2025 is fast approaching and as much as we are excited for the unknown that the year will bring, we at Islandport Press are equally as sad to see 2024 come to an end. With a thrilling year of brand new authors, high class awards, and quirky author events, we feel that it's only customary to review some highlights from 2024 for anyone who may have missed the action!
Awards, Achievements, and More
Marpheen Chann's Moon in Full Rises to New Heights
Following a very busy and well-deserved year of recognition in 2023 as an Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award Finalist, a Maine Literary Award Finalist, and receiving the 2023 IPPY Award Bronze Medal in LQBTQ Nonfiction, Marpheen Chann, author of the coming-of-age memoir Moon in Full, has had yet another year of achievement.
For those unfamiliar with Chann's work, Moon in Full, released in June of 2022, was dubbed by Kirkus Reviews as "an earnest an well-written account of a search for self." Chann's heartwarming journey weaves through housing projects and foster homes; into houses of worship and across college campuses; and playing out in working-class Maine where he struggles to find his place. Adopted into a majority white community, Moon in Full shows how Chann reconciles his fears and secret longings as a young gay man with the devoutly religious beliefs of his new family. As a second-generation Asian American, Chann reflects on his evolution from hungry refugee's son to religious youth to advocate of acceptance and equality.
This year, Chann started strong with even more popularity for Moon in Full. In January, Moon in Full was chosen as the 2024 ReadME Pick by the Maine Humanities Council, which has given him the opportunity to lead ReadME author talks at libraries all across Maine. In June, Moon in Full was chosen as the 2024 All Books Considered June Pick by Maine Public Radio, leading a host of virtual book club events (and drawing quite the attention in the process).
And it doesn't stop there! Chann was busy across the nation in August. Early in the month, he gave his first out-of-state keynote at the Fernbrook Family Center EDI Conference in Minnesota, uplifting those in foster care and adoption by talking with youth and workers in the system. Then, Chann hopped to Chicago as National Delegate for Maine at the Democratic National Convention.
In late August, Moon in Full was the featured nonfiction book representing Maine at the Library of Congress National Book Festival. The incredible event celebrated the best of American literature, bringing together authors, readers, and book lovers across the country. Congrats Marpheen!
Praise for Emily Stoddard Burnham and Downtown, Up River
Starting strong right off the bat, Downtown, Up River launched into 2024 with instant recognition.
Downtown, Up River: Bangor in the 1970s is a photo book featuring more than 140 images captured by photographers from the Bangor Daily News and elsewhere in the community. In photos of people, places and notable events, these images capture life in the tumultuous 1970s Bangor, as post WWII sensibilities coexisted alongside a nascent counterculture as Bangor's days as the lumber capital of the world tried to hang on amid controversial attempts to modernize the city.
Emily Stoddard Burnham, who has served as an arts and culture journalist for the Bangor Daily News since 2008, was awarded the 2024 Maine Literary Awards Winner for Excellence in Publishing in May of this year. Honored, Burnham writes in a congratulatory Instagram post "For Bangor!" after many thanks to family, fellow journalists, and Islandport Press. In addition to this award, Downtown, Up River was announced as a 2023 Finalist for the Forward INDIES, an award serving to showcase independent press titles.
What the Wind Can Tell You & Disability Pride Month
In July, Mexican American author of What the Wind Can Tell You Sarah Marie A. Jette was featured in HipLatina's 12 Books by Latinx Authors About Disabilities for All Ages, a feature article for Disability Pride Month!
What the Wind Can Tell You is Jette's debut novel, following Isabelle, a young girl fascinated by wind and determined to win the middle school science fair with her wind machine. She's just as determined to have her brother, Julian, who has a severe form of epilepsy and uses a wheelchair, to serve as her assistant. But after Julian has a grand seizure, everything changes. Isabelle is suddenly granted into Las Brisas, a magical world where Julian's physical limitations disappear, and one she discovers that he visits every night.
As noted in the article, "It is so important for the disabled Latinx community to have access to resources that teach us more about disability and the intersections it shares with race and ethnicity. " It is truly and honor to publish books that center on disability and feature disabled characters, and we are so grateful for this feature!
Highlighting Cynthia Thayer's We're Going Home
Cynthia Thayer's memoir We're Going Home has been in a swirl of attention over the past few months!
