Portland Greendrinks will hold its November gathering at Mechanics’ Hall, and MWPA is the featured nonprofit! If you don’t know Greendrinks, they note, “The goal of Greendrinks is pretty simple: good times shared among people working in, or interested in, environmental and sustainability issues. Portland Greendrinks is a project of the Maine-based non-profit, Triceratops Group, started by Elliott May in 2007/2008.”

Here is the Important  Information: ​​​​​

• Register for the event!

• 21+ Event

• Bring Your ID

• $10 with vessel

• Please leave your pups at home

• Babies are welcome as long as they are worn

• Please be kind and respectful to all of your fellow Greendrinkers!

• Be kind, respectful, and make sure to say hi to someone you don't know!

The Beverage Partners for this event include: ​

• Maine Craft Distilling

• Blue Lobster Wines

• Bissell Brothers

• Barreled Souls Brewing

• Non-alcoholic options will be available

Please join the MWPA and three previous chapbook winners, Zanne Langlois, Brandon Dudley, and Coco McCracken, for a reading and celebration of Aliza Dube’s The Dependents. Award-winning fiction writer Manuel Gonzales chose Aliza Dube’s The Dependents as the winner of the 2023 Maine Chapbook Series in fiction, and now the book is in print thanks to editing and design help from Pink Eraser Press.

Gonzales writes that Dube “writes nimbly, offering the reader simple and readable yet wrenching sentences, complex characters that shift in and out of view from one story to the next, and that move us inexorably through disappointment, regret, hope, love, and time.”

Zanne Langlois chapbook Bright Glint Gone was chosen by award-winning poet Martha Collins in 2019. Brandon Dudley’s Hazards of Nature was chosen by award-winning novelist Sigrid Nunez in 2020. Coco McCracken’s The Rabbit was chosen by award-winning memoirist Melissa Febos in 2021. Copies of all of these will be for sale.

Aliza Dube graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington with a degree in Creative Writing in 2018. After graduation, she married and became an Army wife in the Midwest. On post, she found herself in a world of fascinating characters and irreconcilable contradictions. The people she met and the places she visited would have a lasting impact on her work. She is currently a student in the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program in creative writing. She is the author of the memoir The Newly Tattooed’s Guide to Aftercare (2020). She strives to tell stories for people like her who grew up struggling to find characters like themselves in books.

Brandon Dudley’s chapbook Hazards of Nature: Stories was selected by National Book Award winner Sigrid Nunez for the 2020 Maine Chapbook Series. Dudley is a graduate of the MFA program at Sierra Nevada University, where he was managing editor of the Sierra Nevada Review. His short fiction has won a Maine Literary Award and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His stories, essays, interviews and criticism have appeared or are forthcoming in New South, The Millions, The Forge, Fiction Writers Review, and others. A former journalist, he now teaches high school English in Brunswick, where he lives with his wife and two sons.

Suzanne Langlois’s chapbook Bright Glint Gone was chosen by award-winning poet Martha Collins as the winner of the 2019 Maine Chapbook Series. Her poems have appeared in The Maine Review, NAILED Magazine, Cider Press Review, The Fourth River, Off The Coast, Rattle, and on the Button Poetry channel. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net, Independent Best American Poetry, and the Pushcart Prize. She holds a BA in English from Tufts University, an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and an MFA from Warren Wilson College. She lives in Portland and teaches high school English in Falmouth.

Coco McCracken is a Chinese-Canadian author and writer living in Portland, Maine. 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.

Please join the MWPA and the Portland Museum of Art as we honor the legacy and ongoing transformative force of Black America’s creativity, transcendency, and liberation in a Juneteenth poetry reading. Two well-loved local poets and Ashley Bryan Fellows, Bates College Professor Ian-Khara Ellasante and Portland’s Poet Laureate Maya Williams, will share their wisdom and wonder, and then our featured poet Nathan McClain will share his unflinching and lyrical work.

Multi-award winning poet John Murillo says, "Nathan McClain's Previously Owned is no-nonsense, meat and potatoes, good gotdam poetry,” and Publisher Weekly calls McClain’s first book, Scale, “atmospheric and graceful in its depiction of the steady ache that comes when absence permeates a life.”

The reading is free and will take place in the Great Hall at the Portland Museum of Art.

