Kate Christensen & Caitlin Shetterly: Writing Maine Novels

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Mechanics' Hall (Maine)

A Conversation about what it means to write novels set in Maine

Mechanics' Hall

Caitlin Shetterly is a a native Mainer who left and came back, Kate Christensen is a transplant who never wanted to leave but left after 10 short years in spite of her desire to stay forever. What does it mean to write about Maine? It’s a very particular place, historically, geographically, culturally. Why is it hard to write about? Why is it inspiring to live there. Join us for this discussion and conversation about writing Maine.Christensen is a forceful writer whose . . . prose is visceral and poetic. . . . She is a portrait artist, drawing in miniature, capturing the light within.” —San Francisco ChronicleFrom the PEN-Faulkner Award-winning author of The Great Man comes a novel about grief, love, growing older, and the complications of family that is the story of a fifty-something woman who goes home—reluctantly—to Maine after the death of her mother.Can you ever truly go home again? KATE CHRISTENSEN is the author of seven prior novels, most recently The Last Cruise. Her fourth novel, The Great Man, won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has also published two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Her essays, reviews, and short pieces have appeared in a wide variety of publications and anthologies. She lives with her husband and their two dogs in Taos, New Mexico.Caitlin Shetterly is the author of the recent novel, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/pete-and-alice-in-maine-caitlin-shetterly/19218368?ean=9780063242661" title="https://bookshop.org/p/books/pete-and-alice-in-maine-caitlin-shetterly/19218368?ean=9780063242661" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Pete and Alice in Maine</a>, which Allegra Goodman reviewed for The New York Times as a "debut [that] achieves a subtle grace, a quality of light and shadow worthy of a Bergman film.” A Maine native, Shetterly is the author of three previous books, including the bestselling Fault Lines: Stories of Divorce. She graduated with honors from Brown University and now lives with her two sons and husband in her home state. She held her book launch for Pete and Alice in Maine at Mechanics’ Hall last summer.

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Kate Christensen & Caitlin Shetterly: Writing Maine Novels

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Kate Christensen & Caitlin Shetterly: Writing Maine Novels

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