Stonington Public Library

Summer Art Story Time
2025-07-12 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-08-09 10:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York) | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Island artists lead our summer story time series with read-aloud stories and art activities for kids and their families.We are heading outdoors to Small Cove Park, a few short steps from SPL at 6 Atlantic Avenue (right behind Camden National Bank), to take advantage of the fresh air and natural beauty. All ages welcome.
June 14: Jill Hoy
July 12: Jadyn LaDeau
August 9: Matthew Moncavage
The rain venue for all story time programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.
SPL hosts story time on the second Saturday of every month from 10-11am. Check our website or social media (@stoningtonpublicllibrary) for details, because we often go offsite to various island locations for story time.

Writing Historical Fiction
2025-07-12 13:00 - 15:00, 2025-07-13 13:00 - 15:00, 2025-07-14 09:00 - 11:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
This is a three-day course focused on generating—rather than simply workshopping—historical fiction. Using writing prompts and exercises, assignments, readings, and self-directed research, participants will leave the course with the seeds for larger writing projects. We’ll discuss the purpose of and place for historical fiction today, and how stories can transcend time altogether.
The class meet from 1-3pm on Saturday and Sunday, July 12 and 13, and from 9-11am on Monday, July 14.
$225 – Email SPL to register. We will keep a short waitlist in case of any cancellations.
About the Instructor
Ben Shattuck’s most recent book, The History of Sound (Viking, 2024), was the winner of the Story Prize Spotlight Award and nominated for the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. His first book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau (2022), was a New Yorker Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, a New England Indie Bestseller, and was nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and winner of the PEN Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793. Read more about Ben on his website and Instagram.

Ben Shattuck Reading & Reception
2025-07-12 15:30 - 17:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Join Ben Shattuck at SPL for a reading from The History of Sound and a reception with light bites and beverages. The History of Sound will be available to purchase from Blue Hill Books, and the author will sign books at the end of the program.
Read more about Ben on his website and Instagram.

Shore Acres Preserve Ecology Walk with Tom Wessels
2025-07-14 09:00 - 11:00 | Shore Acres Preserve, Greenlaw District Rd, Deer Isle, ME, 04627
Join Maine author and naturalist Tom Wessels for an interpretative walk through Shore Acres Preserve. Co-hosted by Stonington Public Library and Island Heritage Trust. Space is limited, and RSVPs are required. Contact SPL at the phone or email below.

Seaside Series: Marnie Reed Crowell & Danielle D'Auria
2025-07-16 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
The Heron Witch
Marnie Reed Crowell will read from her new young adult novel The Heron Witch, published by Green Writers Press in February 2025, followed by a conversation and book signing. She will be joined by Danielle D’Auria, a wildlife biologist who contributed data and original research to the novel.
About The Heron Witch
When city girl Nancy moves to a small coastal Maine town she meets Mariner, the Great Blue heron with a GPS tracking device on its back. We follow the actual tracking data of this real-life heron through the story as a lobster fisherman’s son and a mysterious naturalist with an uncanny way with animals take Nancy in hand with engaging results.
Marnie collaborated with Danielle D’Auria, a wildlife biologist who works in the Bird Group at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, on the Heron Tracking Project data used in the novel.
About Marnie
Marnie Reed Crowell is a natural history writer with an MS in biology from University of Pennsylvania. She is married to Ken Crowell, a retired ecology professor who taught at St Lawrence University. She has written a number of books based on nature such as Great Blue: The Odyssey of a Great Blue Heron (Times Books 1980), as well as magazine articles for such publications as Audubon, Natural History, and others.
About Danielle
Danielle D’Auria, Waterbird Specialist, is a wildlife biologist who works in the Bird Group of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. She focuses on understanding statewide populations of colonial wading birds, secretive marsh birds, black terns, loons, and other rare water birds. Since 2009, she has spent the majority of her time researching why great blue herons have undergone a decline along Maine’s coast.
The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Downeast with SPL: Family Sunset Cruise
2025-07-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Isle au Haut Boat Company, 37 Seabreeze Avenue, Stonington, Maine, 04681
A family trip with breathtaking views!
Sunset cruise with SPL and Isle au Haut Boat Services aboard the Otter. Captain Garret Aldrich will take us on a memorable evening tour of Stonington Harbor for all in the family to enjoy. Bask in a glorious sunset while giving back to a public resource—Stonington Public Library—that opens its doors to everyone. There will be no food or beverages served on the family sunset cruise. Participants are welcome to bring along light bites and beverages to enjoy during the cruise.
To make reservations and for payment information, contact SPL at the phone or email below. Please note that SPL is handling all reservations for the sunset cruise.
$50 minimum donation
Downeast with SPL is a fundraising series showcasing local makers, producers, and artists. These small, intimate gatherings are a chance to meet the people and businesses behind the tastes and beauty and moments that we love about Downeast Maine. Our partners are generously donating their time and services and handmade goods to support Stonington Public Library’s mission.