Nathan McClain is a poet, editor, and educator living in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is the author of Scale (Four Way Books, 2017) and Previously Owned (Four Way Books, 2022), and his poems and prose have recently appeared, or are forthcoming, in Poetry Northwest, Green Mountains Review, Poem-a-Day, The Common, The Critical Flame, and upstreet, among others. He is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and African American Literary Arts at Hampshire College, and serves as Poetry Editor of The Massachusetts Review.

Maya Williams (ey/em, they/them, and she/her) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who is currently an Ashley Bryan Fellow and the seventh Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine . Maya's debut poetry collection, Judas & Suicide, is available through Game Over Books. And Maya's second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date, is available through Harbor Editions. She graduated with a community practice-focused Masters in Social Work and Certificate in Applied Arts and Social Justice at the University of New England in May 2018. She graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts for Creative Writing with a Focus in Poetry at Randolph College in June 2022.

Ian-Khara Ellasante (they/them) is a Black, queer, trans-nonbinary parent, partner, poet, and cultural studies scholar. Ian-Khara’s poetry has been published in We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics, Pipe Wrench, The Feminist Wire, Nat. Brut, Hinchas de Poesía, The Volta, Writing the Land: Maine, and From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Writers Write the Northeast (forthcoming). Ian-Khara is a VONA alum whose awards and honors include the 2023 Cave Canem Fellowship, the New Millennium Award for Poetry, the Ashley Bryan Fellowship, and the Point Foundation Scholarship. Their critical writing, including the essay “Dear Trans Studies, Can You Do Love?,” has appeared in Transgender Studies Quarterly, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Families in Society. Proudly hailing from Memphis, Ian-Khara has also loved living and writing in Tucson, Brooklyn, and most recently, in southern Maine, where they teach Gender and Sexuality Studies and Africana at Bates College. 

Please join the MWPA for our favorite night of the year, a community celebration of great writing and writers from all over Maine. We will laugh, cry, and applaud excellent Maine writing from the last year!

Doors open at 6 PM for a reception with snacks and a cash bar; the ceremony begins at 7 PM.

Finalist books will be for sale.

The event is free, but we ask that you RSVP if you are able to join us in person because seating is limited. If you would like to make a suggested ticket donation, we appreciate it!

To to attend online, please click below to register for the Zoom link.

Join Print: A Bookstore and the MWPA (Maine Writers' and Publishers' Alliance) for a very special event celebrating bestselling author Erik Larson's newest book, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War in conversation with Richard Russo at Stevens Square Community Center on Monday, May 20th, at 7 PM.

Larson, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two. The Demon of Unrest has been named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Time, Men’s Health, and Lit Hub.

Tickets are required. Each ticket is $40 and will include 1 general admission seat at the event, and 1 copy of The Demon of Unrest. Every attendee needs their own ticket. There will be no admittance without a ticket.

Erik Larson is the author of six national bestsellers: The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac's Storm, which have collectively sold more than ten million copies. His books have been published in nearly twenty countries.

Richard Russo is the author of ten novels, most recently Somebody’s Fool, Everybody’s Fool and Chances Are…; two collections of stories; and the memoir Elsewhere. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which, like Nobody’s Fool, was adapted into a multiple-award-winning miniseries; in 2017, he received France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine. He lives in Port­land.

Please note: This event has been postponed until next week due to reports of messy commutes in the Portland area and throughout the state. If you have signed up for this event, you should receive updates via email. You can also check back in here and on social media for more details to come. We apologize for the frustration and disappointment of this last-minute decision. We just want everyone to stay safe.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

In honor of the priceless and intangible legacy left to us by the beloved ancestor Ashley Bryan (left) and upheld by so many BIPOC creatives, our next LORE event will be a reading and discussion, cohosted by our partners at Indigo Arts Alliance and featuring (clockwise from top left) Dania Bowie, Kendric Chua, Liz Iversen, Minquansis Sapiel, and Stacey Tran. These Fellows will be sharing their original writing with us and connecting with each other and with our community though conversation about their work and approaches to writing in these uncertain times.

Please note: This event is open to the public, and all who celebrate our diverse creative community are welcome and invited to attend.

