Tina Bennett is a literary agent who specializes in narrative nonfiction, literary journalism, idea books, politics, history, current affairs, memoir, and academic crossover titles. Her clients include Atul Gawande, Malcolm Gladwell, Lev Grossman, Laura Hillenbrand, Hope Jahren, Patrick Radden Keefe, Jill Lepore, Dahlia Lithwick, Alex Ross, and Eric Schlosser. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.

Mia Bogyo is the Education Programs Manager for CMCA. She is an arts educator and community artist with experience teaching all ages for schools, non-profits, and art centers. She received a BFA in K-12 Art Education from USM in Portland, ME and an alumnus of GSA.

Julia Bouwsma, Maine’s sixth Poet Laureate, lives off the grid in the mountains of western Maine. Bouwsma’s two poetry collections, Midden (Fordham University Press, 2018) and Work by Bloodlight (Cider Press Review, 2017), received Maine Literary Awards for Poetry Book. She currently serves as the Library Director for Webster Library in Kingfield, ME and teaches in the Creative Writing department at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Winner of the Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award, Joan Dempsey is the author of the novel, This Is How It Begins, which won the bronze Independent Publisher Book Award for literary fiction and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award, and Sarton Women's Book Award. This Is How It Begins was also selected by the American Library Association for the 2018 Over the Rainbow List of Literature Titles. Her writing has been published in The Adirondack Review, Alligator Juniper, Obsidian: Literature of the African Diaspora, and Plenitude Magazine, and aired on National Public Radio. She lives in Maine with her partner

Liza Donnelly is an award-winning cartoonist and writer for The New Yorker Magazine and other publications. Author and editor of 18 books for children and adults, her most recent book is a history, Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Women Cartoonists, and her book Women on Men was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Donnelly’s essays and political cartoons have appeared in the NY Times, Washington Post, Medium and CNN.com and others. A sought-after international public speaker; her TED talk was translated into 40 languages and viewed online over 1.4 million times, she has spoken at the United Nations, and was accepted to speak at SXSW three times. Donnelly received an honorary PhD from the University of Connecticut for her work in peace and women’s studies. The innovator/creator of digital live journalism, Donnelly has worked for CBS News and CNN covering live events and politics in digital live-drawing. She created animations for CBS News, Flatiron Books, as well as scripting a short animation for TED. Liza is based in New York.

Ian-Khara Ellasante (they/them) is a black, queer, trans-nonbinary poet and cultural studies scholar. Their poems have won the 49th New Millennium Award for Poetry and have appeared in We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics, The Feminist Wire, The Volta, Hinchas de Poesía, Nat, Brut, and elsewhere. They are an assistant professor of gender and sexuality studies at Bates College in southern Maine.

George Emlen, who lives in Blue Hill, is a conductor, composer, arranger, song-leader and music educator in Maine and Massachusetts. For 32 years he was music director of Revels, the Boston-based, national organization behind the annual Christmas Revels, a rich and joyful celebration of the winter solstice. In Maine he founded and conducted the Acadia Choral Society, while also conducting the Oratorio Chorale and the Mount Desert Summer Chorale. George has been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, where he directed the Conservatory Camerata; Lesley University in the Creative Arts in Learning program; the College of the Atlantic, and the University of Maine. In recent years he has worked with Bobby McFerrin in the vocal improvisatory genre of Circlesinging.

Award-winning poet Beatrix Gates’ New & Selected Poems will be published by Thera Books in 2023. Her six poetry collections include Dos and Lambda Poetry Award finalist, In the Open. Her translations of Jesús Aguado’s poems and her poetry appear in bateau, Beloit Poetry Journal, Kenyon Review and Tupelo Quarterly. Gates’ hybrid work appears in Jane Cooper: A Radiance of Attention (Michigan) and “For Orlando: Make Beautiful in Maine” in Scotland’s MAP. A long-time member of Goddard’s MFA faculty, she has taught literature and writing for over thirty years in many settings, including Colby College, NYU, CCNY, libraries in Maine and NYC and Maine Maritime Academy. She serves on the Board of The Cannery at South Penobscot and founded SIDELINES/ In Translation Series. She grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts with roots in Hancock, Maine and lives in Brooksville, Maine.

Jason Grundstrom-Whitney is a poet, writer, songwriter and musician who plays bass, harmonica, and various wind instruments. His poetry collection, Bear, Coyote, Raven (Resolute Bear Press, 2019) was reviewed in The Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly, and The Quoddy Times. The adopted son of Joan M. Dana, the Bear Clan Mother of the Passamaquoddy, Jason currently works as Substance Abuse Counselor/Co-occurring Specialist at Riverview Psychiatric Hospital.

Elizabeth Hand is the author of nineteen award-winning novels and five collections of short fiction and essay. Her work includes the series of psychological thrillers featuring Cass Neary, “one of noir's great anti-heroes” (Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love), the historical crime novel Curious Toys, about visionary artist Henry Darger, and the recent supernatural thriller Hokuloa Road, set in Hawai'i. She divides her time between the Maine coast and London.

