“I recommend Maine writer Lily King’s beautiful, riveting novel, Father of the Rain, about the ecosystem of a divided New England family in the 1970s. Out in paperback just in time for the beach.”
Susan Conley, Portland
Author of The Foremost Good Fortune

“Some of my favorite Maine summer reading can be found in Collected Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay. From a description of a storm on Matinicus, ‘the children whimpered, and the doors blew shut’ to wrenching love poems about ‘sullen rocks and skies’ or meditations on being ‘weedily washed ashore,’ Millay never fails to bring me deeper into life and into the Maine landscape.”
Annie Finch, Falmouth
Director of Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing and author of a collection of poems called Calendars

“I’ve just gotten back into reading fiction and plan to binge on Richard Russo’s Empire Falls this summer, making it the first big novel I’ve read in years. I love all of Hannah Holmes’ books, but my hands-down favorite is Suburban Safari. It’s an ingenious mix of science and essentially memoir. I’ve never looked at a crow the same way since.”
Amy Sutherland, Portland
Author of What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage

“I’m inundated with a deadline writing Nature’s Undertakers . . . and cutting my wood, gardening, and getting my bees set up. So I’m afraid I have no time for recreational reading. My two most recent books are about summer, though: The Nesting Season and Summer World. I heartily recommend both of them!
Bernd Heinrich, Weld

“Paul Doiron’s The Poacher’s Son. Smart, suspenseful, and the rare summer novel you won’t be ashamed to have on your beach towel.”
Elizabeth Hand, Lincolnville
Author of Illyria

“The Maine literary event of the year for me has been the recent launch of Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry, our collaboration with newly appointed Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair. The project puts one poem by a Maine poet into more than two-dozen Maine newspapers each week. That means the poems are being put in front of more that 150,000 readers! The fiction debut of the year in Maine has got to be Sarah Braunstein’s The Sweet Relief of Missing Children. Here’s how MWPA assistant director Stephen Abbott describes the novel: ‘It is unflinching, unfiltered, utterly unique, and crackingly honest.’ ”

“How about a couple of hours in a hammock with a Tobin James Zinfandel and Edna St. Vincent Millay? ‘So here upon my back I’ll lie
 And look my fill into the sky. . . .’ Ol’ Edna can get a mite gloomy, so if you’re in the mood for something lighter, I’d recommend the same hammock with a Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc and the new Julia Spencer-Fleming (One Was a Soldier) or Paul Doiron (Trespasser) mystery. Cheers!”
Monica Wood, Portland
Author of the forthcoming When We Were the Kennedys

“The book I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this summer is called Moon Watchers. It’s a children’s book by my great friend Reza Jalali, and my two-year-old daughter, Jai-Yen, I’m sure she will love it. There’s so much going on this summer that I look forward to — rumor has it that Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance is going to throw down an on the farm summer party in late July; also, the Telling Room’s Hive camp for young writers always brings some awesome talent out of the woodwork.”
Jaed Coffin, South Portland
Author of A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants

“There are four books authored by Mainers on my summer to-read list: Paul Doiron’s Trespasser (second in the Mike Bowditch series); Shonna Milliken Humphrey’s Show Me Good Land (a debut novel!); Cynthia Lord’s Touch Blue (winner of the Lupine Award!); and Sarah Braunstein’s The Sweet Relief of Missing Children (Sarah’s a Portland author recently recognized nationally as one of the five-under-thirty-five to watch!). Plus, I’m looking forward to the annual Books in Boothbay event on July 9 at the Boothbay Railway Village, where I’ll join dozens of my favorite Maine authors to gather and meet readers.”
Maria Padian, Brunswick
Author of Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best