The UMaine New Writing Series
The UMaine New Writing Series was founded in 1999 by English professor Steve Evans, with the support and collaboration of Center for Poetry and Poetics faculty affiliates Carla Billitteri, Benjamin Friedlander, and Jennifer Moxley. Originally focused exclusively on poetry, in 2005 the series began broadening its scope to represent the whole spectrum of possibilities for contemporary writing, including poetry, prose, translation, and new media, with an emphasis on innovative, adventurous, and/or unduly neglected writing. English faculty members in fiction, including David Kress, Gregory Howard, and Hollie Adams were instrumental in this expansion. Since it began the UMaine New Writing Series has hosted over three hundred events.
New Writing Series had been supported by the Center and the English Department, as well as by the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, The Fiddlehead Fund, the Lloyd H. Elliott Fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. In addition, three funds have been established through the Clement & Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center to support the Center and the New Writing Series:
The Schmelzer-Livingston Center for Poetry and Poetics Fund, established by Henry Schmelzer ’65 and his wife, Cynthia Livingston, in recognition of the newly renamed Center for Poetry and Poetics at UMaine. The fund will support ongoing and new initiatives at the center.
The Eaton Family New Writing Series Fund, established by John T. Eaton ’66 and Linda Talbot Eaton ’66 to support innovative and adventurous literary programming through the New Writing Series.
The Moxley-Evans Fund for Literary Arts, established in 2023 by English professors and Center affiliates Jennifer Moxley and Steve Evans to support literary arts at UMaine with an emphasis on poetry.