FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

This year we were reminded of the importance of the space we create and hold for youth to write in community, together. We continue to witness the singular power of youth voice, as we consider where their inspiration comes from, what we see on the page, and hear from them on the stage.

Youth found inspiration in the natural world, from how the environment can be a place of deep beauty and respite, while appreciating its fragility in the climate crisis we currently face. Concern emerged around the shifts in safety and freedoms accessed by one another; attacks that focused on separating and further marginalizing vulnerable community members. From unbridled creativity and laugh-out-loud humor to plumbing the depths of personal experience—facing both challenges and great joys—youth showed up to use their voices, to write, and grow stronger together.

We are grateful to all the educators, librarians, and nonprofit partners who invited us into their communities this year, and we’re excited to welcome everyone in the year ahead to discover youth voices on a page, on a stage, or over the airwaves. Or, visit us at our new home and witness firsthand the undeniable impact of youth sharing their stories, their truths.

Kristina Powell
Telling Room Executive Director

Excerpt from “My Ndombolo: The Hum of the World” by Norka Kalonji

“Okufi na makolo?” my uncle shouted over the music. “Did your legs die?”

Heat climbed up my neck. I laughed with everyone else, but my stomach dropped.

Seconds earlier, I stepped onto the dance floor at his anniversary party, trying to keep up with Koffi Olomide’s “Papa Ngwasuma.” I bent my knees and rolled my hips like my cousins, smooth and circular, but my body kept arriving late to the beat. My uncle grinned. “Ozangi mouvement.”“You lack movement.”

At Congolese gatherings, nobody hands you instructions. A song comes on and the room expects an answer. My cousins answered easily. They began to dance Ndombolo, shoulders loose, feet sharp, faces bright. Aunties clapped on the off-beat. Someone whistled from the kitchen. I hovered at the edge, stepping in and out, counting the rhythm and watching where they put their weight. I wanted to belong without becoming the joke again.

When I could not locate the beat with my feet, I learned to bring it home. I wrote what I could not perform. I filled a notebook the way my family filled the dance floors, returning again and again until something shifted. Words became my rehearsal space. I tested rhythm in margins, counted breath in line breaks. Learned where weight belonged in a sentence.

Georgetown
Gorham
Hallowell
Hampden
Harpswell
Harrington
Hartland
Hollis Center
Hope
Jefferson
Kennebunk
Kingfield
Kittery
Kittery Point
Lebanon
Lewiston
Lincolnville
Litchfield
Lovell
Lyman
Milbridge
Monmouth
Mount Desert
Naples
New Gloucester 
New York City, NY
Newcastle
Nobleboro
North Berwick
North Haven
North Waterboro
North Yarmouth
Northport
Ogunquit
Old Orchard Beach
Orono
Otis
Owls Head
Peaks Island
Phillips
Phippsburg
Pittsfield
Portland
Princeton

Richmond
Rockland
Rockport
Saco
San Diego, CA
Scarborough
Searsmont
Sebago
Sidney
South China
South Freeport
South Portland
South Thomaston
Southport
Southwest Harbor
Springvale
St. George
Standish
Strong
Surry
Teaneck, NJ
Thomaston
Topsham
Trevett
Vassalboro
Vienna
Vinalhaven
Walpole
Washington, DC
Wells
West Bath
West Gardiner
Westbrook
Westport Island
Whitefield
Windham
Winslow
Woolwich
York

Milbridge Elementary School 
Oceanside Middle School
Peaks Island Elementary School
Pond Cove Elementary
Portland High School
Portland Public Schools
Roots Academy
Sebago Elementary School
Shapleigh School
Talbot Elementary School
Village Elementary School (Gorham) 
Vinalhaven School 
Wells Junior High School
Westbrook High School 
Winslow Junior High School
York High School

RESIDENCIES

282 students served in 16 programs

In our intensive school-based Residencies, youth write, revise, and publish a group book over the span of twelve sessions. This year we once again worked with Southern and Central Maine students from Kittery to Richmond, returning to five schools and working with a new partner, Sebago Elementary School, where eager and energetic 5th graders wrote poems and short fiction. One highlight was having Telling Room alum Devin Gifford, in her capacity as a Telling Room intern, plan and deliver a session at Brunswick Junior High School—it was a huge hit with the students! And at Marcia Buker School in Richmond, students wrote pieces of autofiction, taking a nugget of truth and exploring it through fiction. This form of narrative storytelling helped students focus on “the twist,” as well as allowing them to be very vulnerable. Many chose to write about loss, and were able to process their grief through a fantastical lens. The resulting stories are full of whimsy and deep emotion, and two of the stories were selected for this year’s annual anthology. 