This event is free to the public, but seating is limited, and we ask that you RSVP by clicking on the button below.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

POSTEPONED

Please note: This event has been postponed until next week due to reports of messy commutes in the Portland area and throughout the state. If you have signed up for this event, you should receive updates via email. You can also check back in here and on social media for more details to come. We apologize for the frustration and disappointment of this last-minute decision. We just want everyone to stay safe.

LORE is a space for the BIPOC community to connect, create, and collaborate.

In honor of the priceless and intangible legacy left to us by the beloved ancestor Ashley Bryan (left) and upheld by so many BIPOC creatives, our next LORE event will be a reading and discussion, cohosted by our partners at Indigo Arts Alliance and featuring (clockwise from top left) Dania Bowie, Kendric Chua, Liz Iversen, Johan Alexander F, Minquansis Sapiel, and Stacey Tran. These Fellows will be sharing their original writing with us and connecting with each other and with our community though conversation about their work and approaches to writing in these uncertain times.

Please note: This event is open to the public, and all who celebrate our diverse creative community are welcome and invited to attend.

This event is free to the public, but seating is limited, and we ask that you RSVP by clicking on the button below.

For more about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship Program, please find our history and values statement.

Please join Print: A Bookstore, MWPA, and Mechanics’ Hall for a celebration of Maine winter through poetry.

 The poems in Mike Bove’s newest collection, EYE, were written over the course of a nor’easter that buried Southern Maine in heavy snow. Meditations on memory, grief, family, and nature, they reveal the power of icy weather to inspire reflection and exploration.

 Part poetry reading, part conversation, this event will feature Mike in poetic discussion with six acclaimed Maine poets, joining together in warm, wintry community.

Please RSVP for this free event by clicking on the button below.

Mike Bove is the author of four books of poems, most recently Soundtrack to Your Next Panic Attack (forthcoming from Aldrich Press, 2024) and EYE (Spuyten Duyvil 2023). His work has appeared in journals in the US, UK, and Canada. He was winner of the 2021 Maine Postmark Poetry Contest and a 2023 finalist for a Maine Literary Award in poetry. He is Professor of English at Southern Maine Community College and lives with his family in Portland, Maine where he was born and raised.

Samaa Abdurraqib lives in Brunswick - ancestral land of the Abenaki people. Recently, her work can be found in Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, Writing the Land: Streamlines, and Cider Press Review. She was a finalist for the 2022 Maine Writers & Publisher’s Alliance Maine Chapbook Series. She is the editor of the collection From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast.

Ken Craft ‘s poems have appeared in The Writer's Almanac, Spillway, Pirene's Fountain, Pedestal Magazine, and numerous other journals and e-zines. He is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Reincarnation & Other Stimulants (Kelsay Books, 2021).

Judy Kaber is the author of three chapbooks, most recently “A Pandemic Alphabet.” Her poems have appeared in journals such as The Worcester Review, Hunger Mountain, Poet Lore, and Spillway, as well as many other places. Recently, her poem, “Sword Swallowing Lessons,” was featured on “The Slowdown” and was read by Major Jackson. Judy won the 2023 Maine Poetry Contest. She is a past poet laureate of Belfast, Maine (2021-2023).

Jefferson Navicky is the author of four books, most recently the novel-in-prose-poems, Head of Island Beautification for the Rural Outlands (2023), as well as Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose (2021), which won the 2022 Maine Literary Book Award for Poetry. He is the archivist for the Maine Women Writers Collection.

Betsy Sholl’s tenth collection of poetry is As If a Song Could Save You (University of Wisconsin Press in fall of 2022). Her ninth collection of poetry is House of Sparrows: New and Selected Poems (University of Wisconsin, 2019), winner of the Four Lakes Prize. Other awards include a Maine Book Award for Poetry, The Felix Pollak Prize, the AWP Prize for Poetry. She teaches in the MFA in Writing Program of Vermont College of Fine Arts and served as Poet Laureate of Maine from 2006 to 2011. She was awarded the 2020 Distinguished Achievement Award from Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.

David Stankiewicz is the author of two poetry collections: My First Beatrice (Moon Pie Press, 2013) and Night Garden (Deerbrook Editions, 2024). A graduate of the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast MFA program, David is a professor of English at Southern Maine Community College. He lives in Cape Elizabeth with his family.

Please join MWPA & Mechanics' Hall in showcasing exciting voices in Maine's rich literary legacy with six of MWPA’s Ashley Bryan Fellows. This night’s featured readers include Linda Ashe-Ford, Johan Alexander F, Liz Iverson, Coco McCracken, Leila Christine Nadir, and Minquansis Sapiel.

