Author Announcement: Peter P. Blanchard III

PETER P. BLANCHARD III is a long-time conservationist and environmental activist, and the founder of Greenwood Gardens, a New Jersey nonprofit organization dedicated to horticulture and environmental education. He owns and manages two Maine islands as nature reserves. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Orion Society, which produces Orion, a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to the issues of nature, culture, and place.



Blanchard's latest book is We Were an Island: The Maine Life of Art and Nan Kellam.

Anyone visiting the innumerable islands that hug the coast of Maine has wondered what it would be like to live year round on a "rock" bounded by the sea, essentially cut off from the world, with life's priorities whittled down to the most basic necessities. In 1949 Art and Nan Kellam set off to find their own isolated piece of paradise and eventually settled on a 550-acre island known as Placentia, near Mount Desert Island. They would live there year round for nearly forty years.

In this beautifully illustrated volume--based on Nan's personal journal and the "Big Book," to which both Art and Nan contributed private correspondence and archival materials--Peter P. Blanchard III re-creates the story of their island years. 

He shows their singular devotion to each other, finds tantalizing clues to their reasons for seeking isolation from the rest of the world, and considers the mental and physical toll of such an unusual lifestyle on the individual and joined psyches of the couple. The narrative is beautifully enhanced by historic photographs and by David Graham's recent color photography. While evoking the alluring beauty of Maine's rugged coast, the book celebrates the Kellams' courage and determination to follow a
distinctive life path. We Were an Island paints a sensitive and sympathetic portrait of a relationship that endured, even prospered, in isolation.

Poet announcement: Jeffrey Thomson

Jeffrey Thomson's Newest Book is Birdwatching in Wartime, which was just awarded the 2010 Maine Book Prize in Poetry from the Maine Writers and Publishers Association.

One more reason to attend Books in Boothbay: Fresh Paintings!

In the ten days leading up to Books in Boothbay: Maine's Summer Book Fair, the members of the Plein-Air Painters of Maine will be painting scenes of the Railway Village, where the book fair is being held. These paintings will be displayed to the public for the first time at the authors & artists reception after the book fair!

The reception is free, and you'll have the chance to mingle with the authors and artists, and also to purchase any of the paintings created by the Plein-Air Painters.

Hope to see you there!

Author Announcement: Amy MacDonald

Amy MacDonald's books include Rachel Fister's Blister, Cousin Ruth's Tooth, No More Nice, No More Nasty, Please Malese!, The Spider Who Created the World, and Quentin Fenton Herter III. These books have won awards ranging from Best Books for Babies to the IRA/CBC Children's Choice Award, to the Oppenheim Platinum and Parents Choice Gold awards.

Author Announcement: Norman Beaupré

Norman Beaupré is our latest author attending Books in Boothbay. Here's his brief bio:

Born in Maine and received his B.A. from St. Francis College, Biddeford; A.M. and Ph.D. from Brown University in 1974. Taught 30 years at the University of New England: French literature, French Impressionism, World literature and Transcultural Health Care.

Traveled extensively: France [2 sabbaticals in Paris and received a National Endowment for the arts grant to study Gothic Architecture under Professor Stephen Murray of Columbia Univ.];Brazil[Fulbright-Hayes grant]; Mexico to do research on curanderismo(folk healing); Belgium; Amsterdam; Germany, Prague and most of Eastern Europe; Spain; New Mexico and Arizona.
Professor Emeritus at the University of New England, Maine where he was full professor and department chair of the Humanities Dept.

Received two major decorations from the French Government:  Ordre de la Francophonie, la Pléiade and Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres[arts and literature] for exemplary contributions to the French culture. 

Author Announcement: Spencer Apollonio

Spencer Apollonio is a retired marine biologist and a research fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA). He has made fourteen trips to the Arctic and established AINA's Devon Island Research Station.

Lands that Hold One Spellbound is an informal history of East Greenland. Author Spencer Apollonio has written the only known overview of the history of this region, summarizing indigenous settlements over four millennia and describing European explorations from the Norse to recent years. East Greenland is an immense land of mountains and fjords, of glaciers and meadowlands, and of unique contrasts in weather. It has been colonized seven different times over 4,000 years by migrants from the West. Apollonio details the struggles of vessels to reach the coast through the ice pack, the longest Arctic sledge journeys, the peculiar story of World War II in East Greenland, and the impact of centuries of exploration and change on Greenland’s indigenous populations. 