Land & Sea Exhibit Reception
2025-07-19 14:00 - 16:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
SPL is hosting its first summer group exhibit, Land & Sea, this year. The exhibit is curated by Adell Donaghue, island resident and professional artist for four decades. The show is on display and open for viewing during library hours from Tuesday, July 15 through Saturday, August 9.
There will be light bites & beverages and live music performed by Rugosa Rose at the reception.

Music with Abby – a Pre-K program
2025-07-22 13:30 - 14:00, 2025-08-26 11:00 - 11:30 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Let’s get musical! Explore rhythm and music with island singer, songwriter, and musician Abby Litman. Kids won’t be hushed for making noise in the library. In fact, they’ll be encouraged.

Seaside Series: Robert Shetterly
2025-07-23 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Americans Who Tell the Truth
Robert Shetterly will give a talk about his portrait series Americans Who Tell the Truth and take us behind the scenes of his creative process, followed by Q&A and a book signing.
Robert Shetterly was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated in 1969 from Harvard College with a degree in English Literature. After college and moving to Maine in 1970, he taught himself drawing, printmaking, and painting.
For more than 20 years he has been painting the series of portraits Americans Who Tell the Truth. These portraits have been traveling around the country since 2003. Venues have included everything from university museums and grade school libraries to sandwich shops, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City, and the Superior Court in San Francisco. To date, the exhibits have visited 35 states. In 2005, Dutton published a book of the portraits by the same name. In 2006, the book won the top award of the International Reading Association for Intermediate non-fiction. New Village Press in New York City is published a series of themed books on the portraits. Each volume contains 50 portraits. The series includes Portraits of Racial Justice (2021), Portraits of Earth Justice (2022), and Portraits of Peace Makers (2024).
The portraits have given Shetterly an opportunity to speak with children and adults all over this country about the necessity of dissent in a democracy, the obligations of citizenship, sustainability, US history, and how democracy cannot function if politicians don’t tell the truth, if the media don’t report it, and if the people don’t demand it.
Richard Kane’s film Truth Tellers about the Americans Who Tell the Truth project premiered in the fall of 2021 and has been showing across the country. In July 2022 it played at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Robert Shetterly lives with his partner Gail Page, a painter and children’s book writer and illustrator, in Brooksville, Maine. Read more about Rob and the AWTT portraits series on the website.
The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Reader's Choice: American Spy
2025-07-28 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
Reader’s Choice: Andrew Stoessel
Monthly SPL book club that meets on Zoom. Contact SPL at email below to join the book club mailing list.
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
MILS catalog record
“It’s 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She’s brilliant, but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys’ club. Her career has stalled out, she’s overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes.” – From cover jacket
About Andrew
Hometown, current residence, and connection to the island: My wife, Sue, and I moved to Stonington in June of 2022. We are permanent, year-round residents here. Prior to our move we lived in Marblehead, Massachusetts. I have been coming to Little Deer Isle and Deer Isle since the 1970’s when our family rented a house on Little Deer Isle. I have returned nearly every year since then. Sue fell in love with the area when she first came in the 1990’s. We decided to move here when we retired from our respective jobs, doing both in 2022!
Why do you read? I read for all the reasons Chris Ross suggests [in original question to readers: information, escape, relaxation and commitment to a specific topic]. For relaxation, escape and insight, I lean towards fiction and poetry: novels (a favorite genre for escape are mystery, detective, and spy novels), poetry (solace and inspiration). I take on the occasional non-fiction as well (history, biographies, current issues).
What genre do you hate to read? And last book you LOVED: I enjoyed reading the SPL October selection, The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. Horror and science fiction are not my favorite genres, but I did enjoy this book!
Currently reading: I am currently reading Keys to Bonhoeffer’s Haus: Exploring the World and Wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Laura M. Fabrycky as part of another book group.
Why did you choose American Spy? I first read, or rather listened to, American Spy while driving to Stonington from Massachusetts in 2019. The book was highlighted in a NY Times review, and I also heard an interview on NPR with the author, Lauren Wilkinson. This coincided with some work I was doing around anti-racism awareness. In 2022 SPL was featuring books by people of color. Chris asked for suggestions toward the end of the series, and I suggested American Spy. There were other notable books that were chosen, but I am glad to revisit and re-read American Spy this year.

