Join us for a trifecta book launch celebrating three accomplished and award-winning Maine poets and their latest collections.
Free | Open to the Public and Members
In celebration of Grace Hartigan: The Gift of Attention, experience the words of three Maine poets Julia Bouwsma, author of Death Fluorescence (Sundress Publications, July 2025), Samaa Abdurraqib, author of Towards a Retreat (Diode Editions, August 2025), and Maya Williams, author of Feminine Morbidity (The Headlight Review, October 2025).
Alongside readings of their poems, Bouwsma, Abdurraqib, and Williams—who each actively work at the intersection of poetry and community in Maine—will engage in a conversation that ranges from explorations of creative processes to questions of why and how poetry might help us, both individually and collectively, to navigate these uniquely challenging times.
Signed books will be available for sale and light refreshments will be provided.
Registration required. Visit Maine Humanities Council
About the Poets:
Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who served as Portland, ME's seventh poet laureate for a July 2021 to July 2024 term. Eir debut full length poetry collection Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) was selected as a finalist for a New England Book Award. Their second full length poetry collection, Refused a Second Date (Harbor Editions, 2023), was selected as a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. They won two chapbook prizes: What's So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway? won Garden Party Collective's Chapbook Prize in 2024 selected by mónica teresa ortiz; and Feminine Morbidity won The Headlight Review's Chapbook Prize selected by Olatunde Osinaike in 2025. Maya is also proud to have contributed prose to venues such as The Rumpus, Talk Death, Black Girl Nerds, LGBTQ Nation, The Daily Beast, Honey Literary, and more. Maya was one of two recipients of the Maine Humanities Council's Constance Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2024. You can follow more of Maya's work at mayawilliamspoet.com
Image credit: Michelle Shupp
Samaa Abdurraqib currently serves as the Executive Director of the Maine Humanities Council. Prior to working at Maine Humanities, Samaa held positions at the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, the ACLU of Maine, and was a Visiting Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College. She has served on the board of several Maine-based nonprofits, and has worked with many nonprofits and organizations as a contract consultant, a leadership coach, and a facilitator. Samaa was recently certified as a Maine Master Naturalist, which allows her to lead outdoor teaching experiences for people who want to learn about the beings (plants, insects, animals) in this region. Recently, Samaa’s poetry can be found in Cider Press Review, december magazine, and Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora. She’s the editor of From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast (2023). She has been supported by residencies at Hewnoaks and Monson Arts. Her most recent chapbook, Towards a Retreat, was published by Diode Editions in August 2025.
Julia Bouwsma is a poet, editor, and homesteader living off-the-grid in the mountains of Western Maine. She is Maine’s sixth Poet Laureate, serving a term from 2021 to 2026. Bouwsma is the acclaimed author of Midden (Fordham University Press, 2018), and Work by Bloodlight (Cider Press Review, 2017). She is also the librettist for Ghost Apples, a short chamber opera. A recipient of a 2024 Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets and two Maine Literary Awards, Bouwsma serves as Director for Webster Library in Kingfield, Maine.