Seaside, Writing, Photography, Crosswords
Keep up with all that's happening at SPL
Writing Historical Fiction
Saturday-Monday, July 12-14
ONLY 2 SPACES LEFT!
This is a three-day course focused on generating—rather than simply workshopping—historical fiction. Using writing prompts and exercises, assignments, readings, and self-directed research, participants will leave the course with the seeds for larger writing projects. We’ll discuss the purpose of and place for historical fiction today, and how stories can transcend time altogether.
The class meet from 1-3pm on Saturday and Sunday, July 12 and 13, and from 9-11am on Monday, July 14.
$225 – Email SPL to register. We will keep a short waitlist in case of any cancellations.
About the Instructor
Ben Shattuck’s most recent book, The History of Sound (Viking, 2024), was the winner of the Story Prize Spotlight Award and nominated for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. His first book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau (2022), was a New Yorker Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, a New England Indie Bestseller, and was nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and winner of the PEN Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793. Read more about Ben on his website and Instagram.
Public Reading & Reception
Saturday, July 12, 3:30-5pm
Join Ben Shattuck at SPL for a reading from The History of Sound and a reception with light bites & beverages. The History of Sound will be available to purchase from Blue Hill Books, and the author will sign books at the end of the program.
Carol Walsh Exhibit Reception
Saturday, May 31, 2-4pm
Carol Walsh, a Stonington resident and avid photographer, is hosting a reception on Saturday, May 31, from 2-4pm for her photography exhibits at Stonington Public Library. Light refreshments and beverages will be served, and live music will be performed by Rugosa Rose.
The first exhibit, Look Up, is a series depicting New England church spires. Her photographs are taken with little to no context, encouraging the viewer to study the architecture and inspiring you to find your own spires. Look Up is on exhibit during library hours through Saturday, June 7.
The second exhibit, Photographs of Indigenous Basketry, are baskets from the Southwest, California, and Northwest from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University, where Carol studied indigenous textiles in the 1970s. This exhibit will be on display from Tuesday, June 10 to Saturday, July 12.
View more of Carol’s photography on Instagram.
Land & Sea
A summer group exhibit curated by Adell Donaghue
Tuesday, July 15 - Saturday, August 9
SPL will host its first summer group exhibit, Land & Sea, this year. The exhibit will be curated by Adell Donaghue, island resident and professional artist for four decades. The show will be on display during library hours from Tuesday, July 15 through Saturday, August 9.
Local artists can submit three to five pieces that fit the Land & Sea theme for selection of at least one. The submission window is Tuesday, July 8 through Saturday, July 12 during library hours. Submissions need to be display ready for consideration. We will not accept any late submissions for the summer exhibit. Artists are encouraged to RSVP.
Rosswords: Sunday Solve
First Sunday of every month at SPL, 1-2pm
June 1, July 6, August 3, September 7
We had so much fun solving puzzles together this winter that we’re making it a monthly thing. Join Chris Ross and other crossword enthusiasts for a group solve. All ages and all skill levels welcome. Anyone can get better at crosswords. Sharpen your skills as a solver and boost your crossword confidence.
Community Play and Learn at SPL
Friday, June 6 and 13, 10-11:30am
Caregivers and children 5 and under are welcome to join Community Play and Learn programs hosted by First 10 and Deer Isle Adult & Community Education! Enjoy music, movement, reading together, and snack time. Each Community Play and Learn program will highlight a different community resource for families. You don't need to sign up, but if you have any questions, email First 10 community school outreach coordinator Melissa: mbayley@su76.org.
For the full schedule of Community Play and Learn events, visit the Deer Isle Adult & Community Education Facebook events page.
Outdoor Summer Art Story Time
Second Saturdays at Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, 10-11am
June 14 • Jill Hoy
July 12 • Jadyn LaDeau
August 9 • Matthew Moncavage
Island artists lead our summer story time series with read-aloud stories and art activities for kids and their families. We are heading outdoors to Small Cove Park, a few short steps from SPL at 6 Atlantic Avenue (right behind Camden National Bank), to take advantage of the fresh air and natural beauty. All ages welcome.
The rain venue for all story time programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.
