All Books in Boothbay Authors for 2011

We're just days away from this year's Books in Boothbay festival. Here is the fully list of our attending authors and artists. Browse our blog for their bios and other information, and we'll see you soon!

Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Liza Bakewell
Crash Barry
Cheryl Blaydon
Bill Bunting
Tim Caverly
Holly Chamberlin
Richard Shain Cohen
Melissa Coleman
Susan Conley
Ron Currie, Jr.
Katharine Davis
Paul Doiron
Sandra Dutton
Cathryn Falwell
Ardeana Hamlin
Karel Hayes
Hannah Holmes
Shonna Milliken Humphrey
Lily King
Carole Lambert
Cynthia Lord
John McDonald
Tammy L. R.Meserve
Dana Moos
Lillian Nayder
James L.Nelson
Jim Nichols
Maria Padian
Alice Parsons
Van Reid
Michael S.Sanders
Caitlin Shetterly
Susan Hand Shetterly
Jennifer Smith-Mayo & Matthew P. Mayo
Julia Spencer-Fleming
Randy Spencer
Harrison Thorp
Chris Van Dusen
Lea Wait
Jim Witherell

Carole Lambert

Award-winning author Carole Lambert spent 11 years abroad as an editor at the International Herald Tribune, and journalism professor at the American University in Paris and l’École Supérieur de Commerce. She has written three books on sea glass, and continues to write for numerous magazines and newspapers. She has searched for sea glass around the world and now lives in coastal Maine, which offers prime hunting grounds. She found her first piece of sea glass when she was 5.

Dana Moos

In addition to her background in design and photography, Dana Moos has immersed herself in the world of innkeeping, as a B&B owner, manager and chef, as well as real estate and marketing specialist to the hospitality industry. Her unique combination of talents has been the subject of several articles and she has been invited to judge culinary competitions in her home state of Maine. Currently chef and manager of the prestigious Pomegranate Inn in Portland, Dana brings a fresh flair to the first, and many say most important, meal of the day. The Art of Breakfast is her first book, which she both wrote and photographed. Dana is now the General Manager at the Pomegranate Inn where she cooks breakfast for her guests from the cookbook.

Jennifer Smith-Mayo and Matthew P. Mayo

Photographer Jennifer Smith-Mayo, and her husband, writer Matthew P. Mayo, are co-authors of the recently released book Maine Icons: 50 Classic Symbols of the Pine Tree State, published by Globe Pequot Press, May 2011. Maine Icons is a handsome visual tour of Maine that profiles the likely suspects—lobster, blueberries, lighthouses, whoopie pies—plus a whole lot of surprises, too (Raye’s Mustard, Renys, Fog, and so many more!).

Jennifer specializes in photography of fine dining, rural living, and farming in the US, England, Ireland, Italy, and Scotland. Her photographs have appeared in Down East, National Geographic, The New York Times, and others. Her work has been selected for a variety of juried exhibitions and her solo shows include Learning to Grow: In the Garden with Troy Howard Middle School, Belfast, Maine; Futzing with Focus: Images in Motion; and Kelmscott (Rare Breeds) Farm: Through the Seasons. Jennifer is also an instructor and teaches digital imaging and digital photography workshops for the University of Maine and Senior College at the Hutchinson Center.

Matthew is the author of a number of novels and non-fiction books, including Bootleggers, Lobstermen & Lumberjacks; Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears; and the forthcoming Sourdoughs, Claim Jumpers & Dry Gulchers. His novels include the Westerns Winters’ War; Wrong Town; and Hot Lead, Cold Heart, and he contributes to several series of popular adventure novels. His award-winning short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Needle: A Magazine of Noir; DAW Books’ Steampunk’d and Timeshares; How the West Was Weird, Vol. II; Mondo Sasquatch; and A Fistful of Legends. Matthew also edits anthologies and contributes to several magazines as writer and editor.

Jennifer and Matthew and their dear dog Nessie live in Northport in the midcoast region of Maine. They frequently travel west to Montana, and east to England and Ireland. Visit Jennifer at: www.jennifersmithmayo.com; and Matthew at: www.matthewmayo.com.

