2025 Camden Festival of Poetry Keynote Speaker

2025 Festival keynote speaker was award-winning poet, translator & essayist, Jane Hirshfield.

 “. . . poems move and change us. They bring hope. They bring community, inscribing into our thirst for connection poetry’s particular, compassionate compact, the inseparability of our own lives and the lives of others, of all that exists.”

–Jane Hirshfield, from Ten Windows

Festival Poets & Performers 2025

Beau Williams

A former Ireland Poetry Slam Champion, Beau performs poetry and teaches writing, focusing on issues of the heart.  His two collections are: Nail Gun and a Love Letter and Things I Blindly Took As Gospel

Maya Williams (ey/they/she)

Maya is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who was selected as seventh poet laureate of Portland, ME (2021-2024).

Judy Kaber

Judy’s poems appear in a variety of journals. Winner of the 2023 Maine Poetry Contest, 2024 Maine Literary Poetry Award, and 2024 Naugatuck River Review Poetry Contest, she is a past poet laureate of Belfast, Maine (2021-2023).

Myronn Hardy

Myronn is the author of Aurora Americana (Princeton University Press). His poems have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Ploughshares, POETRY, The New Republic, The Georgia Review, The Baffler, and elsewhere. He teaches at Bates College.

Sal Taylor Kydd

Sal explores themes of memory and belonging, through her photography and poetry. Her work is exhibited internationally, with books held in collections throughout the country. She lives in Rockport, Maine.

Ethan Tischler

is a Maine-based musician/educator with roots in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. Ethan has been teaching, performing, and recording music, mainly in Vermont and midcoast Maine. He delights in playing with Elsie Gawler (“Elsie & Ethan”) and with the Gawler Sisters and Gawler Family.

Louisa Stancioff

was born and raised in rural Maine, learning traditional Bulgarian tunes from her paternal grandfather’s side of the family and reveling in singing American folk and roots songs with her friends. Her LP ‘When We Were Looking’ was released on Yep Rock records.

A Welcome Reading at the Camden Public Library 2025

  • Ben Rooney

    is a farmer and carpenter. He loves geeking out on nature, outdoor recreating and all things that ferment. Artistic expression is something he strayed away from during adolescence.  Only recently has writing poetry and music come back into practice, after a 10-year hiatus.

  • April Messier

    is currently working on her master’s thesis, a manuscript of original poetry and poetics. Her work explores the relationship between lineage and identity as well as the healing capacities of language and the natural world. She gathers inspiration from her deep connection to this land that her ancestors have stewarded for many generations, and which she herself has farmed for over a decade. April lives with her partner Eric and two dogs in Belfast, Maine.

  • Carl Little

    is the author of Blanket of the Night: Poems (Deerbrook Editions, 2024). His poetry has appeared in The Café Review, Maine Arts Journal and Maine Sunday Telegram, among other publications, as well as in several anthologies edited by Wesley McNair. In 2021 the Rabkin Foundation awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award for his art writing. Little lives on Mount Desert Island.

  • Kristen Lindquist

    lives in Camden and Monhegan Island. Her poetry and essays have been published in numerous journals and anthologies. Her first poetry collection, Transportation, was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. Her other books include Tourists in the Known World and Island: Haiku, which received a Merit Book Award from the Haiku Society of America.

  • Sandra Lynn Hutchison

    has published three books: Chinese Brushstrokes (a memoir), The Art of Nesting (poetry), and A Tale of Love (a translation). She has been the recipient of various literary awards and recognitions, including the Emily Dickinson Poetry Award and a Jane Kenyon Poetry Fellowship. Her most recent chapbook The Beautiful Foolishness of Things was a finalist in the 2022 Poet’s Corner chapbook contest.

The Sonic Café 2025

  • David Dodson

    is a songwriter with a wide-ranging style—folk, rock, blues, country, and more. Known for sharp wit, warm storytelling, and a voice full of character, he’s been a beloved presence in Maine’s music scene for years. His songs swing from heartfelt to hilarious, always landing with soul.

  • Matthew Hawkins

    was born in New Jersey, and after a few false starts, moved to Maine in 2021. He writes music inspired by driving around and sitting around. Some of his earliest memories are his mom singing to him, and sitting around a campfire, and he hopes that his music feels that way!

  • Rory McBride, Host

    is a singer and poet based in Hope, Maine, where he crafts soft psychedelic folk infused with blues and spiritual tones. His life oscillates between that of an à la carte hyper urbanite and a poet routinely shamanizing in the pines. His work draws on memory, ritual, and the rhythms of land and sea. Through the platform of the Sonic Café, McBride hopes to bring new energy—spanning music and poem—to the Midcoast. As MC for the evening, he will guide the cadence of the show with presence and poetic intent.

  • Olivia Meridian

    was born in the heart of Flint, Michigan, shaped by the Rocky Mountain West, and now resides—for the time being—in the land of the dawn. She has left through many a back alley door, under differing names, phases of the moon, and in all conditions, to grasp—amid dust, rot, moss, and cosmic goo—a few fleeting fragments of meaning, recorded into sound waves for a listener’s pleasure or displeasure, depending. She is also called “Americana.”

