Join Laura and author Cynthia Reeves at the Gibbs Library in Washington, Maine for a conversation about the novel in stories: How does this genre differ from a traditional novel? What unique benefits does it offer readers? What are some popular examples? How might you approach writing one? Laura will read from Consecration Pond and Cynthia will read from Falling Through the New World, her novel in stories about an Italian American family. This event is free and open to the public. No registration is required. 

The time will be announced, and you can check with the Gibbs Library programming.

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But there’s no better way of refining our work than sharing it with an audience of supportive listeners/ On Monday, October 14 from 6-8:00pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport, ME for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only. Everyone will read 1 piece, and we’ll get through all participants before starting up again. There’s no need to sign up in advance for this event, just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, put your name on the list, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read from their beautiful stage.

Poet and essayist Ross Gay, author of Inciting Joy, The Book of Delights, Bring the Shovel Down, and The Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, reads at the First Congregational Church in Camden, Maine. Co-sponsored by Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner, and presented by the Camden Festival of Poetry and the Belfast Poetry Festival.

$10.
Please go here to reserve your spot.

Poet and essayist Ross Gay, author of Inciting Joy, The Book of Delights, Bring the Shovel Down, and The Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, comes to Camden, Maine. An in-person limited seating afternoon craft talk is available by pre-registration ($35.). Those wishing to join by Zoom can sign up at a reduced rate ($25). Presented by the Camden Festival of Poetry and the Belfast Poetry Festival.

Please go here to sign up for the in-person event.
Zoom signups are here.

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But there’s no better way of refining our work than sharing it with an audience of supportive listeners/ On Monday, September 9 from 6-8:00pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport, ME for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only. Everyone will read 1 piece, and we’ll get through all participants before starting up again. There’s no need to sign up in advance for this event, just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, put your name on the list, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read from their beautiful stage.

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But there’s no better way of refining our work than sharing it with an audience of supportive listeners/ On Monday, August 12 from 6-8:00pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport, ME for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only. Everyone will read 1 piece, and we’ll get through all participants before starting up again. There’s no need to sign up in advance for this event, just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, put your name on the list, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read from their beautiful stage.

Join us along with The Poets Corner, July 14th on Zoom for a reading with nine poets whose chapbooks were selected as finalists from among over 400 submissions to the 2024 Chapbook Competition. Each of these talented poets will be introduced by one of our readers in a fast-paced lively presentation that will inspire and fascinate you with fireworks of lyricism with a variety of themes and chapbook styles.

Learn more about the poets HERE. And register to attend the live ZOOM reading HERE.

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But there’s no better way of refining our work than sharing it with an audience of supportive listeners.

On Monday, July 8 • 6 - 8:00pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport, ME for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

There’s no need to sign up in advance for this event, just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, put your name on the list, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read from their beautiful stage.

Join this reading with the 2024 Chapbook Competition winner Molly Bolton, hosted by our contest judge, poet Marie Howe.

This reading will be hosted by distinguished poet, Marie Howe, the judge for this year's competition. Learn more about Marie here.

“All the world at once is what is held in the lines of these poems: the birthers, the babies who will not live, the faces of flowers, the stones, the salamanders, the trees, the saints, the living woman who sings these sentences into a rigorous music of what it is to be alive: and from it comes poetry that will plead and mourn and hunger and bless. I returned again and again to these poems and was nourished.”

—Marie Howe, poet and 2024 chapbook contest judge

The 2024 Chapbook Competition was a collaboration between The Poets Corner, Toad Hall Editions, and the Camden Festival of Poetry.

Learn more about Molly here.

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But there’s no better way of refining our work than sharing it with an audience of supportive listeners.

On Monday, June 10 • 6 - 8:00pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport, ME for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

There’s no need to sign up in advance for this event, just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, put your name on the list, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read from their beautiful stage.

Along with fiction author Cynthia Reeves author of Falling Through the New World, Laura will be talking about the genre of novels in stories with readings from Consecration Pond at Anodyne Book Shop.

To reserve a seat, please call 207.548.4212.

The Camden Festival of Poetry will be hosting readings, music, workshops, a book fair, and a keynote with Pádraig Ó Tuama. It all begins Friday May 17 with an Open Mic at the Camden Congregational Church. More details HERE.

You can sign up HERE. The festival is free of charge, but it will help the organizers to know how many people plan to attend.

Toad Hall Editions will have a table at the book fair, please stop by and say hello!

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But there’s no better way of refining our work than sharing it with an audience of supportive listeners.

On Monday, May 13 • 6 - 8:00pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport, ME for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

There’s no need to sign up in advance for this event, just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, put your name on the list, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read from their beautiful stage.

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But there’s no better way of refining our work than sharing it with an audience of supportive listeners.

