Are you looking to get feedback on your writing? Or to learn how to take the next steps in your work? Do you know a writer who could benefit from some personalized support and feedback?

Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance is turning 50 years old this June. As part of our year-long celebration, we want to invite newer writers to join Maine’s writing community and connect them with writers who are already a part of it.

This summer, we will team up with a crew of volunteers made up of past Maine Literary Award winners and MWPA staff, board members, instructors, and friends to offer newer, developing writers FREE one-time letters of personalized feedback in response to a piece of written work.

This program is for any developing Maine writer, including but not limited to current MWPA members. Applicants will be selected and matched based on statements of need and commitment. Need can be financial, educational, or other. Applicant preferences for readers will also be taken into consideration. Readers will review packets of poetry, as well as children’s book pages and packets of fiction, genre fiction, drama, nonfiction, and memoir.

This one-time exchange will take place this July and August.

Writers volunteering to read and respond to your work include:

Anica Morse Rissi, Charlotte Agell, Chris Holm, Coco McCracken, Emerson Whitney, George Jreije, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Greg Brown, Jane Brox, Jaed Coffin, Jefferson Navicky, Jen Dupree, Jennifer Jacobson, Jenny O’Connell, Jeri Theriault, Maya Williams, Mira Ptacin, Myron Hardy, Nathan Conroy, Rosa Lane, Ryan Bani Tahmaseb, Samaa Abdurraqib, Samara Cole Doyon, Shannon Bowring, and Taryn Bowe.

For more information on volunteering writers, see below. Please email MWPA’s Associate Director Taryn Bowe (taryn@mainewriters.org) with questions about applying.

PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Applications will be accepted from June 1 to June 21, 2025. Selected applicants will be notified at the beginning of July.

Apply

PARTICiPATING WRITERS

Anica Mrose Rissi - Children’s Literature

Anica Mrose Rissi is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for kids and teens, including picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and YA. Anica grew up on an island in Maine (where her most recent book, *Wishing Season*, is set) and spent many years in New York City, where she worked as an executive editor in children’s book publishing. She now teaches in the Writing for Children & Young Adults MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, and lives in central New Jersey with her very good dog, Sweet Potato. Find out more at anicarissi.com.

Charlotte Agell - Children’s Literature

Charlotte Agell is the author/illustrator of many books for children and young adults, as well as one teachers' guide. *Just for Today,* her latest collaboration with Ana Ramirez Gonzalez, is due out May 2026. Originally from Sweden, Charlotte also grew up in Montreal and Hong Kong. She came to Maine as a college student and has loved living here ever since. A retired public school teacher, Charlotte now teaches in the Colby Jan Plan program as well as through Maine Writers & Publishers and other venues. She's also a pinch hitting editor with Pink Eraser Press.

Chris Holm - Genre Fiction

Chris Holm is the author of the cross-genre *Collector* trilogy, which recasts the battle between heaven and hell as old-fashioned crime pulp; the Michael Hendricks thrillers, which feature a hitman who only kills other hitmen; thirty-odd short stories that run the gamut from crime to horror to science fiction; and the standalone *Child Zero*, a biological thriller in the vein of Michael Crichton. His work has been selected for *The Best American Mystery Stories*, named a *New York Times* Editors’ Choice, garnered praise from Stephen King, and won a number of awards, including the 2016 Anthony Award for Best Novel. He lives in Portland, Maine.

Coco McCracken - Memoir and Narrative Journalism

Coco McCracken is a Chinese-Canadian author. Her chapbook, *The Rabbit*, was selected by bestselling author Melissa Febos as the winner of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance’s 2021 Maine Chapbook Series. She was the recipient of a 2022 Ashley Bryan Fellowship. She was named a Lit Fest Fellow by the MWPA, in which capacity she helped organize the state’s first inaugural Maine Lit Fest. She also serves on the Community Advisory Board for the MWPA. She was accepted for a residency for the 2022 summer season at Hewnoaks, where she was additionally awarded a grant from the Maine Arts Commission to complete her first manuscript. In 2023, she was chosen to be on the jury for the Maine Literary Awards. Her work has been featured in Wirecutter’s (The New York Times) Baby + Kid Section, Maine Magazine, and Copy Mag, among others.

Emerson Whitney - Memoir/Nonfiction and Fiction

Emerson Whitney is the author of numerous nonfiction books, including Heaven (McSweeney’s, 2020), *Holding Water* (McSweeney’s 2026), and the poetry title, *Ghost Box* (Timeless Infinite Light, 2014). *Heaven* was a finalist for the Believer Book Award and winner of the Independent Publisher Award for Essay (2020). In 2024, *Daddy Boy* received the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance Award for Memoir.
Emerson’s work has appeared in *The Paris Review, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books* and elsewhere. Emerson holds a PhD from the European Graduate School, an MFA from CalArts, and a BA from Goddard College. He was awarded a Dana and David Dornsife Postdoctoral Fellowship in Gender Studies at the University of Southern California and taught creative writing at Goddard College until its closure in 2023. Emerson is grateful to live Downeast with his family: his wife, his best friends, and a mess of dogs.

