Paul Lisicky Presents "Song So Wild and Blue" with Michael Colbert

Mechanics' Hall, Maine Writer's & Publishers Alliance, The State Theatre, and Longfellow Books present a conversation with Paul Lisicky and Michael Colbert, reflecting on Paul's latest book Songs So Wild and Blue.

From the moment Paul Lisicky heard Joni Mitchell while growing up in New Jersey, he recognized she was that rarity among musicians--a talent whose combination of introspection, liberation, and deep musicality set her apart from any other artist of the time. As a young man, Paul was a budding songwriter who took his cues from Mitchell's mysteries and idiosyncrasies. But as he matured, he set his guitar aside and lost himself in prose, a practice that would eventually take him to the Iowa Writers' Workshop and into the professional world of letters.

As the decades passed, Paul's connection to Mitchell's artistry only deepened. Joni's music was a constant, a guide to life and an artist's manual in one. As Paul navigated love and heartbreak and imaginative struggles and the vicissitudes of a creative career, he would return again and again to the lessons found in Joni's songs, to the solace and challenges that only her musicianship could give.

Song So Wild and Blue is a gorgeously written, beautifully intimate, and unique tribute to the woman whose artistry shaped generations of creators and thinkers. Lisicky offers his own coming-of-adulthood as testimony to the power of songwriting and staying true to your creative vision. A guide to life that is part memoir, part biography, and part homage, Song So Wild and Blue is a joy for devoted Joni enthusiasts, budding writers, and artists of all stripes.

Wednesday, June 4 at 6:00 PM (Doors 5:30 PM), approximately 60 minutes, followed by a Q&A and book signing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Lisicky is the author of seven books including Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell, Later: My Life at the Edge of the World (one of NPR's Best Books of 2020), as well as The Narrow Door (a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award), Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, Conjunctions, The Cut, Fence, The New York Times, Ploughshares, and in many other magazines and anthologies. His honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Rose Dorothea Award from the Provincetown Library. He has taught in the creative writing programs at Cornell University, New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere. He is currently a Professor of English in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Camden, where he is Editor of StoryQuarterly. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Michael Colbert is a writer and editor based in Portland, Maine, and he’s at work on a novel about a celebrity ghost hunting reality TV show. His writing appears in One Story, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Dwell, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, NYLON, Interview, Hazlitt, Electric Literature, The Florida Review, The Cincinnati Review, and Atlas Obscura, among others. He writes the books and pop culture newsletter, Referential, and is the founding editor of The Rejoinder; he has also served as a fiction reader for Ecotone and STORY. For No Contact, he was a prose editor and wrote Cinemacabre, a column weaving memoir and horror film criticism. A winner of the 2021 Shorter Fiction Prize, he has attended the Tin House Summer Workshop and was a 2021-2022 Brauer Fellow at UNCW. Michael studied at Bowdoin College and earned his MFA in fiction at UNC Wilmington, where he also taught creative writing.

PARKING & TRANSPORTATION

Mechanics’ Hall is located at 519 Congress Street. Our main entrance is between Loquat Shop and the Art Mart. The Greater Portland Metro’s Congress & Casco Street Stop is directly in front of our building, served by routes 1, 7, 8, and 9B.

Parking is available at the Arts District Garage, which has entrances on Casco and Brown Street, with a rate of $5 per hour. Metered street parking is available on Congress, Casco, Cumberland, Free Street, and other nearby streets. Free hourly street parking is available between Parris and Alder Street.

ACCESSIBILITY

To enter our building, patrons will need to navigate a single step. There is a wheelchair-accessible elevator and a ramp available upon request.

If you have a wheelchair or need accessibility accommodations/questions please contact us at programming@mainemechanics.org or 207-773-8396.