The Aroostook Arms Race with Arend Thibodeau
Thursday, September 18 at 6 p.m.
The end of World War II set the stage for an accumulation of arms that would rival even the most vivid imagination as the United States tried to maintain a period of operational readiness matching the Soviet Union.
The impact of this decades-long arms race was most noticeable in places like Aroostook County, Maine. With its proximity to Europe, this spot was selected for its strategic location as weapons were poised to strike at the Soviet Union, hidden in backyards and among the potato fields, while armed bombers were maintained in a state of operational readiness 24/7 at Loring Air Force Base in Limestone.
Arend Thibodeau, a longtime chronicler of forgotten and abandoned industry and historic buildings in Maine, explores this incredible era, the rise and fall of the nuclear weapons stockpile in Aroostook County, and its impact to Northern Maine.
Historic Kittery Walking Tour
Saturday, September 20 at 1:30 p.m.
Former Town Council member and local historian, Jeff Thomson, will lead you on a walking tour of historic Kittery landmarks.
This tour will begin at Traip Academy, and head through the Kittery Foreside to John Paul Jones park, then finishing back at Traip. This tour comprises a one-hour walk viewing historically significant landmarks, buildings and places and pairs them with remarkable anecdotes and local stories about the people and events that have contributed to Kittery’s vibrant past, present and future.
Please register. This event is weather-dependent.
Authors Gina Troisi and Mhairi Haarsager
Wednesday, September 10 at 6 p.m.
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In both fiction and memoir, the saying “write what you know” holds strong allure, but is it really that simple?
Gina Troisi, a New Hampshire author, and Mhairi Haarsager, a Maine author, will introduce their books and lead a discussion based on using real-life events in fiction versus memoir.
Gina Troisi’s memoir, The Angle of Flickering Light, was a finalist for the 2022 Maine Literary Award. She received an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Maine in 2009. She teaches writing at Southern New Hampshire University and is a writing coach and mentor for creative writers. She is especially interested in childhood trauma, economic and class issues, and the way literature has the immense capacity to promote empathy in the world.
Mhairi Haarsager, M.D., is a retired professor of pediatrics who published her debut novel, Moral Injury, this year. It is a quick-hitting thriller set in Baltimore in the waning years of the Cold War, about a NICU doctor who stumbles upon a deadly medical conspiracy involving the CIA and the Saudi Royal Family.