George Jreije - Genre Fiction

George Jreije ("jer-age") is the Lebanese American author ofmany books, including the acclaimed *Shad Hadid* fantasy series, the *Bashir Boutros* fantasy series, and the upcoming graphic novels, *Tarik's Bazaar Adventure* as well as *Lilo and the League of Librarians*. He also writes short stories in collaboration with UNICEF, Kickstarter, and others.
George is a public speaker, writing teacher, author coach, and book editor. He served as the inaugural author-in-residence for the Concord Library and has been a guest of honor as well as an instructor for Gotham Writer's Workshop, WriteHive, the Highlights Foundation, and more.
When not writing or helping other writers, George scours the world for delicious food and visits schools to spread his love of books. Connect on Instagram or send an email.

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc - Poetry

My first collection of poems, *Death of a Ventriloquist* won the Vassar Miller Prize and was featured by *Poets & Writers,* and my second, *Deke Dangle Dive*, was published by CavanKerry Press in 2021. My poems have appeared in magazines including *The New Republic, Tin House,* *The Literary Review*, *FIELD, Poetry Northwest* and *Orion.* My prose has appeared in *Guernica, Kenyon Review, Publishers Weekly, Slice,* and other places.
I served as the City of Portland’s fifth Poet Laureate, ending a three-year term in 2018. With graduate degrees from UC Berkeley and Columbia University, I have taught writing at conferences, schools and universities including Fordham, Haystack, and University of Southern Maine, and helped lead community arts organizations including The Telling Room, SPACE Gallery, and Hewnoaks Artist Colony. I currently serve as executive director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and live in Portland with my family.

Greg Brown - Fiction and Memoir

Gregory Brown is the author of the novel, *The Lowering Days,* which has been translated into multiple languages, was a Publishers Marketplace buzz book, a Goodreads best debut novel, a Library Journal best debut novel, longlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and won an AudioFile Magazine Earphones award.

His short stories have appeared in several publications, including *Tin House*, *Alaska Quarterly Review*, *Shenandoah*, *Epoch*, *Prairie Schooner*, *River Styx*, and *Narrative Magazine*, where he was a winner of the 30Below Prize. His essays and criticism have appeared in *The New York Times*, *LitHub*, *The Millions*, *The Chicago Tribune*, *The Rumpus*, *American Short Fiction*, and other publications.

A graduate of the Thomas College, Columbia University, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was a Teaching-Writing Fellow, his work has been supported by fellowships and awards from MacDowell, The Hillholm Writing Residency, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Napa Valley Writers' Conference.

Jane Brox - Memoir and Nonfiction

Jane Brox‘s *In the Merrimack Valley: A Farm Trilogy* (Godine, 2024) brings together her first three books: *Here and Nowhere Else*, which won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award in nonfiction; *Five Thousand Days Like This One*, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and *Clearing Land*. She is also the author of *Silence*, selected as an Editors’ Choice by *The New York Times Book Review*, and *Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light*, which was named one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2010 by *Time* magazine.
Brox has received the New England Book Award for nonfiction, and her essays have appeared in many journals and anthologies including *Best American Essays*, *The Norton Book of Nature Writing*, *The Georgia Review* and *NewYorker.com*. She has been awarded grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Maine Arts Commission.
She lives in Brunswick, Maine.

Jaed Coffin - Memoir and Narrative Journalism

Jaed Coffin is the author of Roughhouse Friday (FSG, 2019), a memoir about the year he won the middleweight title of a barroom boxing show in Juneau, Alaska. He's also the author of A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants (Da Capo, 2008), which chronicles the summer he spent as a Buddhist monk in his mother's village in Thailand. A regular contributor to Down East Magazine, Jaed's writing has appeared in the New York Times, Nautilus, and The Sun as well the Moth Radio Hour and TED. He teaches creative writing at the University of New Hampshire and lives in Maine with his wife and two daughters.

Jefferson Navicky - Drama, Fiction, Hybrid, Poetry

Jefferson Navicky was born in Chicago and grew up in Southeastern Ohio. He earned his M.F.A. from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodies Poetics at Naropa University. He is the author of four books, most recently *Head of Island Beautification for the Rural Outlands* (2023), a Finalist for the 2023 Big Other Book Award for Fiction. *Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose* (2021) won the 2022 Maine Literary Award for Poetry. Jefferson’s work has received several acknowledgments and awards, including an American Rescue Plan/Maine Project Grant, a Maine Arts Commission grant, and three Maine Literary Awards. His plays have been produced throughout New England. Jefferson is proud to be a member of Maine’s literary arts community and is active in several volunteer boards, committees, and community projects. He is the archivist for the Maine Women Writers Collection.

