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A Presentation
With Julia Bouwsma, Linda Buckmaster and Elizabeth Garber
Join three Maine authors as they describe their experiences researching for their recent books and using the material in their writing. Maine Poet Laureate Julia Bouwsma, memoirist Elizabeth Garber, and prose writer and poet Linda Buckmaster will talk about family documents and objects, interviewing participants, tapping into personal experience, ephemera, museums, serendipity, and of course, books. They’ll touch on issues of copyright and permissions, incorporating imagery, and book design. An important concern is how to choose the relevant material to use from an excess of information.
.+ PLEASE NOTE This talk will occur online via Zoom. Attendees do not need to create an account to participate, but should test out Zoom before the presentation if they are first-time users. The presenter and MWPA staff will not have the capacity to help attendees with tech issues during the talk.
+ REQUIRED EQUIPMENT A reliable, fast internet connection (broadband wired or wireless (3G or 4G/LTE), speakers & a microphone (built-in or USB plug-in), and a webcam (built-in or USB plug-in).
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After watching a cursory documentary clip about Maine’s horrifying 1912 eviction and erasure of the interracial Malaga Island community, Julia Bouwsma found herself delving into an archive fragmented by a century of silence. Her years-long immersive research process included trips to Malaga Island, historical societies, cemeteries, museums, and libraries as she collected and studied numerous historic photographs, newspaper articles, documents, personal correspondence, archeological dissertations, and more. Ultimately this work culminated in her Maine Literary Award-winning collection of poems Midden (Fordham University Press, 2018).
Prodded by curiosity, landscape, and an interest in the lives of working people in the fisheries, Linda Buckmaster used travels to Newfoundland and a certain bookish geekiness to pursue an interest in historical salt cod communities on both sides of the North Atlantic. A reading list of hundreds of sources included fiction, poetry, nonfiction, historical documents, and archival materials. Later trips to the Maritimes and the Western Isles of Scotland became more strategic—and serendipitous—as she honed her focus to write the cross-genre Elemental. A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands (Huntress Press, 2022).
Elizabeth Garber became a relentless archivist as a teenager during her year at sea school on a square rigger in the 1970s, saving her photo album, journals, and letters for nearly fifty years. Over the last five years, she searched out students and teachers, interviewed them and created a private online format, where written conversations stirred up their memories and reflections. This collaborative revisiting of the past, in addition to a four-day return to the ship, supported Elizabeth as she wrote Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year (Toad Hall Editions, September 2022). Participants will be encouraged to ask questions and to think of ways the information may be of use for their own projects.
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