A Baker's Dozen of Maine Books for Right Now
At MWPA, we're for great books and the Maine writers, editors, designers, and publishers who make them happen. Lately we have been talking a lot about the 2020 Maine Literary Award winners and finalists, which we will continue to do. But here are thirteen books--most recent, all within the last twenty five years--that speak to our current moment in different ways. All were written or edited by Black authors, Indigenous authors, and authors of color, and all are worth your time. It's wonderful to see many best-seller lists (like the New York Times' nonfiction list) now populated by books having to do with race and racism, and how great would it be if some of these Maine books could be on the best-seller lists of great bookstores around our state.
+ Infinite Hope: A Black Artist’s Journey from World War II to Peace (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books /Simon & Schuster, 2019) by Ashley Bryan--middle grade memoir
+ Roughhouse Friday (FSG, 2019) by Jaed Coffin--memoir
+ Magnificent Homespun Brown, (Tilbury House, 2020) by Samara Coyle Doyon--picture book
+ Call Me American (Knopf, 2018) and Call Me American (Adapted for Young Adults): The Extraordinary True Story of a Young Somali Immigrant (Delacorte, 2020) by Abdi Nor Iftin--memoir and YA memoir
+ Moon Watchers: Shirin's Ramadan Miracle (Tilbury House, 2017 Reprint) by Reza Jalali (Author), Anne Sibley O'Brien (Illustrator)--picture book
+ New Mainers: Portraits of Our Immigrant Neighbors (Tilbury House, 2009), Pat Nyhan with foreward by Reza Jelali--nonfiction
+ The Story I Want to Tell (Tilbury House, 2014), various youth and adult writers associated with The Telling Room--multi-genre
+ An Upriver Passamaquoddy (Tilbury House, 2007), by Allen Sockabasin--memoir
+ Maine's Visible Black History by H. H. Price and Gerald Talbot, (Tilbury House, 2006)--nonfiction
+ 3 Nations Anthology: Native, Canadian & New England Writers (Resolute Bear Press, 2017) by Donna M Loring (Author), Sarah Xerar Murphy (Author), Valerie Lawson (Editor)--multi-genre
+ Sigh, Gone (Flatiron, 2020) by Phuc Tran--memoir
+ Mississippi: An American Journey (Vintage, 1997) by Anthony Walton--memoir/nonfiction
+ Biddy Mason Speaks Up (HeyDay Books, 2019) by Arisa White--young readers nonfiction