Jen Dupree - Fiction and Nonfiction

Jen Dupree is an assistant editor for *The Masters Review*, a librarian, and a former bookstore owner. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from USM’s Stonecoast program. Her work has appeared in December, Solstice, The Masters Review, On the Rusk and other notable places. She is the winner of the Writer’s Digest Fiction Contest for 2017, and a two-time winner of a Maine Literary Award (2022, 2006). Her novel, *The Miraculous Flight of Owen Leach* was published in April of 2022 by Apprentice House Press. Her second novel, *What Do You Want from Me?* is due out in the spring of 2025.

Jennifer Jacobson - Children’s, YA, and Fiction

Jennifer Jacobson, a graduate of Harvard Graduate School of Education, is the author of oodles of award-winning children’s books including *Small as an Elephant* (IRA Young Adult’s Choice, Parents’ Choice Gold Award), *Paper Things* (ILA Social Justice Award, NTCE Charlotte Huck Honorable Mention) and *The Dollar Kids* illustrated by Ryan Andrews (ABA IndieNext List and Bank Street Best Book of the Year). Her newest launches are a chapter book series: *Twig and Turtle: Big Move to a Tiny House*, a middle grade romance: *Crashing in Love*, and a picture book: *Oh, Chickadee!* She lives in Maine and when not writing, offers coaching and critiques.

Jenny O’Connell - Memoir/Nonfiction

Jenny O’Connell is a writer, environmental storyteller, and professor of creative writing. Finding Petronella, her debut adventure memoir-in-progress, traces Jenny’s 2014 solo trek across Finland following the footsteps of a legendary woman beyond the Arctic Circle. Her award-winning writing has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Down East, Maine Magazine, Backcountry, and elsewhere. She is the staff writer, content developer, and managing blog editor for the Appalachian Mountain Club. Jenny earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast, where she teaches at bi-annual residencies. She is the Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Seguinland Institute. Learn more about her writing at jenny-oconnell.com

Jeri Theriault - Poetry

I’m a Franco-American poet who grew up in Waterville, Maine, and graduated from Colby College, later earning degrees from USM (MS in Instructional Leadership) and Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA in Poetry). My teaching career spanned thirty-four years, including seven years in Prague, six of them as English Department chair at the International School of Prague.
Now I live in South Portland with my husband, the composer, Philip Carlsen. My newest book is *Self-Portrait as Homestead*

Maya Williams - Poetry

Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who was selected as Portland, ME's seventh poet laureate for a July 2021 to July 2024 term. Maya received a MFA in Creative Writing with a Focus in Poetry from Randolph College in June 2022. Eir debut poetry collection Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) was selected as a finalist for a New England Book Award. Their second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date (Harbor Editions, 2023), was selected as a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. Their third poetry collection, What's So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway?, was selected as one of four winners of Garden Party Collective's chapbook prize in 2024. Maya was one of The Advocate's Champions of Pride in 2022, and one of Maine Humanities Council's recipients of the Constance Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2024. You can follow more of eir work at mayawilliamspoet.com

Mira Ptacin - Memoir/Nonfiction

Mira Ptacin is the author of the award-winning memoir *Poor Your Soul* (Soho Press, 2016), which was named a best memoir of the year by Kirkus Books, where it received a rare “starred” review. She’s also the author of the genre-blending book of feminist history, memoir, and ethnography, *The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna* (Liveright-W.W. Norton, 2019), which the New York Times lauded as the best book to read during a pandemic. Mira’s writing frequently appears in the New York Times, New York Times Book Review, The Atavist, Harper’s Elle, Vogue, The Cut, Poets and Writers, Tin House, LitHub, Down East, Modern Farmer, and more. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she was editor-at-large of their literary magazine, LUMINA. Mira lives on Peaks Island, Maine, and is currently working on her next book. www.miraMptacin.com

Myronn Hardy - Poetry

Myronn Hardy is the author of four volumes of poetry, *Approaching the Center*, winner of the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, *The Headless Saints,* winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, *Catastrophic Bliss*, winner of the Griot-Stadler Prize for Poetry, and most recently, *Kingdom*. His poems have appeared in *Ploughshares*, *Virginia Quarterly Review, Indiana Review, FIELD*, *Versal (Amsterdam),* and elsewhere. His short stories have garnered two Pushcart Prize nominations. Hardy has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Annenberg Foundation, Djerassi, Cave Canem, Instituto Sacatar, and Fundación Valparaiso. He is currently working on his first novel. He divides his time between New York City and Morocco.

