra cookie. We were all thinking, Holy cow, who is this little harridan-in-training, and could this place get any worse? Well, yes. Somebody tripped over a tree root and broke her ankle, the beds were too short for adults, it rained in sloshing buckets for three solid days, and one of the students had a bunk-bed concussion incident that did not involve EMTs but probably affected her writing. My enduring memory of that retreat, however, is this: On our last evening, as we were all enjoying our skimpy final dinner, the young knuckle-rapper, who it turns out was headed to Julliard, sashayed into the middle of the dining hall just before the one-cookie-each dessert, took off her apron, announced that she would grace us with a song, and then performed an aria from CARMEN. By the time she finished we'd been stunned into a reverent, disbelieving silence, and I had tears rolling down my face. Her voice emerged in that dingy hall like a clear summer morning--which, I might add, was in shorter supply than the cookies. Happy birthday, MWPA!
Coco McCracken - A member, Maine Chapbook contest winner, Ashley Bryan Fellow, Lit Fest Fellow, and integral part of our community today
How did you become part of the MWPA?
In Feb 2021, on a whim, I virtually attended Susan Conley's LANDSLIDE launch party/panel with Lily King. That changed everything. I took a memoir writing workshop with Sarah Perry next. Then I saw another panel about BIPOC writers in Maine that Phuc Tran was on. I asked Phuc to trade beers for writing advice (and tattoos). Then came the chapbook contest in 2021. Then I connected with Marpheen Chann and Jaed Coffin and refused to stop pestering them with ideas and podcast ideas. Then came the Ashley Bryan and Lit Fest Fellowship which blew apart my writing life! All of this and more. Today, I find myself with an agent, speaking on panels, a part-time marketing consultant, and on the [Community Advisory Board]. It's not an over exaggeration to state that the MWPA is part of my life now, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
What is your most cherished MWPA memory?
WAY too hard to pick one: First year's Lit Fest, at Page & Sound when the mics stopped working and Signature Soul crushed it acapella. Being interviewed at Mechanics' Hall for the first time in front of an audience with Jaed Coffin and people asking me about my writing (what?!). Seeing Viet Thanh Nyugen speak with Phuc during last year's LF. [My husband] Ian reading his raps at Terrible Writing pt.1. Hearing Melissa Febos speak at Cocktail Mary (but also all the writers at Cocktail Mary that night!). Speaking at Come As You Are. Being in the archives this year and seeing the legacy behind us (and dreaming of the one in front of us!)
What are you most proud of from your time working with or being a part of MWPA?
Any time I get in front of an audience, which if I told my 11 year old self, I'd be doing semi-regularly, I would barf.
What major change or changes happened at MWPA during your time there?
Seeing the evolution of the Lit Fest (SO PROUD)
What is the funniest moment you can recall from your time at MWPA?
Ian's raps at Terrible Writing (also most writers reading their terrible writing has made me laugh-cry).
Photos of memorable moments from Coco below!
Samara Cole Doyon - our Membership and Program Coordinator since 2021.
What is your most cherished MWPA memory?
Probably the "Come As You Are" writing for resistance event.
What are you most proud of from your time working with or being a part of MWPA?
Continuing to learn new things and adjust as we do our best to adapt to community needs and strengths.
What major change or changes happened at MWPA during your time there?
We moved from the closet-style "office" at the USM library to this beautiful space at Mechanics' Hall in the Downtown Arts District. It really changed the way I felt about driving into work. I always loved my job, but this shift made it feel like our outer aesthetic was morphing to reflect our artistic soul.
What is the funniest moment you can recall from your time at MWPA?
I think Nathan is the best one to answer this question!
Anything else you’d like to share?
This is the most community-centered work team I've ever been a part of, and knowing these people has made me a better human being.
Jaed Coffin - Worked with us briefly in 2005-6, then later had brief stint on board in 2012, now a Community Advisory Board member
What is your most cherished MWPA memory?
I worked with Shonna Humphrey and Elizabeth Wilkins Lombardo in the MWPA office in early 2000s. Shonna was the ED, Beth was the publications coordinator. The three of us had a million inside jokes together. I've never laughed so much and so hard with coworkers since. Sometimes we'd read random passages from random books in ridiculous cartoon voices in the middle of the workday, just to mix things up. Or we'd go buy each other smoothies and coffee at the USM student center, or go out for dinner at Silly's and watch Shonna's husband, Travis, play in bars with other Portland writers. A lot of the writers of that era (many of whom are still in town!) would come by the office and hang out, to just talk shop. We had board meetings at Great Lost Bear, and Michael Macklin loved turning the meetings into late-night chats about literature. As a totally unpublished but aspiring writer, Beth and Shonna were so cool about making sure people talked to me, and recognized me as part of the crew. Shonna let me send thank you letters to some very famous Maine writers, and I remember signing off with a big flourishing signature (way out of my league). It was a different time then: the print publication was still, well, a newspaper. We sent membership renewals via postcard. It felt like our office was an old fashioned mailroom. There was no social media back then, so the work was all about in-person relationships, which usually happened after events, maybe in a small town, or at Brian Boru...or Ruski's or Rosie's, after readings at Longfellow or Casco Bay Books. It was such a cool time to come up in the world as a writer--I miss those days!
