EASTPORT — The first Eastport Arts & Poetry Festival will take place this summer, Aug. 15-16. Sponsors include Rossport by the Sea, Charles R. Moore, The Cafe Review and Eastport’s Peavey Memorial Library.
Featuring 16 locally, regionally, nationally and internationally critically-acclaimed poets, the festival will offer a high-quality and powerful, cultural and educational experience — and all the pleasures that hearing great poetry in a beautiful setting at the height of summer can provide. Admission is free.
Festival organizers envision an annual event and a proudly grassroots, 100% volunteer-run celebration in partnership with community organizations, local businesses, and friends who share a deep appreciation and love of the arts — poetry, music, images, and the word on Maine’s beautiful Bold Coast.
Keynote poet will be the renowned Andrei Codrescu, the Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio. Yet poets from New York to New Brunswick as well as many from Maine, will be reading their work live from the shores of Cobscook Bay, including
- Michael Palma, acclaimed author and translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy
- Mikhu Paul, eminent indigenous poet, educator, editor and cultural activist
- Carl Little, illustrious and prolific Maine poet, art critic, historian, and broadcaster
- Sue Sinclair, multi-award-winning poet and professor from New Brunswick
- Charles Cantalupo, Eastport resident and widely published poet / scholar
- Bill Carpenter, highly celebrated Maine poet and novelist.
The longstanding and distinguished, Portland literary journal, The Cafe Review, and its founding and legendary editor Steve Luttrell have been instrumental in festival planning.
The EAPF gathering will be putting Eastport on the regional and national literary map as it has never been before.
In conjunction with the festival, Peavey Memorial Library will present an exhibit of many of the poets’ works. The books will be provided by the poets themselves, who will also donate them to the library’s permanent collection.
In addition to poetry readings, the two-day event will feature a host of fine musicians, many of them local, as well as artwork, craftsperson tables, and food trucks. Poets will be signing their books, and Eastport’s own Boatload of Books will be the festival’s official bookseller.
Further information at https://eastportpoetryfestival.org/.