Nathan Conroy - Nonfiction or Fiction

Nathan Conroy is a writer, teacher, and editor who loves language, Nature, social justice, and adventure. He’s published climbing reports in *American Alpine Journal,* written and fact-checked for *Alpinist* Magazine, and been the Nonfiction Editor for *Ecotone* Magazine. He's currently seeking representation for two nonfiction books and a historical fiction novel set in Norway, Sweden, and Sápmi, while writing for *The Atlas of Mountaineering*, edited by Katie Ives and Conrad Anker, forthcoming in Fall 2025 from Phaidon Press. In 2014, he established trails to The Monster, a big wall in Chilean Patagonia, and the climb La Presencia de mi Padre (VI, 5.10+, 1,600m) was considered for a Piolet d’Or. Nathan holds an MFA with Distinction in Creative Writing from UNC-Wilmington, and a B.A. in Cinema Studies with minors in Mathematics, Chinese, and Philosophy from Oberlin College.

Rosa Lane - Poetry

Rosa Lane is the author of four poetry collections including *Called Back* (Tupelo Press, 2024), a title memorializing the last two words Emily Dickinson wrote--a sequence of poems in queer conversation with Dickinson; *Chouteau's Chalk* (University of Georgia Press, 2019, winner of the Georgia Poetry Prize); *Tiller North* (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2016, winner of the 2017 National Indie Excellence Book Award); and *Roots and Reckonings,* a chapbook, (published by Granite Press with a grant from the Maine Arts Commission). Her most recent work was named Best of Poetry for the 2024 Geminga Prize, winner of the 2023 Morton Marcus Memorial Poetry Prize, and selected finalist for the 2023 Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Prize (Cork, Ireland) among other awards. As guest poet and teacher, Lane has taught at Ashland University, Berkeley City College, Georgia Tech, Lesley University, and Solano Community College. Lane's poems have appeared in the *Asheville Poetry Review, Cloudbank, Cutthroat, Five Points, Nimrod, Massachusetts Review, Ploughshares, RHINO, River Heron Review, Southhampton Review, Third Coast*, *Verse Daily,* andelsewhere. Website: www.rosalane.com

Ryan Bani Tahmaseb - Children’s or Nonfiction

Ryan Bani Tahmaseb is an author, K-12 academic coach, and curriculum developer. His debut picture book, *Rostam’s Picture-Day Pusteen*, was published by Charlesbridge in summer 2024. His debut middle grade book, *Persian Mythology: Epic Stories of Gods, Heroes, and Monsters*, will be published by Running Press Kids in fall 2025, and his next picture book, *I Want to Eat (with) You*, will be published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers in spring 2027. He lives in Southern Maine with his wife and two young children.

Samaa Abdurraqib - Poetry or Short Fiction

Samaa Abdurraqib is the editor of *From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast* (2023). Recently, her poetry has appeared in *Cider Press Review*, *december, Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora*, and in the edited collection *Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic* (2022). Her newest chapbook, *Towards a Retreat* will be published by Diode Editions in 2025. Samaa is a certified Maine Master Naturalist and she is always listening for birdsong. She currently serves as the executive director of Maine Humanities Council.

Samara Cole Doyon - Children’s or Poetry

Samara Cole Doyon is a poet and award-winning children’s book author with Haitian roots, living on unceded Wabanaki / Abenaki territory. She is a neurodivergent mother of neurodivergent children, continually learning more from her progeny than they could ever learn from her. Samara earned both a Lupine Award and an International Literacy Association Award for her debut picture book, *Magnificent Homespun Brown*. Each of her books has received the coveted ***starred*** designation in prepublication review from Kirkus, and her most recent picture book, *Next Level*, was a runner up for the Best Black Joy category in the 2024 Black Kidlit Awards. She works for Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and lives with her husband, two children, rescue pup, and tabby cat in central Maine.

Shannon Bowring - Fiction

Shannon Bowring’s award-winning work has appeared in numerous journals, including *Best Small Fictions*, and has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. She is the recipient of the 2022 Julia Peterkin Literary Award for Flash Fiction and was selected by Deesha Philyaw as a finalist for the *Fractured Lit Anthology II Contest*. Her debut novel, *The Road to Dalton,* was selected as an NPR Best Book in 2023 and won the Maine Literary Book Award for Fiction in 2024. The second book in the Dalton Novels series, *Where the Forest Meets the River,* was published in September 2024. The third book in the series, *IN A DISTANT VALLEY,* will be published by Europa Editions on October 7, 2025.

Taryn Bowe - Fiction

Taryn Bowe’s work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, on NPR’s Selected Shorts, and in literary journals, such as The Sewanee Review, Epoch, Indiana Review, and Joyland. She currently serves as the associate director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and lives with her family in Brunswick.