Seaside Series: Juniper Ginger
2025-07-30 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Juniper Ginger is the solo songwriting project of Alex Millan, a southern Maine-based musician and educator. Alex combines her passions for performance and teaching by pulling back the curtain whenever possible – whether it be through writing workshops utilizing the Documentary Songwriting method, “how it’s made” storytelling sessions, or utilizing audience feedback in real time. In this program Alex will perform a set of recently released material, and illuminate the tools and techniques that went into their creation. Lyric geeks rejoice!
When not singing her songs wherever she is welcome to, Alex is a teaching artist and sound engineer for DocSong, frequent collaborator with Stonington faves Dead Gowns, middle school teacher, and cat lover.
Website: www.juniperginger.com
Instagram: @junipergingermusic
The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Downeast with SPL: Modernmaine
2025-08-01 13:30 - 15:30 | Modernmaine Studio, 10 Memorial Lane, Stonington, ME, 04681
Visit the studio where inspiration is transformed into contemporary artist-made lighting. Take home a Modernmaine votive holder.
Studio visit with Modernmaine founder and designer Julie Morringello. Learn how she creates unique light fixtures for homes and businesses. Her work crosses traditional boundaries, in that it is both functional and sculptural, and created from a combination of digital and handmade processes. Most pieces are made from a very thin, translucent wood veneer, to color and pattern may be applied. Take home an original Modernmaine votive holder.
Learn more about Modernmaine here.
To make reservations and for payment information, contact SPL at the phone or email below.
Limited to 12 people
$75 minimum donation
Downeast with SPL is a fundraising series showcasing local makers, producers, and artists. These small, intimate gatherings are a chance to meet the people and businesses behind the tastes and beauty and moments that we love about Downeast Maine. Our partners are generously donating their time and services and handmade goods to support Stonington Public Library’s mission.

Downeast with SPL: Chris Ross Concert
2025-08-02 17:00 - 20:00 | Four Acre Woods Campground, 1181 Sunshine Road, Deer Isle, ME, 04627
Maine musician, singer, and songwriter Chris Ross comes to Four Acre Woods Campground to perform an SPL benefit concert. Check out Chris on Instagram and Facebook.
Pizza by Hearth & Soul from 5-8pm
Music starts at 6pm
Tickets $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Venmo @stoningtonpubliclibrary or reach out to the contact information below to reserve tickets and for other payment options.
Downeast with SPL is a fundraising series showcasing local makers, producers, and artists. These small, intimate gatherings are a chance to meet the people and businesses behind the tastes and beauty and moments that we love about Downeast Maine. Our partners are generously donating their time and services and handmade goods to support Stonington Public Library’s mission.

Rosswords: Sunday Solve
2025-08-03 13:00 - 14:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Grab your pencils and sharpen your minds! Join Chris Ross for a group crossword solve on the first Sunday of every month. All welcome.

