Join us Tuesday, June 27 at 6pm for a special event featuring Shannon Bowring, author of The Road to Dalton, in conversation with Aaron Hamburger, author of Hotel Cuba, and Jennifer Dupree, author of The Miraculous Flight of Owen Leach.

It’s 1990, and the lives of the inhabitants of Dalton, Maine play on. In most small towns, the private is also public. When one of Dalton’s own makes an unthinkable decision, the community is left reeling. In the aftermath, their problems, both small and large, reveal a deeper understanding of the lives of their neighbors, and remind us that no one is exactly who you think they are. The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world—of pain and joy, conflict and love, and the endurance that comes from living.

Hotel Cuba is a stunning work of fiction about two sheltered Russian Jewish refugee sisters, one sensible and one impractical, who find themselves trapped in hedonistic Prohibition-era 1920s Havana while trying to emigrate to America.

In The Miraculous Flight of Owen Leach, two women in rural Maine examine the meanings of motherhood and family... The cast confronts the consequences of their choices, navigating the complicated relationships within their own families. Adding to the story's power is its setting, Parker -- a place with "unpretentious charm" where "borrowed books are returned in mailboxes" and nothing is private.

This event will include readings and a conversation with all authors, followed by an audience Q&A.

Shannon grew up in Northern Maine, surrounded by pine trees and potato fields. She holds an MFA from University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program. The Road to Dalton is her debut novel.

Aaron is the author of story collection titled The View from Stalin's Head which was awarded the Rome Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and nominated for a Violet Quill Award. He has also written novels: Faith for Beginners, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, and Nirvana is Here, winner of a Bronze Medal from the 2019 Foreword Reviews Indies Book Awards. He has taught creative writing at Columbia University, the George Washington University, New York University, Brooklyn College, and the Stonecoast MFA Program.

Jen Dupree is a librarian, assistant editor of The Masters Review, and former bookstore owner. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program. Her work has appeared in December, Solstice, Wordpeace, On the Rusk, and other places. She is the winner of the Writer's Digest Fiction Contest for 2017, and a 2022 winner of a Maine Literary Award. She lives in Maine with her husband and Portuguese Water Dog, (Pink) Floyd.