STORY TIME – VIA FACEBOOK AND YOUTUBE

Until we can safely open the Library to in-person programming, we will continue to offer story time every Friday at 10:00 am on Facebook and Youtube. You can always view on local access channel 1301 too. Join Miss Lyn or Miss Terri for stories and a craft. A corresponding craft kit to go will be ready on the Porch each Monday before. Stop by to pick yours up…or give us a call to have one set aside. Feel free to post your photos of crafts made on our Facebook Page!

WRITE NOW – RIGHT NOW (HYBRID)

Enjoy putting pen to paper with your thoughts and stories? Join us for a new and different kind of writing group. Creative writing prompts will be given at the end of each meeting. When we meet, we will discuss our findings, share our writing, and get to know our own unique inner talents! Give us a call at 967-2778 or send an email to mlbgraves@gmail.com to get on board.

SESSIONS WILL RUN EVERY OTHER WEEK ON TUESDAYS @ 4:00 PM (VIA ZOOM and/or IN PERSON – COMMUNITY ROOM)

Each of us has a story to tell. Perhaps some of you have engaged in journal writing as a way of capturing the fleeting images and memories resulting from the past several months of isolation and social distancing. We would like to invite you to transform those images and memories into stories or essays, for some of you, maybe even poetry. While writing workshops work best in person where members collaborate and offer personal, constructive critique, we offer an online approach that we believe will work well with interested participants. Every two weeks, after the initial introduction, we will provide a prompt in the form of a question or directive. For example, we might begin with this prompt: “I don’t know why I remember but . . .” Memories are a great way to tap into the creative process and this type of writing often leads to more imaginative writing. When we zoom together after two weeks, you can choose to share (or not) and hopefully each participant will respond to the reading in a constructive, non judgmental way. During our initial meeting we will be open to suggestions regarding the time interval, the format and possible prompts. As we approach fall and particularly winter this writing workshop will provide a wide window into the possibilities of written expression. What we decide to do with these exercises will be up to you!

WRITE NOW – RIGHT NOW

Looking for something to do this fall? Enjoy putting pen to paper with your thoughts and stories? Join us for a new and different kind of writing group. Everything is virtual, everything is safe. Members of the group will meet using basic Zoom.com platform. If you would like to join (EVERYONE is welcome!), please let us know and we will send an EMAIL invitation to YOU to join the meeting 24 hours prior.

Creative writing prompts will be given at the end of each meeting. When we meet, we will discuss our findings, share our writing, and get to know our own unique inner talents! Give us a call at 967-2778 or send an email to ml@graves.lib.me.us to get on board.

SESSIONS WILL RUN EVERY OTHER WEEK ON TUESDAYS @ 4:00 PM (VIA ZOOM)

Each of us has a story to tell. Perhaps some of you have engaged in journal writing as a way of capturing the fleeting images and memories resulting from the past several months of isolation and social distancing. We would like to invite you to transform those images and memories into stories or essays, for some of you, maybe even poetry. While writing workshops work best in person where members collaborate and offer personal, constructive critique, we offer an online approach that we believe will work well with interested participants. Every two weeks, after the initial introduction, we will provide a prompt in the form of a question or directive. For example, we might begin with this prompt: “I don’t know why I remember but . . .” Memories are a great way to tap into the creative process and this type of writing often leads to more imaginative writing. When we zoom together after two weeks, you can choose to share (or not) and hopefully each participant will respond to the reading in a constructive, non judgmental way. During our initial meeting we will be open to suggestions regarding the time interval, the format and possible prompts. As we approach fall and particularly winter this writing workshop will provide a wide window into the possibilities of written expression. What we decide to do with these exercises will be up to you!

WRITE NOW – RIGHT NOW – OCTOBER 6 @ 10:00 AM

Looking for something to do this fall? Enjoy putting pen to paper with your thoughts and stories? Join us for a new and different kind of writing group. Everything is virtual, everything is safe. Members of the group will meet using basic Zoom.com platform. If you would like to join (EVERYONE is welcome!), please let us know and we will send an EMAIL invitation to YOU to join the meeting 24 hours prior.

Creative writing prompts will be given at the end of each meeting. When we meet, we will discuss our findings, share our writing, and get to know our own unique inner talents! Give us a call at 967-2778 or send an email to ml@graves.lib.me.us to get on board.

THE INTRODUCTORY SESSION WILL MEET ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6 AT 10:00 AM (VIA ZOOM)

Each of us has a story to tell. Perhaps some of you have engaged in journal writing as a way of capturing the fleeting images and memories resulting from the past several months of isolation and social distancing. We would like to invite you to transform those images and memories into stories or essays, for some of you, maybe even poetry. While writing workshops work best in person where members collaborate and offer personal, constructive critique, we offer an online approach that we believe will work well with interested participants. Every two weeks, after the initial introduction, we will provide a prompt in the form of a question or directive. For example, we might begin with this prompt: “I don’t know why I remember but . . .” Memories are a great way to tap into the creative process and this type of writing often leads to more imaginative writing. When we zoom together after two weeks, you can choose to share (or not) and hopefully each participant will respond to the reading in a constructive, non judgmental way. During our initial meeting we will be open to suggestions regarding the time interval, the format and possible prompts. As we approach fall and particularly winter this writing workshop will provide a wide window into the possibilities of written expression. What we decide to do with these exercises will be up to you!