Seaside Series: Thomas Gotwals
2025-08-06 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
What Is a Trumpet?
Thomas Gotwals will present What Is a Trumpet?, a talk on the history of the trumpet, followed by live music performed with Frank Gotwals and Renee Sewall, two local musical colleagues.
Thomas Gotwals was born in Northampton, MA and grew up between there and Oceanville, where his great grandfather was born and brought up. He attended Oberlin College & Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio where he earned bachelor degrees in trumpet playing and classical Greek literature. He also has a masters degree from the Yale School of Music in New Haven, CT.
After teaching music in various independent schools in CT, RI, NY, and Sydney, Australia over the course of 40 years, Thomas moved to Oceanville in 2023 where he lives with his wife and two cats. He has continued to play the trumpet over the years in various rock bands, jazz bands, brass ensembles, chamber orchestras, and churches and currently performs with several bands in the area.
The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Read with Tenny – a Pre-K program
2025-08-12 11:00 - 11:30 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Visit and read with certified therapy dog, Tenny, on the second Tuesday of every month at 11am. His person, Jessica Shively, will bring him by SPL to meet some of our youngest patrons and their families. It’s a chance for kids to learn new ways of interacting with a dog and with each other in a (loosely) structured activity. Tenny is a 3 year old, 105 pound Great Pyrenees mix who grew up on the Maine coast. He loves love and sharing it with other people. His human, Jessica, moved to Stonington from Castine in the summer and spends her days beachcombing with Tenny and exploring new hiking trails. Follow Tenny and Jessica on Instagram.

Seaside Series: Lewis Robinson
2025-08-13 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Lewis Robinson will read from his novel The Islanders, published by Islandport Press in September 2024, followed by a conversation and book signing.
About The Islanders
Shaken by problems at home, confused by the motives of a new love, and reeling from a public meltdown, high school hockey star Walt McNamara joins an exclusive new leadership program controlled by the ultra-wealthy summer residents of Whaleback Island, a granite and spruce oasis off the coast of Maine. But this is no paradise; secrets lurk in its murky waters.
As Walt and his fellow misfits, including the determined Aubrey and fierce Tess, are pushed physically and mentally by ex-military instructors, exposed truths from the island’s past and present slowly reveal the reasons behind their intense training. With danger mounting, Walt, Aubrey, Tess, and the others must use their new skills to sort friend from foe and find a way to survive.
Author Bio
Lewis Robinson is the author of Officer Friendly and Other Stories and Water Dogs, and he is the winner of a Whiting Award, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award, and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His writing has appeared in Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Book Review, and on the National Public Radio program Selected Shorts. He teaches at the University of Maine at Farmington and lives in Portland, Maine with his family.
Author photograph by Molly Haley, mollyhaley.com.
The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Downeast with SPL: Wine & Cheese Sunset Cruise
2025-08-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Isle au Haut Boat Company, 37 Seabreeze Avenue, Stonington, Maine, 04681
Tasty bites, delicious drinks, breathtaking views!
Sunset cruise with SPL and Isle au Haut Boat Services aboard the Otter. Captain Garret Aldrich will take us on an evening tour of Stonington Harbor with delicious bites and sips—beyond just wine and cheese—for all to enjoy. Bask in a glorious sunset while giving back to a public resource, Stonington Public Library, that opens its doors to everyone.
To make reservations and for payment information, contact SPL at the phone or email below. Please note that SPL is handling all reservations for the sunset cruise.
$100 minimum donation
Downeast with SPL is a fundraising series showcasing local makers, producers, and artists. These small, intimate gatherings are a chance to meet the people and businesses behind the tastes and beauty and moments that we love about Downeast Maine. Our partners are generously donating their time and services and handmade goods to support Stonington Public Library’s mission.

