While Maine often is depicted by writers and artists in broad brushstrokes, there is more than meets the eye to the rural corners of our state. This panel brings together three Maine writers working in fiction, poetry, and memoir: Michelle Lewis, Audrey Gidman, and Cynthia Thayer. These writers will explore how living in Down East and inland Maine, as well as other remote communities, shapes the stories we tell. 

Free event

Moderator Michelle Lewis the author of Spare, which was the recipient of the Barrow Street Prose Prize chosen by Mary Cappello, and Animul/Flame, which won the 2018 Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize chosen by Bob Hicok. Her recent work has appeared in Bennington Review, Copper Nickel, Massachusetts Review, and Denver Quarterly among others. She lives in West Bath.

Audrey Gidman is a queer poet living in Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, body psalms (Slate Roof Press, 2023), winner of the Elyse Wolf Prize, and griefnotes, forthcoming from Porkbelly Press. Her poems can be found in Rust + Moth, Birdcoat Quarterly, The Night Heron Barks, Luna Luna, SWWIM Every Day, The Shore, Bear Review, and elsewhere. She serves as guest editor for Frontier Poetry and chapbook editor for Newfound

Cynthia Thayer was born in New York City and raised in Nova Scotia. She earned her BA and MA in British Literature from Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts. Since she moved to Maine in 1976, she has organically farmed, taught, spun and dyed wool, woven, and written novels, short stories, and essays. She teaches for Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and at other various venues. She founded Schoodic Arts for All in 1998. Two of her novels were published by St. Martin’s Press and one by Algonquin Books. Her memoir, We’re Going Home, was published by Islandport Press in 2023 and was a finalist for the Maine Literary Award. She lives with her farming partners on Darthia Farm in Gouldsboro.