What are you most proud of from your time working with or being a part of MWPA?
Honestly, I don't remember any specific accomplishments--I just remember feeling like we were trying to keep a network of writers and readers connected in whatever ways we could. It seemed much harder to build a network of writers and people back then; you had to really work at the personal relationships because there was no hugely efficient or large scale way to disseminate information. We were operating right before all of this shifted, so I'm just proud that we did the work we did, during a time when Portland was, well, a very different looking and feeling city.
What major change or changes happened at MWPA during your time there?
I think we discontinued Maine In Print--the hardcopy publication that came out as a newspaper--because the world was changing and it was time to go digital. Sad but true!
What is the funniest moment you can recall from your time at MWPA?
Hard pass. Every time I think of something really funny that happened I realize that it probably shouldn't be public...Haha.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I remember walking into the MWPA offices in the old mill in Brunswick when I was pretty young--20 years old, maybe. I was horrified, nervous, confused as to what the organization even did. A nice woman at the desk was there, handed me a copy of Maine In Print, and told me that there were workshops I could take, with writers who knew the trade. Just knowing that Maine had an organization like this signaled an investment in the creative life of its people, and it made me feel like I didn't need to leave town, or depart for some big city, to get what I needed from a writing career. I know changes always need to happen within organizations over time but the one thing I really hope remains constant is this sense of MWPA's commitment to its own community and people. So many young Maine kids will dream of going elsewhere to find their voice--which is great--but if MWPA can remind them that there's a lot here to do, and write about, and be a part of, I think we'll all be better off.
Betsy Sholl - a longtime beloved Poetry instructor.
I can’t imagine my life in Maine without MWPA. If I remember right, I met Mark Melnicove in 1983 or 1984 in the basement of a building on Forest Ave, as he was—I think—packing up books for a move to Brunswick. I remember the joy and openness of everyone associated with the organization, that grassroots energy. Over the years I have benefitted from so many of the programs, from the chapbook contest, to being a finalist and once winner of the Literary Awards in Poetry. But MWPA has done even more to support me and other writers by offering us grants, opportunities to teach and be taught in workshops, to form community, to grow and give back. MWPA has given writers in Maine a literary home that nurtures and when I need we, challenges us to stretch and grow. It’s been a wonder and a joy to watch how the organization has grown since my time serving on the board, to see the vision expand and the energy increase, as MWPA offers more and more forms of support to Maine writers—grants and gathering opportunities, resources, awards, workshops, readings, festivals. The board and leaders like Josh Bodwell and Gibson Fay-Leblanc have worked hard to extend programs farther around the state and become more inclusive and encouraging of diversity (and those other big beautiful words: equity and inclusion). I admire the way MWPA is working to both honor and support Maine writers and to bring in voices from other parts of the country, creating dialogue and inspiration. MWPA is a crucial part of my writing life in Maine, and I would be very lonely and diminished without it.
So many leaders have been part of this growth and I’m afraid to list the names for fear of leaving one out. So much planning and work got us to USM, and now to Mechanics Hall. Leader by leader, the organization has flourished. I am grateful for every way MWPA has nourished me and so many other writers in this state. Walking into the office is always an experience of welcome. No matter how busy everyone is, they stop and greet each person. There is an atmosphere of care, a sense of shared endeavor, of being writers together, offering an oasis in a darkening world. I know an organization like MWPA doesn’t grow without a lot of hard (and sometimes invisible) work, so thank you for all the programming, support, expanding vision, good will and generous energy that flows through every aspect of MWPA. What a remarkable gift. And we need you more than ever.
Photo by Travis Widrick
Jennifer Lunden - longtime member, Maine Literary Award winner, and three-time jurist for the Maine Literary Awards.
What is your most cherished MWPA memory?
I met the author Deb Gould at the very first MWPA agent speed-dating style pitch session back in 2009. We were in the basement of a hotel, surrounded by other nervous writers, waiting to be called in to pitch our chosen agents. It was the first time I had pitched my debut book, American Breakdown, which finally came out in 2023. Deb was maybe a couple decades older than me and had a warm face. She could see I was nervous, and invited me to practice my pitch on her, and was encouraging. That connection helped quell my nerves. We called her my pitch fairy. Neither of us hooked an agent that day, but we each made a friend, and Deb's friendship AND her books delight me all these many years later.
What are you most proud of from your time working with or being a part of MWPA?