Wild Words
2025-08-16 14:30 - 16:30, 2025-08-17 14:30 - 16:30 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Let your words be wildly free to express your heart’s desire.
Strengthen your connection to words and stories. Through movement, craft, and writing, actively honor your personal story while developing a relationship with the words you select to share your insights and journey. Connect with others who have a desire to courageously share their own writing. Gentle movement and activities will invite writers to get out of our heads and into our hearts to bring our words to life. All levels welcome.
Wild Words will meet on Saturday and Sunday, August 16 and 17, 2:30-4:30pm.
Wild Words will be taught by Victoria Rose, a summer resident of Stonington. Victoria is volunteering her time to teach Wild Words, and there is no fee to participate in the workshop. Donations accepted with 100% going to support SPL. Email SPL to register.
About the Instructor
Victoria’s relationship with words and stories has been both personal and professional. She initiated youth writing workshops in 1997 as a way to allow young writers the opportunity to write what they care about. The workshops continue to evolve while maintaining the essence of creating a sacred space for participants to listen to the stories that are asking to be written. Victoria Rose M.Ed. has been published in the Goose River Anthology, 2023, Urban News and Observer, Asheville Citizen-Times, Fresh, Hudson River Sampler and Hudson Valley Literary Magazine. She taught Writing Memoirs at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. Her workshops have been offered at LEAF (Lake Eden Arts Festival, Black Mountain, NC), Montford Books & More (Asheville NC), and John C. Campbell Folk School. When she’s not writing, you can find her dancing or hiking. Read more about Victoria and Wild Words on her website.

Seaside Series: Jessica Berger Gross
2025-08-20 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Jessica Berger Gross will read from her debut novel Hazel Says No, published by HarperCollins in June 2025, followed by a conversation and book signing.
About Hazel Says No
Hazel Blum, please report to the principal’s office. Hazel Blum.
When Hazel Blum’s father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere college town in Maine. With her mother, Claire, a clothing designer, and her father, Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother, Wolf, spend the summer at the town pool, where they acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town’s sprawling community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family.
Tracking through the perspectives of each member of the Blum family, this relatable fish-out-of-water story handles big issues with great empathy and humor, capturing the love that unites one unforgettable family and the essence of life in small-town Maine. Emotionally deft, authentic, and compulsively readable, Hazel Says No is a debut novel not to be missed.
Author Bio
Jessica Berger Gross is the author of the memoir Estranged: Leaving Family and Finding Home. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Longreads, and many other publications. She lives in Maine with her husband and teenage son. Hazel Says No is her first novel. Read more about Jessica on her website and Instagram.
The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Downeast with SPL: Deer Isle Oyster Company
2025-08-21 16:00 - 18:00 | Mariners Park, Sunshine Road, Deer Isle, ME, 04627
Slurp, sip, bask: freshly shucked oysters, wine pairings, and a view of Long Cove.
Learn about small-scale oyster and kelp farming on the coast of Maine, enjoy a half dozen freshly shucked oysters with wine pairings presented by Deer Isle Oyster Company founders Abby Barrows & Ben Jackson.
“Our oysters grow in the productive and cold waters of Long Cove, Deer Isle, Maine. Located in Penobscot Bay, the cove has a longstanding history of seafood harvesting, and today supports a community of lobstermen and clam diggers. The farm floats above a soft seafloor, catching nutrient-rich tides while remaining sheltered by the surrounding islands.”
Learn more about Deer Isle Oyster Company here.
To make reservations and for payment information, contact SPL at the phone or email below.
$75 minimum donation
Downeast with SPL is a fundraising series showcasing local makers, producers, and artists. These small, intimate gatherings are a chance to meet the people and businesses behind the tastes and beauty and moments that we love about Downeast Maine. Our partners are generously donating their time and services and handmade goods to support Stonington Public Library’s mission.

Exhibit Reception: Galen Davis and Rosalie & Gavin Bayley
2025-08-23 14:00 - 16:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Two exhibits will run concurrently at SPL from Tuesday, August 12 through Saturday, November 1. There will be light bites & beverages and live music performed by Rugosa Rose at the reception on Saturday, August 23.

