2025 Festival Kickoff

has published three books: Chinese Brushstrokes (a memoir), The Art of Nesting (poetry), and A Tale of Love (a translation). She has been the recipient of various literary awards and recognitions, including the Emily Dickinson Poetry Award and a Jane Kenyon Poetry Fellowship. Her most recent chapbook The Beautiful Foolishness of Things was a finalist in the 2022 Poet’s Corner chapbook contest.

lives in Camden and Monhegan Island. Her poetry and essays have been published in numerous journals and anthologies. Her first poetry collection, Transportation, was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. Her other books include Tourists in the Known World and Island: Haiku, which received a Merit Book Award from the Haiku Society of America.

is the author of Blanket of the Night: Poems (Deerbrook Editions, 2024). His poetry has appeared in The Café Review, Maine Arts Journal and Maine Sunday Telegram, among other publications, as well as in several anthologies edited by Wesley McNair. In 2021 the Rabkin Foundation awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award for his art writing. Little lives on Mount Desert Island.

is currently working on her master’s thesis, a manuscript of original poetry and poetics. Her work explores the relationship between lineage and identity as well as the healing capacities of language and the natural world. She gathers inspiration from her deep connection to this land that her ancestors have stewarded for many generations, and which she herself has farmed for over a decade. April lives with her partner Eric and two dogs in Belfast, Maine.

is a farmer and carpenter. He loves geeking out on nature, outdoor recreating and all things that ferment. Artistic expression is something he strayed away from during adolescence.  Only recently has writing poetry and music come back into practice, after a 10-year hiatus.