Books will be available for purchase.

Presented in partnership with The Briar Patch Bookstore and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.

About the event

Gregory Howard will introduce this evening's program.  Greg is the author of the novel Hospice. His short fiction and essays have been published widely. He teaches Creative Writing, Contemporary Literature, and Film at the University of Maine.

Morgan Talty will introduce us to one of Maine's new authors, Shannon Bowring.  He will lead the conversation which will include talking about the writing process and how Shannon came to write this book about a Northern Maine community.  There will be time for questions from the audience.  

About the Book

Best friends who have become lovers, a doctor in crisis, a young couple struggling in the wake of a traumatic birth: these are only a few of the inhabitants of Dalton, a small town in Northern Maine. The inner workings of these familiar lives are illuminated against the backdrop of the nineties, as they grapple with an unthinkable decision made by one of their own. In the wake of tragedy, the people of Dalton learn how their problems, both small and large, reveal a deeper understanding of the lives of their neighbors—and remind us that no one is exactly who you think they are.

About Shannon

Shannon Bowring has been nominated for a Pushcart and a Best of the Net, and was selected for Best Small Fictions 2021. She holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast low-residency program and currently resides in Bath, Maine. The Road to Dalton is her first novel.

Visit Shannon's website for more information.

About Morgan

Morgan Talty, a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation, is the author of the national bestselling and critically acclaimed story collection Night of the Living Rez from Tin House Books, which won the New England Book Award, was a Finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers, and is a Finalist for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. His writing has appeared in Granta, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative Magazine, LitHub, and elsewhere. A winner of the 2021 Narrative Prize, Talty’s work has been supported by the Elizabeth George Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts (2022). Talty is an Assistant Professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in creative writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. Talty is also a Prose Editor at The Massachusetts Review. He lives in Levant, Maine.

To learn more about Morgan, visit his website.

From the Publisher:

From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small-town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard Russo calls, “measured, wise, and beautiful.”

In the last weeks of 1989, a fender-bender breaks the silence on an icy dark road outside Dalton, Maine—setting in motion events that will ripple throughout the town in ways no one can foresee.

As a rule, nothing much changes in Dalton. Rose goes to the diner, hiding bruises from her customers. At a nearby table, Richard reflects on the choice that’s charted his life. His wife, Trudy, and her best friend Bev continue the romance that exists within their long friendship—a secret known and ignored by their husbands. Bridget and Nate are raising their newborn daughter after a difficult birth, and on the edge of town, newcomer and aspiring writer Alice struggles to fit in.

When the consequences of the accident play out, the community is left reeling. In the aftermath, their own problems reveal a deeper knowledge of the lives of their neighbors—reminding us no one is exactly who we think they are.

The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world: of pain and joy, conflict and love, and the endurance that comes from living.