On Wednesday, October 28th at 5:30pm, members of Jesup Memorial Library's weekly online writers’ group will read and talk about their writing, how the group works, and how you can become a member. Featured writers will include Michelle Bates, Joan FitzGerald, Stephanie Lyn, Andrew McQuinn, Steven Roiphe, and Carol Woolman.
Michelle Bates graduated with a degree in Psychology from University of Maine at Farmington. She lives in Surry Maine. Currently, she works as a janitor for Meadow View Apartments in Ellsworth. She writes lyrics, short stories, and novels. Her motivation for writing is to educate her daughters when they are older about adult topics to keep them well informed. Also, she writes comedic stories to entertain friends and family. She is currently editing her novel I’ll be there, a story about a People's Temple member falling in love with an outsider.
Joan FitzGerald was an award-winning financial journalist for several print publications before she escaped copy editors to face child-rearing. But something of those days took. Between family meals and school lice checks she began writing stories. Years later, children with their own, she has drawers of short stories, poetry, and the source materials and drafts of two odd novels. At present she is working on re-imagining three fairy tales that have haunted her life for years. In hosting the Write On! group, the Jesup Memorial Library and its staff have proven to be an important source of inspiration and ongoing support to her for which she is very grateful.
Stephanie Lyn recently relocated to the Blue Hill peninsula from Los Angeles, amidst protests that she’ll never be able to survive winter or the loss of easy access to Whole Foods. She fully expects her love for the area to carry her through. A writer of poetry and fiction, her most recent works focus on her fascination with nature and spooky happenings at a northeastern boarding school.
Andrew McQuinn has a degree in video production from the New England School of Communications. After graduating, he spent six years in Las Vegas, working as a stagehand. He now resides in Bangor, where he works as a care coordinator for kids with special needs. When he’s not writing, Andrew is spending time with his partner Louis or his feline fur baby Marty. Andrew has two published novels and a novella. He’s been featured in two short story anthologies, and his latest work, Things that go Bump in the Night, which he will be reading from tonight, is currently on pre-order and is set to be released in early December.
Steven Roiphe graduated from Harvard with a degree in Psychology, which may someday help him make sense of the world. His prose has appeared in a number of literary magazines, garnering a Pushcart Prize nomination. Steven lives with his wife and young son in Lamoine, where he’s writing one novel about sentient clown puppets who battle for America’s soul, while seeking a book agent for another about a bratty possessing spirit’s attempts to spark social justice down through US history.
Carol Woolman was born and raised in southern New Jersey. She had a 30-year career as a psychotherapist until she was 70. She has been a Quaker for the past 50 years. Carol moved to Maine in 1968 and raised four children. Her youngest child, Mark Horner, died in 1998, when he was 25. Her latest book, Ecology of Grief, A Mother’s Witness, is about living through that death.