Maine Women Write

12/07/2018

Look at this:

Novels, stories, mystery series and memoirs by female authors paint a variegated portrait of the Pine Tree State.

06/08/2017

Writing retreat for women (in Maine). Not cheap but they do offer scholarships.

The Salty Quill Writers Retreat for Women, to be held September 30 - October 7th, 2017, on McGee's island, Maine, offers writers the opportunity for uninterrupted writing, sharing and critique, and meals and accommodations.

06/01/2017

Congratulations to Mary Plouffe, finalist in International Book Awards, 2017.

Celebrating the 9th Annual International Book Awards, sponsored by American Book Fest!

06/01/2017

This week, the women behind Brooklyn rare bookstore Honey & Wax announced a new annual prize aimed at bolstering the careers of the next generation of female book collectors working in a field …

05/25/2017

Congratulations to Joan Dempsey (and Brian Evans-Jones!) for winning fantastic award from Poets and Writers. Go Maine.

Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of

05/17/2017

2017 MWPA Award FINALISTS 2017

Lots of Maine women writers....

Book Award for Fiction
They Could Live With Themselves Jodi Paloni
Unknown Caller Debra Spark
Vexation Lullaby Justin Tussing

Book Award for Crime Fiction
Straw Man Gerry Boyle
Solo Act Richard J. Cass
Led Astray Kate Flora

Book Award for Speculative Fiction *While finalists will not be announced in advance, a winner of the Speculative Fiction Award will be announced live.

Book Award for Nonfiction
The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City Margaret Creighton
Modified Caitlin Shetterly
American Character Colin Woodard

Book Award for Memoir
Poor Your Soul Mira Ptacin
A Good Man with a Dog Roger Guay with Kate Clark Flora
In the Darkroom Susan Faludi

Book Award for Poetry
Booker’s Point Megan Grumbling
Television Claire Millikin
Walking Backwards Lee Sharkey

Book Award for Young People’s Literature
Island of Beyond Elizabeth Atkinson
Wired Man and Other Freaks of Nature Sashi Kaufman
Wrecked Maria Padian

Book Award for Children’s
Baby Bear’s Not Hibernating Lynn Plourde (Illustrated by Teri Weidner)
Goodnight, Bob Ann Hassett (Illustrated by John Hassett)
Halfway Wild Laura Freudig (Illustrated by Kevin Barry)

Book Award for Anthology (Editors)
Take Heart: More Poems from Maine Wesley McNair
Kaleidoscope OLLI’s Shiny Day Poets
Heliotrope: French Heritage Women Create Rhea Cote Robbins

John N. Cole Award for Maine-themed Nonfiction
Caught Glen Libby (Photographs by Antonia Small)
Acadia National Park: A Centennial Celebration Various Contributors (Photographs by Tom Blagden Jr.)
Maine on Glass W.H. Bunting

Excellence in Publishing
Stop Here: This is the Place Susan Conley & Winky Lewis (Down East Books)
The Life in Your Garden Reeser Manley & Marjorie Peronto (Tilbury House Publishers)

Drama Award (for film, theater, and other scripts) Jefferson Navicky, Karmo Sanders, Ned White

Short Works Competition, Fiction Stephanie Doyon, Brandon Dudley, Claire Guyton

Short Works Competition, Nonfiction Anna Jakimides, Margaret Newlin Rice, Angela Waldron

Short Works Competition, Poetry Anna Jakimides, Rosa Lane

Youth Competition, Fiction *While finalists will not be announced in advance, a winner of the Youth Competition, Fiction will be announced live.

Youth Competition, Nonfiction Mohammed Albehadli, Pacifique Bizimungu, Delaney Wimert

Youth Competition, Poetry Mary McColley, PDG Muhamiriza, Charles Van West

04/30/2017

This is so very exciting. Congratulations Lee Sharkey.