After multiple attempts, I am proud to have won best short works, nonfiction, for one of my essays. I am also proud – and eternally grateful – that Julia Bouwsma selected American Breakdown for Read ME. And I'm really grateful that MWPA partnered with me for the launch of American Breakdown, which took me 20 years two write. We filled Mechanics Hall, and the night was a complete joy to me. I could go on and on about what I love and what I've gotten out of being a member of MWPA.
What major change or changes happened at MWPA during your time there?
I feel like the Black Lives Matter movement was a reckoning for many well-meaning white people like me who realized we're still missing the mark on creating an environment for equality, and that includes in the world of literature. What I have seen since then is many more black and brown faces amongst those who are teaching and presenting for MWPA, not to mention opportunities like the Ashley Bryan Fellowships. These kinds of cultural changes are foundational for the wider changes we want to see in the world.
Paul Doiron - Membership coordinator and newsletter editor from Fall 1988 - Summer 1994 and executive director from Summer 1996 - Spring 1999
Paul met with MWPA’s summer intern, Lydia Branson, for a long conversation about his role and history at the MWPA. Here are some highlights from that conversation:
When Paul first began, the MWPA was on Mason Street in Brunswick on the second floor, above an art gallery. He describes it as a cool old space, sort of like a Knights of Columbus hall, big and cavernous with a historic feeling to it. By that time, MWPA had shaken off its small nonprofit roots and had a staff of four or five people. Prior to that, it had been really just Mark Melnicove, who was the first real employee and Executive Director, and one other person. Over time, there were more part-time jobs with benefits. By Summer of 1988, before the Internet, MWPA was doing workshops, newsletters, and this book distribution service. Paul recalls one of his first days: boxes and boxes and boxes of the Maine Speaks anthology came into the office. Maine studies had been mandated by the state as part of curriculum, so Maine Speaks was born. MWPA was responsible for distribution and also got a cut, which “really sustained the organization in a big way for a long time.” There was “still a lingering countercultural vibe, lots of birkenstocks in the office, that sort of thing…People were literally back to the landers and working at MWPA.” Paul recalls feeling like he was coming in at the “second wave, third wave, whatever it was of the MWPA. You don’t know as you’re going through this stuff exactly how things are going to be changing around you.”
Paul had two real stints at the MWPA. He had a part-time job as membership coordinator and newsletter editor for a few years. Then, left to go to grad school for his MFA. He had not planned on coming back to Maine, but after he had finished his coursework, he got a phone call from one of his old coworkers at the MWPA who asked him to return and run the place after the departure of the executive director. Post grad, with no solid plans, he did return around 1994.
During these two phases, he was there for some interesting transitions in the life of the alliance, Maine's literary community, and the role of books in the culture as a whole.
Paul tells me: “I knew just about every published professional author in the state,” which is not really possible at all any more. “We would actively tap [these writers] to do workshops. We really aspired to become more of a statewide organization at that phase.” Paul also tells me that they had a very vibrant organization at that time. They were expanding workshops around the state, found instructors and Aroostook County, found instructors in Washington County, and had the newsletter printed and mailed as the primary means of communication to the membership. As for the archives, Paul explains that he “recognized pretty early on that [he] didn't know how long MWPA would last or what the future held but [he] just had this sort of feeling that some of this stuff was going to be worth preserving. It felt like a very expansive period. We reached our peak membership numbers, thousands and thousands of people we had as dues-paying members of the organization.” (Editors note: with about 1750 members currently, MWPA has closed in on that peak in membership again.) Paul believed in the value of documenting this expansive period of immense growth and change at the MWPA, and knew enough to execute it. Current MWPA staff were able to sort through and explore many of these archives, featured here.
Tell me more about the book wholesaling operation? This is totally unfamiliar to most members now. How did it work, why did it end, etc?
“The book distribution service was the focus. We didn't necessarily want it to be, but it was so labor-intensive that it was the focus of the day….The way that it had been set up was that we had a bunch of small presses…and what they needed was distribution. They needed ways to get their books into libraries and bookstores. And what they encountered, and then subsequently, what self-published authors encountered, was that libraries and bookstores didn't want to have accounts with individual authors where they had to write checks and all of that. So we stocked books on a consignment basis and added it essentially as a one stop shop for Maine books, written by Maine authors. They didn't have to necessarily be about Maine, although that's what people wanted, by and large. And there was an increasing number of Maine books as the years went on.”
How did the computer/printer/new tech and the rise of these big bookstore chains affect the MWPA?
