Conversations From the Pointed Firs

Our guest this month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs is Carl Little, poet, editor, journalist, exhibit curator, art critic, writer, poet, and historian of the art of Maine. He and Peter Neill are discussing that history from indigenous petroglyphs to the latest museum exhibitions and gallery openings, in search of the place of art at the center of “the spirit of Maine.” Carl is a prolific c...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs: Charles Cantalupo, literary critic and historian specializing in indigenous writing and poetry; poet and author of Clooscape the Poet, an interpretation of a Wabanaki folk figure and legendary presence and spirit of “homeland” in along the Atlantic coastlands of New England and the Atlantic Provinces of Canada. Charles is Professor Emeritus of Eng...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs: Carol Gardner, author of "The Divided North, Black and White Families in the Age of Slavery" (2025) written as part of a series, "Black New England." Divided North is a beautifully researched history of two families from Portland, Maine, one black, one white, who represented two multi-generational paths through the history of s...

This month on Conversations From The Pointed Firs, host Peter Neill speaks with Daniel Bartlett, the current Grand Secretary and former Grand Master of the Free Masons of Maine, and historian of the Masonic movement in the State, an organization that contributes to many often-unknown activities, grants, and programs that accrue to the social benefit of our communities large and small. The Free Mas...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs, Peter Neill and Earth Shettleworth are discussing historic preservation in Maine. A native of Portland, Earle G. Shettleworth served as architectural historian for the Maine Historic Preservation Commission beginning in 1973 and director in 1976. He retired from that position in 2015. He has lectured and written extensively on Maine history and ar...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs, host Peter Neill sits down with Richard Parsons, author of "Storm Warriors of the Maine Coast: Stories of the Life-Saving Station at Biddeford Pool" to discuss the iconic coastal structures, their preservation, future, and the stories of the Coast Guard life saving service, all but forgotten to history.  Richard Parsons taught history an...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs: a discussion between Peter Neill and Jane Crosen, a self-taught mapmaker who has spent four decades making and interpreting maps, and exploring Maine’s landscape. She found her niche in maps and editing working at DeLorme Publishing in Yarmouth, where she compiled the Gazetteer listings for the all-new 1981 edition of the Maine Atlas and began dis...

Join us in conversation with NOEL RUBINTON, journalist, essayist, and author of “Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee”.  Noel Rubinton’s writing has spanned many fields, including government, politics, culture, transportation, and history. His essay about H.P. Lovecraft and Providence is collected in the New York Times book Footsteps: Literary Pilgrimages Around the...

Our guests for June 2025 on Conversations from the Pointed Firs are CIPPERLY GOOD and KEVIN JOHNSON, curators of Sardineland , a new exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine that tells the stories of the maritime communities affected by the boom and bust of Maine’s Sardine Industry and Herring Fishery. Photographs, tools of the trade, art, and cultural artifact explore the industry’s...

Our guests for May 2025 on Conversations from the Pointed Firs are TOM AND LEE ANN SZELOG, often described as Maine’s most renowned wildlife photographers. Together they promote wildlife conservation and preservation through their films, lectures, exhibits, writings, and photographs. The Szelog’s specialize in photographing wildlife in remote locations, using the most ethical wildlife photography...

Our guest this month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs is KARIN R TILBERG, author of “Loving the North Woods: 25 Years of Historic Conservation in Maine”, published by Down East Books in late 2024. Karin is also a lawyer, conservationist, past-President/CEO of The Forest Society of Maine. She and Peter discuss her recently-published book, which chronicles environmental protection and innovati...

Vegetarianism has deep roots in Maine. There is a fascinating history: join AVERY YALE-KAMILA in conversation with Peter Neill about the history of Maine’s food ways and the untold story of vegetarianism in Maine.  Author of “300 Years of Maine’s Untold Vegetarian History”, Avery is an American journalist, food writer and community organizer in Maine. She has written a vegan food column for the Po...

