The Blue Hill Library and Word., Blue Hill's Literary Arts Festival, will present a panel about rural life, class, and creative work, on Saturday, October 25 at 1PM in the library's Howard Room. Moderated by Michelle Lewis, and featuring Cynthia Thayer and Audrey Gidman, this will be a lively, candid panel discussion about what it means to “write rural,” inviting readers and writers alike to consider how Maine’s geographic and emotional landscapes inspire bold, layered, complicated stories. 

In her book "Mill Town," Kerri Arsenault said Maine can be “as inescapable as your own DNA.” While often depicted by writers and artists in broad brushstrokes, there is more than meets the eye in the rural corners of Maine. It is a place of silence and repression, of limited opportunities and quiet violence — a case study in the complicated bonds that tie people to place. This panel brings together three Maine writers working in fiction, poetry, and memoir to explore how living in Down East and inland Maine — and other remote communities — shapes the stories we tell.

From deeply moving novels rooted in the rhythms of homestead life, to unflinching poems alive with landscape and queer identity, to a gripping memoir that reveals the hidden costs of small-town survival, these writers approach rural Maine from distinct angles. Yet all share a fascination with how environment, memory, and community leave their mark.

Michelle Lewis the author of 'Spare', which was the recipient of the Barrow Street Prose Prize chosen by Mary Cappello, and 'Animul/Flame', which won the 2018 Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize chosen by Bob Hicok. Her recent work has appeared in Bennington Review, Copper Nickel, Massachusetts Review, and Denver Quarterly among others. She lives in West Bath.

Cynthia Thayer was born in New York City and raised in Nova Scotia. She earned her BA and MA in British Literature from Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts. Since she moved to Maine in 1976, she has organically farmed, taught, spun and dyed wool, woven, and written novels, short stories, and essays. She teaches for Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and at other various venues. She founded Schoodic Arts for All in 1998. Two of her novels were published by St. Martin’s Press and one by Algonquin Books. Her memoir, We’re Going Home, was published by Islandport Press in 2023 and was a finalist for the Maine Literary Award. She lives with her farming partners on Darthia Farm in Gouldsboro. 

Audrey Gidman is a queer poet living in Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, 'body psalms' (Slate Roof Press, 2023), winner of the Elyse Wolf Prize, and 'griefnotes', forthcoming from Porkbelly Press. Her poems can be found in Rust + Moth, Birdcoat Quarterly, The Night Heron Barks, Luna Luna, SWWIM Every Day, The Shore, Bear Review, and elsewhere. She serves as guest editor for Frontier Poetry and chapbook editor for Newfound. 

This free workshop is part of Word., the Blue Hill Literary Arts Festival that takes place October 23-26, and is cosponsored by the Blue Hill Library. For more information about the Word Festival, visit https://www.wordfestival.org/. For more information about this event contact Assistant Director Kayleigh Thomas at kayleigh.thomas@bhpl.net or 374-5515.