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Join short story author, frequent New Yorker contributer, professor and novelist,
Ann Beattie at The Telling Room, May 31st from 3:30-4:30pm for a roundtable with aspiring young writers. Open to all middle and high school students, the afternoon talk will allow students to engage a writer who has published numerous short story collections and novels over a 35-year career, including The New Yorker Stories in 2011. Contact Molly McGrath for more info and to register. |
Ann Beattie has been included in four O. Henry Award Collections and in John Updike’s The Best American Short Stories of the Century. In 2000, she received the PEN/Malamud Award for achievement in the short story form. In 2005, she received the Rea Award for the Short Story. She and her husband, Lincoln Perry, live in Key West, Florida, and Charlottesville, Virginia, where she is Edgar Allan Poe Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia.
Friday, October 14, 2011 - Our October Slant session at Space Gallery featured stories of "lightbulb moments," a theme inspired by the national educational organization Faces of Learning. Storytellers this session included Aimee Bessire, Bates professor of African art and photography; Claude Rwaganje, Executive Director of Community Financial Literacy; Jim Morse, Superintendant of Portland Public Schools; Patty Hagge, poet and teacher; Sonya Tomlinson, Hip-hop artist and teacher; and teacher Zoe Weil, President of the Institute for Humane Education. Stay tuned for a podcast of the evening's stories to be released in the coming months.
Storytellers this session included Portland Press Herald columnist Bill Nemitz, singer-songwriter Emilia Dahlin, New York Times best-selling author Melissa Coleman, Writer and Telling Room Executive Director Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, 9-time biathlon national champion and near-Olympian Walt Shepard, and Lulu Hawkes, a student at Catherine McAuley High School and Maine State Poetry Out Loud Champion. Stay tuned for these stories via the TR Podcast.
Thank you to all who came out to our PLAY event at Portland Public Library on May 5th, 2011. We loved seeing all of the students and families with whom we worked during the 2010-11 school year. Check out this video recap of the evening's events produced by Jay Brown. We also have a great collection of photos from the event photobooth. The 32 panels of photos and writing from PLAY will remain up on the lower level at the Portland Public Library through the end of June.
Our new anthology, How to Climb Trees, is for sale now in our store.
Who, what, when, how, and why have you longed for someone or something? On Friday, February 11th, in honor of Valentine's Day, The Telling Room will try to answer that question as a series of writers, artists, and notable community members tell ten-minute stories about longing to a live audience without notes or props...
Storytellers will include Oscar Mokeme, the founder of the Museum of African Culture; Karen Morgan, a comedian who was a finalist for the Funniest Mom in America; Samuel James, a blues musician; Seth Rigoletti, a former teacher and communication consultant; Taffy Field, a writer, longtime teacher, and frequent contributor to Maine Public Radio and Monitor Radio; and Jeffrey Thomson, an award-winning poet and professor at the University of Maine at Farmington.
The Slant Series is inspired by The Moth, a live storytelling organization established in New York City in 1997 and featured on Maine Public Radio. A podcast of stories from the first Slant is available at www.tellingroom.org.
Slant Storytelling Series
Aruna Kenyi Reading
On June 24th at Longfellow Books, we celebrated the release of Aruna Kenyi's memoir Between Two Rivers, a chronicle of his improbable journey from East Africa to Southern Maine. The event was standing room only, and Kenyi treated the large crowd to three excerpts from his book, reading each with warmth and confidence. Copies are for sale at Longfellow or by contacting us via email. You may also call us at 774-6064. Proceeds from the sale of the book will support Kenyi's college fund.
At the Table - 2010 Anthology Event
Thank you to everyone who came out for The Telling Room's 2010 anthology release celebration. Every year we are astounded by the level of enthusiasm shown by the students, teachers, volunteers, and community members who attend - that energy will help to fuel our next year of programming.
Read the Portland Press Herald's story about the anthology which includes excerpts, photos of student writers and video of a reading in our space.
Get Your Irish UP!
An evening of stories, drama, and verse from three award-winning Irish writers. Tuesday, March 16th, 7pm-9pm - Upstairs at Bull Feeney’s
Ronan Noone’s plays, The Lepers of Baile Baiste, The Blowin of Baile Gall, The Atheist, Brendan, and Little Black Dress have played in theaters across the United States and London. Awards include three Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) for Best New Play, an Elliot Norton Outstanding Script and a Kennedy Center National Playwrighting award. He teaches playwrighting at Boston University.
Award-winning author, Mary O’Donoghue grew up in Co. Clare and now lives in Boston. Her poetry collections are Tulle (Salmon Poetry, 2001) and Among These Winters (Dedalus Press, 2007). Her short stories have been published in The Dublin Review, The Recorder, AGNI, Salamander, and elsewhere. Her first novel, Before the House Burns, will be published by the Lilliput Press, Dublin, in spring 2010.
Aidan Rooney lives in Hingham, Massachusetts and teaches at Thayer Academy. His poems are collected in Day Release (2000) and Tightrope (2007), both published by The Gallery Press. He won the Hennessy Cognac / Sunday Tribune award for New Irish Poet in 1997. His poems are published in journals in Europe and North America, and in the anthologies The New Irish Poets (Bloodaxe), Staying Alive (Bloodaxe) and 180 More (Random House).
Sponsored by Longfellow Books
Featuring Musical Guest J Biddy
Suggested Donation - $5
A Moveable Feast
"Cooking is learned in the same way as we learn to speak, write, act, dance. We observe, then we copy, then we interpret...then gradually develop our own way with words, our own style." —David Tanis, Chef at Chez Panisse
The Telling Room thanks all supporters who made this event a rousing success. In one evening, we visited three acclaimed restaurants—Local 188, Five Fifty-Five, and David's—and enjoyed three delicious courses along with good conversation and a little writing thrown in for good measure.
Tearing Down the Playground: Neighborhood Stories
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Photos courtesy of Brendan Bullock Photography.
Thank you, thank you to all who attended our 2009 book release event! The night was a huge success and it was wonderful to see so many friends of the organization in one place. Special thanks to the many student writers and performers who made the night so rich with their presence - we loved reconnecting with each one of you!
This interactive community event at Space Gallery featured the debut of our third anthology of student stories, poems, and photographs, PLUS live performances of songs, documentary and art films, readings by Telling Room students, and a series of sculptures designed by USM students.
Young Maine writers of all ages set to work this year to uncover their neighborhoods with writers, artists, and photographers from The Telling Room as guides. The authors of The Telling Room’s newest anthology came and shared their stories and images and shed light on gritty, downtown Portland parking lot boxing matches; a brilliant, unforgettable fence; an 86-year-old WWII veteran who’s the rock of Presumpscot Street; and their ideas about what being neighborly really means.
Check out this video recap, courtesy of Brooke Brewer:
Hosts and Hostesses
Many people and organizations have helped us throw great Telling Room events over the years, including Portland Public Library, SPACE Gallery, Unum, the University of Southern Maine, the Salt Institute of Documentary Studies, and the Merrill Auditorium. Thanks to each and all of you!