Reading & Book Signing
On Harbor’s Edge, Book Two: 1914-1930s by Kate Hotchkiss
Monday, June 16, 4-6pm
Meet Kate Hotchkiss, the author of On Harbor’s Edge, over light bites and beverages starting at 4pm and stick around for a reading and Q&A at 5pm. On Harbor’s Edge will be available to purchase from Blue Hill Books, and the author will sign books at the end of the program.
Acclaimed by bestselling historical novelist Bernard Cornwell, On Harbor’s Edge, Book Two: 1914–1930s is “a gripping standalone tale that transports readers into one of history’s most turbulent times.” With World War I and social upheavals impacting both the beloved and contentious figures of Hale Harbor, this captivating Maine island drama builds on the popular standalone story of book one.
Kate is author of On Harbor’s Edge, a series of generational layered tales from 1912 to the present, set against the backdrop of coastal imagery award-winning author Susan Conley describes as “so rich it is its own character.”
Kate’s United Nations, business, and government career spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. In addition to authoring the On Harbor’s Edge series and freelance writing for magazines and newspapers, she is an impact advisor working for a safer, healthier world. Kate is a member of Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Learn more about Kate on her website.
Seaside Series
Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington
The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.
Jonathan Fisher House
Traditional Door Joining Demonstration
Wednesday, July 2, 12-1pm
Nevan Carling, a board member at the Jonathan Fisher House in Blue Hill, will present a demonstration of traditional door joining using historical tools and techniques.
How did one build a door from raw materials before power tools? Early white settlers in the region, such as Rev. Jonathan Fisher of Blue Hill, used hand tools to convert the natural materials around them into their homes. Nevan will demonstrate the techniques used back in the 18th and 19th centuries, which are still alive in traditional building today. Nevan Carling is a preservation timber framer specializing in the research and repair of historic buildings.
The Fisher House, located at 44 Mines Road in Blue Hill, is a plank-on-frame home built in 1814 by Rev. Jonathan Fisher, Blue Hill's first settled minister. Today the house is preserved as a museum, and is open for tours Wednesday-Saturday from 1-4pm with no appointment needed, through the summer. Fisher, a polymath with many talents, designed and built much of the house himself, as well as the tools used to create it and the furnishings housed within. He was also a talented artist, writer, linguist, theologian, and scientist. Learn more about Jonathan Fisher and the Fisher House on their website and Instagram.
Christopher Scott Brumfield
The Seaweed and the Clay
Wednesday, July 9, 12-1pm
The artist will create slab built ceramic pots using seaweed for imprinted decoration. Basics of slab building and printing on clay will be covered.
Christopher Scott Brumfield is an artist, art teacher, and writer from South Louisiana. His favorite artistic medium is clay, but he works in whatever material he feels at the time. His work includes large-scale outdoor installations, rooftop installations of ceramic cities, gallery shows, ongoing photo projects around the world, and ephemeral work based in nature. Since finishing graduate school in 2001, Brumfield has had fourteen solo shows and many hundreds of group shows. He currently divides his time between Blue Hill, Maine and Baton Rouge, Louisiana and shares his life with his husband, three dogs, two cats and many house plants.
Brumfield can be found on his website at www.christophersblues.com or swimming in the nearest body of water.
Marnie Reed Crowell & Danielle D’Auria
The Heron Witch
Wednesday, July 16, 12-1pm
Marnie Reed Crowell will read from her new young adult novel The Heron Witch, published by Green Writers Press in February 2025, followed by a conversation and book signing. She will be joined by Danielle D'Auria, a wildlife biologist who contributed data and original research to the novel.
About The Heron Witch
When city girl Nancy moves to a small coastal Maine town she meets Mariner, the Great Blue heron with a GPS tracking device on its back. We follow the actual tracking data of this real-life heron through the story as a lobster fisherman’s son and a mysterious naturalist with an uncanny way with animals take Nancy in hand with engaging results.
Marnie collaborated with Danielle D’Auria (pictured above on right with Marnie), a wildlife biologist who works in the Bird Group at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, on the Heron Tracking Project data used in the novel.