‘I fell hard and fast for this poem,’ says judge Deborah Landau of Lee Sharkey’s Letter to Al, which deals with the effect of dementia on her marriage

01/24/2017

Adventurous? Well venture over to the Yarmouth Library by 6:30 and hear Kerry Michaels talk about books and photography.

01/23/2017

Fabulous bookstore. So glad Gary got the shout out from the Press Herald.

The owner of Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick has spent his life teaching people to speak for themselves.

10/03/2016

Great event Tomorrow, Tuesday eve: LONGFELLOW’S SHORTS.

Unknown Caller by Debra Spark
Tuesday October 4th
6:30pm Light Reception
7:00pm Reading by Affiliate Artists

Beginning with an aggravating phone call, a strange request, and the sudden disappearance of a mother and her daughter, Unknown Caller moves backwards in time and across several continents to tell a funny, moving, and genuinely surprising story about families, misunderstandings, secrets, falls from grace, and chances for redemption.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Debra SparkDebra Spark is the author of five books of fiction, including Unknown Caller, The Pretty Girl, and Good for the Jews. Other books include Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing, the anthology Twenty Under Thirty, and the recently reissued novel, Coconuts for the Saint.

Her short work has appeared in multiple publications and is a senior writer for Maine Home+Design, for which she writes a monthly feature on homes in Maine. She has been the recipient of several awards including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Bunting Institute fellowship from Radcliffe College, Wisconsin Institute Fellowship, Pushcart Prize, Michigan Literary Fiction Award, and John Zacharis/Ploughshares award for best first book. A graduate of Yale University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she is a professor at Colby College and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She lives with her husband and son in North Yarmouth, Maine.

09/19/2016

Thank you Gibson for your column and for selecting this beautiful poem.

Maine poems, selected by Gibson Fay-LeBlanc.

08/31/2016

Very happy to announce: Readings by Debra Spark from her new novel: Unknown Caller. (See Oct. 4: Portland Stage reading with Author Q&A)

September 6, 2016
Bangor Public Library, author talk, 6:00 PM
145 Harlow Street
Bangor, ME
FMI: Contact Lisa Frazell at 207-947-8336 x 130

September 8, 2016
Longfellow Books, author talk, 7:00 PM
1 Monument Way
Portland, ME
FMI: Contact Ari Gersen at 207-772-4045

October 4, 2016
Portland Stage “Longfellow Shorts,” 6:30 reception with beer, wine, pizza from Flatbread'sl; 7:00 performance
Staged reading of selections of Unknown Caller with performances by Portland Stage’s
Affiliate Artists and brief Q and A with the author
Portland, ME

October 26, 2016
Freeport Community Library, author talk, 6:30 PM
10 Library Drive
Community Reading Room
Freeport, ME
FMI: Contact Belinda Stewart at 207-865-3307

November 1, 2016
Belfast Free Library, author talk, 6:30 PM
106 High Street
Abbott Room,
Belfast, ME
FMI: Contact Brenda Harrington at 207-338-3884

November 10, 2016
Prince Memorial Library, author talk, 6:30 PM
266 Main Street
Cumberland, ME
FMI: Contact Andrea Peabbles at 207-829-2215

November 18, 2016
University of Maine-Mathias, fiction reading, 4:00-5:00 PM
116 O’Brien Avenue
FMI: Contact Tessa Mellas at [email protected]

November 30, 2016
Portland Public Library, author talk, 12:00 AM
Brown Bag Lunch
5 Monument Square, Rines Auditorium
Portland, ME
FMI: Contact Rachael Harkness at 207-871-1700

April 18, 2017
Colby College, fiction reading, 7 PM
Robinson Room, Miller Library
4000 Mayflower Hill Drive
Waterville, ME
FMI: Contact Debra Spark at [email protected]

April 22, 2017
Kennebunk Public Library, author talk, 2:00 PM
112 Main Street
Kennebunk, ME
FMI: Contact Michelle Conners at (207) 985-2173