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Camden Opera House
Camden, Maine
November 2, 3 and 4, 2007

• Charlotte Albright
• Jonathan Aldrich
• Charles Calhoun
• Scott Donaldson
• Kate Flora
• Tess Gerritsen
• Gary Goshgarian
• Joe Hill
• Owen King
• Christina Baker Kline
• Sarah Langan
• James Laxer
• Mary Malloy
• Dorie McCullough Lawson
• Matthew Pearl
• Peter Silver
• Martha White
• Brenda Wineapple
• Geoffrey Wolff

Committee of Advisors

• Charlotte Albright
• Bland Banwell
• Victoria Bonebakker
• Joseph Conforti
• Nancy Harmon Jenkins
• Tess Gerritsen
• Cally Gurley
• Wesley McNair
• Jane Phillips
• Richard Russo
• Betsy Sholl

Home

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The Maine Literary Festival is a scholarship project of the Midcoast Branch of the American Association of University Women. All proceeds from the Festival are used for the Midcoast AAUW's scholarship program for young women and girls who might otherwise not be able to attend college.

"Mayhem, Money and Mirth"

In 2007 our authors looked at the human condition through the lenses of mayhem, money and mirth. Whether pound-wise or penny-foolish, cultures clash and families feud, surviving only by recognizing, with a good laugh, that life is a comedy.
Also in 2007 the Maine Literary Festival expanded its highly acclaimed weekend festival to include a writers' workshop for both published and aspiring writers.

Governor Proclaims Maine Literary Weekend
click on image to enlarge

Acclaimed Novelist Geoffrey Wolff Keynotes 2007 Maine Literary Festival

Novelist, essayist and critic Geoffrey Wolff will deliver the 2007 E.B. and Katharine White Memorial Lecture. A prominent voice in contemporary American literature, Wolff is recently retired professor of English and comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine, where he directed the graduate fiction program. Previously, Wolff has served on the faculties of Istanbul University and of Princeton University and has been book editor at The Washington Post and Newsweek . Wolff has authored six novels, including The Age of Consent set in a close-knit utopian community in upstate New York and The Final Club, about secretive social networks at Princeton . Wolff's nonfiction works include Black Sun, on the short-lived avant-garde poet Harry Crosby; The Art of Burning Bridges: A Life of John O'Hara, a literary biography of the American fiction writer; and The Duke of Deception, a memoir that was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book, The Edge of Maine (National Geographic, 2005), brings together local history and lore, personal memoir, and travelogue in a rich portrayal of the salty, sea-pounded, and seasonally gentrified Maine coast.

Wolff received the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1994. His honors also include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently the Berthold Leibinger Fellow at the American Academy of Berlin, Wolff is working on a story collection provisionally titled Looking Out.

Festival Program

7:30 to 8:30AM - Continental Breakfast/Registration
8:30AM - Welcome and Introductions
8:40AM - Matthew Pearl: Mayhem, Money & Mirth: A Theme and a Concept
9:30AM - The Early American Experience
    •  Peter Silver: The Social Complexity and Tangled History of Colonial Relations
    •  Mary Malloy: Sailors, Whalers and Notorious Captains
    •  James Laxer: The Acadian Experience in Search of a Homeland
    •  Questions & Answers
11:15AM to 12:55PM - Signings/Lunch on Own
1PM - Scott Donaldson: Recovering Robinson, a Great American Poet
1:30PM - Adventures in Literary Biography: Scott Donaldson (moderator),
    Charles Calhoun and Brenda Wineapple
3 to 3:45PM - Break and Signings
3:45PM - Contemporary Fiction: New Voices: Charlotte Albright (moderator),
    Geoffrey Wolff, Dorie McCullough Lawson, Owen King, Christina Baker Kline
5:15PM - Signings/Dinner on Own

7 to 9PM - The Opening Sentence
Several of our authors respond to the challenge to expand upon the following sentence within the limit of 100 words -
"In the midst of chaos, she took the wallet and disappeared into the laughing crowd." (Mayhem, Money & Mirth)
    •  Seasonal Desserts, Coffee, Mulled Cider at Élan Gallery

Sunday, November 4: A Morning of Mystery & Mischief

7:45 to 8:45AM - Continental Breakfast/Registration/Book Signings
8:55AM - Welcome and Introductions
9AM - Gary Goshgarian: History of Mystery: From Poe to Parker
     and In Between
9:40AM - Jonathan Aldrich: Dinner Was Served
10:05AM - Tess Gerritsen: Digging into Medical History &
     Weaving Research into the Novel
10:45AM - Did the Butler Do It? with Tess Gerritsen (moderator),
     Kate Flora, Gary Goshgarian, Joe Hill, Sarah Langan, Matthew Pearl
12:15PM - Wrap-up and 2008 Maine Literary Festival Highlights
12:15 to 1:15PM - Book Signings