For roughly 15 years Eva has been a regular columnist for a number of Maine newspapers and magazines. Her first book, Well Out to Sea—Year-round on Matinicus Island, is a collection of essays describing the details of offshore life. Some of the short pieces are touching, many are irreverent, and all provide insight into “how things really work” on a remote Maine island.
Eva’s second book, Island Schoolhouse—One room for all takes the reader inside Maine’s remaining public one-room elementary schools, introducing teachers, students and communities for whom one-room school is an ordinary, 21st-century reality.
In Island Birthday, Eva’s first book for children, readers sense the exasperation all islanders feel when bad weather interferes with transportation, as it so often does! Riley, a boy of about eight, waits a bit impatiently for his birthday presents which must be delivered by airplane across the water. As he visits with his hardworking neighbors—a lobster boat crew, a working artist, the postal clerk, the telephone man, etc.-- he sees that everybody is waiting for something, and the inconveniences of island life are made up for by close friendships and a supportive community.
In addition to working as a freelance writer Eva Murray is an emergency medical technician, wilderness first responder, CPR instructor and SAR volunteer; she runs Matinicus Island’s solid waste and recycling program; she operates an island bakery each summer, and she is finishing work on a graduate certificate in Gifted and Talented Education. She is also a student pilot.
Come meet Eva Murray and many other Maine authors at Books in Boothbay on July 11!
