Living Legacy: An Evening with the MWPA Ashley Bryan Fellows

“I love to celebrate the artistry of people around the world in whatever material or form they work” --Ashley Bryan

Join Mechanics' Hall and MWPA in showcasing exciting voices in Maine's rich literary legacy with the Ashley Bryan Fellows. In honor of award-winning writer and artist Ashley Bryan’s life, the MWPA offers the Ashley Bryan Fellowships, which support emerging Maine writers who are Black, people of color, and/or members of one of the Wabanaki Nations or other Native peoples.

Thursday, April 17 from 6:30 - 8:00 PM (doors 6:00 PM), approximately 90-minutes.

Free to the public, registration is required.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Liz Iversen’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, Passages North, Fourteen Hills, and elsewhere. An Aspen Summer Words Emerging Writer Fellow, Tin House Scholar, and Ashley Bryan Fellow with the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, she lives with her husband and children in Portland, Maine, where she is at work on a novel.

Leila Christine Nadir is an award-winning nonfiction writer and community-engaged artist. A 2022 MWPA Ashley Bryan Fellow and 2024 Maine Lit Fest Fellow, Leila writes about the global geopolitics that invade our private living rooms and the intimate violences that reverberate across the planet, and she has received additional awards and fellowships from MacDowell, Periplus, de Groot Foundation, Hedgebrook, Bread Loaf, Tin House, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and more. Her essays have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Khôra, Black Warrior Review, North American Review, ASAP, and Aster(ix), among other places. Leila is represented by Ayesha Pande of Ayesha Pande Literary and lives with her partner and dog in Maine. Connect with her online at www.leilanadir.com, Instagram @leila.c.nadir, or Substack @leilanadir.

Coco McCracken is the author of The Rabbit, which was the winning manuscript of the 2021 Maine Chapbook Series, as selected by critically acclaimed and best-selling writer Melissa Febos. Her work centers around her favorite subjects: music and celebrity, pop-culture failings of the 90s, and her identity as a woman of half-Asian descent. In 2022, the Maine Writer’s and Publisher’s Alliance named Coco a Lit Fest Fellow, where she helped organize the state’s first inaugural Maine Lit Fest. You can read her most current essays on her Substack: Coco’s Echo.

Alex's (Johan Alexander) written work has received support from Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance where he was an Ashley Bryan Fellow, Periplus Collective, Anaphora Arts Writing Residencies, and StoryStudio Chicago, and he was an inaugural Maine Lit Fest Fellow in 2022. His work is forthcoming in The Telling Room’s 20th Anniversary Anthology here in Portland, and recently appeared in LatineLit, Eunoia Review, the Periplus Anthology, and elsewhere. Born in Medellín, Colombia, Johan Alexander currently lives in Portland, Maine.

PARKING & TRANSPORTATION

Mechanics’ Hall is located at 519 Congress Street. Our main entrance is between Loquat Shop and the Art Mart. The Greater Portland Metro’s Congress & Casco Street Stop is directly in front of our building, served by .

Parking is available at the , which has entrances on Casco and Brown Street, with a rate of $5 per hour. Metered street parking is available on Congress, Casco, Cumberland, Free Street, and other nearby streets. Free hourly street parking is available between Parris and Alder Street.

Host or Publisher Mechanics' Hall (Maine)