BELFAST – Belfast Author Linda Buckmaster will be holding a launch party for her new book “Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands,” published by Huntress Press. The event will be held on Sunday, April 10 from 4-6p.m. at the Basil Burwell Theater in Belfast. There will be a short reading from the book at 4:30 p.m. All are welcome.
Through essay, poetry, historical documents, and fiction, Elemental traces the imprint of the lowly salt cod over time in communities across the North Atlantic and Caribbean. The book is the first installment in a series of creative and eclectic responses to the beauty and realities of islands in Maine, Newfoundland, and northwest Scotland. Previously an editor for a commercial fishing magazine and former Poet Laureate of Belfast, Buckmaster knits fact and lyric into her narrative net.
The book weaves together the interconnections, geographies, histories, and cultures of island communities of the regions with cod fishing and production tying them together. Part travelogue, part social history, part place-based fiction, Elemental combines the author’s personal travel and research.
Poet Gary Lawless says of the book: “We follow the mixed history of cod, humans, and place as Linda searches for a proper engagement with islands that humans have been influencing since the glaciers receded. Elemental, yet rich with history, rich with poetry, song, and story, rich with the lives of many beings.”
Books will be available for sale at the launch party. They can also be purchased at independent bookstores along the coast. For online orders through Hello Hello Books in Rockland, visit https://hellohellobooks.com/item/Df_tS1yhYZZgN9szsf8CfQ.
Buckmaster has lived in Waldo County for four decades. Her poetry, essay, and fiction have appeared in over 40 journals. Two pieces were “Notable Essays” in Best American Essays 2013 and 2020. Her hybrid memoir “Space Heart. A Memoir in Stages” was published by Burrow Press in 2018. Buckmaster earned an MFA from the Stonecoast program of the University of Southern Maine. She was adjunct faculty in the University of Maine System, and now teaches community-based writing workshops around the state.