  • John and Rachel Nicholas

    have been making music together since they met, blending soulful harmonies with a love of folk and roots traditions. Based in Midcoast Maine since 2012, they perform as a duo and with their band The Lowdown. They also host the Good Trouble Project, a concert series supporting local causes.

  • Kirby Porterfield

    grew up in Alexandria, VA, and now lives in Midcoast Maine. Her smoky voice and dry humor reflect years spent in musical theatre, comedy, and cabaret. She plays shows along the coast, blending storytelling with a little edge.

Your Guide to the 2025 Camden Festival of Poetry

Kickoff Tuesday May 13

  • Public Reading and welcome
    6:00 - 7:15pm at the Camden Public Library 55 Main St . Limited seating, get there early! More details here.

Thursday, May 15

  • The Sonic Cafe: Singer-Songwriter Open Mic Hosted by Rory McBride • 7:00 - 9:00pm in the Pilgrim Room, First Congregational Church of Camden, 55 Elm Street FREE and Open to the Public.

Friday, May 16

  • “Information, Invitation & Insight: Transitions in Poems”, a Craft Talk with Jane Hirshfield • 2:00 - 4:00pm at the Camden Public Library 55 Main St. Tickets must be purchased for this event.

  • Poetry Open Mic 7:00 - 9:00pm at the First Congregational Church, Camden.

Saturday, May 17

  • The Poetry Walk 10:00 - 11:00am Led by Rory McBride. Meet at the Town Hall at 29 Elm Street at 10 am.

All other events on Saturday will take place at the Congregational Church at 55 Elm Street.

  • Welcome by Festival Chairs 1:00pm

  • Maine Poets & Musicians 1:10 - 2:10pm
    Find out more about them HERE.

  • Workshops 2:15 - 3:10. Sign up in-person. To see a list of Workshops, click HERE.

  • Refreshments and Book Fair 3:15 - 3:45pm

  • Awards presentations 4:00 - 4:15pm

  • Keynote address “Living by Poetry” with Jane Hirshfield.

Our 2025 Sponsors

Thank you to our Camden Festival of Poetry sponsors

Business & Foundation

Epic Sponsors


Ballad Sponsors

  • Atlantic Baking Company

  • Bleeker & Greer

  • Camden Real Estate

  • DownEast Enterprises

  • Jessie Tobias Shop

  • Hannafords

  • Leslie Curtis Design

  • Lone Pine Real Estate Co.

  • Once-a-Tree

  • Page Gallery

  • PG Willey

  • RE/MAX Jaret and Cohn

  • Sotheby's Legacy Properties

  • Sunflower Bakery

  • Symmetree

  • Thomas Michaels Designs

  • The Smiling Cow

Sonnet Sponsors

Media Sponsors

  • Downeast Magazine

  • Midcoast Villager

  • WERU

Sponsor Bookstores

  • Arctic Tern Books, Rockland

  • Barnswallow Books, Rockport

  • hello hello books, Rockland

  • Left Bank Books, Belfast

  • Owl and Turtle Bookshop Café, Camden

  • Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop, Rockland

  • Atlantic Baking Company 

  • Bagel Cafe

  • Bleeker & Greer

  • Buttermilk Kitchen at Marriner’s

  • Camden Deli

  • French & Brawn

  • Glendarragh Lavender

  • Green Tree Coffee

  • Hannaford

  • Hartstone Inn and Restaurant

  • Jessie Tobias Shop

  • Lily, Lupine, and Fern

  • Long Grain Restaurant

  • Mixed Greens

  • Mosaic Restaurant

  • Natalie’s Restaurant

  • Planet Toys

  • Seadog Brewery

  • SunFlour Bakery

  • TOPO: Paper & Post 

  • Zoot Coffee

In-Kind Sponsors

Community Partners

Individual Partners

  • Lois Anne

  • John Paul Caponigro

  • Mark Burrows & Ute Molitor

  • Diane Green Minor

  • Ellen & Vic Goldsmith

  • David & Ann Ingram

  • Harold Lonkhuyzen

  • Sue Micholovitz & Paul Velleman

  • Wendy Rappaport

  • Cynthia & Doug Reeves

  • Zella Walker

  • Robert Wall

  • Meg Weston & Roger Leddington

Sonnet

Haiku

  • John & Judith Carpeter

  • Claudia Griffiths

  • Marcie Porter

  • Cynthia Stancioff

  • Maya Stein

  • Susan Deutsch & Carlisle Towery

  • Allen & Sally Fernald

  • Judy & Doug O'Dell

  • Wendy and Roger Wickenden

  • Sandy Wiesman

Epic

  • Alice Gorman

  • John & Liz Ohlson

  • Cindy & John Reed

  • Marilyn Rockefeller

  • Sarah Welch & Jason Hearst

  • Lucinda Ziesing

  • Jim Zimpritch

Ballad

Register to attend the 2026 Camden Festival of Poetry