In We're Going Home, Thayer tells the story of the life, the farm, and the community that she and her husband, Bill, built together and what happens after Bill's horrific and mysterious accident while driving their team of horses. Bill and Cynthia have been through a lot together over four decades: learning to be farmers, mourning the loss of a grandchild, and seeing their barn— and nearly all their animals— succumb to a fire. What Cynthia doesn't know is what comes next. We're Going Home has been praised by many for it's beautiful prose that features humor, humanity, intimacy and grief. Touching the hearts of many, this tender love-story-turned-memoir is no stranger to a good review.
Alongside Emily Stoddard Burnham, Cynthia Thayer was also a favorite of the 2024 Maine Literary Awards as a Finalist in Memoir. We're Going Home was subsequently reviewed in the Maine Sunday Telegram in September, with an upcoming review in the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association winter news issue. Keep an eye out for it!
Hello New Books, Goodbye Jack McMorrow
Gerry Boyle Writes Jack McMorrow Series Finale Hard Line
The time has come and award-winning author Gerry Boyle has written the exciting and bittersweet end for his signature character Jack McMorrow, dubbed by author Tess Gerritsen as "a hero for the ages!"
Hard Line, Boyle's fourteenth book in the series, takes readers on a final ride—filled with action. Ripped from current events with nods to old characters and past stories, Hard Line builds to a dramatic stand-off between the forces of violent chaos and law and order—all set amidst the familiar quiet pines, rough towns, and gray skies of rural Maine. Finishing the two-book story arc he started in his thirteenth book, Robbed Blind, Boyle delivers a gripping ending that makes saying goodbye even harder.
Boyle's book launch for Hard Line was packed, with supportive mystery fans as well as final moments, including Boyle's talk about his journey to becoming a published author with the birth of his first novel, Deadline, a Q&A, and a reading. The launch was held at Novel Book Bar & Cafe in Portland. Although the launch was in June, Boyle continues to tour around Maine with many author events, so McMorrow isn't truly over!
After thirty years of writing, Gerry Boyle has become one of the most dedicated and well-known mystery authors in Maine. Fellow author Richard Cass praises Boyle as an author who "has done something unique and valuable for Maine: observe, recognize, and illuminate parts of our state away from cities and the coastal glitz... and they are damn fine stories." Boyle began his writing career in newspapers after graduating Colby College and first working as a roofer, postman, and manuscript reader in New York City. After getting his first few reporting jobs in Maine, his experiences as a reporter inspired his first novel, Deadline, and built Jack McMorrow as now one of the most famous and popular recurring literary characters in Maine.
Jack McMorrow has been such an iconic character for Maine and will be greatly missed... thank goodness books can be reread over and over again!
A Year of New Titles: Young Adult, Thriller Suspense, and Brand New Favorites
Along with Gerry Boyle's June release of Hard Line, we have published a handful of new titles, including long awaited young adult novels, a new action-triller, and Islandport's first art book. Most recently, a brand new trivia book, photography book, and a book of short essays on small town life have hit the bookshelves!
Spring 2024
In Spring of 2024 we saw the release of Carl Little and David Little's Art of Penobscot Bay, Islandport's first art book. Art of Penobscot Bay includes more than 120 artists from the nineteenth century through the twenty-first century, all infused with a remarkable representation of Penobscot Bay and its people.
We also saw the reprint of Ruth Moore's The Sea Flower (1964), which centers on two down-and-out orphans whose fortunes are changed with the help of the locals of a nearly deserted Maine island. With characters as genuine as the coastal Maine folk Ruth Moore knew herself, it's always encouraging to rerelease the work of such a successful and time-honored Maine author.
Summer 2024
Alongside Hard Line, there was another June favorite! The Space Between You and Me by Julie True Kingsley was Islandport's first young adult novel since the release of The Door to January in 2017. Debut author Kingsley writes about a heartwarming romance between Clem, aspiring dancer and daughter of a blueberry farm owner, and Rico, a boy working the wild blueberry barrens over the summer. Yet, his secrets rival her own as they grow closer, and Clem must confront the hidden realities of the place she thought she once knew.
Fall 2024
Although released in the fall, this novel helped Mainers grasp the last bit of summer sun and hold onto it. Bee Burke's debut young adult comedy The Last Summer Before Whatever Happens Next is a drama-packed summer of possibly set in the 1980s. Focused on valedictorian Claire Hart, her boring summer is changed when shes swept up in the storied world of the Tooheys, heirs to a plumbing fortune and the richest, quirkiest family in Keech Harbor, Maine. But as she follows the Toohey clan from one party to another, this perfect live they live isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's fantastic to have another young adult adventure in the Islandport Press repertoire!