AN EVENING WITH NY TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR – LISA WINGATE & SPECIAL GUEST

The Trustees of the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library are pleased to announce their annual Author Event to be held virtually on Thursday, September 16, 2021. This year’s fundraising event will feature award-winning author, Lisa Wingate.

Lisa Wingate is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Before We Were Yours, which remained on the bestseller list for fifty-four weeks in hardcover and has sold over 2 million copies. She has penned over thirty novels and coauthored a nonfiction book, Before and After with Judy Christie. Her award-winning works have been selected for state and community One Book reads throughout the country, have been published in over forty languages, and have appeared on bestseller lists worldwide. The group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa and six others as recipients of the National Civics Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. Booklist summed up her work by saying, “Lisa Wingate is, quite simply, a master storyteller.”

Her work has garnered or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, and the RT Booklovers Reviewer’s Choice Award. Her blockbuster hit, Before We Were Yours remained on the New York Times Bestseller List for over a year, was Publishers Weekly’s #3 longest running bestseller of 2017, and was voted by readers as the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award winner for historical fiction. Before We Were Yours has been a book club favorite worldwide and to date has sold over two million copies. Before and After was a finalist for the 2019 Goodreads Choice Award for Non-Fiction History and Biography.

Lisa was inspired to become a writer by a first-grade teacher who said she expected to see Lisa’s name in a magazine one day. Lisa also entertained childhood dreams of being an Olympic gymnast and winning the National Finals Rodeo but was stalled by a mental block against backflips on the balance beam and by parents who stubbornly refused to finance a rodeo career. She was lucky enough to marry into a big family of Southern tall tale enthusiasts who never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Lisa writes her novels at home in Texas where she is part of the Wingate clan of storytellers. Of all the things she treasures about being a writer, she enjoys connecting with people, both real and imaginary, the most.

Tickets for this virtual event are available at the Graves Library or go to the “DONATE” Button located on the HomePage of this website and specify in the event in the notes section. ($25 pp. — cnce payment is received, a link to a working email will be sent for the webinar.)

All proceeds benefit the annual operations of the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library. We truly appreciate your support.

PASCO LECTURE SERIES – GEORGE LONGSTRETH, MD – POSTPONED

We are thrilled to invite Maine Author George Longstreth to Graves Library for a Pasco Lecture on Sunday, May 17 at 2:00 pm. Dr. Longstreth will be here to talk about his latest work You Call Me Angelo : The Godfather ‘s Been Shot in the John Pullman MD series (published 11/2019)

Here’s a bit:

The Godfather’s been shot, and surgeon John Pullman is on call. John’s troubles begin as the Mafia threatens him, his family, his associates and friends. Enter Steve, the nurse with strange ideas, who kills patients testing his cancer theories, and Al Townes, Head Trauma Nurse, who can kill quickly with his hands, but doesn’t. Will the Godfather’s personality ever be the same again? How many will Sal, the sub-boss of the Mafia Family kill before the Godfather returns to his right mind? Can John and Al survive Sal’s wrath? All these threatening problems come together as the surprise ending will leave the reader with a troubled smile. (Amazon.com)

Born and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, George B. Longstreth, MD earned his medical doctorate from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1965. Spending six years in New York City, first in Spanish Harlem, then in Hell’s Kitchen, he lived among many of the characters and events that he now uses in his novels. After a surgical stint in the US Navy, followed by ten years in rural northwest Connecticut, George and his wife Betsy enjoyed an active surgical practice in Fairfield during the 1980s and ’90s. This included on-call rotations to the Emergency Room at near-by Bridgeport Hospital, where an unhealthy sampling of the drug-world underbelly came for urgent care. Betsy and George now live in active retirement in Kennebunkport, Maine, where they are kept busy by family (including 19 grandchildren), friends, unusual characters and happenings, and a dog named Jane.

The Pasco Lecture Series is sponsored by the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Kennebunk Savings Bank, and the Graves Library Snack Team. Sales and signing of You Call Me Angelo will follow the talk. Please give us a call at 967-2778 with questions about this event or to find out what else is going on at Graves Library. Doors open at 1:30 pm

PASCO LECTURE SERIES – BRUCE COFFIN -POSTPONED

Hopefully, we will be able to reschedule this program very soon. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

We are thrilled to invite Maine Author Bruce Coffin to Graves Library for a Pasco Lecture on Sunday, April 26 at 2:00 pm. Bruce will be here to talk about his latest work Within Plain Sight, (published 2/4/2020) the latest gripping installment of the award-winning, #1 bestselling Detective Byron mystery series.

