Big Read Grants Available for Maine Communities

The Big Read is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations to develop community-wide reading programs between September 2013 and June 2014. The Big Read is a national program designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. Organizations selected to participate in The Big Read receive a grant (between $2,500 and $20,000) , educational and promotional materials, and access to online training resources and opportunities. Approximately 75 organizations from across the country will be selected.

Previous engagements with this program in Maine are listed below by year:
2011 – 2012
Island Readers & Writers, Bar Harbor– The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
2010-2011
Dyer Library/Saco Museum, Saco -The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
2009-2010
Island Readers & Writers, Bar Harbor– The Call of the Wild Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Portland – Fahrenheit 451
2008-2009
Victoria Mansion, Portland – The Age of Innocence Auburn Public Library, Auburn– Fahrenheit 451
2007-2008
Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Portland – The Joy Luck Club Patten Free Library, Bath – The Grapes of Wrath.

To review the guidelines and application instructions, visit The Big Read website.
Application deadline: February 5, 2013 by 4:00pm CST
There are three new titles in the Big Read Library this year:

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri With penetrating insight, Jhumpa Lahiri follows the Ganguli family from their traditional life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans.

True Grit by Charles Portis A classic Western, True Grit recounts the backcountry adventure of a one-eyed marshal, "Rooster” Cogburn, and a spirited fourteen-year-old, Mattie Ross, as they seek to avenge the death of Mattie's father.

Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea Filled with radiant depictions of the Mexican landscape and unforgettable characters, Luis Alberto Urrea's novel chronicles a young woman's quest to protect her hometown from banditos.

You can see all the available work online.

Summer Stories Short Story Competition

For centuries, writers have been inspired to action by the narrative quality of paintings. Edward Hopper’s evocative paintings have launched countless poems and short stories, while Vermeer's “Girl with Pearl Earing” inspired a best-selling novel. Now that connection between the visual and literary arts has come to Maine.

The Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and Shanti Arts Publishing invite Maine authors to submit original short stories inspired by the paintings of Maine artist, Leslie Anderson. Winning submissions to the Summer Stories Short Story Competition will be published in a printed collection alongside Anderson’s paintings.

Award-winning Maine author Ron Currie, Jr. will serve as the competition’s judge. Currie’s books have earned him critical acclaim and several prestigious awards, including the Young Lions Fiction Award from the New York Public Library. The New York Times has said Currie is a “startlingly talented writer whose book [Everything Matters!] will pay no heed to ordinary narrative conventions… He survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice of his own.”

Winning stories will receive a $50 honorarium (in the form of a gift certificate) and three complimentary copies of the published book.

DEADLINES
Submissions Open: October 10, 2012
Submissions Deadline: March 1, 2013
Notification of Winner: May 15, 2013
Book Release: Fall 2013

Full details of this competition are available online.

Maine Writer Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold Shines at FLICKERS Festival.

The screenplay "Raising Rufus: A Maine Love Story" by Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold of Brunswick was the winner in the main competition category at the Rhode Island International Film Festival (FLICKERS). Winners from the 364 entries were also selected in other categories, including New England Focus, Horror, and Gay and Lesbian.

Flickers is a broadly focused, independent festival that accepts works of any type, on any subject matter, and in any genre. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes the Rhode Island International Film Festival as qualifying for the Short Films category for the Annual Academy Awards (only 65 festivals have this recognition).

The Festival recognizes achievement and innovation in a variety of film making and storytelling disciplines and provides an opportunity to secure support and distribution. More information can be found on the Rhode Island International Film Festival website

Bangor Book Festival This Weekend

The Fifth Annual Bangor Book Festival will bring Maine and Maine-connected authors to the Bangor Public Library, Penobscot Theatre and sites throughout Downtown Bangor. Authors will read and discuss their work and Maine readers will have a chance to meet authors, attend workshops and network. All events are free and open to the public.

The two day event offers 25 events, including a keynote address by Colin Woodard. More information can be found at the Bangor Festival of the Book site.

