Stonington Public Library

Island Artist Group Exhibition Reception
2026-03-14 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Please join us for the first artist reception of 2026! This group show features work from more than 15 area artists and is sure to feature something for everyone. Light refreshments and beverages will be served. Live music will be performed by island trio Rugosa Rose.
The exhibition runs from March 10 through May 23 and can be viewed during library hours.

Edible Island: Cookie Making - Spring Cookies with Royal Icing
2026-03-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Healthy Island Project Kitchen, 91 S Burnt Cove Rd, Stonington, ME
Join Healthy Island Project’s Edible Island, Stonington Public Library, and Destinee Coakley for a Spring themed cookie making workshop! RSVP by contact information below. Space is limited, so sign up now!

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-03-23 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee • Selected by Anneli Sundqvist
Winner: Nobel Prize in Literature (2003)
“A subtly brilliant commentary on the nature and balance of power in his homeland…Disgrace is a mini-opera without music by a writer at the top of his form.” –Time
Find Disgrace in MILS
“Refusing to apologise after an impulsive affair with a student, David Lurie, a 52-year-old professor in Cape Town, seeks refuge on his daughter’s farm. Here, a savage and disturbing attack brings into relief the faults in their relationship.
Pitching the moral code of political correctness against the values of Romantic poetry, Disgrace examines dichotomies both in personal relationships and in the unaccountability of one culture towards another.” –From The Booker Prizes website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

Down Easter Celebration
2026-04-04 10:00 - 12:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Join SPL on Saturday, April 4 from 10:00 – 12:00 for a fun Easter themed mask making workshop as part of the Down Easter Celebration. Participants can create their own bunny mask at the library or pick up a make-and-take kit for later.
The Easter Bunny will be at the Island Community Center beginning at 10:00 and Opera House Arts will be hosting holiday crafts and a movie. Be sure to stop by the other participating locations to extend your holiday fun. The Island AgencyEstate, Camden National, Boyce’s Motel, Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House

April Vacation Family Activity: Butterfly Kite
2026-04-21 10:00 - 11:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Join SPL during April vacation for a series of fun projects! The butterfly kite is designed for the earliest kite enthusiast, all you need is the ability to cut with scissors, tie a few knots, and decorate!
Parents/adults will assist their kite builders for this 30-45 minute workshop. There is no cost to participate but donations are welcome.
To register, please email the library. Registration is limited to 10, so sign up now!
Materials generously provided by the Island Employee Cooperative member stores: Burnt Cove Market, V & S Variety, and The Galley.

April Vacation Family Activity: Build Your Own Electric Motor
2026-04-22 10:00 - 11:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Have you ever wondered how electric motors work? Find out by building your own simple motor with a few basic materials. Participants will be introduced to the science behind motors as well as magnets and electromagnets.
Parents/adults will assist participants for this workshop. There is no cost to participate but donations are welcome!
To register, please email the library. Registration is limited to 10, so sign up now!
Materials generously provided by the Island Employee Cooperative member stores: Burnt Cove Market, V & S Variety, and The Galley.

April Vacation Family Activity: Delta Kites
2026-04-23 10:00 - 11:00 | ME
Join SPL during April vacation for a series of fun projects! The delta kite is not only easy to build, it is one of the most reliable fliers out there. All you need is the ability to cut, tie a few knots, and decorate! Feel free to bring your own decorating supplies. (Note: permanent markers are recommended for coloring, as the kite sail is made from plastic bags.)
Parents/adults will assist their kite builders for this workshop. There is no cost to participate but donations are welcome!
To register, please email the library. Registration is limited to 10, so sign up now!
Materials generously provided by the Island Employee Cooperative member stores: Burnt Cove Market, V & S Variety, and The Galley.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-04-27 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein • Selected by Morgan Witham
Winner: Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction (2024)
“A dazzling, hallucinatory tour de force that takes the reader through shadow selves and global fascism, leaving them gasping by the end.” –Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood
Find Doppelganger in MILS
“What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired a double? Someone almost like you, and yet not you at all?
When Naomi Klein discovered that a woman who shared her first name, but had radically different, harmful views, was getting chronically mistaken for her, it seemed too ridiculous to take seriously. Then suddenly it wasn’t. She started to find herself grappling with a distorted sense of reality, becoming obsessed with reading the threats on social media, the endlessly scrolling insults from the followers of her doppelganger. Why had her shadowy other gone down such an extreme path? Why was identity – all we have to meet the world – so unstable?
To find out, Klein decided to follow her double into a bizarre, uncanny mirror world: one of conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers and demagogue hucksters, where soft-focus wellness influencers make common cause with fire-breathing far right propagandists (all in the name of protecting ‘the children’).” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

Second Saturday Story time
2026-05-09 10:00 - 11:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Join us story time with crafting and cookies. This event is fun for kids of all ages and their families!
SPL hosts story time on the second Saturday of every month from 10-11am. Check our website or social media (@stoningtonpubliclibrary) for details.