Ardeana Hamlin

Ardeana Hamlin of Hampden, Maine, is the author of two previous novels, "Pink Chimneys" and "A Dream of Paris." Her latest book, "Abbott's Reach" is a sequel to "Pink Chimneys." She is a newspaper journalist and writes the weekly By Hand column about fiber arts.

Chris Van Dusen

Chris Van Dusen writes: “I was born in Portland, Maine, on St. Patrick’s Day, 1960. As a child, my brothers and I would spend hours drawing pictures. We didn’t have video games or computers to entertain us, so we drew instead. One of my brothers would sketch intricate war scenes. Another would draw animals so realistic you’d swear they were breathing. My specialty was aliens, robots, and monsters.

“Dr. Seuss and Robert McCloskey were my heroes. I loved the rhythm of Dr. Seuss’ words and I was fascinated by the meticulous detail of Robert McCloskey’s illustrations. I had no idea back then that I’d end up writing and illustrating children’s books when I grew up.

“After high school, I studied fine art at The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and graduated with a BFA in 1982. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. First I was a waiter, and then I was offered a part-time job at a magazine for teenagers. Eventually I started drawing cartoons and illustrations for the magazine and my career as an illustrator was born.

“For more than ten years I worked as a freelance illustrator specializing in art for kids. I was doing mostly editorial work and my illustrations appeared in magazines like Nickelodeon, Family Fun, and Disney Adventures. One day I started thinking about drawing a picture of a boat stuck high up in a tree. I thought that would be a really funny and intriguing illustration. At the same time, a refrain kept running through my head—“Mr. Magee and his little dog, Dee / Hopped in the car and drove down to the sea.” The combination of these two things eventually became my first book, Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee (Chronicle), which was published in 2000. Since then I’ve written and illustrated A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee (Chronicle) (2003), If I Built a Car (Puffin) (2005) and I’ve had a ball illustrating Kate DiCamillo’s Mercy Watson series (Candlewick).

“My contribution to Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out is the illustration of Teddy Roosevelt, who was one of my favorite presidents. I knew he was a great environmentalist, but I was surprised to learn that he and his children kept so many pets in the White House. I could just imagine that TR would have found it quite amusing to be surrounded by so many animals, so that’s what I started sketching.

 “I relied on old photographs for reference. I had photos of the president laughing, photos of his children, and even photos of their pets. Since I’ve never been inside the White House, I had photos of that, too. I had to make the staircase wider than it actually is to accommodate five children and twenty-two animals! In the end, I hope my painting captures the playful energy of Teddy Roosevelt’s White House.”

Lily King

Lily King’s first novel, The Pleasing Hour (1999), won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and a Whiting Award, and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second, The English Teacher (2005), was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award.

Father of the Rain, her third novel, was published last summer and won the New England Book Award for fiction.  It was also a New York Times Editor's Choice, and a Publishers Weekly and Washington Post Best Book of the Year.

Tammy LR Meserve

Edgecomb resident Tammy LR Meserve says she knew she wanted to become a writer from a very early age. Born and raised in Damariscotta, Maine that dream followed her from the age of seven right on into adulthood.

"I have always been passionate about words,” said Meserve.  “As a young child, I remember telling my dad that I wanted to become a writer when I grew up. He encouraged me to follow my dreams. He was my biggest fan. When I was about nine years old, my father introduced me to local award winning author, Mary C. Jane of Newcastle. Mrs. Jane wrote children’s mysteries and became a wonderful friend and mentor.”

As an adolescent, Meserve began submitting poetry and feature articles to local newspapers and church newsletters and enjoyed seeing her words in print. The list of publications to highlight her work soon included several national magazines.

The publishing experiences during her youth led her to begin writing regularly. Since 1988 and the birth of her son Tyler, she has written for various publications, statewide and nationally and has won varied awards for Journalism.

Meserve began working on her first children‘s book, “There’s a Moose Loose in the Hoose!” in 2007. Since its publication in 2009, she has written a second book and is currently at work on her third.