In honor of award-winning writer and artist Ashley Bryan’s life, the MWPA offers the Ashley Bryan Fellowships, which support emerging Maine writers who are Black, people of color, and/or members of one of the Wabanaki Nations or other Native peoples.

“I love to celebrate the artistry of people around the world in whatever material or form they work” —Ashley Bryan

For more information about the Ashley Bryan Fellowship, visit here.

Please RSVP for this free event by clicking on the button below.

Linda Ashe-Ford is a veteran in the early education field and was a classroom teacher for over 45 years. She is a past president of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children as well as a past treasurer of the New England Association for the Education Of Young Children. Linda holds a Master’s in Education from Antioch New England Graduate School and a BA in Theater and Communications from the University of Hartford. Using her background in theater, she has written, produced and performed both original and scripted materials on various topics. Linda is a storyteller who brings the history and folktales of people of color to life. She believes that through story we can begin to deepen our understanding of each other.

Johan Alexander F has been an Ashley Bryan Fellow in 2021, and was a Maine Lit Fest Fellow in 2022. His writing has also received support from the Periplus Collective and Anaphora Arts Writing Residencies, both national organizations supporting BIPOC writers. His short stories have been published in various places, with his last three works appearing in LatineLit Journal Winter '24 (forthcoming), Eunoia Review, and the Periplus Anthology '23. Born in Medellin, Colombia, he lives in Portland, where he mentors Young Writers and Leaders at the Telling Room.

Liz Iversen was born in the Philippines and grew up in South Dakota. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Creative Nonfiction, Passages North, Room, and J Journal: New Writing on Justice. She has received support from Tin House and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Currently based in Portland, she is a copywriter for a radio and podcast advertising agency. You can find her online at liziversen.com.

Coco McCracken is a Chinese-Canadian author living in Portland. 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 is a 2022 Ashley Bryan Fellow and 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.

Leila Christine Nadir is an Afghan-American artist and writer whose work appears in literary and scholarly journals, in museums and galleries, and in forests, classrooms, and kitchens. Her writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Khôra, Black Warrior Review, North American Review, ASAP, and Aster(ix), and has been supported by awards and fellowships from MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Bread Loaf, Tin House, the de Groot Foundation, and Aspen Words. More info: https://leilanadir.xyz/. Instagram: @afghan_vegan.

Minquansis Sapiel is a Passamaquoddy TribaI member, mother of three daughters and has a Masters in Social Work. Her daughter also illustrated the children’s book she wrote Little People of the Dawn. She grew up on the Sipayik Reservation and moved off to go to college at the University of Maine. She also has her Captain’s license and offers whale watching tours.

Please join MWPA and Mechanics Hall for a reading and conversation with award-winning poets Myronn Hardy and Betsy Sholl. Distinguished poet, writer, and journalist Tom Sleigh notes, “Myronn Hardy’s tough, analytical, associative mind moves with astonishing inventiveness between America and Algeria… Quietly visionary, Aurora Americana is among the best books of poems I’ve read in a long time.”

Copies of Hardy and Sholl’s books will be available for sale and signing.

Please RSVP for this free event by clicking on the button below.

Myronn Hardy is the author of six books of poems, including Approaching the Center, winner of the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles award, The Headless Saints, winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy award and Catastrophic Bliss, winner of the Griot-Stadler Prize for poetry. His most recent collection is Aurora Americana, published by Princeton University Press. His poems have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Ploughshares, POETRY, The Georgia Review, The Baffler, and elsewhere. He is an assistant professor of English at Bates College. 

Betsy Sholl’s tenth collection of poetry is As If a Song Could Save You (University of Wisconsin Press in fall of 2022), and her ninth collection of poetry was House of Sparrows: New and Selected Poems (University of Wisconsin, 2019), winner of the Four Lakes Prize. Other awards include a Maine Book Award for Poetry, The Felix Pollak Prize, the AWP Prize for Poetry, an NEA Fellowship. She teaches in the MFA in Writing Program of Vermont College of Fine Arts and served as Poet Laureate of Maine from 2006 to 2011. She was awarded the 2020 Distinguished Achievement Award from Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Southern Maine in 2022.