Story Time Aboard Otter
2026-05-16 11:00 - 12:00 | Isle au Haut Boat Company, 37 Seabreeze Avenue, Stonington, Maine, 04681
Come aboard Otter, an Isle au Haut mailboat, for a spin around Stonington Harbor and a read-aloud picture book chosen and read by Captain Garret Aldrich. It’s become an annual tradition for Captain Aldrich to lead this trip for Stonington Public Library as part of the Island Heritage Trust’s Wings, Waves, & Woods Festival!
Boat departs at 11 AM from Isle au Haut Boat Services, so plan to arrive early for boarding. Space is limited to 50. Reservations required. Email stonington.public.library@gmail.com to reserve your spot.
Wings, Waves & Woods Festival will take place May 13-17, 2025. The full schedule of events can be seen on the Island Heritage Trust website.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-05-25 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx • Selected by Andrew Stoessel
Winner: Pulitzer Prize in Fiction (1994)
“The Shipping News is that rare creation, a lyric page-turner.” –Stephen Jones, Chicago Tribune
Find The Shipping News in MILS
“At thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman is wrenched violently out of his world when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle’s struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons—and the unpredictable forces of nature and society—and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

Second Saturday Story Time
2026-06-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Join us for story time with crafting and cookies. This event is fun for kids of all ages and their families!
SPL hosts story time on the second Saturday of every month from 10-11am. Check our website or social media (@stoningtonpubliclibrary) for details.

Visible Mending Workshop with Jam Brook Farm
2026-06-13 10:00 - 12:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Join Sara Beth Casburn, from Jam Brook Farm in Searsmont, for a fun, educational workshop on visible mending.
Mending is a way to keep your clothes alive and well-loved. Participants of all ages and experiences are encouraged to bring a project they would like to mend by hand. All the supplies you need are provided for this FREE workshop.
Sara Beth’s Bio
Growing up, I loved getting dressed. In my sophomore year of high school, I didn’t repeat a single outfit—not once. That’s when I began playing with clothes: cutting, resizing, adding lace to thrifted pieces. There were no rules, just creativity.
After college, I found myself working on vegetable farms, but I missed the creative spark that clothing and sewing brought me. So I dedicated my first winter off to making. I mended clothes for friends, sewed curtains, stitched by hand, and sharpened my knitting skills. I even started making my own garments using old clothes as patterns.
In the winter of 2022, my husband and I settled into our old farmhouse. I finally had a whole room just for making—and I realized: this could be my work.
To register, please email the library. Space is limited to 12, so sign up now!

Downeast with SPL: Church of the Morning After
2026-06-19 18:30 - 20:00 | John Rohman’s Barn, 16 Thurlows Hill, Stonington, ME, 04681
Join SPL and Church of the Morning After for an evening of music at John Rohman’s Barn as part of the Downeast with SPL fundraiser series.
Founded by the late Stephen Robbins, from Little Deer Isle, Church of the Morning after is a local favorite featuring an ensemble of musicians, playing a variety of musical styles including blues, gospel, and bluegrass.
Admission by donation at the door.
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.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-06-22 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian • Selected by Shannon Lindsay
Winner: Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award (2024)
“Only This Beautiful Moment is a queer epic, a defiant piece of art that transmutes the rallying cry of ‘we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it’ into even more beautiful poetry that will almost certainly change the lives of those who read it.” –BookPage
Find Only This Beautiful Moment in MILS
“2019. Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed. When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself.
1978. Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country’s burgeoning revolution, they send him to safety in America, a country Saeed despises. And even worse–he’s forced to live with the American grandmother he never knew existed.
1939. Bobby, the son of a calculating Hollywood stage mother, lands a coveted MGM studio contract. But the fairy-tale world of glamour he’s thrust into has a dark side. Set against the backdrop of Tehran and Los Angeles, this tale of intergenerational trauma and love is an ode to the fragile bonds of family, the hidden secrets of history, and all the beautiful moments that make us who we are today.” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