The Bangor Book Festival was supported this year by an Arts Visibility Grant from the Maine Arts Commission.

Maine Arts Commission Call for Essays

The Maine Arts Commission is seeking previously unpublished and insightful critical essays for inclusion in the annual edition of the Maine Arts Magazine to be printed in August of 2011. The deadline for submissions is 4:00 pm E.S.T, June 27, 2011. An award of $500 will be made to the author whose work is chosen for inclusion in the magazine.

The magazine contains highlights of major arts events and initiatives taking place in Maine, as well as updates from successful grant applicants, agency news and guidance for professional development. Submissions are sought to help provide broader in-depth content and to further the agency’s goal of supporting critical writing that pertains to the arts.

Writers, who are full time Maine residents, are encouraged to submit work providing critical insight into themes of art and culture in Maine. Potential subjects could be, but not limited to, pieces that investigate new ways of working in the arts in Maine; or provide insight into Maine’s emerging artists; or offer an exploration of sense of place as related to Maine’s history of art.

To be considered for inclusion in the magazine applicants must:

• have a valid Maine address and have resided full-time in Maine for a minimum of two years at the date of application, and
• be 18 years of age or older at the time of the application, and
• not be enrolled as a full-time student in a field related to the application, and
• have completed and filed all final reports required for previous Maine Arts Commission grants.

All submissions must be sent via e-mail and should include the following information:

1. A 400 - 700 word previously unpublished essay in 12-point, black font and double-spaced.

2. An updated resume including full contact details

3. A Vendor Form (Click here to download)For first time applicants only. This is information used by the treasury to generate a check for the chosen author. Applicants should be sure to indicate the address the check should be sent to. Click here for instructions on completing your vendor form.

Work must be submitted via e-mail by 4:00 pm E.S.T, on June 27, 2011 for consideration. E-mail your submissions to Darrell Bulmer at the Maine Arts Commission, darrell.bulmer@maine.gov. Please use the words “Magazine Essay” as the subject line of your e-mail. Please attach all documents to the e-mail. Please send document files in PDF, .DOC or RTF formats only.

The successful work will be printed in the Maine Arts Magazine and housed online in a digital format. First North American Serial Rights, rights revert to author upon publication.

Wesley McNair Speaks at Blaine House

On April 19, Wesley McNair and many lovers of the written word gathered for a celebration of poetry at the Blaine House. As McNair was formally introduced as Maine's Poet Laureate by the First Lady, he delivered a speech.

Thanks to the mutually beneficial partnership between the Maine Arts Commission and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, you can view this speech below.

Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair: Blaine House Remarks on Vimeo.

You can read more about the position of the Poet Laureate and some of the initiatives begun by Wesley McNair on MaineArts.com.

Maine Festival of the Book!

The Maine Festival of the Book will begin on April 1 in Portland and continue to April 3, offering more than 75 authors, artists, and performers at locations throughout the city. The event is free (with the exception of Opening Night) and there is programming for ages 3 to 100!

Presenters include Paul Harding, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Sarah Braunstein, a winner of the 2010 National Book Award 5 under 35, Julia Glass, winner of the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction, bestselling novelist Stewart O'Nan, Lily King, winner of the 2010 New England Book Award for Fiction, Tom Allen, President and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, Margaret Roach, AWaytoGarden blogger and former editorial director for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and many others.

Opening Night, Friday, April 1 at 7:30 pm at Hannaford Hall, Abromson Center, University of Southern Maine, will be an evening with Stewart O'Nan and Julia Glass. Tickets are $5 in advance and $10 after March 28. Seats are limited and unreserved. Doors open at 7 pm.

For more information go to: http://www.mainereads.org/MaineFestivaloftheBook.asp

Maine's Poetry Out Loud Champion Interviewed in Washington

Staff members of the Maine Arts Commission are preparing for the sixth year of Poetry Out Loud in Maine. This national poetry recitation contest is presented through a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

More schools have signed up for this year's contest than for any previous year, and as final preparations are being made, it is nice to share a success story from our state champion from the previous two years.

