Fay-LeBlanc to Lead MWPA

The Board of Directors of Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance has named Gibson Fay-LeBlanc as the Executive Director of the organization. Fay-LeBlanc, who joined MWPA as the Associate Director last September, was serving as the Interim Executive Director following the departure of Joshua Bodwell at the end of May. Bodwell left to become the Editorial Director at David R. Godine, Publisher.

MWPA Board President Deborah Cummins said, “We could not be more pleased to have Gibson as our new Executive Director at this point in MWPA’s history. Given his professional experience, breadth of knowledge, and long-time familiarity with Maine literary communities, he will advance MWPA and its mission and expand our outreach well into the future.”

Fay-LeBlanc is a a writer, teacher, and non-profit leader. With graduate degrees from UC Berkeley and Columbia University, he has 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. His first collection of poems, Death of a Ventriloquist, won the Vassar Miller Prize and was published in 2012, and his second, Dangle Dazzle Dive, will be published by CavanKerry Press in 2021.

“I am honored and excited to take the helm of this historic organization, which Joshua Bodwell left in strong shape both fiscally and programmatically. I look forward to continuing that good work and increasing our efforts to lift Maine’s literary culture and connect Maine writers and publishers with each other and with their readers around the state.”

Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance celebrated its 44th anniversary this summer, has over 1,400 members in every county of Maine, and supports Maine’s writers, publishers, and literary professionals. In 2018, MWPA organized hundreds of workshops, conferences, events, from Kittery to Presque Isle and Farmington to Lubec. MWPA will open a search for a new Associate Director during August.