Poets in Port with Donna Smith
2026-06-26 18:00 - 19:30 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Join SPL in conjunction with the Northport Arts Coalition, located in Northport, NY, as we host Maine poet Donna Smith for a reading of her poetry. Donna will have a selection of her collected works for participants to peruse as well as a collection of her watercolors, photographs, and drawings. The event will be held in person at the library as well as on Zoom.
Refreshments will be provided by the Northport Arts Coalition.
Poet Bio
Donna’s fascination for poetry began when her mother first read Robert Lewis Stevenson’s “A Child’s Garden of Verses” to her at bedtime. She has always been intrigued by the flow and play of the words in poetry.
Donna taught in elementary schools for many years. She often read poetry to her students, and also wrote poetry with her classes. She has had some of her poems published in anthologies for children, as well as published online. She tries hard not to rhyme, but fails most of the time…I mean…but is rarely successful at that.
Donna writes, paints and plays ukulele on the coast of Maine, keeping a close watch on the ocean with her two dogs, Daisy and Spicy; and her cat, Shadow.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82051744460?pwd=[REDACTED]

Seaside Series: Ret Talbot
2026-07-01 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
.
Ret Talbot will present from his book Chasing Shadows, a collaborative project with shark biologist Greg Skomal that covers the return of the white shark to the western North Atlantic.
About Chasing Shadows
A collaboration between a scientist and a science writer, Chasing Shadows is the remarkable story of the resurgence of the white shark population in the western North Atlantic told largely through the eyes of the shark biologist who found himself in the middle of it. At its heart, it is a too rare conservation success story about restoring an apex predator to an ecosystem. Illustrations and maps by scientific illustrator Karen Talbot.
Author Bio
Ret Talbot is an award-winning journalist with over two decades of experience covering stories from some of the more remote corners of the globe. From the icy summits of the Andes to the reefs of Papua New Guinea, his assignments have taken him off the beaten track and put his readers face-to-face with stories of adventure, new ideas and innovative approaches to commonplace and not-so-commonplace ideas and issues.
Since 2007, Talbot has worked as a fulltime freelance writer and photographer, penning stories for magazines and working on book-length projects. His current work focuses largely on marine ecosystems and the myriad interactions between humans and those ecosystems.
You can learn more about Talbot and his work on his website.

Seaside Series: Steve Hindy
2026-07-08 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Steve Hindy will present from his book based on the life of his grandfather, The Ali Hindy Story: A Muslim Immigrant in 20th Century America, published in 2025.

About The Ali Hindy Story
This is the story of a 12-year-old Syrian Muslim boy who left his troubled homeland in 1894 with two other boys and traveled to Europe and then America in search of two goals: to marry and start a business. The vast majority of immigrants from Syria at that time were Christian. Less than 5 percent were Muslim. Ali Hindy ended up in southern West Virginia, marrying a young Christian woman who had been shunned by her family, starting a general store, movie theater and bathhouse for coal miners. They raised her two illegitimate daughters and had six children, including my father. Ali Hindy befriended Devilance Hatfield, patriarch of the Hatfield clan of the famous Hatfield and McCoy’s feud. He also survived an attack by Ku Klux Klanmen who demanded he leave town and forbid the town’s only doctor from delivering his sixth child.

Author Bio
Steve Hindy was a journalist for the first 15 years of his working life. He started with small newspapers in Upstate New York, joined The Associated Press in Newark, New Jersey, and then spent nearly 6 years with The AP in Beirut and Cairo. He covered the hostage crisis in Iran, the Iran-Iraq War, the civil war in Lebanon and the 1982 Israeli invasion and massacres of Palestinians in Beirut’s refugee camps. He was sitting behind President Anwar Sadat of Egypt when he was assassinated in 1981. While in Cairo, Hindy met American diplomats who had been posted to Saudi Arabia, where alcoholic beverages are forbidden. The diplomats were avid homebrewers. Returning to New York in 1984, Hindy went to work for Newsday and started making beer at home. With his downstairs neighbor in Brooklyn, Tom Potter, he started Brooklyn Brewery. Hindy is co-author of “BEER SCHOOL” and author of “The Craft Beer Revolution.” He resides in Brooklin, Maine, with his wife, educator Ellen Foote.

