This year we moved the festival to Saturday afternoon, which seems to work for many Maine poets and community members.
Our pre-registration topped 110 people, from all over the state, from Eliot to Orono. For our inaugural book fair, four Maine presses came and chatted with guests. We had two workshops filled to capacity with 18 writers in each. More participants came for the afternoon panel on Maine presses and publishing, and even more filed in for the open mic and the late afternoon program.
As always, our student writing contest discovered new talent across Maine. The winning poems were selected from a pool of over 120 submissions. Poets from 21 schools entered the high school contest. Poets from four of the seven University of Maine System campuses entered the undergraduate contest. UMA, UMaine, UMF, and USM each had similar levels of participation.
Our keynote poet, Brian Turner, was a generous and gracious reader, and if his book singing is any indication, the audience was thrilled with this reading.
Visit our website to see the recorded Keynote Event and stay tuned for Festival details in the New Year.