Celebrating the Dead Bards of the Dirigo State

Wesley McNair Poems

Maine's new Poet Laureate has a website, where you can learn more about him and his work. He is the editor of the highly acclaimed "The Maine Poets: An Anthology" (The Google Books link has some free pages to view, but it is definitely worth buying).

His poetry has been chosen by former US Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, for the American Life in Poetry series. Two of them are "For My Wife", and "The One I Think of Now".

You can also watch a great video from the Library of Congress, where McNair shared the dais with Maxime Kumin in a 2006 reading.

Colby College also has a video online called "My Life as a Poet" which is a 51-minute presentation he gives about his life. It includes slides and pictures from his early family life and items from his papers, which are collected at Colby Special Collections.

Congratulations to Wesley McNair: New Maine Poet Laureate

Last night at the amazing Poetry Out Loud Maine State finals, Governor Paul LePage's daughter announced that Wesley McNair is the new Poet Laureate of Maine. I had the privilege of serving as a fellow judge with Wes at the competition (video from Lewiston Sun Journal)

Way to go Wesley!

Oct 7th Reading at Most Beautiful Places in Maine

You don't want to miss the October 7th unique event "Remembering Maine's Dead Poets"

We'll be reading poetry together at 5 community events at some of the MOST BEAUTIFUL locations in Maine. 

HARPSWELL: 6:15...NOBLEBORO: 9:15... CAMDEN:10:45....CASTINE:1:15...

BLUE HILL:2:50...MT. CADILLAC: 5:30 (There are rain locations for each event)

Dead Poets Grand Tour To Start From Portland!

On April 23rd the Dead Poets Grand Tour 2010 will kick-off a 34-day, 21-state trip from Portland, Maine. Once again, Maine leads the nation!

Along the way 13 State Poets Laureate will be meeting the Tour and holding public readings, where we'll announce some very exciting news about a new national literary holiday.

Come join Maine laureate, Betsy Sholl, Portland laureate, Steve Luttrell, Martin Steingesser, Ken Nye, Megan Grumbling, and other poets as they read from Maine's past poets. The meeting place is going to be Eastern Cemetery, at 12:30 PM, with a rain location just across the street at the North Star Cafe.

You can see the interactive map of the route with the dates of the stops in all 22 States.

If you have the time, please support the North Star Cafe by having lunch or a snack after the reading. :)