Menu

Author Talks in Kennebunkport

JOURNALIST SHANNON MULLEN AND GUEST GOVERNOR JANET MILLS – NOVEMBER 5 – 2:00 PM

We hope you will join us on Sunday, November 5 at  2:00 p.m. for a very special event.  Journalist Shannon Mullen will be here (with a special appearance by Governor Janet Mills) to talk about her book  In Other Words, Leadership:  How a Young Mother’s Weekly Letters to Her Governor Helped Both Women Brave the First Pandemic Year.

 

This trip to the “Vacationland” of Maine — where the state motto is I Lead — offers an inspiring tale of civility and purpose, of doing the right thing and not just surviving, but prevailing.

The first woman to serve as Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, had been in office a year when COVID-19 reached the United States. The recently-widowed 72-year-old wrote in her journal there is “no playbook for a pandemic” as she imposed unprecedented restrictions on her state.

When early support for the governor’s response curdled to rampant opposition, a young mother named Ashirah Knapp sent a letter of support from a remote homestead in the woods of Maine. Ashirah’s handwritten dispatch detailed how the public health emergency was upending her family’s life and livelihood, and she promised to keep writing “every week until we are through this time” to remind the governor how many Mainers supported her despite the disruption.

Ashirah’s letters, with their simple wisdom and striking penmanship, stood out in a flood of correspondence Governor Mills was receiving that ranged in tone from appreciative to furious. They helped keep her grounded as she made wrenching, often unpopular choices.

Shannon A. Mullen weaves from these two women’s letters and the governor’s journal, which were never intended for publication, an intimate and compelling true story that is a celebration of civility and compassion in the face of rancor and of resolve in the face of adversity.

Copies of the book will be for sale.  Light refreshments will be served.  Doors open at 1:30.    Parking available at the Village Fire Station (North Street) and Consolidated School (Route 9).  Please call (207) 967-2778 for more information.

Governor Janet Mills:

Janet Trafton Mills is the 75th Governor of Maine and the first woman elected to that office. She was sworn in for her second consecutive term in January 2023 after winning re-election, having earned more votes than any previous Maine governor. She was also the first governor since 1970 to be elected with a majority of the vote, in her case for both terms. Under her leadership during the global COVID-19 pandemic Maine had one of the highest vaccination rates and lowest death rates in the US, as well as one of the strongest economic recoveries among the states. Governor Mills previously served as Maine’s first female Attorney General and its first woman district attorney, as well as in the state’s House of Representatives. She is step-mother to her late husband’s five daughters and a grandmother of five.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Shannon Mullen:

Shannon A. Mullen is a journalist, author, screenwriter and film producer, playwright and podcast host. She grew up in the White Mountains and Lakes Region of New Hampshire and studied pre-veterinary medicine at UNH after misinterpreting her love of storytelling, inspired by James Herriot’s books, as an inclination toward animal husbandry. She then earned a graduate degree in broadcast journalism at Boston University. Shannon went on to report for national programs on public radio for two decades, including Marketplace, Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Her print journalism has been published by The New Yorker, The Boston Globe and Boston Magazine, among other outlets. She is also developing multiple projects for the screen and stage through her production company Broad Reach.

RICHARD RUSSO AND ANDRE DUBUS III @ VINEGAR HILL – OCTOBER 19 – 5:30 PM

RICHARD RUSSO AND ANDRE DUBUS, III:  IN CONVERSATION

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2023

Vinegar Hill Music Theater, 53 Old Post Road, Arundel Maine

General admission ticket is $50.00  

PURCHASE TICKETS NOW

 

 

 

A (cash bar) cocktail hour and book sales will start at 5:30 pm followed by an intimate conversation with award-winning authors—and dear friends—Richard Russo and Andre Dubus, III at 6:30 pm. 

Come autumn, Dubus and Russo will have just released brand new novels. Dubus’ Such Kindness, the story of a working-class white man’s terrible fall, has been called “A powerful portrait of recovered dignity” by People magazine. In Somebody’s Fool, Russo returns to North Bath, in upstate New York, and to the characters that captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of readers in his beloved bestsellers Nobody’s Fool and Everybody’s Fool.

As always, both novels brim with the two authors’ trademark heartrending observations and—especially in Russo’s case—wry humor. These are two masters in peak form.

Russo and Dubus have read to rapt audiences at Graves Library over the years, but this very special evening marks the first time the longtime friends will be appearing together in Kennebunkport.

Moderating the conversation will be former Graves Library board member Joshua Bodwell, editorial director of Godine and Black Sparrow Press.

This event is being sponsored by our friends at Vinegar Hill Music Theater.

Print : A Bookstore will be selling a variety of the authors’ works during the first hour of the event.  Both Russo and Dubus, III will stay after their talk to personalize any purchases.

 

Richard Russo is the author of ten acclaimed novels, including Everybody’s Fool and That Old Cape Magic; 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. His novel, Somebody’s Fool, was released in July 2023.

Andre Dubus III’s books include the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie. His recent novel, Gone So Long, was named to many “Best Books” lists, including The Boston Globe’s “Twenty Best Books of 2018.” In April 2023, Dubus served as editor of Reaching Inside: 50 Acclaimed Authors on 100 Unforgettable Short Stories. His novel, Such Kindness, was released in June 2023. A collection of personal essays, Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin, is due in winter 2024.

 

Vinegar Hill Music Theatre is located at: 53 Old Post Road, Arundel, Maine 04046, Tel: 207-985-5552.  The proceeds of all tickets sold benefit the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library.

PURCHASE TICKETS

1 2