explorer to read from travel essays in York

Author Lawrence Millman will read from his work on Friday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. at York Public Library in York, Maine, as part of the library’s author series. He is expected to read from his newly released book of fiction, “Going Home: A Horror,” and from “Cold Comfort,” a forthcoming book of travel essays.

Millman is a fellow of the Explorers Club and has made more than 40 trips to the Arctic and Subarctic. He even has a mountain named after him in East Greenland. When not traveling, he lives in Cambridge, Mass.

Millman is the author of 11 other books, including “Last Places,” “An Evening Among Headhunters,” “Lost in the Arctic” and “A Kayak Full of Ghosts.” His essays have appeared in Smithsonian, Atlantic Monthly, Outside and National Geographic. He has been nominated for a Pultizer Prize and his novel “Hero Jesse” was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. 

The program in York is co-sponsored by RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth. Signed books will be available for purchase.
York Public Library is at 15 Long Sands Road, York, Maine, 207-363-2818. For more information visit www.york.lib.me.us.

Poetry contest invites students

New Hampshire students are invited to enter one of two contests sponsored by The Poetry Society of New Hampshire—one for grades one through eight and another for high school. The theme this year is “hope” in all its forms.
“We have not themed the student contest in the past, so we are trying something new,” Society president Patricia Frisella said in an e-mail.

Ten winners from each category will be published in The Poets’ Touchstone, a quarterly poetry magazine published by the Poetry Society. Winning poems tend to use language and themes in surprising ways, said Frisella. The line limit is 40, but poems can be written in any style.

The contests have strict guidelines and a submission deadline of March 31. For a copy of the guidelines, send a number 10 self-addressed stamped envelope to the Poetry Society of NH, 31 Reservoir Road, Farmington, NH 03835 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

About a dozen students typically enter the senior contest and about 50 enter the junior contest, according to Frisella. The Society also helps organize the Poetry Outloud competition each year and Poets in the Libraries, a program begun by New Hampshire Poet Laureate Pat Fargnoli, which matches poets with children in their town library.

The Poetry Society is a non-profit, state-wide membership organization dedicated to the promotion of poetry. The society sponsors poetry contests and hosts poetry readings and workshops. The society also publishes anthologies, most recently, “The 2008 Poets Guide to NH” and “The Other Side of Sorrow, Poets Speak out about Conflict, War and Peace.”