The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Seaside Series: Martin Conte
2026-07-15 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Martin Conte is the director of Flash! in the Pans, a locally renowned community steel drum band, based in Blue Hill, ME. Conte will present a talk and demonstration about the history, construction, anatomy, and performance of steel drums, known as pans.
Conte will have a variety of pans available for audience members to try out following the talk. You can learn more about Flash! in the Pans on their website.
Since graduating from GSA, Conte’s topsy-turvy path always seemed to lead him back to Blue Hill, where he is part of the English faculty and Director of Steel Pan Programs at George Stevens Academy. His path has led him around the globe, from visiting silverback gorillas in Uganda to playing music with the great steel bands of Trinidad. But not all of his paths have been physical. He has also been pursuing the uncharted territory of language, and has great of enthusiasm for how much discovery still awaits us in writing and reading.
The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Seaside Series: Mary Seelhorst
2026-07-22 12:00 - 13:00 | Stonington Public Library, 64 Main Street, Stonington, ME, 04681
Mary Seelhorst will present: The Platonic Ideal of a Sports Car: James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5.
True crime, twisted provenance, pop culture, philosophy, folklore, museums, movie-making, mythbusting, and an unsolved mystery figure into this presentation by exhibit developer Mary Seelhorst. This fast-paced, heavily illustrated session explores the making of an automotive icon that’s endured and grown since the car was introduced in the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger.
Seelhorst addresses the perceived authenticity and value of the original movie cars, their slippery provenance, and the DB5’s resurrection in movies, real life, and the collective imagination. In addition, she reveals previously unknown facts and fresh insights about the 1997 theft of the tricked-out movie car—still missing—uncovered by a documentary filmmaker working on a forthcoming series about the car’s disappearance.
Mary Seelhorst is an award-winning independent exhibit developer and writer who played a personal role in the story of the stolen Goldfinger car, which will be revealed in the presentation. Her work focuses on the history of technology and popular culture. In the last 20 years, her museum work has increasingly centered on automotive exhibits, including projects
for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, The Henry Ford, the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum in Detroit, and the Brumos Collection in Jacksonville, Florida.
This event will be held at SPL, 64 Main Street Stonington, ME.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-07-27 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
Mudlark: In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames by Lara Maiklem • Selected by Sue Stoessel
Winner: Indie Book Award in Non-Fiction (2020)
“Engrossing…evokes the subculture of the ‘mudlarks,’ who scour the banks for fragments of London’s past.” –The New Yorker
Find Mudlark in MaineCat
“The international bestseller that mesmerizingly charts quixotic journeys through London’s past, Mudlark thrills Anglophiles and history lovers alike. Long heralded as a city treasure herself, beloved ‘Mudlark’ Lara Maiklem tirelessly treks along the Thames’ muddy shores, unearthing a myriad of artifacts and their stories—from Roman hairpins and perfectly preserved Tudor shoes to the clay pipes that were smoked in riverside taverns. Seamlessly interweaving reflections from her own life with meditations on the art of wandering, Maiklem ultimately delivers a treatise ‘as deep and as rich as the Thames and its treasures’ (Stanley Tucci).” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

Seaside Series: Jeryl Schriever
2026-07-29 12:00 - 13:00 | ME
Jeryl Schriever will present from her book, Driving the Vote For Women: An American Journey for Suffrage, published by Arcadia Publishing in September 2024, and her national tour promoting the Equal Rights Amendment in her 1914 Saxon Roadster.

About Driving the Vote For Women: An American Journey for Suffrage

In 1916, Alice Burke and Nell Richardson embarked on a daring and unprecedented cross-country journey advocating for women’s suffrage. Before the nineteenth amendment enshrined American women’s right to vote in 1920, it was legal only in a few states. So trailblazing suffragists Alice and Nell loaded a Saxon automobile and embarked on a state-by-state campaign for women’s voting rights. Long before the modern highway system streamlined car travel, Alice and Nell drove a grueling 10,700 miles over twenty-six weeks, traversing some of the roughest roads in America. Backed by the Saxon Motor Car Company—one of the original Detroit automakers—and fueled by their own unwavering spirits, Alice and Nell advocated for women’s suffrage in every town along the way. Author Jeryl R. Schriever shares the remarkable story of the first women to ever drive across the country and back, paving the way for generations of women to follow.

Author Bio

Jeryl R. Schriever began her interest in Saxon Motor Cars in 2011 when touring in a 1914 Saxon roadster through the hills of eastern Pennsylvania. Combining her knowledge of automotive history and the suffrage movement, the fascination of the Alice and Nell story became compelling.
As a member of the Society of Automotive Historians Jeryl has edited and written for several national automobile magazines. At present she serves as the president of the board of the Seal Cove Automobile Museum, a prominent collection of brass era motor cars on the coast of Maine. She received her degree in landscape architecture from SUNY at Syracuse University in 1969. Her career has included work in museum education, exhibit design, and historic restorations.
The mother of two, she and her husband, Alex Huppé, live in Castine Maine and Sarasota Florida. They tour vintage cars year round.

