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| Gulf of Maine Writers' Association | |
|---|---|
| Name | Gulf of Maine Writers' Association |
| Type | Nonprofit literary organization |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Portland, Maine |
| Region served | Gulf of Maine |
Gulf of Maine Writers' Association is a regional literary organization based in Portland, Maine that supports writers across the Gulf of Maine region, including coastal communities in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. It offers programs, events, publications, and networking opportunities to poets, novelists, essayists, playwrights, and scholars. The association engages with cultural institutions, festivals, and educational partners to foster a vibrant literary ecosystem along the Atlantic seaboard.
The organization was founded in 2001 by a coalition of writers, editors, and educators from Portland, Boston, Halifax, Saint John, and Bar Harbor who sought a transnational literary network linking Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Early supporters included figures affiliated with Bowdoin College, Colby College, Bates College, University of Maine, University of New Hampshire, Simmons University, Boston University, Harvard University, Tufts University, Queen's University at Kingston, and arts administrators from Canada Council for the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts. Initial activities were co-hosted with regional festivals such as Maine Literary Festival, Portland Poetry Festival, Halifax International Book Festival, and institutions like Maine Historical Society, Peabody Essex Museum, and The Portland Museum of Art. The association expanded through partnerships with local libraries including Portland Public Library, Bangor Public Library, Boston Public Library, and university presses such as University of Maine Press and Northeastern University Press.
The association’s mission emphasizes support for creative writing, mentorship, professional development, and public literary engagement across coastal New England and Atlantic Canada. Programs include mentorships modeled after initiatives associated with MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, residency exchanges inspired by Yaddo and MacDowell, and writer-in-residence placements partnered with museums like Peabody Essex Museum and historic sites such as Wadsworth-Longfellow House. Professional development offerings have drawn on grant models from National Endowment for the Humanities, fellowship templates like those of National Endowment for the Arts, and curriculum ideas from Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and Iowa Writers' Workshop. The association administers fellowships, small grants, and development stipends reflecting practices used by PEN America, Academy of American Poets, Society of American Historians, and regional arts councils.
Membership comprises emerging and established writers, editors, translators, teachers, and cultural managers from cities and towns including Portland, Maine, Bangor, Maine, Augusta, Maine, Concord, New Hampshire, Manchester, New Hampshire, Salem, Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Saint John, New Brunswick, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The governance structure mirrors nonprofit boards similar to those of Pen Brooklyn, Poets & Writers, and university-affiliated literary organizations at Columbia University, Yale University, and Princeton University. Committees oversee programming, finance, publications, and outreach, often coordinating with funders such as Maine Arts Commission, New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, Canada Council for the Arts, and private foundations like Rockefeller Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The association runs seasonal readings, craft workshops, manuscript intensives, and panels with visiting authors drawn from lists including Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Annie Proulx, Michael Chabon, Stephen King, Elizabeth Strout, Louise Erdrich, Richard Russo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Colm Tóibín, Zadie Smith, Edna O'Brien, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Joyce Carol Oates, Bernard Malamud, and Doris Lessing as exemplars cited in program syllabi. Workshops reflect pedagogical approaches from Iowa Writers' Workshop, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, GrubStreet, and university extension programs at University of Southern Maine, Simmons University, and Boston University. Public events have been hosted at venues including Portland Observatory, State Theatre (Portland), Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Scotiabank Centre, and municipal arts centers in Camden, Maine and Kittery, Maine.
The association publishes an annual literary journal and a periodic newsletter featuring fiction, poetry, essays, and criticism by members and visiting contributors. Publication models follow examples set by The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Granta, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Tin House, Poetry Magazine, and university journals such as Harvard Review and Boston Review. Awards and prizes administered include short fiction prizes, poetry chapbook awards, and travel fellowships similar to those given by PEN America, Pulitzer Prize committees, National Book Foundation, Scotiabank Giller Prize, and regional honors like Maine Literary Awards and New England Book Awards.
Partnerships extend to cultural and educational institutions such as Maine Humanities Council, New Hampshire Humanities Council, Boston Center for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Halifax Public Libraries, Saint John Arts Centre, and regional festivals including Belfast FestivalBelfast, Maine, Maritime Writers' Festival, and Word on the Street (Canada). Outreach includes school visits coordinated with districts like Portland Public Schools and postsecondary collaborations with University of New England (United States), Acadia University, Mount Allison University, and community colleges across the Maritimes. Collaborative projects have involved conservation groups and historic trusts such as Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Historic New England.
Alumni and associated writers include regional and national figures who have held fellowships, taught workshops, or presented readings: authors connected by geography or collaboration to Elizabeth Strout, Stephen King, Annie Proulx, Richard Ford, Seamus Heaney, Michael Ondaatje, Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Louise Erdrich, Richard Russo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, Colm Tóibín, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Doris Lessing, Edna O'Brien, E. Annie Proulx, Robert Pinsky, Billy Collins, Rosanne Cash, Charles Simic, Joy Harjo, Natasha Trethewey, Tracy K. Smith, Louise Glück, Billy Collins (poet), Mary Oliver, and regional luminaries associated with New England and Atlantic Canadian letters such as E.B. White, Stephen King, Linda Greenlaw, Annie Dillard, Robert McCloskey, Wendell Berry, Ned Beauman, Susanna Clarke, Alistair MacLeod, Wayne Johnston, Shirley Jackson, and Elizabeth Bishop.
Category:Literary societies Category:Organizations based in Portland, Maine