While this novel is set amongst a group of teens, The Islanders by Lewis Robinson is a favorite for teens and adults alike. Award-winning author Robinson made instant headway with the release of The Islanders, with a busy and bustling launch at Oxbow Brewing Company with conversation partner Curtis Sittenfeld. The Islanders follows high school hockey star Walt McNamara, who joins an exclusive and suspicious new leadership program controlled by the ultra-wealthy summer residents of Whaleback Island, a granite and spruce oasis off the coast of Maine. This suspenseful coming-of-age novel features a beautifully balanced telling of class conflict, family, and friendship.
Winter 2024
Our brand new titles have arrived in good fashion, with Lew-Ellyn Hughes' Farmhouse on the Edge of Town as Islandport's new essay novel about small town life in Maine. Readers of her long-running newspaper column will celebrate Hughes’s newest collection featuring dozens of trials, errors, and heartwarming tidbits adjusting from Bangor nurse to bed-and-breakfast owner in Stratton. Lew-Ellyn, with her trademark wit, chronicles her hospitality experiences and introduces us to a host of memorable people along the way. We're so happy to author a new set of emotional and charming stories to those who appreciate the little things in life.
Another November release, we saw the birth of New Hampshire Trivia by Rebecca Rule. If anyone was a fan of Maine Trivia in 2022, then you'll be no stranger to the New Hampshire version! With over 500 questions in such categories as History, Arts and Entertainment, Sports, Notables, Natural Wonders, and much more, there's a little something for everyone. This came in perfect time for Christmas as the go-to choice for family fun over the holidays. And readers are no stranger to Rule either as the New Hampshire expert. Becky has hosted the NH Authors series for ten years on New Hampshire PS and now hosts the network's Our Hometown series. She loves New Hampshire and has been telling stories about the state and performing in front of audiences for over thirty years.
As the final release of the year, of course we had to go out with a bang. In collaboration between Michael Crowley and the Penobscot Marine Museum, Working the Sea is a book of photographs documenting boats and the people who worked them during a critical period of change and growth in American fishery history. In 2012, National Fisherman, a leading Maine-based commercial fishing magazine donated its entire pre-digital photographic archive to the Penobscot Marine Museum. Compiled in this one book, sections feature a comprehensive and remarkably beautiful overview of historical boats in Maine, the people that worked them, snapshots from live on shore, and even tales of dramatic stories at sea!
A Year of Quirky Author Events!
2024 was the year authors got creative!
Lewis Robinson Teaches Screen Printing Demo at The Islanders Event
Lewis Robinson, author of the suspenseful survival novel The Islanders, was at Twice Sold Tales bookstore in Farmington on September 24. With Robinson's screen printing demo, he and fellow Farmington Islanders printed t-shirts sporting the line "Islanders are everywhere." After the demonstration followed a reading and signing from The Islanders and a conversation with fellow author Ron Currie. This was such an innovative and interactive event, and others clearly thought so too.
Bringing The Islanders alive seems to be Robinson's specialty, as only a week earlier he made a big splash at his launch at Oxbow Blending & Bottling in Portland. Not only was there a full bar of delicious drinks and snacks to enjoy during the event, but there was a disco ball, immersive book trailer, and a bouncy Q&A with conversation partner Curtis Sittenfeld.
Ron Joseph and Amy Calder Ride 1915 Ford Model T
Two of our authors Amy Calder (Comfort is an Old Barn ) and Ron Joseph (Bald Eagles, Bear Cubs and Hermit Bill ) were honored at the Clinton Agricultural Fair on September 7. Here they're shown in Vassalboro native Peter Reny's 1915 Ford Model T touring car at the parade, followed by a signing of their books! What a fun way to bring history lovers, book lovers, and even car lovers together!
Bee Burke Book Launch at 19th Century Store-Turned-Theater
Bee Burke, debut author of The Last Summer Before Whatever Happens Next, held her book launch at The Arctic Playhouse in Rhode Island on September 25. The Arctic Playhouse is a historic nineteenth-century department-store-turned-theater. Adorned with grand chandeliers that softly lit the room, maroon walls that set a cozy mood, and candles along the stage and bar, The Arctic Playhouse made for a unique location for a YA author. The event included a reading from Burke, some fun table 1980s trivia, and a raffle giveaway that included a quirky toilet candle amongst other fun goods!
It's been quite a busy year, and we are so grateful to our authors and our readers for making great books possible. We are so proud to host such a large group of authors with big accomplishments, fun event ideas, and the courage to put new books in the world!
Happy 2025!
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