Author: Reid Byers

On Wednesday, Nov 9, at 7:00 pm, Sarah Baker, Curator, University of New England Maine Women Writers' Collection, and her colleague, archivist Jefferson Navicky, will speak about the Maine Women Writers' Collection and its work. The meeting will take place simultaneously at the Cumberland Club at 116 High Street in Portland and online on Zoom.
This Collection is a permanently endowed special collection of published and unpublished literary, cultural, and social history sources by and about Maine women. Among its goals are to honor and celebrate the work of new, established, and historical women writers, as well as to foster archives-based scholarly work in women’s and gender studies.

Eligibility:
Book artisans of MAINE may submit any piece completed since March 1, 2021.

Submissions
must fall into the following categories: overall production, overall design, binding, illustration, typography, papermaking, calligraphy, printing, and artist’s books. The submissions must be physical books. Book authorship is not eligible.

The Prizes:
The top three works will be awarded cash prizes. First Prize is $1000, and two runners-up will receive $500 each. Four judges from the Maine book arts community will select the winners. A judge having direct involvement in any submission will refrain from voting on that submission.

Deadline for Submission:
March 1, 2023

Entry Protocol:
Download an application here. Mail the entry with the form and prepaid return shipping label to-

Ascensius Press
PO Box 420
Bar Mills ME 04004-0420

Awards will be announced at the Baxter Society’s May meeting.
All entries will be exhibited for four weeks at the Glickman Family Library (in the locked cases outside of Special Collections on the 6 th floor) during the month of May. After the exhibit, the books will be returned to the applicants.

Please direct questions to the prize committee: Scott Vile – scott@ascensiuspress.com
Kat Stefko – kstefko@bowdoin.edu
Rebecca Goodale – goodale@maine.edu

The Baxter Society meetings for the coming academic year are scheduled to be in-person meetings (conditions permitting), but with an improved Zoom component, so it will be possible to attend and participate either way. The meeting schedule is posted on this website under Events. Because our accustomed meeting space will be unavailable next year due to construction, the Society will meet at the Cumberland Club, at 116 High Street in Portland.

Jennifer Larson, the President of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, will speak on Wednesday, Sept. 14th, first sharing with us about the new FABS support programs for the Baxter Society and other clubs, and then speaking on the topic, “Little Books and Big Ideas in the Seventeenth Century.”

As her education proceeded, Jennifer’s interests broadened to include beautiful and curious books of all shapes and sizes, but miniature and small-format antiquarian books have remained her collecting passion. Jennifer has taught Classics at Kent State University for the last 30 years with a research program in Archaic Greek poetry, ancient Mediterranean religions, and the Cognitive Science of Religion. She currently serves as Chair of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies.