The Northeast Harbor Library is hosting the exhibit “Of Cod and Communities” by Linda
Buckmaster January 2-27 in the Library’s Mellon Gallery. In conjunction with the exhibit on
January 27 from 10 am to 12 pm, Buckmaster will be offering a free writing workshop, “Writing
Place: Landscape, People, and Story.”
“Of Cod and Communities” is adapted from Buckmaster’s book Elemental: A Miscellany of
Salt Cod and Islands, a Finalist in the Maine Literary Awards. She has collaborated with
Portland designer Lori Harley to create eight 3′ x 5′ soft fabric banners printed with text
and images. They are designed to hang in community spaces such as libraries to reflect the
centuries-long interrelationships between the North Atlantic cod and humans.
The workshop is open to writers of all levels and suitable for writers of poetry, prose, or
anything in between including visual imagery. Through exploration, writing exercises, the
work of other authors, and discussion, participants experiment with words to explore a
place that calls to them.
The exhibit is traveling to seven coastal libraries over the year. Penobscot Marine Museum
in Searsport is a co-sponsor of the exhibit, which is funded in part by a grant from the
Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National
Endowment for the Arts.
Linda Buckmaster has lived within a block of the Atlantic most of her life, growing
up in Florida and living in midcoast Maine for fifty years. She has an MFA from the
University of Southern Maine, and her poetry, essay, and fiction have appeared in over
forty journals. She has held residencies at Vermont Studios Center, Atlantic Center for the
Arts, and Obras Foundation among others. Two of her pieces have been listed as Notable
Essays in Best American Essays 2013 and 2020. Her hybrid memoir, Space Heart. A Memoir
in Stages, was published by Burrow Press in 2018. Her latest hybrid, Elemental: A
Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands (Huntress Press 2022), is the first installment in a series
of creative and eclectic responses to the beauties and realities of islands across the North
Atlantic Rim.
