2008 Festival

2006 Festival

Camden Opera House
Camden, Maine
November 2, 3 and 4, 2007

Noted Authors Enrich and Enliven Festival Program

Committee of Advisors

  • Charlotte Albright
  • Bland Banwell
  • Victoria Bonebakker
  • Joseph Conforti
  • Nancy Harmon Jenkins
  • Tess Gerritsen
  • Cally Gurley
  • Wesley McNair
  • Jane Phillips
  • Richard Russo
  • Betsy Sholl

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The Maine Literary Festival is a scholarship project of the Midcoast Branch of the American Association of University Women. All proceeds from the Festival are used for the Midcoast AAUW's scholarship program for young women and girls who might otherwise not be able to attend college.

"Mayhem, Money and Mirth"

In 2007 our authors looked at the human condition through the lenses of mayhem, money and mirth. Whether pound-wise or penny-foolish, cultures clash and families feud, surviving only by recognizing, with a good laugh, that life is a comedy.
Also in 2007 the Maine Literary Festival expanded its highly acclaimed weekend festival to include a writers' workshop for both published and aspiring writers. (Read more...)

 

 

Governor Proclaims Maine Literary Weekend
click on image to enlarge


Kate Flora

Maine Native and recovering attorney Kate Flora is the author of ten books, the latest of which are Stalking Death, her seventh Thea Kozak mystery, and Playing God, a police procedural set in Portland. Researching Playing God led to her non-fiction collaboration, Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine, nominated for an Edgar award in 2007 and a finalist for the Maine Literary Awards.

She is a partner in Level Best Books, a cooperative publishing crime story anthologies by New England writers. The cooperative is working on a fifth anthology, Still Waters. Their other collections are: Undertow, Riptide, Windchill, and Seasmoke. The collaboration has provided publishing opportunities for more than a hundred stories and has introduced many new writers to mystery and short story readers.

Flora's profile of Elinor Lipman appeared in The Larcom Review; her profile of Maine's first Poet Laureate, Kate Barnes, appeared in The Wolf Moon Press and later in an anthology. Her short stories have appeared in four anthologies as well as in a  story collection by former Sisters in Crime presidents, Sisters on the Case. Another story will appear in Per Se, an anthology of fiction honoring her inspiring writing teacher, Arthur Edelstein. Short pieces have appeared in ForeWord Magazine and the Northeastern Law School alumni magazine. She is a former president of Sisters in Crime, and a former Maine Assistant Attorney General. She teaches writing for Grub Street in Boston. Flora is an MFA candidate in writing at Vermont College.

Flora is married and the mother of two sons, one in film, the other in physics. She divides her time between Maine and Massachusetts, where she battles to protect her perennial gardens from deer, woodchucks, chipmunks, and her husband's lawnmower.  


Festival Program

Mayhem, Money & Mirth
At the Camden Opera House unless otherwise indicated.

Friday, November 2: Festival Keynote and Kickoff

6 to 6:45PM - Registration
7PM - Introductory Remarks
7:15PM - Martha White - Introducing Geoffrey Wolff
7:30PM - Geoffrey Wolff: The E.B. and Katharine White Memorial Lecture
    •   Mirth at the Mill: Party immediately following at historic Knox Mill Grille

Saturday, November 3: A Day and Evening of Fact, Fiction & Fun

7:30 to 8:30AM - Continental Breakfast/Registration
8:30AM - Welcome and Introductions
8:40AM - Matthew Pearl: Mayhem, Money & Mirth: A Theme and a Concept
9:30AM - The Early American Experience
    •  Peter Silver: The Social Complexity and Tangled History of Colonial Relations
    •  Mary Malloy: Sailors, Whalers and Notorious Captains
    •  James Laxer: The Acadian Experience in Search of a Homeland
    •  Questions & Answers
11:15AM to 12:55PM - Signings/Lunch on Own
1PM - Scott Donaldson: Recovering Robinson, a Great American Poet
1:30PM - Adventures in Literary Biography: Scott Donaldson (moderator),
    Charles Calhoun and Brenda Wineapple
3 to 3:45PM - Break and Signings
3:45PM - Contemporary Fiction: New Voices: Charlotte Albright (moderator),
    Geoffrey Wolff, Dorie McCullough Lawson, Owen King, Christina Baker Kline
5:15PM - Signings/Dinner on Own

7 to 9PM - The Opening Sentence
Several of our authors respond to the challenge to expand upon the following sentence within the limit of 100 words -
"In the midst of chaos, she took the wallet and disappeared into the laughing crowd." (Mayhem, Money & Mirth)
    •  Seasonal Desserts, Coffee, Mulled Cider at Élan Gallery

Sunday, November 4: A Morning of Mystery & Mischief

7:45 to 8:45AM - Continental Breakfast/Registration/Book Signings
8:55AM - Welcome and Introductions
9AM - Gary Goshgarian: History of Mystery: From Poe to Parker
     and In Between
9:40AM - Jonathan Aldrich: Dinner Was Served
10:05AM - Tess Gerritsen: Digging into Medical History &
     Weaving Research into the Novel
10:45AM - Did the Butler Do It? with Tess Gerritsen (moderator),
     Kate Flora, Gary Goshgarian, Joe Hill, Sarah Langan, Matthew Pearl
12:15PM - Wrap-up and 2008 Maine Literary Festival Highlights
12:15 to 1:15PM - Book Signings

©2007 Maine Author Series & Literary Festival PO Box 886 Camden, Maine 04843 207.837.2827 info@MaineLiteraryFestival.com

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