WORKSHOPS

936 students served in 39 programs

We brought Workshops to several schools and organizations this year, working with students who live Down East, in the Midcoast, and in Western Maine. In our second year at Vinalhaven School, we wrote fantasy, fiction, scary stories, and personal reflections with 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Many students shared how much fun they had writing and how they saw themselves grow as writers. Closer to our home base, we worked with students at Roots Academy on a collaboration with the Portland Media Center to write and record a video podcast. The final product is an uplifting mixture of fun and serious conversations that include an interview with megastar singer Alex Warren, as well as with a parent, a grandparent, and a cat!

FIELD TRIPS

227 students served in 13 programs

Students and educators travelled from Wells to Winslow (and points in between) to join us for Field Trips—mornings full of literary arts exploration. We hosted Winslow Junior High 7th and 8th graders who were excited to walk around the Old Port, take photographs, and engage in writing inspired by the images they made and their experiences. Peaks Island School 4th and 5th graders hopped across Casco Bay to practice collaborative processes like Face Factory, in which students each take on drawing different parts of a comic character, and try out what it means to freewrite—Telling Room style.

14 students served in 2 programs

How do you get youth ages seven to ten excited to write? Magnetic poetry, maps and collages, diving into a box of costumes, and lots, and lots of games! In both semesters of Word Play, we encouraged these young writers to engage with writing through play, coaxing even the shyest students to feel confident enough in their stories to share them at the mic. One parent shared that their child in Word Play is their fourth to come through The Telling Room; a testament to the power of our programs that families come back again and again.

33 students served in 2 programs

Many students returned to Story Sleuths this year, eager to explore writing through play. To keep even our most seasoned participants inspired, our teaching team got creative with our curriculum so that these writers were engaged all year long. Some new faces did join our group however, including one student whose family previously visited our writing studio as they contemplated a move to Maine. Sure enough, when our program began, they were here and ready to write with us.

19 students served in 2 programs

This year a diverse group of writers joined us for Works in Progress, coming to our studio from different levels of writing attainment and a range of neurodiversity. In true Telling Room fashion they quickly formed tight-knit bonds, cheering each other on and offering feedback on their peers’ fiction, poetry, and even songwriting. The sense of community and belonging helped students be vulnerable and open in their writing, bring new material back to their band, and even offer support to one another through challenges faced beyond the blank page. 

14 students served in 2 programs

Our virtual afterschool program, SWARM!, continues to be a space where students from throughout Maine find community and cohesion while writing and publishing together. Writers returned for their second, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and even ninth hives this year! Our fall session focused on fiction, with writers exploring a variety of genres, including contemporary, sci-fi, and historical. Prize-winning poet Kimberly Ann Priest returned as a guest artist in the winter as we shifted our focus to poetry and different poetic forms. Multiple pieces of poetry and prose from SWARM! were published in our annual anthology—a testament to the great writing this program and its participants consistently create. 

3 students served in 1 program

We had a small group in Second Story but no shortage of enthusiasm for writing and storytelling! Alumni joined us from Young Emerging Authors and Publishing Workshop, fostering connections across school districts, fellowship cohorts, and grade levels. Maine storyteller, poet, and writer Jo Radner joined us as a guest artist, co-teaching alongside Education Manager Marjolaine Whittlesey. Jo invited students to set down their pens, leap off of the page, and into their bodies as conduits for storytelling.

We teamed up with the Portland String Quartet last winter as they took a new approach to their ritual performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Art of the Fugue. The four musicians came to The Telling Room and played the piece in our space for the writers in both Second Story and Young Emerging Authors while Maine Public Radio recorded the performance. Students wrote, bathed in music, letting Bach’s explorations influence their words and rhythms during this ekphrastic session. Words and music came together in a culminating atmospheric performance at Mechanics’ Hall on the winter solstice, illuminating the longest night of the year with song and poetry. Tune into the session recorded at The Telling Room here.

4 students served in 1 program

For the first time ever, our entire cohort of Young Emerging Authors were poets, each approaching the craft of poetry from different perspectives and experiences. With our four authors aligned on genre, we were able to tailor the program’s curriculum to poetics from the very beginning. This also allowed the writers to engage in multiple rounds of revision, leading to a deeper learning around generative writing, editing, and processing feedback. Along the way they were supported by writing mentors Michaela Cowgill, Lauren Saxon, Megan Tripaldi, and Maya Williams; and second readers Samaa Abdurraqib, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Abigail Fine, and Sarah V. Schweig.