Our guest this month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs is CLAIRE ACKROYD , author, inspector of organic maple syrup production in Maine. Claire Ackroyd, author of Murder in the Maple Woods , her first novel, a detective story set in the sugar camps in the northern forests of Maine, published in cooperation with Maine Authors Publishing, and a finalist in the 2021 Maine Literary Awards. She is...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs, host Peter Neill engages in a fascinating conversation with Ian Ludders, author of "Didn't Do Much but a Little of Everything", a micro-history of Dalton Raynes who's workday diary from his 19th year, in 1897, serves as the book's center, and of Bob Quinn who worked the land up into the 2000s. Ian Ludders, who annotated th...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs host Peter Neill sits down with Peter Ralston. Peter is a marine photographer, photographing the coast of Maine since 1978, drawn especially to the working communities that define the coast’s enduring character. Instrumental in forming the Island Institute in 1983, Peter Ralston served as its executive vice-president until 2010, and contributed mos...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs host Peter Neill sits down with Lucas St. Clair. Lucas was born in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine and spent his childhood in a hand-built log cabin with few amenities and a focus on living in harmony with nature. After graduating from high school Lucas immersed himself in outdoor wilderness adventures: hiking the Appalachian Trail, paddling the Northern For...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs, host Peter Neill sits down with Siri Beckman, visual artist, wood engraver, print maker, and co-author of the new book "The Prints of Siri Beckman: Engraving a Sense of Place." Beckman, born in Chicago, Illinois, moved to Maine in 1975, and was called to wood engraving quite by accident, and has been practicing the art form for more than...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs host Peter Neill sits down with Kristie Billings. A wearer of many hats, Kristie is a long-time DJ for ‘Daydream Nation’ on the WERU Community Radio in Orland, Maine. From small-town grocery clerk to working in a fish market, owning her own shoe store, being an Arts Educator at a local theater, a lobster fisher, and an antiques seller, Kristie has...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs, host Peter Neill sits down with Gary Lawless, poet, bookstore owner, book editor, publisher, and educator. He has published many books of poetry and co-owns Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick and owns Blackberry Books Publishing in Nobleboro. He has run writing residencies in Newfoundland, Alaska, Italy, and Maine, and community writing workshops fo...

Our guest this first month of 2024 on Conversations from the Pointed Firs is LAUREEN LABAR , recently retired curator at the Maine State Museum and author of "Maine Quilts: 250 Years of Comfort and Community", published in 2021 by Down East Books. She and Peter discuss quilts and quilting in Maine, as an example of unique craft, history, and social engagement invoking the spirit of Maine...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs host Peter Neill sits down with Sarah Alexander, Executive Director of MOFGA (the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.) Sarah has been in her position since, 2018, and has over 20 years of experience advocating for sustainable, local and fair food systems. This year MOFGA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding. Peter and Sa...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs, host Peter Neill sits down with Joan (Jo) Radner, of Lovell, Maine, professor emerita of literature at American University, holds a Ph. D. from Harvard University, and is enjoying a second career as an oral historian, writer, and professional storyteller in her family’s home region of western Maine. Jo has been studying, teaching, telling, and col...

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs host Peter Neill sits down with Steve Tatko, Vice President of the Appalachian Mountain Club. Steve is a lifelong Mainer, born in Monson, graduate of Colby College, shaped by the Maine woods, and now dedicated to its preservation for all of us to use and enjoy. In the past years, Steve and his colleagues have increased the AMC’s Maine Woods Initiat...

Our guest this month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs is JOHN BUNKER , Homesteader, farmer, orchardist, author, apple historian, co-founder of FEDCO Trees, and founder of MOFGA's Maine Heritage Orchard, 10-acre preservation and educational orchard located in Unity Maine home to over 360 varies of apples and pears traditionally grown in all 16 counties of Maine dating back to 1630.

Our guest this month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs is TOMMY CARBONE, author of both fiction and non-fiction, outdoorsman, photographer, publisher, and collector of Maine lore and the work of forgotten or over-looked authors who invoke the spirit of Maine. Tommy is a son of Brooklyn, New York but has found another life in northern Maine, exploring the trails, ponds, mountains, streams and...