Samantha Haskell grew up in Blue Hill and became the owner of the community's independent bookstore, Blue Hill Books, in 2017. She is a graduate of College of the Atlantic, on the Board of the Blue Hill Heritage Trust, as well as a member of the Word Festival Steering Committee.

Jamie Hogan is an author, award-winning illustrator, and educator. She taught illustration at Maine College of Art for fifteen years and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Jamie's picture books capture nature themes with vivid characters and magical realism. Her most recent book, Skywatcher, is a call to find the wonders of dark skies and the wilderness within us. She lives on Peaks Island with her husband and daughter.

Lily King is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels, including most recently Writers & Lovers and Euphoria. Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Book Award for Fiction, a MacDowell Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and she has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Hemingway Award. She lives in Portland, Maine.

Daniel Mahoney is a writer and translator whose work has appeared in journals all over the world. He is the author of Sunblind Almost Motorcrash, a book and cassette project out from Spork Press in 2015 and Quantum Entanglement, a chapbook published by Hard to Swallow in 2017. He is the editor in chief of Bateau Press.

Poet, translator, and essayist Jennifer Moxley’s most recent collection is For the Good of All Do Not Destroy the Birds (Flood, 2021). Author of numerous poetry books, as well as a memoir, Moxley’s poetry book The Open Secret won the 2015 William Carlos Williams award and was a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts award. She is Professor of Poetry and Poetics at the University of Maine.

Todd R. Nelson is a former educator who has worked in schools in five states, including Union 93. He has lived on the Blue Hill peninsula since 1998—not far from the “headwaters” of his Colby ancestors. His writing has appeared in Maine and national publications including, Taproot, The Christian Science Monitor, Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald, The Ellsworth American and Maine Public Radio. His book of personal essays, Cold Spell, has just been published by Down East Books.

Maria Padian has a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and a master’s degree from the University of Virginia. She is a freelance writer, essayist, and author of young adult novels, including Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress, Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best, Out of Nowhere, Wrecked, and How to Build a Heart. She lives in Brunswick, Maine, where she is at work on a new novel. Visit her online at http://www.mariapadian.com

Zeke Russell was born in Skowhegan and grew up around the zany and energetic artist's community of West Athens. He is a poet and housing advocate operating in greater Boston. His work has appeared in Wyvern Lit, Drunk In A Midnight Choir, Freezeray Poetry, Maps For Teeth and Button Poetry online. Russell was a member of the 2016 and 2017 Boston Poetry Slam teams, reaching the semi-finals of NUPIC in 2017. He has published three chapbooks and his debut poetry collection is forthcoming from Game Over Books in 2023. He lives with his partner Milo and returns home to Central Maine as often as he can.

Tim Seabrook has been working in fine art intaglio printmaking for 45 years. His early exhibits began with Images 69 at Ohio’s Baldwin-Wallace College followed by The Biennial at The Cincinnati Art Museum and juried exhibits at The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Seabrook won the George Sherman Medal Award from the Society of American Graphic Artists in New York City. He has exhibited nationally and internationally at Fairfield Hall in London; Cape Split Place in Addison, Maine; and his work has been in juried shows at Maine Coast Artists in Rockport and the Barrett Art Center National Printmaking Exhibition in Poughkeepsie, NY. Seabrook was selected for “Maine Printmakers 1980-2006,” curated by Bruce Brown, and the Maine Arts Commission’s “Maine Printmakers 1980-2006,” curated by Donna McNeil. In Maine, he has exhibited at The Leighton Gallery, The Turtle Gallery and The Laughing Lion Gallery. Seabrook’s drawing and printmaking have stayed with him as a dedicated focus next to the long-term work of farming and creating 5 Star Nursery and Orchard with Leslie Cummins. 

Maya Stein is the Editorial Director of Toad Hall Editions, a small press located in midcoast Maine. She is also the author of two collections of creative nonfiction, two books of poetry, several writing prompt booklets, and two recent works—Grief Becomes You (2019), a collection of writings on grief with more than 60 contributors, and The Poser: 38 Portraits Reimagined (2021), featuring contemporary art recreations and essays. When she was 8 years old, Maya earned perfect scores on her spelling tests 6 weeks in a row, an accomplishment noted by her teacher in a bright pink report card. More than 40 years later, Maya is still a stickler for good spelling and grammar, and likes to play word games in her head. When she’s not attending to serial commas and split infinitives, Maya can be found riding her bicycle on back roads and perfecting her lip-sync skills.

Best known as “Paul” of the multi-platinum-selling group Peter, Paul & Mary—and for writing and performing “The Wedding Song”—Noel Paul Stookey has been a singer and songwriter since the 1960s. As an independent musician living in Blue Hill, his newest compositions address major issues from climate change to gun control.

Phuc Tran has been a high school Latin teacher for more than twenty years while also simultaneously establishing himself as a highly sought-after tattooer in the Northeast. His 2012 TEDx talk “Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive” was featured on NPR’s Ted Radio Hour. His acclaimed memoir, SIGH, GONE: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and The Fight To Fit In, received the 2020 New England Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2021 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. SIGH, GONE was named a best book of 2020 by Amazon, Audible, Kirkus Reviews, and many other publications.