About Marnie
Marnie Reed Crowell is a natural history writer with an MS in biology from University of Pennsylvania. She is married to Ken Crowell, a retired ecology professor who taught at St Lawrence University. She has written a number of books based on nature such as Great Blue: The Odyssey of a Great Blue Heron (Times Books, 1980), as well as magazine articles for such publications as Audubon, Natural History, and others.
About Danielle
Danielle D’Auria, Waterbird Specialist, is a wildlife biologist who works in the Bird Group of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. She focuses on understanding statewide populations of colonial wading birds, secretive marsh birds, black terns, loons, and other rare water birds. Since 2009, she has spent the majority of her time researching why great blue herons have undergone a decline along Maine’s coast.
Robert Shetterly
Americans Who Tell the Truth
Wednesday, July 23, 12-1pm
Robert Shetterly will give a talk about his portrait series Americans Who Tell the Truth and take us behind the scenes of his creative process, followed by Q&A and a book signing.
Robert Shetterly was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated in 1969 from Harvard College with a degree in English Literature. After college and moving to Maine in 1970, he taught himself drawing, printmaking, and painting.
For more than 20 years he has been painting the series of portraits Americans Who Tell the Truth. These portraits have been traveling around the country since 2003. Venues have included everything from university museums and grade school libraries to sandwich shops, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City, and the Superior Court in San Francisco. To date, the exhibits have visited 35 states. In 2005, Dutton published a book of the portraits by the same name. In 2006, the book won the top award of the International Reading Association for Intermediate non-fiction. New Village Press in New York City has published a series of themed books on the portraits. Each volume contains 50 portraits. The series includes Portraits of Racial Justice (2021), Portraits of Earth Justice (2022), and Portraits of Peace Makers (2024).
The portraits have given Shetterly an opportunity to speak with children and adults all over this country about the necessity of dissent in a democracy, the obligations of citizenship, sustainability, US history, and how democracy cannot function if politicians don’t tell the truth, if the media don’t report it, and if the people don’t demand it.
Richard Kane’s film Truth Tellers about the Americans Who Tell the Truth project premiered in the fall of 2021 and has been showing across the country. In July 2022 it played at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Robert Shetterly lives with his partner Gail Page, a painter and children’s book writer and illustrator, in Brooksville, Maine. Read more about Rob and the AWTT portraits series on the website.
ISLE Theater Company & Marvin Merritt IV
Theater in the Park
Wednesday, July 30, 12-1pm
ISLE Theater Company will share a short teaser from its summer production, followed by a conversation with Artistic & Executive Director Marvin Merritt IV and Affiliate Artist Riley Conrad. Join us for a sneak peek at this year’s original, site-specific work and learn more about ISLE’s mission, creative process, and community-centered productions that are brought to life in unexpected places.
Founded in 2020 by Marvin Merritt IV, ISLE Theater Company is a performing arts organization dedicated to creating professional, community-driven work in unique spaces that connect audiences with new places, people, and perspectives. Based out of the Shakespeare School in Deer Isle, ISLE fosters deeper community engagement and cultural exchange through innovative programming. In 2025, ISLE Theater Company celebrates its fifth-anniversary season.
ISLE Theater Company on Instgram
www.isletheater.org
Marvin Merritt IV, a Deer Isle native, is the founding Artistic & Executive Director of ISLE Theater Company. A graduate of Harvard University, he has trained internationally at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow, and the Moscow Art Theatre School.
Marvin Merritt IV on Instagram
www.marvinmerritt.com
Thomas Gotwals
What Is a Trumpet?
Wednesday, August 6, 12-1pm
Thomas Gotwals will present What Is a Trumpet?, a talk on the history of the trumpet, followed by live music performed with Frank Gotwals and Renee Sewall, two local musical colleagues.
Thomas Gotwals was born in Northampton, MA and grew up between there and Oceanville, where his great grandfather was born and brought up. He attended Oberlin College & Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio where he earned bachelor degrees in trumpet playing and classical Greek literature. He also has a masters degree from the Yale School of Music in New Haven, CT.
After teaching music in various independent schools in CT, RI, NY, and Sydney, Australia over the course of 40 years, Thomas moved to Oceanville in 2023 where he lives with his wife and two cats. He has continued to play the trumpet over the years in various rock bands, jazz bands, brass ensembles, chamber orchestras, and churches and currently performs with several bands in the area.