Author Announcement: Poet Peter Felsenthal

Poet Peter Felsenthal's latest book is More Scents Please.

Felsenthal is a Chicago native educated and brought up on the East Coast. His poetry took second place to earning a living for many years. Peter is the father of four, grandfather of nine. He resides on Barters Island, in mid-coast Maine.

Author Announcement: Theresa Mattor & Lucie Teegarden

Theresa Mattor and Lucie Teegarden are the authors of Designing the Maine Landscape.

Mattor is a landscape architect and author based in Greater Portland. A native of Laconia, New Hampshire, she received a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Oregon. Since moving to Maine in 1988, she has enjoyed a design career that focuses on historic and contemporary landscapes, with a specialty in residential sites. She lectures frequently about contemporary landscape design, native plants, and historic landscapes. She lives in Hollis, Maine, with her husband and son.

Teegarden is a writer and editor who has spent more than 35 years producing college, university, and museum publications and books. She holds a B.A. in languages from the College of New Rochelle and an M.A. in French from Yale University and enjoys editing French and ESL teaching materials as well as books on art, history, gardening, and other subjects. Before moving to Brunswick, Maine, in 1983, she lived in Kenitra, Morocco, and in the suburbs of Boston, New Haven, and New York City.

Author Announcement: Bill Dixon

Bill Dixon's latest book is Disorderly Conduct: Tales of the 1960's. He is also the author of Guitar Collecting, currently in its third printing.

In addition to his books, Dixon has established a successful real estate development company; climbed mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire; released a music CD; built a couple of  hundred feet of natural stone walls on his property in Maine, and lectured on several unrelated topics: guitars as an art form, marketing and business development, Russian Icons and other  things. He’s completed a number of other peculiar projects, as well.

Author Announcement: Betsy Connor Bowen

Winner of the 2010 Maine Literary Award, Betsy Connor Bowen is the author of Spring Bear, her first novella.

Betsy Connor Bowen lives and writes in central Maine. “A life journey of many decades led me to a place in my imagination named Soper’s Mills, where the people who live there are not ‘fast food.’ They are your mother’s meatloaf – baked in a woodstove, with gravy like nobody else makes, garden vegetables – you can’t get it anywhere else. Not in a million years. I love these people and I love writing about them. I love to tell about the choices they make, their fragile souls diminished by the world sometimes, enlarged at others; about their unnoticed moments of grace. They are all heroes to me.”

Author Announcement: Tim Caverly

Tim Caverly has spent his life in Maine’s outdoors. Growing up shadowing his father who was a fire warden with the Maine Forest Service and his brother, a ranger in Baxter State Park, it was natural for him to seek a career in the outdoors. Tim is originally from Skowhegan, Maine and has a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Maine at Machias.

While in college, Tim began working as a ranger at Sebago Lake State Park for the State Parks and Recreation Commission. After Sebago, he continued his employment with the Department of Conservation with assignments as a manager of Aroostook and Cobscook Bay State Parks as well as a regional supervisor of the Allagash Region, which included the Allagash Wilderness Waterway and the Penobscot River Corridor. Tim was supervisor of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway for eighteen years.

In 1999, Tim retired from the Department after a 32-year career, and became director of Maine Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Tim resides in Millinocket, and now works in the Millinocket School System. He enjoys raising Golden Retrievers, and sharing stories about the Allagash.

Author Announcement: Jane Freeberg

Jane Freeberg, author of The Scallop Christmas, provided this bio: My husband and I have lived in Maine for 33 years....the best 33. We grew up in New York where I graduated from Adelphi College. We have 2 sons, both teachers and both writers. I've always loved to tell stories, and I recognize a good tale when I hear one, so when my friend told me the story of the great scallop harvest that occurred when she was a child, and the odd circumstances surrounding it, it really stuck in my head.  For 35 years, it would pop into my head every once in a while and I'd think to myself, "That's a really unusual story.  Somebody ought to write that down".  Finally, I realized nobody was going to do it, so I gave it a try. I'm sorry now that I didn't start sooner.