Here’s a bit:

Amid the dog days of summer, Detective Sergeant John Byron is called to the scene of a horrific crime: a young woman’s body dismembered and left in an abandoned Portland lumber yard. The killing shares striking similarities with a spate of murders committed in Boston by a serial killer known only as the Horseman.

As Byron’s team investigates the case, they quickly push up against powerful forces in town. But Byron will stop at nothing to find the truth, not when there is a killer on the loose and everyone is a suspect. Has the Horseman expanded his killing field? Is this the work of in ingenious copycat-or is nothing as it seems? One thing is certain, Byron must uncover the truth before the killer strikes again.

Mr. Coffin is a member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. He is a regular contributor to Murder Books blogs. He lives and writes in Maine.

The Pasco Lecture Series is sponsored by the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Kennebunk Savings Bank, and the Graves Library Snack Team. Sales and signing of Within Plain Sight will follow the talk. Please give us a call at 967-2778 with questions about this event or to find out what else is going on at Graves Library. Doors open at 1:30 pm

PASCO LECTURE SERIES – JAED COFFIN

We are thrilled to invite Maine Author Jaed Coffin to Graves Library for a Pasco Lecture on Sunday, March 8 at 2:00 pm. Mr. Coffin will be here to talk about his latest work, Roughhouse Friday, a meditation on violence and abandonment, masculinity, and our inescapable longing for love.

While lifting weights in the Seldon Jackson College gymnasium on a rainy autumn night, Jaed Coffin heard the distinctive whacking sound of sparring boxers down the hall. A year out of college, he had been biding his time as a tutor at a local high school in Sitka, Alaska, without any particular life plan. That evening, Coffin joined a ragtag boxing club. For the first time, he felt like he fit in.

Coffin washed up in Alaska after a forty-day solo kayaking journey. Born to an American father and a Thai mother who had met during the Vietnam War, Coffin never felt particularly comfortable growing up in his rural Vermont town. Following his parents’ prickly divorce and a childhood spent drifting between his father’s new white family and his mother’s Thai roots, Coffin didn’t know who he was, much less what path his life should follow. His father’s notions about what it meant to be a man—formed by King Arthur legends and calcified in the military—did nothing to help. After college, he took to the road, working odd jobs and sleeping in his car before heading north.

Despite feeling initially terrified, Coffin learns to fight. His coach, Victor “the Savage,” invites him to participate in the monthly Roughhouse Friday competition, where men contend for the title of best boxer in southeast Alaska. With every successive match, Coffin realizes that he isn’t just fighting for the championship belt; he is also learning to confront the anger he feels about a past he never knew how to make sense of. (MacMillan Publishers)

Jaed Coffin is also the author of A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants. A regular contributor to Down East Magazine, his essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times, Nautilus, Jezebel, The Sun, and many other publications. He’s been a featured speaker at TEDx and Moth Radio Hour, as well as a guest at over twenty colleges and universities. Jaed teaches creative writing at the University of New Hampshire and lives in Maine with his wife and two daughters.

The Pasco Lecture Series is sponsored by the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Kennebunk Savings Bank, and the Graves Library Snack Team. Sales and signing of Roughhouse Friday will follow the talk. Please give us a call at 967-2778 with questions about this event or to find out what else is going on at Graves Library. Doors open at 1:30 pm

PASCO LECTURE SERIES – WESLEY MCNAIR – POSTPONED

THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO A LATER DATE. WE WILL HOPEFULLY BE ABLE TO RESUME ALL PROGRAMS SOON!

We are thrilled to invite Maine Author/Poet Wesley McNair back to Graves Library for a Pasco Lecture on Sunday, April 19 at 2:00 pm. It’s been over a decade since he was last here!

Wesley McNair has been called by poet Philip Levine “one of the great storytellers of contemporary poetry.” He is the author of ten volumes of poems and twenty books, including poetry, nonfiction, and edited anthologies. McNair has held grants from the Fulbright and Guggenheim foundations, two Rockefeller grants for study at the Bellagio Center in Italy, two NEA fellowships, and a United States Artist Fellowship as one of America’s “finest living artists.” He has twice been invited to read his poetry by the Library of Congress, and has served five times on the Pulitzer jury for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Other honors include the Robert Frost Award, the Theodore Roethke Prize, an Emmy Award, and the Sarah Josepha Hale Medal, for his “distinguished contribution to the world of letters.” His poetry has been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition and 23 times on Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. It has also appeared in the Best American Poetry and over sixty anthologies and textbooks. In 2015 he was named as the recipient of the 2015 PEN New England Award for Literary Excellence in Poetry. His new book is The Unfastening.

The Pasco Lecture Series is sponsored by the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Kennebunk Savings Bank, and the Graves Library Snack Team. Sales and signing of The Unfastening will follow the talk. Please give us a call at 967-2778 with questions about this event or to find out what else is going on at Graves Library. Doors open at 1:30 pm

Graves Library Kennebunkport