The Blue Hill Public Library and Blue Hill Books are cosponsoring an author event with former Maine poet laureate Stuart Kestenbaum along with artist Susan Webster for their new book A Quiet Book on Friday September 6 at 7PM in the library's Howard Room. 

According to Stuart and Susan, "We started this series when we were at the Tilting Artists in Residency Program on Fogo Island in Newfoundland in June 2022.  Our partnership and collaborations began years before the making of this book.  We started by making exquisite corpse drawings while waiting for food in restaurants, and moved on to more complex matters like raising two sons. From the start, whenever we have made our collaborative art pieces, we don’t actually work together in the same space.  We work separately, passing work back and forth, without conversation"

Stuart Kestenbaum is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Things Seemed to Be Breaking (Deerbrook Editions 2021), and a collection of essays The View from Here (Brynmorgen Press). He was the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 until 2015 and served as Maine’s poet laureate from 2016-2021. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American Craft Council and the recipient of a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. Former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser has written “Stuart Kestenbaum writes the kind of poems I love to read, heartfelt responses to the privilege of having been given a life.  No hidden agendas here, no theories to espouse, nothing but life, pure life, set down with craft and love.”

Susan Webster has received fellowships from the Women’s Studio Workshop (NY), been a visiting artist at the University of the Arts Borowsky Center (PA), Studio Artworks Center (Jerusalem, Israel), and developed a model art program in the prison system in Maine. She is dedicated to taking action to end domestic violence through community advocacy efforts and awareness, and is an advocate for reproductive justice through her art. Recent exhibits include: Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, Cove Street Arts, in Portland, Maine, and BIENNIAL2020 at Center for Contemporary Art, in Rockport, Maine. Art critic Carl Little has written “Webster’s awareness of the preciousness of time on earth heightens both her personal sense of existence and the art she creates. Even as she acknowledges a ‘certain darkness, mystery, the unknown’ she celebrates life.”

This program is free and open to all, and will be held in the library's Howard Room. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. For more information, please email Assistant Director Kayleigh Thomas at kayleigh.thomas@bhpl.net.