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Maine authors

AUTHOR VISIT WITH LOCAL FAVORITE – ALBERT WAITT

Local Author Albert Waitt on Thursday, May 23, 6 PM

We hope you join us for a very special visit with our friend and local author, Albert Waitt, right here at Graves Library. Mr. Waitt will be reading from his new book – “Flood Tide” an LT Nichols mystery. Copies of the book will be for sale. Supporting our local authors is very important to us. We hope to see you here! 

 

 

The Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library is at 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport. For further information, please call 967-2778 or visit our website at www.graveslibrary.org.

 

 

MAINE AUTHORS FOR LEWISTON – A BOOK SIGNING – NOVEMBER 28 @ 2:30 PM

Maine Authors for Lewiston – Book Signing

November 28 – 2:30 to 5:00 PM

Maine Authors for Lewiston, an informal group of more than 70 Maine authors, have banded together to support the victims of the recent tragedy in Lewiston. The group has organized a series of 10 book signings, all free and open to the public so that people can purchase books and meet the authors. There will be fiction writers, children’s book authors, non-fiction writers, and poets among the participants.

This is a wonderful opportunity for Maine book lovers to support local authors, and most importantly, to help our fellow Mainers as they begin to heal and recover.

All of the participating authors have agreed to donate all, or most, of their proceeds from these events to help the healing and recovery efforts in Lewiston. All are volunteering because they care.

The authors scheduled to appear at the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library are Bruce Robert Coffin, William Chanler, Irene Drago, Maya Williams, Jean Flahive, Jennifer Lunden, Mike Bove, Susanne Dunlap, Mike Culver, Jennifer Dupree, Brenda Pollock, Skip Simonds, Kate Kearns, Matt Cost, David Florig, Jason Trask, Norma Salway, Robert Spencer, Didi Cooper, Annaliese Jakimides, Barry Somes, Wayne Burton, Maryann Cocca-Leffler…and others!

The Graves Library is located at 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport. Parking is available at the Village Fire Station lot (North Street), Maine Street, and at the Library. We hope to see you here.

AUTHOR VISIT WITH LOCAL FAVORITE – ALBERT WAITT

We hope to see you on Wednesday, April 19 @ 6:00 pm for a very special visit with our friend and local author Albert Waitt right here at Graves Library.  Al will be reading from his new book – The Ruins of Woodman’s Village, a coastal mystery taut with suspense and an undertow of social consciousness.

Synopsis:  When twin sisters go missing at the height of tourist season, Police Chief Tim Nichols’ summer of patrolling beaches comes to an end.  A desperate search takes him from seaside bars and abandoned farms to million-dollar estates and cobbled-together shacks.  What happens next – come hear all about it.

Albert Waitt is a writer based in Kennebunkport.  His first novel, Summer to Fall, was published in 2013 by Barrel Fire Press.  His short fiction has appeared in The Literary Review, Third Coast, The Beloit Fiction Journal, Words and Images, and other publications.  Waitt is a graduate of Bates College and the Creative Writing Program at Boston University.  Experiences ranging from slinging drinks, teaching creative writing, playing guitar for the Syphlloids, and frying clams can be found bleeding through his work.

Copies of the book will be for sale.  Light refreshments will be served.  Please call the Library for more details  (967-2778).  Supporting our local authors is very important to us.  We hope to see you here!

 

AUTHOR TALK WITH HUMORIST AND ESSAYIST ANDY YOUNG – OCTOBER 6, 2022

Join us on Thursday, October 6th at 6:00 pm for Works in Progress: An Author Talk with Humorist and Essayist Andy Young. Andy Young’s recent book, Work(s) in Progress is comprised of a series of essays delivered with humor and wit, which cover a range of topics, from snow removal etiquette to high school sports to dreams, education, grudges, vengeance, and 24-letter alphabets. Andy is an English teacher at Kennebunk High School and has written essays that have been published in nearly a dozen different newspapers in New England. Call (207) 967-2778 for more information.