William Whitham, from Bangor High School, was recently asked to recite poetry in Washington, DC., as part of the National Book Festival. William was interviewed during this event. You can access this interview below.



There are still some places left for those interested in this year's contest. For more information on the program please visit http://poetryoutloud.org/ Maine teachers wishing to sign their school up for the competition should e-mail John Holdridge at the Maine Arts Commission at john.holdridge@maine.gov. Please put “POL” in the subject heading of your e-mail.

Maine Arts Commission Fellowship Deadlines Approach

Last year's fellowship recipients

The deadlines for the Maine Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship programs are staggered throughout the coming weeks.

There are four fellowships in total that offer $13,000 each and share the same criterion of artistic excellence.

The deadlines are as follows: Literary Arts Fellowship, May 14, Visual Arts Fellowship, May 27, Performing Arts Fellowship June 4, and the Traditional Arts Fellowship, June 18.

Full details of these grants can be found within the grant section of MaineArts.com.

If you are looking for something to do this weekend, look no further than the Festival of the Book in Portland.

The fourth annual Maine Festival of the Book will take place in Portland April 9-11, with a full day of free programs Saturday, April 10 at the University of Southern Maine’s Abromson Center. Programs are unticketed, with the exception of Opening Night: An Evening with Tess Gerritsen and Anita Shreve on Friday evening, April 9 at USM.

The festival is designed to appeal to readers with a range of interests and gives the public the chance to learn what goes on behind the scenes when producing a book. The festival is presented by the nonprofit Maine Reads, in collaboration with organizations statewide and is chaired by First Lady Karen M. Baldacci.

The festival’s goal is to encourage a dialogue between authors and readers through programs. Many of the programs will feature two authors engaged in a discussion that captures an aspect of their writing; these subjects may include memoir, biography, gardening, architecture and fiction writing. Question and answer periods, as well as book signings, follow.

Free, unticketed programming for all ages and interests starts Saturday, April 10 at 9 am and runs through the weekend. Concurrent programs will run from 9 am to 5 pm at the Abromson Center at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

Visit the Maine Reads website for all the details of this weekend's event.

Meet Lee Sharkey, the 2010 Literary Arts Fellow

Lee Sharkey, the 2010 Literary Arts Fellow, has shares a common background with this year's Traditional Arts Fellow.

It was in 1974 when Lee Sharkey bought a hundred-year-old Pearl platen press, taught herself to set type, and produced over the course of a Maine winter her first poetry chapbook. Under the imprint South Solon Press, she printed two more chapbooks of her own poetry and portfolios of other poets’ work. Since then, she has continued to work as a writer and editor. Her publications include three full-length volumes: A Darker, Sweeter String (Off the Grid Press, 2008); To A Vanished World (Puckerbrush Press, 1995), a poem sequence in response to Roman Vishniac’s photographs of Eastern European Jewry in the years just preceding the Nazi Holocaust; and farmwife (Puckerbrush Press, 1977).



In 2006, Lee received the Maryanne Hartman Award for her contributions to the arts and civic life in Maine. In 1997 she received the Rainmaker Award in Poetry, judged by Carolyn Forché. Since 2003 she has co-edited the Beloit Poetry Journal.

Maine Poet Laureate Betsy Sholl writes of A Darker, Sweeter String that "If our dreams could edit the news (and sometimes our nightmares) these poems are how they'd wake us up to the urgency of our times."

Maine Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship Awards

In November of 2008, the Maine Arts Commission presented a show celebrating 20 years of the agency’s fellowship awards.
Fellowship awardees Alison Chase, Don Roy, Penelope Schwartz Robinson and Randy Regier were the star attractions on stage.
Also appearing on stage before a full house in Bangor were traditional arts masters and apprentices. To read more about these artists or the Maine Arts Commission, visit www.MaineArts.com.