Category: Arts

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Working Waterfront

In the wake of sexual assault

The Damage By Caitlin Wahrer (Viking) Review by Carl Little “The dying detective’s house was a tall, dark blue thing with chipping trim and shutters.” That is how Caitlin Wahrer’s captivating debut novel, The Damage, begins: a simple expository sentence featuring detail and intrigue. In the ensuing story, Wahrer guides… SEE MORE
Lobster Fishermen, Marsden Hartley

Working Waterfront

Marsden Hartley’s Corea and ‘Lobster Fishermen’

This column marks the launch of an occasional feature by renowned art writer Carl Little on images of Maine’s working waterfront. When Marsden Hartley returned to his native state in 1937, he was determined to become “the painter from Maine.” Born in Lewiston in 1877, he had spent time in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The Maine coast, 50 years ago

Thanks to the Farnsworth Art Museum for use of these photos shot by George Tice in several Maine coastal towns in 1971.     [caption id="attachment_28820" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Bertram Peabody and son clam digging on Beals Island, 1971.[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_28821" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Painted lobster buoys, Stonington, 1971.[/caption]   [caption… SEE MORE
book jacket

Working Waterfront

More Maine voices: tales from here, everywhere

Most of the 16 stories collected in North by Northeast 2: New Short Fiction by Maine Writers are set in Maine, and most of them approach their subject matter fairly realistically. Some, though, go outside the boundaries of conventional realism. Several stories by contributors to North by Northeast 1 (published… SEE MORE
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Working Waterfront

The Midcoast’s master of realistic sci-fi

The Best of Elizabeth Hand By Elizabeth Hand, edited by Bill Sheehan (2021) Death, darkness, dismay, and the supernatural are hallmark characteristics of Elizabeth Hand’s highly literary weird fiction, and The Best of Elizabeth Hand collects a dozen exemplary stories from across her long career. The book contains a number… SEE MORE
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Working Waterfront

A tasty how-to: Maine’s homegrown food

The Maine Farm Table Cookbook: 125 Homegrown Recipes from the Pine Tree State By Kate Shaffer (Countryman Press, 2021) The Maine Farm Table Cookbook, part of its publisher’s “Farm Table” series, is authored by Kate Shaffer, who comes credentialed with some Downeast culinary experience and, notably, founder of Black Dinah’s… SEE MORE
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Working Waterfront

Whiteness and Maine’s ‘distinct alien race’

A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans By David Vermette (2018) Growing up in the Midcoast, the only thing I knew about French-Canadians was what I learned from my dad. He said the stereotype was of the “dumb Frenchman” who usually took shop classes in high school and… SEE MORE
Carl Little PHOTO: ERIN LITTLE

Working Waterfront

Art writer Carl Little honored

The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, dedicated to recognizing and rewarding writers who make art accessible to general audiences, have awarded a $50,000 lifetime achievement award to poet and art critic Carl Little of Mount Desert. For more than 30 years, Little has been one of the primary cultural connections… SEE MORE