Anita Diamant
Anita Diamant is the author of twelve books. Her first novel, New York Times bestseller, The Red Tent, has been published in more than 25 countries. Winner of the 2001 Booksense Book of the Year Award, it was adapted into a two-part miniseries by Lifetime TV. Anita Diamant’s other bestselling novels include Good Harbor, The Last Days of Dogtown, Day after Night, and The Boston Girl. Diamant has also written six non-fiction guides to contemporary Jewish life, the first of which, The New Jewish Wedding, has recently been revised and updated as The Jewish Wedding Now. Her other guidebooks include The Jewish Baby Book, Living a Jewish Life, Choosing a Jewish Life, How to Raise a Jewish Child and Saying Kaddish. A collection of her essays, Pitching My Tent, is drawn from twenty years worth of newspaper and magazine columns. An award-winning journalist, her articles have appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, Real Simple, Parenting Magazine, Hadassah, Reform Judaism, Boston Magazine and Yankee Magazine.
Anita Diamant is the founding president of Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Community Mikveh, a 21 st century reinvention of the ritual bath as a place for exploring ancient traditions and enriching contemporary Jewish life.
Anita Diamant grew up in Newark, New Jersey and Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in comparative literature and holds a Master’s degree in English from Binghamton University. She resides in the Boston area with her husband, Jim Ball. www.anitadiamant.com
Anita Diamant is the founding president of Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Community Mikveh, a 21 st century reinvention of the ritual bath as a place for exploring ancient traditions and enriching contemporary Jewish life.
Anita Diamant grew up in Newark, New Jersey and Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in comparative literature and holds a Master’s degree in English from Binghamton University. She resides in the Boston area with her husband, Jim Ball. www.anitadiamant.com
Mary Azarian
I began making woodcut prints in 1968 in a small room in my home and decided to call my studio Farmhouse Press since that was an accurate description of the modest setting for my business.
From the beginning, I was determined to make my work depict the landscape surrounding my home on our hill farm in Vermont and the work (and play) that are required to sustain a rural life. I am tempted to call it a simple life, but that would hardly be accurate.
I wanted to make my work affordable and decided that it would be a one-woman operation. So when you order a print from me, it will be printed, hand painted, packaged and shipped by me. I print and paint each print when I receive the order. In addition to producing prints and note cards, I have illustrated more than 50 books, including Snowflake Bentley, which won the 1999 Caldecott Award for the best illustrated picture book of the year.
After many years of producing hand painted prints, I returned to the design of black and white woodcuts based on my experience of 50 years of printmaking. I am especially interested in working with simple shapes.
From the beginning, I was determined to make my work depict the landscape surrounding my home on our hill farm in Vermont and the work (and play) that are required to sustain a rural life. I am tempted to call it a simple life, but that would hardly be accurate.
I wanted to make my work affordable and decided that it would be a one-woman operation. So when you order a print from me, it will be printed, hand painted, packaged and shipped by me. I print and paint each print when I receive the order. In addition to producing prints and note cards, I have illustrated more than 50 books, including Snowflake Bentley, which won the 1999 Caldecott Award for the best illustrated picture book of the year.
After many years of producing hand painted prints, I returned to the design of black and white woodcuts based on my experience of 50 years of printmaking. I am especially interested in working with simple shapes.
Gwen Florio
Award-winning journalist Gwen Florio has covered stories ranging from the shooting at Columbine High School and the Oklahoma City bombing trials, to the glitz of the Miss America pageant and the more practical Miss Navajo contest, whose participants slaughter and cook a sheep. She’s reported from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, as well as Lost Springs, Wyoming (population three). Her journalism has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and her short fiction for the Pushcart Prize. She turned to fiction in 2013 with the publication of her first novel, Montana, which won the Pinckley Prize for Debut Crime Fiction and a High Plains Book Award. Reservations (March 2017) is the fourth novel in the Lola Wicks series, termed “gutsy” by the New York Times. A fifth is scheduled for 2018, as is a stand-alone novel set in Afghanistan.
Paul Doiron and Kristen Lindquist
Paul Doiron is the author of the Mike Bowditch series of award-winning crime novels, including The Poacher's Son, which won the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel; Trespasser, which won the Maine Literary Award and was an American Booksellers Association Indie Bestseller; Bad Little Falls, a Bookscan Bestseller; Massacre Pond, an Indie Next pick and an Indie Favorite, as well as a Bookscan Bestseller; The Bone Orchard, which received Down East's Best of Maine award; The Precipice, a LibraryReads selection and RT Top Pick; and Widowmaker, which was also a LibraryReads selection and a #1 Maine Sunday Telegram bestseller. The eighth and most recent addition to the series, Knife Creek, comes out in June 2017. His novels have been translated into 10 languages.
Paul is Editor Emeritus of Down East: The Magazine of Maine, having served as Editor in Chief from 2005 to 2013 before stepping down to write full time. A native of Maine, he attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English, and he holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. He is a former member of the Maine Arts Commission and a current member of the Maine Humanities Council. He is also a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly-fishing. You can read more about Paul and his books at www.pauldoiron.com.
Kristen Lindquist, Paul's wife, is a poet and freelance writer whose writings have appeared in such venues as Down East, Bangor Metro, Bangor Daily News, as well as many literary journals and anthologies. Her chapbook Invocation to the Birds was published by Oyster River Press in New Hampshire as part of its Walking to Windward series. Her first full-length poetry collection, Transportation, was a finalist for a 2012 Maine Literary Award. Garrison Keillor read three poems from the book on National Public Radio's The Writer's Almanac. Her second book, Tourists in the Known World: New & Selected Poems, was published this spring.
Kristen attended Middlebury College and holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon. An avid birder, she leads bird walks all over Maine and for the Acadia Birding Festival. She has written a natural history column for the local paper for many years and for the past eight years has maintained a daily haiku blog, Book of Days, at klindquist.blogspot.com. She and Paul live at the foot of the Camden Hills in her hometown of Camden, Maine.
Paul is Editor Emeritus of Down East: The Magazine of Maine, having served as Editor in Chief from 2005 to 2013 before stepping down to write full time. A native of Maine, he attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English, and he holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. He is a former member of the Maine Arts Commission and a current member of the Maine Humanities Council. He is also a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly-fishing. You can read more about Paul and his books at www.pauldoiron.com.
Kristen Lindquist, Paul's wife, is a poet and freelance writer whose writings have appeared in such venues as Down East, Bangor Metro, Bangor Daily News, as well as many literary journals and anthologies. Her chapbook Invocation to the Birds was published by Oyster River Press in New Hampshire as part of its Walking to Windward series. Her first full-length poetry collection, Transportation, was a finalist for a 2012 Maine Literary Award. Garrison Keillor read three poems from the book on National Public Radio's The Writer's Almanac. Her second book, Tourists in the Known World: New & Selected Poems, was published this spring.
Kristen attended Middlebury College and holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon. An avid birder, she leads bird walks all over Maine and for the Acadia Birding Festival. She has written a natural history column for the local paper for many years and for the past eight years has maintained a daily haiku blog, Book of Days, at klindquist.blogspot.com. She and Paul live at the foot of the Camden Hills in her hometown of Camden, Maine.
