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The first meeting of the Franco-American Book Club took place at the end of November. I say it was the first, but really, I didn’t conceive of our virtual get-together, hosted on-line by the Franco-American Center of the University of Maine, as the beginning of anything. I intended to host a friendly, low-stakes, no-prep conversation…
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When my son was a toddler, when we would set a plate of food in front of him or hand out treats to a group of playmates, we would often say, “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.” It was a way of managing expectations, forestalling meltdowns, and it has been our…
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One of the upsides of the current, COVID-centric state of things is that it’s given the Franco-American Center at the University of Maine a broader reach. In the past you had to be near Orono to take advantage of their resources, but since the spring, the Center has hosted some truly great virtual events that…
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UPDATE (November 21) : The final events of the festival, including mine, have been postponed due to the recent uptick in COVID cases within the Atlantic bubble. I will post information about new dates when I have them. Theatre New Brunswick kicks off their virtual Fall Festival of New Plays tonight with an on-line reading…
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I can’t go on.I’ll go on.– Samuel Beckett If you’re someone who enjoys live performance, you should check in on the venues and artists you love. Without ticket revenue, theaters of all kinds of struggling. Artists, designers, and technicians, who rely on live performance for their livelihoods (and who chose lives in the arts to…
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What a nice surprise to find this treasure in my mailbox today: the 2020 Best Canadian Poetry anthology. The pleasure of having my work included was considerable, but it’s even greater now that I see the poets among whose work my little poems are nestled — some familiar names (Amber Dawn, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Margaret…
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UPDATE: Episode 2 of Le Moncton Studio Video Radio Show, which was postponed, has now been rescheduled! The show will be broadcoast Monday, September 21, 2020, at 7pm EST (8pm ATL). You can find the relevant info and links here: https://www.facebook.com/events/608291316716135/ [ORIGINAL POST:] How’s your pandemic going? My primary observation about it is that it…
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Every year, the NotaBle Acts Theatre Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick, premieres a whole slate of brand new plays. To me, it is the most exciting this about the festival: it encourages the creation of new work and creates an audience for it, something that most theater companies are downright sluggish about attempting. This year,…
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I’m delighted to share that my new chapbook, Clean Margins, recent winner of the Harbor Review Editor’s Prize, is out now. You can read it here! My sincerest thanks to Allison Blevins and the whole gang at the Harbor Review for inviting these poems in and presenting them so beautifully. Kind words: In the midst…
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In the past month or two since the social-distancing measures have been in place, the crew at the Franco-American Programs of the University of Maine in Orono has hosted weekly on-line events that they’re calling “Kitchen Table Talks.” The talks have explored everything from the role of the French in the American Revolutionary War to…
