NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS

Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance Holiday Book Sale and Author Signing at the Portland Public Library, Friday, Nov. 28th, from, 3 PM to 5 PM.

Martin Dibner Fellowship - Promising Maine poets seeking to develop their writing skills are encouraged to apply for a Martin Dibner Fellowship through the Maine Community Foundation. One or two grants in the $500 to $1,000 range will be awarded. Applications are due at the foundation no later than Jan. 15, 2009. For guidelines, visit www.mainecf.org or call toll-free 1-877-700-6800. The Dibner Memorial Fellowship for Maine Writers Fund supports enrollment in workshops and, secondarily, helps cover living expenses while finishing a writing project. A review committee considers the quality of the work. The Dibner Fellowship alternates year to year between fiction and poetry. Previous fellowship winners in poetry are Sarah Boucher, Glenn Morazzini and Douglas Woodsum.   Martin Dibner was an author of numerous books, including novels (Devil’s Paintbrush, The Deep Six) and non-fiction works, among them a history of Paris Hill. He served on the Maine Arts Commission and was first director of the Payson Gallery at Westbrook College.  A statewide organization with offices in Ellsworth, Portland and Augusta, the Maine Community Foundation has partnered with donors and community groups to strengthen Maine communities for 25 years.

Anne Johnson Mullin of New Harbor has won the 2008 Muriel Craft Bailey Award from Comstock Review for a poem called "Children's Carnival, St. Thomas, USVI." Marie Howe was the judge. The poem will appear in the January 2009 issue of Comstock Review. See http://www.comstockreview.org/index.html for more information.

Seventh Annual GOOSE RIVER ANTHOLOGY 2009 seeks submissions of fine poetry, essays, and short stories (3,000 words or less). Book will be beautifully produced with full color cover. Earm cash royalties: author will receive a 10% royalty on all sales that he or she generates. No purchase required and nothing is required of the author for publication. Deadline: Feb. 28, 2009. Publication the Fall of  2009 (in time for Christmas gifts). We hold one-time publishing rights. All rights revert to author after publication. Guidelines are as follows: submit a clean-typed copy and if possible a disk (Word file); reading fee: $1.00 per page (Do not put two poems on one page.). SASE for notification and possible return. Author's name & address at top right of each page. Submit to: Goose River Anthology 2009, 3400 Friendship Road, Waldoboro, ME 04572-6337. Tele. (207) 832-6665; e-mail: gooseriverpress@roadrunner.com

Maine author and illustrator Darcie Mae of Solon has a link at her website reading "Sammy & Robert" live on blog talk radio. S&B link. There is also for a reading of a story in her Mother Mouse book.

Dahlov Ipcar's book "My Wonderful Christmas Tree" is back is print Islandport Press announced, with a November 28th release date. The long unavailable children's book by the legendary Ipcar will return to store shelves just in time for the holiday season. The book depicts, with signature Ipcar style, the colorful and curious creatures that live in the New England forest at Christmastime. From the one shining star that graces the top of the living outdoor Christmas tree to the black bears, snowy owls, happy chipmunks and other woodland inhabitants that visit the tree, the book is a delightful celebration of nature and the holiday season. Earlier this year, Islandport also reissued "The Little Fisherman", which was the first children's book illustrated by Ipcar in 1941. "My Wonderful Christmas Tree", originally published in 1986, represents the last children's book illustrated by Ipcar. Ipcar, 91, who has illustrated more than 30 other children's books, continues to work every day in her studio looking out over her farm on Georgetown Island. Her intricate, distinctive and fanciful artwork is known worldwide, with pieces of her art in the permanent collections of numerous renowned museums.

OneWater Press has published Scatterings from Offneck, Heirloom Poems & Photographs of Old Castine, from Jean Young Smith of Dunc’s Meadow, edited by her daughter, Patricia Smith Ranzoni, with layout by daughter, Hazel Smith Hutchinson. Dunc’s Meadow, the dairy homestead where the author grew up, is an historic North Castine site which came to be donated to the Conservation Land Trust of Brooksville, Castine and Penobscot which sales of the book benefit. The numbered, signed, 45-page first edition, being acquired by Maine historical archives, is nearly sold out. In her preface, the 92-year old poet explains, “In my day, bits and pieces left in the fields after the hay had been cut, raked, and brought in by farm families and our horses, were called 'scatterings.' They were raked up last thing and saved like these poems - bits and pieces of life in offneck Castine.” (Offnek is the local name referred to as the Village and "off neck," a narrow strip of land that separates the Bagaduce River on one side from the Penobscot River on the other.) Of the collection, Pat Ranzoni says, “Mama’s work is pure musical track and echo. It’s such an honor to help bring her book about, remembering how she handstitched little booklets of our words when we were learning to read.” In addition to selected independent book stores,  Scatterings is available for $9.95 + .50 tax + $1.34 postage c/o OneWater Press, 289 Bucksmills Rd., Bucksport, ME 04416. For more information: Pranzoni.