You can learn more about Schriever’s journey and the efforts of the Equal Rights Amendment, visit www.drivingthevote.org.

The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Seaside Series: Kate Woodworth
2026-08-05 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Kate Woodworth will present from her book Little Great Island, published by Sibylline Press in May 2025.

About Little Great Island
On Little Great Island, climate change is disrupting both life and love.
After offending the powerful pastor of the cult where she’s lived for a decade, Mari McGavin must flee with her six-year-old son. With no money and no place else to go, she returns to the tiny Maine island where she grew up—a place she swore she’d never see again. There Mari runs into her lifelong friend Harry Richardson, one of the island’s summer residents, now back himself to sell his family’s summer home. Mari and Harry’s lives intertwine once again, setting off a chain of events as unexpected and life altering as the shifts in climate affecting the whole ecosystem of the island…from generations of fishing families to the lobsters and the butterflies.
Little Great Island illustrates in microcosm the greatest changes of our time and the unyielding power of love.
Author Bio
Kate Woodworth is the award-winning author of the novels Little Great Island and Racing into the Dark and the creative force behind the grassroots climate change initiative, Be the Butterfly, that invites everyone to perform one small act or behavioral change to help mitigate climate change.
A passionate lover of the natural world, Kate writes about the impact of climate change on our food supply on her Substack, “Food in the Time of Climate Change.” She has appeared on C-Span2 Book TV; Good Morning, Utah; NPR’s Maine Calling; and Good Day, Maine, and her essays on climate fiction and the role of fiction writers in the climate discourse have been published by the Climate Fiction Writers League.
You can learn more about Kate Woodworth and her books on her website.

The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Seaside Series: Bruce Robert Coffin
2026-08-12 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
.
Bruce Robert Coffin will present from his latest book, Dark Harbor, published by Severn River Publishing in August 2026.
About Dark Harbor
Dark Harbor is the third book in Coffin’s Detective Justice series, featuring Detective Brock Justice investigating the deaths of a millionaire and a burglar in Bar Harbor, Maine, uncovering secrets of the wealthy elite while dealing with a suspicious new partner, Samantha Osborn. The mystery involves a mansion break-in, conflicting evidence pointing to the victim’s wife, and powerful figures trying to hide the truth.
Author Bio
Bruce Robert Coffin is an international bestselling novelist and short story writer. A retired police detective sergeant with more than twenty-seven years in law enforcement, Bruce supervised all homicide and violent crime investigations for Maine’s largest city. Following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, Bruce spent four years investigating counter-terrorism cases for the FBI, earning the Director’s Award, the highest award a non- agent can receive. He is the author of the Detective Byron Mysteries, co-author of The Turner and Mosley Files (along with bestselling author LynDee Walker), and author of the Detective Justice Mysteries.
Bruce is a member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Short Mystery Fiction Society, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.
He lives and writes in Maine.
You can learn more about Coffin and his writing on his website.

The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Seaside Series: Jim and Emma Krosschell
2026-08-19 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
.
.
Father and daughter team, Jim and Emma Krosschell, will present their poetry from their respective books, Man Afield, published by Prolific Pulse Press LLC in March 2026, and Hermitage published by Littoral Books in October 2024.
About Man Afield
Man Afield is a lyrical journey through the living world, guided by a backyard naturalist attuned to both wonder and warning. These poems chronicle spiritual and physical excursions into landscapes larger than any one mind or body — places where awe, joy, disorientation, and reckoning intertwine.
Man Afield is at once a field journal, a meditation, and a love song — to earth, to home, and to the fragile bond between them.
About Hermitage

In Hermitage, Emma Krosschell inhabits a liminal space, somewhere between her mind and the living world of hemlock, crows, snow, wind, tides and stars. These are poems that begin in silence, and draw us into those moments when the world comes alive before her eyes. She is, above all, a witness, and we become witnesses along with her in this place where the finite, mortal self meets something greater. She is listening intently, seeing deeply, and her heart is wide open. – Stuart Kestenbaum, Former Poet Laureate of Maine

Author Bios
Jim Krosschelll has published poems and essays in some 85 journals, plus three collections: One Man’s Maine, which won a Maine Literary Award, Owls Head Revisited, and Man Afield. He lives in Deer Isle, ME and Newton, MA, and volunteers on boards for Coastal Mountains Land Trust and the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

Emma Krosschell lives in Brooksville, Maine, with her partner and their dog. She spends her time wandering in the woods and baking as much bread as she can. Hermitage is her first collection of poetry.