Lewis Robinson
The Islanders
Wednesday, August 13, 12-1pm
Lewis Robinson will read from his novel The Islanders, published by Islandport Press in September 2024, followed by a conversation and book signing.
About The Islanders
Shaken by problems at home, confused by the motives of a new love, and reeling from a public meltdown, high school hockey star Walt McNamara joins an exclusive new leadership program controlled by the ultra-wealthy summer residents of Whaleback Island, a granite and spruce oasis off the coast of Maine. But this is no paradise; secrets lurk in its murky waters.
As Walt and his fellow misfits, including the determined Aubrey and fierce Tess, are pushed physically and mentally by ex-military instructors, exposed truths from the island’s past and present slowly reveal the reasons behind their intense training. With danger mounting, Walt, Aubrey, Tess, and the others must use their new skills to sort friend from foe and find a way to survive.
Author Bio
Lewis Robinson is the author of Officer Friendly and Other Stories and Water Dogs, and he is the winner of a Whiting Award, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award, and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His writing has appeared in Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Book Review, and on the National Public Radio program Selected Shorts. He teaches at the University of Maine at Farmington and lives in Portland, Maine with his family.
Jessica Berger Gross
Hazel Says No
Wednesday, August 20, 12-1pm
Jessica Berger Gross will read from her debut novel Hazel Says No, published by HarperCollins in June 2025, followed by a conversation and book signing.
About Hazel Says No
Hazel Blum, please report to the principal’s office. Hazel Blum.
When Hazel Blum’s father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere college town in Maine. With her mother, Claire, a clothing designer, and her father, Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother, Wolf, spend the summer at the town pool, where they acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town’s sprawling community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family.
Tracking through the perspectives of each member of the Blum family, this relatable fish-out-of-water story handles big issues with great empathy and humor, capturing the love that unites one unforgettable family and the essence of life in small-town Maine. Emotionally deft, authentic, and compulsively readable, Hazel Says No is a debut novel not to be missed.
Author Bio
Jessica Berger Gross is the author of the memoir Estranged: Leaving Family and Finding Home. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Longreads, and many other publications. She lives in Maine with her husband and teenage son. Hazel Says No is her first novel. Read more about Jessica on her website and Instagram.
Sarah Braunstein
Bad Animals
Wednesday, August 27, 12-1pm
Sarah Braunstein will read from her novel Bad Animals, published by W.W. Norton in March 2024, followed by a conversation and book signing.
About Bad Animals
Now that her brilliant daughter is off at college, buttoned-up Maeve Cosgrove loves her job at her quiet Maine public library more than anything. But when a teenager accuses Maeve—Maeve!—of spying on her romantic escapades in the mezzanine bathroom, she winds up laid off and humiliated. While Maeve attempts to clear her name, her favorite author, Harrison Riddles, finally responds to her invitation to speak at the library. Riddles announces a plan to write a novel about another young library patron, a Sudanese refugee, and enlists Maeve’s help in convincing him to participate. A scheme to get her job back draws Maeve further into Riddles’s universe—where shocking questions about sex, morality, and the purpose of literature threaten to upend her orderly life.
A writer of “savage compassion” (Salvatore Scibona, author of The Volunteer), Sarah Braunstein constructs a shrewd, page-turning caper that explores one woman’s search for agency and ultimate reckoning with the kind of animal she is.
Author Bio
Sarah Braunstein is the author of the novels Bad Animals and The Sweet Relief of Missing Children, as well as a story collection, Baby in a Box, coming summer 2026 from W.W. Norton. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Joyland, Playboy, The Harvard Review, AGNI, Ploughshares, and is forthcoming in The Best American Stories 2025. She teaches in the department of English at Colby College. Read more about Sarah on her website.
Art Exhibits
Tuesday, August 5 - Saturday, November 1
Reception on Saturday, August 23, 2-4pm
Two exhibits will run concurrently at SPL. There will be light bites & beverages and live music performed by Rugosa Rose at the reception.