On Monday, March 11 • 6 - 8:00pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport, ME for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

There’s no need to sign up in advance for this event, just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, put your name on the list, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read from their beautiful stage.

Elizabeth will be talking about her memoir Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year in the Charlotte Hobbs Library Speaker Series

This is a ZOOM only event. Find the link HERE.

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But there’s no better way of refining our work than sharing it with an audience of supportive listeners.

On Monday, Feb 12 • 6 - 8:00pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport, ME for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

There’s no need to sign up in advance for this event, just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, put your name on the list, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read from their beautiful stage.

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But there’s no better way of refining our work than sharing it with an audience of supportive listeners.

On Monday, Dec 8 • 6 - 7:30pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport, ME for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

There’s no need to sign up in advance for this event, just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, put your name on the list, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read from their beautiful stage.

Sunday January 7 at 4:00 pm EST, we’ll be hosting a live reading with writers featured in kerning no. 4, with its theme, “Body as Evidence.” We’ll also be talking about the upcoming call for writing for issue no. 5. Here’s the info you need to join us!

Reading with kerning No, 4 contributors
Sunday, January 7, 2024
4:00-5:30 p.m. Eastern

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82783715718?pwd=VTJkbGJQYVVjd0lJZEVNdEpRcnlsQT09
Meeting ID: 827 8371 5718
Passcode: 361275

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But how about bringing those sh*tty first drafts to the stage?

On Monday, Dec 11 6 - 7:30pm, Toad Hall Editions and The Poets Corner hosts an open mic at Hey Sailor in Searsport for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an evening of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

There’s no place to sign up for this event, no place to log in—just meet us at Hey Sailor! in Searsport, enjoy a meal, a cocktail (or a mocktail) and read a draft.

A Panel Presentation and Book Fair

ALL LEVELS

For writers with a finished manuscript, deciding how to publish, and where to send it, can be daunting. What are your chances of getting it published at a large press? What will the experience of working with an editor/publisher be? What cut will you get from the profits, if any? And with so many presses to choose from, how do you decide the best avenue for publishing? Meet three small Northeastern press publishers who are working hard to get the best work out there. 

In this panel, the 4 panelists—Agnes Bushell of Littoral Books, Maya Stein of Toad Hall Editions, Buzz Poole of Sandorf Passage, and Spencer Smith of Seapoint Books—will discuss how they started their presses, how to write a successful letter of inquiry, whether writers sending to small presses need an agent, what you can expect from a small press vs. a larger one (benefits as well as drawbacks), what they look for when deciding what to publish and what to expect out of the process of publishing a book with a small press. The panel will conclude with a Q&A session and a book fair!

+ PLEASE NOTE This presentation and book fair will take place In-PERSON at USM Portland Campus’s USM Osher Map Library, Cohen Center Classroom, Glickman 103.

FREE for Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance members, $10 for non-members

We write sh*tty first drafts to get something on the page. But how about bringing those sh*tty first drafts to the stage?

On Sunday, October 15 at 12 pm, Toad Hall Editions hosts an open mic at Marshall Wharf Brewing for writers and poets in midcoast Maine.

Join us for an afternoon of first drafts, rough drafts, and everything-in-between drafts. Bring your works-in-progress to share in a warm, welcoming atmosphere! Poetry and short pieces only (4-6 minutes per reader).

There’s no place to sign up for this event, no place to log in—just meet us at Marshall Wharf Brewing Co. in Belfast to enjoy a draft and read a draft. This is the third in a series of “Draft” events in midcoast Maine... stay tuned for more!

Katherine will be at the Bridgton Public Library reading from her newest book Orbit. She’ll be joined by poet Kate Kearns.

Maine poets Katherine Hagopian Berry, Gibson Fay-Leblanc, and Meghan Sterling will be reading from their recent collections Orbit and Landtrust, Deke Dangle Dive, View From a Borrowed Field and Comfort the Mourners, respectively.

Please join us at the Denmark Art Center for a thrilling evening of poetry! 

Sunday August 20 at 4:00 pm EST, we’ll be hosting a live reading with writers featured in kerning no. 3.—the theme was Secret Identities.

We’ll also be talking about the upcoming call for writing for no. 4, the new theme and some of the changes we’ve made for this issue. The biggest one being: we will be paying writers whose work is accepted.

Here’s the info you need to join us!

Reading with kerning #3 Writers

Time: Aug 20, 2023 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86995358211?pwd=NFZUQkhMZ2dmZzNxeHJiNXJCZXRQdz09

Meeting ID: 869 9535 8211

Passcode: 088586

Katherine will be at Stone Broke Bread & Books in Gardiner reading from—perhaps among other things, her newest book Orbit. She’ll be joined by poet Claire Milliken.

Elizabeth Garber will have a reading and conversation about her memoir, Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Girl’s Daring Year, at the Sedgewick Village Library.