The rain venue for all Seaside Series programs is SPL, 64 Main Street.

Seaside Series: Noah Fishman and Special Guest
2026-08-26 12:00 - 13:00 | Small Cove Park, 6 Atlantic Avenue, Stonington, ME, 04681
Noah Fishman is a performer, composer, and educator. Rooted in Maine, Noah ventures to make bold, playful statements by bending lines between folk, chamber, and jazz. At home on a number of stringed instruments including mandolin, bass, and guitar, Noah is known for his instrumental creativity, spirited performances, and fluid improvisation.
Noah has performed across the United States, Estonia, Poland, Sweden, Slovenia, Ireland, and The Netherlands. Raised by visual artists in a renovated barn, Noah studied at Princeton, IRCAM, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In 2019, Noah was selected for the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency at The Kennedy Center. In 2020, Noah received a masters degree in composition from the University of Michigan.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-09-28 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood • Selected by Laura Watson
Winner: Giller Prize (1996)
“Alias Grace has all the pacing of a commercial novel and all the resonance of a classic.” –The Washington Post Book World
Find Alias Grace in MILS
“It’s 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress.
Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders. An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories?” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-10-26 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
Three Junes by Julia Glass • Selected by Ellen Shockro
Winner: National Book Award (2002)
“Enormously accomplished….rich, absorbing, and full of life.” –The New Yorker
Find Three Junes in MILS
“In June of 1989 Paul McLeod, a newspaper publisher and recent widower, travels to Greece, where he falls for a young American artist and reflects on the complicated truth about his marriage.
Six years later, again in June, Paul’s death draws his three grown sons and their families back to their ancestral home. Fenno, the eldest, a wry, introspective gay man, narrates the events of this unforeseen reunion. Far from his straitlaced expatriate life as a bookseller in Greenwich Village, Fenno is stunned by a series of revelations that threaten his carefully crafted defenses.
Four years farther on, in yet another June, a chance meeting on the Long Island shore brings Fenno together with Fern Olitsky, the artist who once captivated his father. Now pregnant, Fern must weigh her guilt about the past against her wishes for the future and decide what family means to her.” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-11-23 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
Settled in the Wild: Notes from the Edge of Town by Susan Hand Shetterly • Selected by Kendra Chubbuck
Winner: Maine Literary Award for Nonfiction (2011)
“Shetterly’s penetrating observations resonate with an undeniable sense of what matters most in life: the preservation of self, the protection of wilderness, and appreciation for the passage of time…” –Booklist
Find Settled in the Wild in MILS
“Settled in the Wild takes us into the woods and along the shorelines, mudflats, and paths of rural Maine, where Susan Hand Shetterly has lived and written about nature for the past thirty years. Now, she turns her attention to the ways humans and animals share the land, especially as our mutual habitat is changing. Her observations start small, looking out her window at the many living things in just one dead tree in her yard, at the wild turkeys and coyotes in the field. Then she expands to the surrounding forest, to the seaside, and to the lives of her neighbors, many of whom have always made a living off the land or sea.
Whether writing about a displaced garter snake, witnessing the paving of a beloved dirt road, catching a cricket with her young son, rescuing a fledgling raven, or rejoicing with the town at the return of the alewife migration, Shetterly pays tribute to the resilience that abounds. She argues for a consciousness that honors the values of wilderness, protects the beauty and vigor of rural communities, and teaches our children to love the gifts of the land.” –From the dust jacket
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.

SPL Book Club: Award-Winning Books
2026-12-14 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom, Virtual
March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell • Selected by Pat Dobbs
Winner: RFK Book Award (2014)
“A riveting and beautiful civil-rights story…Lewis’s gripping memoir should be stocked in every school and shelved at every library.” –The Washington Post
Find March in MILS
“March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.
Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1958 comic book ‘Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story.’ Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations.” –From the publisher’s website
Eleven readers chose 11 books, and they will lead 11 discussions in 2026. The SPL book club meets the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on Zoom. There are two exceptions: there is no discussion in August when the book club takes a summer break, and the last meeting is bumped up to the second Monday, December 14, to minimize scheduling conflicts around the holidays. New readers—near and far—are always welcome. To sign up for the book club email list, please send a request to the email below.
