Author Event: Poet Kristen Lindquist,

Camden poet Kristen Lindquist will be celebrating the release of her latest poetry collection Tourists in the Known World on Saturday, April 29, 4:00 – 5:30 pm in the Picker Room of the Camden Public Library. She will do a short reading from the book, and copies will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served.

A graduate of Camden-Rockport High School, Lindquist received her MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon and worked many summers at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in Vermont. Her poetry and other writings have appeared in Down East Magazine, Bangor Metro, and the Bangor Daily News, as well as various literary journals and anthologies. Her poetry collection Transportation (2011) was a finalist for the Maine Literary Award; Garrison Keillor read three poems from the book on National Public Radio’s The Writer’s Almanac. In addition to poetry, she has written a natural history column for the local paper for many years (currently, for Pen Bay Pilot) and maintains a daily haiku blog, Book of Days (klindquist.blogspot.com).

Lindquist’s poetry draws often on the natural world, reflecting her love of birds and well as her strong connection to the Maine landscape. She finds poetry in the everyday, from the lobster festival to the islands of Penobscot Bay to a conversation at the gym, and shares it with accessible, lyrical detail.

Fellow Camden poet Dave Morrison says of her new book: “Tourists in the Known World is cause for celebration. This richly satisfying collection has it all: alert clarity, reverence, an unflinching eye, and achingly matter-of-fact levity. Her work has a powerful sense of place and an emotional honesty that lights these well-crafted poems like a lantern… I love these poems – so clear-eyed and artful. Go ahead, be a tourist, visit her poetic world. You’ll be glad you did.”