GREAT FALLS FORUM WITH MARGIE PATLAK

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  • May 18, 2023

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Icon with headshot picture of Margie for May GFF, Margie has grey hair and is looking off into the distance

The 25th season of the Great Falls Forum concludes on Thursday, May 18th, featuring author and photographer Margie Patlak, with a talk entitled “What can the nature of Maine teach us about the nature of life?” This free, public program will take place from 12 noon to 1 PM in Callahan Hall at the Lewiston Public Library and will also be streamed live via Zoom and the Lewiston Public Library Facebook page. A book sale and signing will follow the in-person event.

For author and photographer Margie Patlak, exploring the unique nature of the Maine coast opens a door to deeper ties and insights, as revealed in her memoir More Than Meets the Eye: Exploring Nature and Loss on the Coast of Maine, which was given an “Outstanding Book” award by the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

In her Great Falls Forum talk, she will describe how she came to write her book and read a few excerpts that illustrate how many facets of the natural world speak a hidden language that can be translated by scientific knowledge and reflection. For example, the multiple generations of monarch butterflies that migrate from Mexico to Maine can reveal the limits of life and what passes between generations, and dramatic tides can teach how fleeting time is and the ephemeral nature of raising a child.

Author Sy Montgomery called More Than Meets the Eye “a beautiful and surprising book in which bereavement gives way to awe.” Patlak will finish her talk with a visual tour of the book featuring Maine nature photos, some of which will also appear in her latest book Wild and Wondrous: Nature’s Artistry on the Coast of Maine. This photobook will be published by Down East Books in July.

Margie Patlak is an award-winning science and nature writer, memoirist, and photographer. Her personal essays and articles have appeared in a number of literary journals, newspapers, and magazines including The Portland Press Herald, The Ellsworth American, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Discover, and JuxtaProse, for which her “Rock of Ages” won First Honorable Mention in its 2018 Creative Nonfiction Contest. Margie’s photographs have been featured in a number of newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal and The Portland Press Herald, as well as on News Center Maine’s television show 207 and on B&W Minimalism Magazine’s Instagram site. Her photos will be in a solo exhibit at Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor, Maine this summer, as well as in other upcoming exhibits at galleries and libraries in the state. Margie has degrees in Botany and Environmental Studies and divides her time between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Corea, Maine.

Admission is free to all Forum events and reservations are only required if attending via Zoom. The Zoom link will be posted to the Library website and Facebook prior to the event. The onsite program is a bring-your-own, brown-bag lunch event. For more information, please contact the Lewiston Public Library at 513-3135 or LPLReference@lewistonmaine.gov.

The Great Falls Forum speaker series is co-sponsored by Bates College, Lewiston Public Library, and the Sun Journal. The Lewiston Public Library is located downtown at 200 Lisbon Street at the corner of Pine Street.