The resulting books are four strong collections of poetry. They include a novel in verse examining gender through the voices of five women in Shakespeare’s plays, an exploration of the experience of incarceration, reflections on a semester spent immersed in Vermont’s natural world, and a collection delving into growing up with a chronic illness.

In addition to writing, Young Emerging Authors fellows hit the road for an exceptional year of readings, workshops, and author talks. These events took them to the halls of the Maine State House, libraries and festivals along the Midcoast, all the way up to the Carrabassett Valley. Poetry was also in the air on Maine Public Radio’s “Maine Calling” and “Poems From Here” programs, and seen in print in the Portland Press Herald’s Deep Water column, reaching audiences far and wide across the State of Maine and beyond.

57 students served in 5 programs

Despite facing many turbulent challenges throughout the nine-month program, this year’s Young Writers & Leaders students continued to show up and support each other, whether online or in person. The increased presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in our communities took an emotional toll on the youth in this program, causing us to pivot to remote sessions for multiple weeks; some students continued to write and share remotely for the duration of the program due to safety concerns. 

Yet these persistent writers dauntlessly returned to the page with the support of their peers, teachers, writing coaches, guest artists, and community members. Our partnerships with fellow community members and arts organizations lifted students’ spirits and gave them an infusion of inspiration and confidence. Our documentary storytelling unit in the spring was a big hit, featuring special guests Isaac Kestenbaum of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and Aubrey Calaway from Foghorn Studios. We are grateful to the folks at the Maine Souvenir Shop for making our students feel welcome and safe as they interviewed passersby in the Old Port, which took courage in today’s climate. 

The final chapbook, Freedom Without Direction, was shared aloud at the mic as authors confidently took to the stage for their book launch, astonishing the audience with their presence and power. Author Norka Kalonji received the 2026 Founders Prize, awarded annually to the best piece of writing from a Telling Room program. 

Published In:

17 students served in 2 programs

Publishing Workshop welcomed many familiar returning faces (some for their fifth year!) as well as students new to the program and The Telling Room. Students came locally and from as far away as Vassalboro to form an editorial group that was exceptionally skilled at curating pieces and revising writing. Industry professionals who stopped by to share their expertise with these students included children’s book author and editor Julie Bliven, and Melia Coletta, who spoke to uplifting diverse stories and voices in children’s publishing. 

Collectively Publishing Workshop read nearly 300 pieces of writing submitted through the Statewide Writing Contest, representing a range of writers from across Maine. Together, they created Peripheral Vision, our 2026 anthology, a showcase of the strength of the work written and published with The Telling Room throughout the year, and helped plan and facilitate our annual Big Night celebration.

Back Cove Books
Bangor Authors’ Book Fair & Literary Festival
Bangor Public Library
Bowdoin College
The Briar Patch
Camden Festival of Poetry
Carrabassett Valley Public Library
Cultivating Community
Curtis Memorial Library
EqualityMaine
Equality Community Center
Flatbread Pizza
Foghorn Collective
Foundation for Portland Public Schools
Hearts of Pine
Hello Hello Books
Hurricane Island Outward Bound School
I’m Your Neighbor Books
LifeBreath Institute
Lucky Fox Books
Maine Arts Commission
Maine Association of School Librarians
Maine Climate Action Now!

Maine Council of English Language Arts
Maine Council on Aging
Maine Department of Education
Maine Humanities Council
Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition
Maine Inside Out
Maine Irish Heritage Center
Maine Public Radio
Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance
Maine Youth Action Network
Make It Happen!
Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Public Library
Mechanics’ Hall
Merrill Memorial Library
NewsCenter Maine
Nonesuch Books & More
One Longfellow Square
Open Door Arts
The Opportunity Alliance
OUT Maine
Partners in Island Education
Pink Eraser Press
Portland Education Association
Portland Museum of Art
Portland Outright
Portland Ovations
Portland Public Library

Portland Public Schools
Portland String Quartet
Portland Symphony Orchestra
Prince Memorial Library
Print: A Bookstore
The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation
Scarborough Public Library
Sherman’s Maine Coast Bookshops
Side x Side
Skidompha Public Library
South Portland High School
SPACE
Spaulding Memorial Library
TEDxDirigo
University of New England
University of Southern Maine
Walch Publishing, Inc.
Westbrook High School
Windham Public Library
Winky Lewis Photo
The Writing Company