Everything about publishing and the game was changing at this time. “Back in the '70s, the publisher piece of it was literally letterpress printed books, really almost art objects, not meant for mass distribution. Then small presses [started] forming with the goal of mass distribution. Big-chain bookstores emerged on the scene as well. It was primarily Borders and Barnes & Noble. Back then, they were the enemy, but we had membership categories that included bookstores and bookseller memberships. We offered them several benefits. Independent bookstores and booksellers were really stressed by the arrival of these stores. But we did have accounts with Borders and Barnes & Noble as a means of getting some small Maine books into these chain stores. And that was controversial, too.” The MWPA tried to be neutral and support independent booksellers, but also a contingent of publishers who wanted to distribute books as widely as they could. Later, as Amazon and online bookselling started to develop, the big bookstore chains started shrinking, and MWPA’s book distribution could no longer sustain itself. In the 21st century, MWPA membership became one of mostly writers, both established and aspiring, and small presses.
You mentioned an “un-glamorous revolution,” tell me more about this. What did it look like, what are you proud of, etc?
“It did feel like we were growing, we were trying to meet very very specific needs of these different constituencies. That's the unglamorous part of it. Because it felt like MWPA had gone from sort of this sort of startup that could have just flared out very quickly to this institution that people began increasingly to depend upon to do different things, whether it was the workshops, sharing information through the newsletter, and the book distribution, et cetera. We had no idea what was headed our way. When I started, there were computers, and we did have our membership information on the computer and databases. But it was the least sophisticated thing you could possibly imagine. The idea of doing anything online was ludicrous because nobody could tap into it.” But MWPA managed to survive the rise of tech and then use it to its advantage in a way that many writing centers could not.
What are you most proud of from your time working with or being a part of MWPA?
“One of my accomplishments was basically just keeping it going through a period where lots of things were in flux. It almost folded in the early 21st century. And that would have been really sad, because the internet, social media, et cetera, allowed the organization to reinvent itself in a way that is sustainable.” But of course, it was hard for a small nonprofit to balance business with their nonprofit values. “Other arts literary centers went out of business as they stumbled through the 1990s. If they could make it into the era of the internet and newsletters and online workshops and those things, suddenly, everything was viable again. The problem is that most couldn't,” but Paul is deeply grateful that the MWPA did.
“I was also proud of starting a student writing competition, which lasted all of two or three years. But this was one where, you know, the governor would be giving you the award and shaking your hand. And, your parents would be like, “I can't believe we're in the Blaine house. And my son is getting an award from the governor.”
Tell me more about what it was like to work with John Cole of our J.N. Cole award.
“The man was larger than life in every conceivable way—WW II tail gunner, commercial fisherman, confidante of Jackson Pollack and Bette Davis, journalistic visionary and force for good, and acclaimed writer of literary nonfiction—and I don’t know what I did to deserve having him as my mentor (and not just my literary mentor). He was one of the founders of the Maine Times, which changed Maine, especially around environmental issues. The major newspapers of that time didn't cover the extent to which Maine was being polluted by the logging industry. The Maine Times just went right at that. John sold it and moved and lived his life…Then he returns to Maine. He's in his 70s. He had published a number of books by then and he had always lived a sort of a very glamorous life. He was doing workshops for us, and as it happens, I needed a newsletter editor. And in walked John Cole and said, ‘I want to be a newspaper newsletter editor.’ And I said, ‘No you don't.’ But he did. John really wanted to be in the office because he was very social, so he took the desk right next to mine and just talked at me the whole time. He also couldn't use a computer, which we were using at that point. I spent a lot of time at his house just assisting him with tech, so I got to know him very, very well. When he went out to Long Island and became a commercial striped bass fisherman, he met Jackson Pollock who eventually gave John a painting…Eventually, John went to get a job with Proctor and Gamble in the Midwest. And he hated it so much that he sold his Jackson Pollock painting to finance his escape from the corporate world and return to Maine and start the Maine Times.
What is the funniest moment you can recall from your time at MWPA?
“The funniest thing that happened when I was there at the MWPA was, here my newsletter editor is, right? My humble newsletter editor, John Cole, who was well enough known in the world, that I don't remember how it happened, but a rumor started to circulate that he was dead. So he had to take a morning and go down to Channel 6 being interviewed on the Today's Show about how he wasn't dead. I had no idea that this guy was like, Today-Show worthy. At the end, the interviewer said, ‘Well, John Cole, live long and prosper.’ And John said, ‘Well, especially prosper.’”
What is your most cherished MWPA memory?
Paul fondly recalls that the MWPA allowed him to stay in Maine as a young Mainer who wanted to become a writer. “I got to take classes. I got to meet writers. I got to hang out with writers. That's my favorite part of the job. And. It's beautiful. I think that ultimately, that's sort of the through line, right? Between ‘75 and today, which is that at its best, the MWPA gives writers especially, who are working in a solitary profession, opportunities to meet each other, to exchange information, professional information, or networks that way, but also form friendships. And this has resulted in incredible works and allowed people to have real careers as professional authors. It's a wonderful thing.”