Islandport Press, an independent book publisher, has moved its offices from the Pineland Farms campus in New Gloucester to 267 U.S. Route 1, Unit B, in Yarmouth. The Terri Wright Insurance Agency is located in the same building. Established in 1999 by Dean and Michelle Lunt of Yarmouth. FMI see www.islandportpress.com

Moon Pie Press has published Yarmouth poet Jim Glenn Thatcher's "The Ur-Word".  The book is available from the Moon Pie Press website at www.moonpiepress.com and at Longfellow Books and Books Etc. in Portland.   Richard Jackson said this: "Jim Thatcher opens this wondrous collection with an image of the moon stealing its light from an unseen sun, and that is perhaps the best metaphor to describe the play of absence and presence that dominates the book.  Whether he is talking about a walk outside, a relationship, language itself, or Marco Polo's explorations, these poems are filled with what he calls the 'endless epiphany of existence', which is to say a wonder at the world around us, and its and our histories.  Thatcher is an essential poet who knows that all poetry rides on "currents of unknowing" but that the acknowledgment of this unknowing is all the knowledge we can hope for, a revelation that allows the poet to speak sometimes ironically, sometimes lyrically, associating wildly and yet in a controlled art that is filled with discovery, surprise and the recognition of what it means to exist."

Anne Johnson Mullin of New Harbor, Maine, has won First Prize in the 2008 Muriel Craft Bailey Award competition for her poem, "Children's Carnival, St. Thomas, USVI." The award is given annually by Comstock Review. Marie Howe was judge.

Tom Fallon has made changes to three video efforts of himself reading, "Rembrandt: Self-portrait", "significance", and, "In the source", at this LINK. Print versions of the poems have also been added. P.S. After looking at some videos at the Academy of American Poetry site, I find that mine aren't as bad as I originally thought - although my age lines are prominent!

Jessy Kendall has the new issue of Letter Founder out! The only true avant-garde literary journal in Maine. We need this to get outside the box of our "comfortable" literature. Kendall carries on with the legacy of the legendary Bern Porter.

BOOKS & LITERARY MAGAZINES

Lewis Turco has published "The Museum of Ordinary People and Other Stories". Although the book is Turco's first collection of short fiction, he wrote "The Book of Dialogue", considered by many to be the definitive book on writing dialogue in fiction. It has gone through several domestic and foreign editions including one translated into Italian and another that makes up a tripartite U. K. volume (with Ansen Dibell and Orson Scott Card) titled, "How to Write a Mi££ion". See MUSEUM for more complete information and purchasing of this fast moving Maine author.

Wolf Moon Journal, A Magazine of Art and Opinion, has its falll issue on the stands. Maine's plucky, independent magazine features images, essays, poetry, and book and film reviews. Sample articles are posted on the web site, but you will have to purchase or subscribe to gain the full benefit of the magazine. You can subscribe at WOLFMOON.

Words and Images, the literary magazine of the University of Southern Maine, is seeking submissions. See the WEBSITE

The latest issue of The Aroostook Review (Volume III, Summer 2008) features ”M. Kelly Lombardi, Bard of the Bluffs,” by Sharon Bray, as well as Irish poet, Michael Heffernan, fiction and nonfiction. http://aroostookreview.umfk.maine.edu/

The first collection of poems by Geraldine Cannon has just been released, "Glad Wilderness" by Plain View Press, Texas. "In Glad Wilderness Geraldine Cannon has woven an Appalachian tapestry of voices and images that are somehow at once clear as a swimming hole and as suggestive as an impressionist painting: 'His skin develops Braille as he breathes me in.' Her mode is not formal until the end of the series where she has written three triolets, of all things, that are three of the best triolets I have ever read. Completely unexpected, and perfectly delightful." Lewis Turco.

The fall '08 issue of from east to west: bicoastal verse is packed full with 44 full color pages of featured poets, Patrick Carrington & Constance Pavliska, artists & photographers, Scott Davis, Constance Pavliska, Dave Wade & more, "time" poets, Brion Berkshire, Geraldine Cannon, Wendy Howe, Jim Knowles, Doug Knowlton, Ken Markee, Alice Persons, & Patricia Smith Ranzoni, and our "Best of the Net" nominations, Courtney Campbell, Laurel Dodge, Helmuth Filipowitsch, Gil Helmick, David Moreau, & Barton Smock. Again the issue is available from Lulu.com as either a free .pdf download or a print paperback. Submission call for Winter '08/'09: For the winter themed section, we are looking for poetry about "travel" to cure us of our cabin fever. Send your submissions and a short bio in the body of an email with "travel submission" in the subject line.

Ministry of Maat announces the publication of "Lightning Holds My Hand, A Woman's Journal of Guidance", by Andrea Gale Goodman.( iUniverse, $19.95 ) The book is a moving and comforting guide for all who are undergoing the journey of divorce or who are experiencing other kinds of loss or disappointment, offering an empowering perspective that transcends blame and victim-hood. For interviews, appearances and photos contact: Andrea Goodman 207= 633-4175, 207 380-5291or email, rubythroated@roadrunner.com. See also Ruby Throated Spirit. The book is available at bookstores in Maine and New York City, and may be ordered online at iUniverse.

Take a look at Poets and Writers magazine at this link: http://www.pw.org This magazine is an invaluable resource for writers.

See the link, Maine Literary Magazines.