Galen Davis: Off the Beaten Path – Maine Landscapes
Galen Davis is a landscape artist living and working in Brooksville and Isle au Haut, Maine. She has worked in a variety of mediums over the years, but now paints primarily in oils. Most of her paintings are of places she’s known and loved for decades. She is drawn to the overall pattern of dark and light and tries to convey something of the beauty and mystery, the starkness and “pull” of these landscapes. Read more about Galen on her website.
Rosalie & Gavin Bayley: The Friendly Maine Lobstermen
All the original artwork from The Friendly Maine Lobstermen, a picture book written by Melissa Jones-Bayley and illustrated by siblings Rosalie and Gavin Bayley, will be on display at SPL. The Friendly Maine Lobstermen was published by Penobscot Books in June 2024.
Wild Words
Let your words be wildly free to express your heart's desire.
Saturday-Sunday, August 16-17, 2:30-4:30pm
About Wild Words
Strengthen your connection to words and stories. Through movement, craft, and writing, actively honor your personal story while developing a relationship with the words you select to share your insights and journey. Connect with others who have a desire to courageously share their own writing. Gentle movement and activities will invite writers to get out of our heads and into our hearts to bring our words to life. All levels welcome.
Wild Words will be taught by Victoria Rose, a summer resident of Stonington. Victoria is volunteering her time to teach Wild Words, and there is no fee to participate in the workshop. Donations accepted with 100% going to support SPL. Email SPL to register.
About the Instructor
Victoria’s relationship with words and stories has been both personal and professional. She initiated youth writing workshops in 1997 as a way to allow young writers the opportunity to write what they care about. The workshops continue to evolve while maintaining the essence of creating a sacred space for participants to listen to the stories that are asking to be written. Victoria Rose M.Ed. has been published in the Goose River Anthology (2023), Urban News and Observer, Asheville Citizen-Times, Fresh, Hudson River Sampler and Hudson Valley Literary Magazine. She taught Writing Memoirs at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. Her workshops have been offered at LEAF (Lake Eden Arts Festival, Black Mountain, NC), Montford Books & More (Asheville NC), and John C. Campbell Folk School. When she's not writing, you can find her dancing or hiking. Read more about Victoria and Wild Words on her website.
Ongoing Programs
Read with Tenny
Second Tuesday of every month at SPL, 11-11:30am
June 10, July 8, August 12, September 9
Visit and read with certified therapy dog, Tenny, on the second Tuesday of every month at 11am. His person, Jessica Shively, will bring him by SPL to meet some of our youngest patrons and their families. It’s a chance for kids to learn new ways of interacting with a dog and with each other in a (loosely) structured activity. Tenny is a 3 year old, 105 pound Great Pyrenees mix who grew up on the Maine coast. He loves love and sharing it with other people. His human, Jessica, moved to Stonington from Castine in the summer and spends her days beachcombing with Tenny and exploring new hiking trails. Follow Tenny and Jessica on Instagram.
Music with Abby
Fourth Tuesday of every month at SPL, 11-11:30am
June 24, July 22, August 26, September 23
Let’s get musical! Explore rhythm and music with island singer, songwriter, and musician Abby Litman on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 11am. Kids won’t be hushed for making noise in the library. In fact, they’ll be encouraged. Read more about Abby on her website and Instagram.
Reader’s Choice Book Club
Fourth Monday of (almost) every month on Zoom, 6:30-7:30pm
June 23, July 28, September 22
SPL’s monthly book club series meets on the fourth Monday of every month with a break in August to soak up the sun. Our 2025 theme is reader’s choice. Each month’s title was selected by a book club member who will lead the discussion of their chosen book. New readers are welcome to join any time. Discussions take place on Zoom. Email SPL to join the book club mailing list.
Read more about the books and the readers who chose them in an earlier newsletter. Here’s what remains on our 2025 schedule:
June 23: Starter Villain by John Scalzi • selected by Shannon Lindsay
July 28: American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson • selected by Andrew Stoessel
September 22: The Eyes & the Impossible by Dave Eggers • selected by Laura Watson
October 27: James by Percival Everett • selected by Katherine Page
November 24: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen • selected by Sally McConnell
December 15: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens • selected by Sue Stoessel