The Belfast Free Library is hosting an opening of the exhibit “Of Cod and Communities” by Linda Buckmaster, Friday, October 6, from 4 to 6 p.m. The free event is open to all and will include live Celtic music and snacks. The exhibit will be in the library’s Barbara Kramer Gallery through the month of October.

"Of Cod and Communities” is a traveling literary exhibit adapted from Linda Buckmaster’s book Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, a Finalist in the Maine Literary Awards. Buckmaster collaborated with Portland designer Lori Harley to create eight 3' x 5' soft fabric banners printed with text and images. They are designed to hang in community spaces such as libraries to reflect the centuries-long interrelationships between the North Atlantic cod and humans.

The Belfast Free Library is the first host in the year-long series of seven coastal libraries. Penobscot Marine Museum is a co-sponsor of the exhibit, which is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Linda Buckmaster has lived within a block of the Atlantic most of her life, growing up in Florida and living in Midcoast Maine for 50 years. She has an MFA from the University of Southern Maine, and her poetry, essay, and fiction have appeared in over 40 journals. Her hybrid memoir, “Space Heart. A Memoir in Stages”, was published by Burrow Press in 2018. Her latest hybrid, “Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands” (Huntress Press 2022), is the first installment in a series of creative and eclectic responses to the beauties and realities of islands across the North Atlantic Rim.

For more information about the exhibit, call the library at 207-338-3884 ext. 10.