Galen Davis: Off the Beaten Path – Maine Landscapes
Galen Davis is a landscape artist living and working in Brooksville and Isle au Haut, Maine. She has worked in a variety of mediums over the years, but now paints primarily in oils. ​Most of her paintings are of places she’s known and loved for decades. She is drawn to the overall pattern of dark and light and tries to convey something of the beauty and mystery, the starkness and “pull” of these landscapes. Read more about Galen on her website.

Rosalie & Gavin Bayley: The Friendly Maine Lobstermen
All the original artwork from The Friendly Maine Lobstermen, a picture book written by Melissa Jones-Bayley and illustrated by siblings Rosalie and Gavin Bayley, will be on display at SPL. The Friendly Maine Lobstermen was published by Penobscot Books in June 2024.

Seaside Series: Sarah Braunstein
2025-08-27 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Sarah Braunstein will read from her novel Bad Animals, published by W.W. Norton in March 2024, followed by a conversation and book signing.
About Bad Animals
Now that her brilliant daughter is off at college, buttoned-up Maeve Cosgrove loves her job at her quiet Maine public library more than anything. But when a teenager accuses Maeve—Maeve!—of spying on her romantic escapades in the mezzanine bathroom, she winds up laid off and humiliated. While Maeve attempts to clear her name, her favorite author, Harrison Riddles, finally responds to her invitation to speak at the library. Riddles announces a plan to write a novel about another young library patron, a Sudanese refugee, and enlists Maeve’s help in convincing him to participate. A scheme to get her job back draws Maeve further into Riddles’s universe—where shocking questions about sex, morality, and the purpose of literature threaten to upend her orderly life.
A writer of “savage compassion” (Salvatore Scibona, author of The Volunteer), Sarah Braunstein constructs a shrewd, page-turning caper that explores one woman’s search for agency and ultimate reckoning with the kind of animal she is.
Author Bio
Sarah Braunstein is the author of the novels Bad Animals and The Sweet Relief of Missing Children, as well as a story collection, Baby in a Box, coming summer 2026 from W.W. Norton. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Joyland, Playboy, The Harvard Review, AGNI, Ploughshares, and is forthcoming in The Best American Stories 2025. She teaches in the department of English at Colby College. Read more about Sarah on her website.
The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Libby Buck Reading & Book Signing
2025-08-29 16:30 - 17:30 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Port Anna by Libby Buck
“North Carolina college writing instructor Gwen Gilmore returns to coastal Port Anna, Maine, after losing her job, her boyfriend, and her confidence. She hasn’t been back for 23 years, ever since the death of her sister. Now, with only (literal) ghosts for company, she moves back into her family’s Periwinkle Cottage, which is watched over by some benevolent spirits. As Gwen settles back into the small town, she reconnects with old friends, though the dynamics between them feel off as they navigate resentments old and new. Port Anna itself doesn’t feel the same, either, with developers building vacation homes and the case of a missing teenager not getting the attention it needs before the short summer ends and the long cold winter begins. Buck skillfully weaves an immersive narrative, along the way introducing several potential romantic partners for Gwen but giving her time and space to rebuild life before jumping into love.” – Publisher’s Weekly
Libby Buck earned a Ph.D. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her husband share three daughters, an English cocker spaniel, and an abiding love for the great state of Maine. Port Anna is her first novel. Her novel will be available to purchase from Blue Hill Books at the event.
Author photo by Gunther Campine.

Downeast with SPL: Abby Litman Concert
2025-08-31 18:30 - 20:00 | John Rohman’s Barn, 16 Thurlow Hill, Stonington, ME, 04681
Stonington-based singer-songwriter Abby Litman is a rising star in the folk genre whose songs marry the lyrical traditions of American roots music with innovative acoustic arrangements and modern concepts. Check out Abby on her website and Instagram.
Admission by donation at the door. Contact SPL at phone or email below to reserve a seat.
Downeast with SPL is a fundraising series showcasing local makers, producers, and artists. These small, intimate gatherings are a chance to meet the people and businesses behind the tastes and beauty and moments that we love about Downeast Maine. Our partners are generously donating their time and services and handmade goods to support Stonington Public Library’s mission.
