CAMDEN — The Camden Public Library welcomes writer Linda Buckmaster for a reading and discussion of her hybrid memoir Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, Tuesday, May 23, at 6:30 p.m., at the library and via Zoom. Elemental is the first installment in a series of creative and eclectic responses to the beauty and realities of islands in Maine, Newfoundland, and northwest Scotland.

In Elemental, Linda Buckmaster follows the call of the elements—rock, sea, sky, and wind. Elemental is also one of three finalists for a 2023 Maine Literary Award in the Excellence in Publishing category.

Through essay, poetry, and fiction, Buckmaster traces the imprint of the lowly salt cod over time in communities across the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. The book is designed throughout by Graphic artist Lori Harley in Portland. Previously an editor for National Fisherman magazine and former Poet Laureate of Belfast, Buckmaster knits fact and lyric into her narrative net.

This is a hybrid event and will take place in the Picker Room and on Zoom. Find the Zoom link to attend on the "What's Happening" page at librarycamden.org, or Register to attend on Zoom using this link https://us02web.zoom.us/ webinar/register/WN_QjtlXO4- RkGBE26W9L98gQ

Linda Buckmaster has lived within a block of the Atlantic most of her life, growing up in Florida and living in Midcoast Maine for fifty years. She has an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. Her poetry, essay, and fiction have appeared in over forty journals. She has held residencies at Vermont Studios Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Obras Foundation among others. Two of her pieces have been listed as Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2013 and 2020. 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 of a multimedia North Atlantic Rim Project.

“Linda Buckmaster follows the seaways, follows the cod lines, follows the northlands of her heart—a journey worth following,” said poet and Gulf of Maine Books owner Gary Lawless, in a CPL news release. “We follow the mixed history of cod, humans, and place as Linda searches for a proper engagement with islands that humans have been influencing since the glaciers receded. Elemental, yet rich with history, rich with poetry, song, and story, rich with the lives of many beings.”

Learn more about Linda Buckmaster at www.lindabuckmaster.com