Award-winning writer Annaliese Jakimides will teach a flash fiction workshop, using art currently on display at the museum as inspiration. “Likely, you'll surprise yourself with what bubbles up,” says Jakimides. 

“Flash fiction is known by many names, including sudden fiction, short-short stories, and microfiction. Although people often think it's a ‘new’ form of writing, it's been around for as long as we've been writing stories.”

Jakimides has placed in the World's Best Short-Short Story Contest multiple times.

Winner of the Acadia Prize in Poetry, Annaliese Jakimides has more than five hundred publications in magazines, journals, anthologies, and newspapers, and broadcast online and on radio. She has multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and has been a finalist for the Maine Literary Awards in both Poetry and Nonfiction—multiple times for each one—as well as for the Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize. Her work has also been included in art venues such as ArtWord at the Portland Museum of Art. Her essay for NPR’s vaunted This I Believe program was included in the show’s anthology and CD, curated by Liane Hansen. Jakimides’ most recent publication is the essay “I Tell Henry the Plate Is Red,” in the anthology Breaking Bread (Beacon Press, 2022).

A native of inner-city Boston, she moved to northern Maine and raised a family, growing almost all of their food and pumping water by hand. She currently lives in an apartment overlooking the copper dome of the Bangor Public Library. She is also a noted teacher of writing. In addition to working with urban environmental justice organizations and international arts groups, she has developed humanities programs for schools and discussed life through the lens of children’s literature in a variety of settings, including prisons, community centers, and libraries.

Jennifer Steen Booher is an artist and conceptual photographer who lives on Mount Desert Island, where she has been exploring and studying the intertidal zone for over 20 years. She is fascinated by the way science and history intersect within issues like ecosystem dynamics, climate change, and marine debris. As her understanding deepens, she has been experimenting with ways to address the drama and poetry she finds in these specialized fields.

Working in multiple media, including still life photography, cyanotype, and drawing, she teases apart the complex interactions underlying biological and cultural consequences of change in the local climate. And although they draw on verified and reliable data, the resulting images are rooted in curiosity and exploration. She never lost that childhood delight in poking around in seaweed on muddy knees, filling her pockets with shells and stones and sticky things, and incessantly asking, “Why?”

Join us at this Gilley for this free and fabulous monthly event to learn more about Jenn and her art.

There will be a 6pm reception followed by a 7pm program that will be simultaneously livecast on Zoom. No charge, but registration is required.

People-Nature-Art is a free monthly series that brings artists, writers, carvers, and creative types of all kinds to the Gilley to explore how nature and art interact in their work, and how their art impacts their own approach to nature.

Join Kathie Pratt and work in clay to create a nature-themed bas relief that you’ll be able to complete and take home that day.

Artists create a bas-relief by sculpting onto a 2-D plane to create and accentuate figures and objects, producing a 3-D appearance. We’ll be using polymer clay and baking it off, then painting it. Then, students will be shaping them around glass jars to make a decorative container.

Class size is limited.

Flock to the Gilley for a fun and informative few hours with field ecologist and expert birder Seth Benz. Seth will delve into research and share current sightings and insights. Bring your own questions and curiosity, a favorite bird-related reading, or your latest observations. Depending on weather, the group might go for a bird-sighting walk outside.