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Festival of the book

Hob-nob with literary celebs

By DEIRDRE FULTON | May 19, 2008

If you want to be closer to Ethan Hawke, mark your calendar to attend the second annual Maine Festival of the Book, to be held this Thursday through Saturday in Portland. Well, kinda.

See, in 2001, Hawke (an author himself) and a few high-minded literary friends (Rick Moody, Hannah McFarland, and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh) established the Young Lions Fiction Award, administered by the New York Public Library. The award bestows honor and cash (to the tune of $10,000!) to writers under 35. This year, Waterville native Ron Currie Jr. won the whole shebang for his 2007 novel, God is Dead (Viking Press). And on Saturday, May 17, Currie will read from and discuss his work at the Portland Public Library, as part of the book festival. So, Ethan Hawke > Ron Currie > you. Get it?

Anyway. Organizers have packed the three-day schedule with readings and workshops with more than 50 authors and other literary creatives, and aside from the opening night extravaganza, everything’s free, first-come, first-served. In addition to Currie (see “Killing the Deity,” by Christopher Gray, September 5, 2007), the line-up includes:

Native Mainer Elizabeth Strout, whose latest book, Olive Kitteridge (Random House) won me over with its brilliant characterizations of various life stages (see “When I’m Sixty-Four,” by Deirdre Fulton, April 2).

Portland resident Amy Sutherland, whose popular What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage (Random House) explores using animal-training techniques on the people you love. (I think my editor was going to try this out ... Jeff, how did it go?) [Editor's note: If my wife and the Phoenix staff haven't noticed, everything's going perfectly.]

Crystal Zevon, long-time partner of Warren, and the author of I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon (Ecco).

David Baldacci, gubernatorial cousin and bestselling author of political and spy thrillers.

Poet Annie Finch (plus, on Saturday night, a poetry slam put on by PortVeritas).

And many more, including photographers, children’s-book authors, and local non-fiction authors.

With the Portland Public Library struggling for cash (despite having recently been dubbed Portland’s “Best Kept Secret” by Phoenix readers), it seems like the ideal time to celebrate our local bookish qualities. The wonder of words isn’t something to be kept clandestine.

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