PASCO LECTURE SERIES – MAINE AUTHOR BRUCE ROBERT COFFIN

We are thrilled to welcome to Graves Library, Maine Author, Bruce Robert Coffin to talk about his new book  on Sunday, May 23 at 2:00 pm.   Mr. Coffin will be interviewed by local bookshop owner Kristen Kuehnle before an audience of none.  Signed copies of his latest book, Within Plain Sight, will be available for sale starting Monday May 10 here at the Library.  To order yours, please send us an email (ml@graves.lib.me.us) or call (967-2778).  This program will be available for viewing on Facebook (facebook.com/GravesLibrary), YouTube (youtube.com – Search Graves Memorial Public Library), and Kennebunkport local access television.

 

Bruce Robert Coffin is the award-winning author of the bestselling Detective Byron mystery series. A former detective sergeant with more than twenty-seven years in law enforcement, he supervised all homicide and violent crime investigations for Maine’s largest city. Following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, Bruce spent four years investigating counter-terrorism cases for the FBI, earning the Director’s Award, the highest award a non-agent can receive.

His novel, Beyond the Truth, winner of Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award for Best Procedural, was a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel and a finalist for the Maine Literary Award for Best Crime Fiction. His short fiction appears in several anthologies, including Best American Mystery Stories 2016.

Bruce 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.

Bruce is represented by Paula Munier at Talcott Notch Literary.  He lives and writes in Maine.

 

 

PASCO LECTURE SERIES – MAINE AUTHOR SUSAN CONLEY

We are thrilled to welcome back to Graves Library, Maine Author, Susan Conley to talk about her new book Landslide on Sunday, April 25 at 2:00 pm.   Ms. Conley will be interviewed by local bookshop owner Kristen Kuehnle before an audience of none.  Signed copies of the book will be available for sale starting Monday April 12 here at the Library.  To order yours, please send us an email (ml@graves.lib.me.us) or call (967-2778).  This program will be available for viewing on Facebook (facebook.com/GravesLibrary), YouTube (youtube.com – Search Graves Memorial Public Library), and Kennebunkport local access television.

Ms. Conley is the author of five critically-acclaimed books, including her newest, best-selling novel Landslide — A New York Times Editor’s Choice and a Best Book/Most Anticipated of Winter/February ’21 by Good Morning America, The New York Post, Medium, Bustle, Biblio Lifestyle and others. Her previous, best-selling novel, Elsey Come Home, was a Most Anticipated/Best Book at Oprah Magazine, Marie Claire, Pop Sugar, Huffington Post, Southern Living, Fodor’s, and an Editor’s Choice at Amazon. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, Lithub, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Harvard Review, and others. She’s been awarded multiple fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, as well as fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, The Maine Arts Commission, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. She’s won the Maine Book Award and the Maine Award for Publishing Excellence and has been a featured Tedx Speaker, where her talk the “Power of Story,” has been viewed widely. She’s taught at colleges and international art-residencies including Emerson College, Colby College, The University of Massachusetts, as the Jack Kerouac Visiting Fellow, The Haystack School, The Spannochia Foundation, La Napoule Foundation, and The Beijing Hutong. She’s on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA Program and is co-founder of the Telling Room, a creative writing lab for kids in Portland, Maine.

 

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

SACRED STONE, SACRED WATER – JULY 15 @ 6:30 PM

Please join us on Monday, July 15 at 6:30 pm for a presentation, reading, and book signing with local artist, Jennifer Comeau.  Ms. Comeau’s poems are included in this anthology, Sacred Stone, Sacred Water : Women Writers and Artists Encounter Ireland.  This incredible anthology is an elegant and intimate collection evoking Ireland’s wild beauty and deep soul through the work of fourteen American women writers and artists who journeyed to three renowned parts of Ireland.  Beautifully woven in image and word, this cornucopia is surely a jewel in the crown of Tir Ghra (an ancient Irish phrase which means (“love of land”) literature.