“Hidden in Plain Sight - My Lichen Journey” Mary Harding completed the Maine Master Naturalist program in 2022 which was held at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm. After completing the program, she decided to take a closer look at lichen and continued an independent study of the subject as well as taking two courses at the Eagle Hill Institute in Steuben, Maine. As a Maine Master Naturalist she enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for the topic with community groups and as a Naturalist Volunteer with the [...]

As the Casco Baykeeper, Ivy Frignoca is the lead advocate for Friends of Casco Bay (FoCB). She is an environmental attorney with expertise in the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws, and worked as a Senior Attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation before moving to Maine. Her leadership roles in the Maine marine community have included Co-Founder of the Maine Ocean Climate Collaborative, member of the Maine Climate Council’s Coastal and Marine Working Group, and member of the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership executive committee. [...]

The Making of a Novel: Last Night at the Disco Lisa Borders' third novel, the dark comedy Last Night at the Disco, is set largely in 1977 and narrated by a New Jersey junior high school teacher who spends her weekends at Studio 54. There, she discovers two musicians who become among the most influential artists of the 1980s – and decades later, having burned bridges with them both, she tells her story in hopes of securing her rightful place in rock ‘n’ roll history. Lisa's [...]

Belonging isn’t always something we inherit. It’s something we search for and, hopefully, find. Author Michael Lowenthal will read from and discuss his new essay collection, Place Envy, which traces a lifelong search for identity, queer lineage, and connection across cultures, histories, and the self. Through journeys that span continents and communities, Lowenthal explores what it means to feel rooted—or unmoored—and how storytelling can bring us closer to truth.   Michael Lowenthal is the author of the novels The Same Embrace, Avoidance, Charity Girl, and [...]

No surprise that Michael's time has been in demand this summer in many other fascinating directions.  Sadly rather than next week, Hhe will join us next Summer 2027! **************** Michael Delola is a nature and macro photographer who focuses on insects, spiders and other tiny arthropods like springtails and mites, as well as fungi and slime molds. He is also a forager, citizen scientist and amateur mycologist. His work aims to explore the hidden and surprising beauty of under-represented and under-appreciated organisms in the Midcoast [...]

Meadow Dibble, Ph.D. is a writer, organizer, and public memory advocate who has been facilitating complex, searching conversations about modes of historical recovery while developing sustained local engagement processes aimed at surfacing truth, fostering healing, and achieving justice. She is Founding Executive Director of Atlantic Black Box. Originally from Cape Cod, Meadow lived for six years on Senegal’s Cape Verde peninsula, where she published a cultural magazine from 1996–2000 and coordinated foreign study programs. She received her Ph.D. from Brown University’s Department of French Studies [...]