Writing the Land: Maine

Writing the Land: Maine is an anthology of 13 land trusts and 27 poets who wrote poems inspired by their adopted lands throughout Maine. Information about the land trusts and lands open to the public is included within each chapter as well as the poems. Purchase your copy from any participating land trust.

“Writing the Land is an attempt to honor nature and our relationship with it in a way that is as equitable and transparent as it is deep and entangled. We intend to be as inclusive—to humans and places
—as we hope the mantle of protection that land trusts offer can be. Our work will never be complete but gains strength, depth, beauty, and energy in a multitude of voices.” —-Lis McLoughlin, editor

Includes Lands Protected by:

Androscoggin Land Trust
Boothbay Region Land Trust
Coastal Mountains Land Trust
Downeast Coastal Conservancy
Downeast Salmon Federation
Great Works Regional Land Trust
Kennebec Land Trust

Praise for Writing the Land: Maine

What you hold in your hand is a wonderful collection of experiences that come directly from connections to the land---conserved land now stewarded by land trusts across Maine. Take this book along on your next walk or paddle. Browse it during winnter evenings when you want to remember the green places, when you need to be nurtured by your connections to the natural world....

---Tim Glidden, Maine Coast Heritage Trust President (2011-2021)

The poets in Writing the Land: Maine show us that, at our best, we are not just on the land but with the land.  They have looked deeply at what grows and lives in this earth, stone, water, and light.  Their poems give us an opportunity to be immersed in the present—a present that carries its eons-old history and its evolving future in the same breath. 

--Stuart Kestenbaum, Poet Laureate of Maine (2016-2021)

Everything has stories - the plants, the animals, the stone, the water, the wind, the humans. Everything speaks. Particular places are the sum, and more, of these conversations. The world is made from stories. This volume represents some of Maine's protected places, where the land is protected, but also its stories. These poets wander into these places, open their hearts, and come back with stories for all of us to hear. We listen closely, and hear the heart of the land. What an opportunity - to listen to these lands, singing!

---Gary Lawless, poet and bookseller