A statewide summer reading experience

Read ME is Maine Humanities’ statewide community read offered in partnership with Maine State Library and Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Every summer, the program gets Mainers all reading books recommended by two well-known Maine authors. 

Hosted by public libraries all across the state, Read ME connects Maine’s reading community through shared experiences, supports Maine libraries in their work to provide quality summer reading initiatives, and elevates the work of upcoming Maine authors. 

2025 Recommending Authors

Julia Bouwsma

Adult Fiction and Non-fiction

Julia Bouwsma lives off-the-grid in the mountains of western Maine where she works as a poet, homesteader, editor, teacher, and small-town librarian. She is Maine’s sixth Poet Laureate, currently serving a term from 2021 to 2026, and is the author of three poetry collections: the forthcoming Death Fluorescence (Sundress Publications, 2025), Midden (Fordham University Press, 2018), and Work by Bloodlight (Cider Press Review, 2017). A 2024 Academy of American Poets’ Poet Laureate Fellow and a two-time recipient of the Maine Literary Award for Poetry Book, Bouwsma has taught in the Creative Writing department at the University of Maine at Farmington, serves on the Community Advisory Board for the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, and works as the Library Director for Webster Library in Kingfield, ME.


Samara Cole Doyon

Children’s and Young People’s Literature

Samara Cole Doyon is a second generation Haitian American and multi-generational Mainer–this state claiming half the roots of her family tree. She is a wife, mother, and teacher holding a BA in English from the University of Southern Maine and currently completing a Masters in Teaching and Learning.

She has been a regular contributor at Black Girl in Maine Media, has been featured in the Deep Water poetry column of the Portland Press Herald, and has authored children’s books Magnificent Homespun Brown (Tilbury House Publishers, January, 2020), Magic Like That (Lee & Low Books, June 2021), and her most recent, Next Level: A Hymn in Gratitude for Neurodiversity (Tilbury House Publishers, 2024).

2024 Books

Bring Read Me to your library

Over 60 libraries participated in Read ME 2023. Join us again this summer. 

Read ME is structured to enable even the smallest, most rural libraries to participate. All that’s required is a commitment to making each of the featured titles available to their patrons.

TOOLKIT

Everything you need to convene your community for Read ME.

Attend an Event

Past Author TALKS

Latest News

Jan 29, 2024
Announcing the Featured Books for Summer 2024!Recommending Author Jaed Coffin…
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Sep 20, 2023
Announcing Jaed Coffin as Recommending Author for Read ME 2024Coffin’s…
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Mar 13, 2023
Announcing the Featured Books for Summer 2023!Recommending Author Colin Woodard…
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Sep 12, 2022
MWPA is partnering on MHC’s statewide community readStarting this year,…
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