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Board of Directors
Co-founder Susan Conley currently teaches creative writing workshops in Harvard University’s Teachers as Scholars Program, as well as in middle schools and high schools throughout northern New England. Previously, Susan taught poetry and literature at Emerson College in Boston for five years. Her own poems have been published in numerous literary magazines and journals including The Paris Review, The Harvard Review, and The New England Review.
Co-founder and Vice President Sara Corbett is the author of Venus to the Hoop: A Gold-Medal Year in Women’s Basketball and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. Her feature stories have covered topics like child-trafficking in Cambodia, the resettlement of Sudanese orphans in the U.S., and the psychological struggle of soldiers wounded in Iraq. In addition, Sara has contributed to numerous magazines and literary journals, including Esquire, Outside, Men’s Journal, New England Review, New York, Mother Jones, and The Gettysburg Review.
An ardent fan of the written word, of all things visual, and of all things musical, Lance Cromwell is a writer and filmmaker (among other things) who lives in Falmouth with his wife and three children. A graduate of Colgate University, he has been a high school English teacher, an instructor for the Princeton Review, and on occasion has done some home schooling. In addition to his most excellent involvement with the Telling Room, he currently serves as a member of the Maine Film Commission.
In addition to being The Telling Room’s Education Director, Patricia Hagge earned an MFA from USM’s Stonecoast program and was a poet in the schools of Brunswick, Maine, in the spring of 2006. She also serves on the board at the SPACE Gallery and was a social worker for many years.
Fashion designer and founder of her own clothing company, Jill McGowan has a studio in downtown Portland and distributes her women's apparel to 300 boutiques around the country. Her work has been featured in films, television programs and publications nationwide. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Jill returned to Maine in 1991 and became a patternmaker at the Hathaway Shirt factory in Waterville, Maine. She lives in Falmouth with her husband and son.
Ari Meil is the owner and publisher of Warren Machine Company, a regional publishing company located in Portland, dedicated to bringing Maine's excess of talent to market. His books include Portland's Best, Portland Through the Lens, and The Way Life Should Be: Stories by Contemporary Maine Writers. Ari is also the author of 2 short novels, Triptych and Fiction.
Genevieve Morgan is a freelance writer and editor living in Portland and The Telling Room’s Treasurer. After graduating with a BA in English from Bowdoin College, Genevieve moved to San Francisco and was the managing editor at Chronicle Books for several years. She is the author of several illustrated non-fiction works, including Saints: A Visual Biography and The Devil and has written or contributed to books for corporate clients.
Co-founder and Board President Michael Paterniti is the best-selling author of Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein’s Brain. His work has appeared in publications including the New York Times Magazine, Details, Outside, Esquire, and GQ, where he is now writer at large.
An independent tutor, Maggie Robinson specializes in providing services to elementary children who have reading difficulties. With a Masters in early childhood and elementary education from Bank Street College of Education and a B.S. in Business/Government from Skidmore, she has over 15 years of teaching experience and has served on the board at the Children's Museum of Maine and has been on the Junior League of Portland. She lives in Falmouth with her three children, husband, 2 dogs, and 2 guinea pigs.
A Vice President at Unum, Christina Wakefield has been with the company for 27 years and has held a variety of positions in Communications, Marketing, Sales Recruiting & Training, Operations Management, Disability and Long Term Care Product Development, Project Management and Planning. She is a current member of LIMRA’s Marketing Executive Committee and Co-Chair of Unum’s 2007 United Way campaign. She completed the Marketing Graduate Program at Columbia University; and attended the University of Maine as a Business Communications major.
Some of Our Workshop Leaders
Kathleen Meil is an avid reader, writer, and teacher. She has taught kindergarten through sixth grade students in public and private schools and alternative settings, and has always loved bringing stories to life. In addition to her work with children, Kathleen is the editor at Warren Machine Company, a small local press. She lives in Portland with her husband and young daughter.
Jefferson Navicky teaches writing at Southern Maine Community College and art at The Cathedral School. His work has appeared in elimae, Tarpaulin Sky, Octopus and others. A chapbook, Map of the Second Person, was published by Black Lodge Press in 2006.
Lance Cromwell is a writer who works primarily with screenplays (though he has been known to work in other forms) and he has also directed several short films. He has adapted two books for the screen for independent producers, and has a few things cooking between TV and film. A fan of all things movie-ish, he has co-hosted a radio show reviewing movies, has worked as a screener for film festivals, and currently is a member of The Maine Film Commission. He lives with his wife and three children in Falmouth.
Kent Pierce is a screenwriter who has written for both adults and kids, for television and film. Past employers include Miramax, MGM, Warner Brothers and ABC; he's worked with various directors including Richard Attenborough, David Ward and Roland Emmerich. Over the past couple of years he's worked extensively for Nickelodeon TV, which aired his original movie, THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER, last July. Presently, he has projects in development with producers Daniel Rosenberg (INSIDE MAN) and Jane Startz (THE MIGHTY, ELLA ENCHANTED, INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD), that have been put on hold due to the current WGA strike. Kent lives in Yarmouth with his wife Kristen and three kids, Nell, 18, Luke 15, and Ricki, 13.
Susan Porter is a photographer and writer living on Peaks Island, Maine. Her traditional process, black and white photographs have been exhibited in Baton Rouge, LA.; Buffalo, NY; and Portland. Her most recent exhibit, A Season under the Sun: Documentary Photographs of Maxwell’s Farm, took place at The Art Gallery at the University of New England in October and November of 2007. As a writer she has worked in the fields of public and government relations, advertising and marketing in Manhattan and Washington, DC. Her creative writing includes poetry and prose. She is author of The C Street Stories, an art book compiled of photographs, poetry and prose (as yet unpublished!). Her education includes an undergraduate degree from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., her hometown. She also holds a Master of Arts and Humanities Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where she had the privilege of studying text/image collaboration with poets Robert Creeley and Charles Bernstein, among others.
Members of the Telling Room Staff and Board also serve as workshop teachers
Staff
Executive Director Gibson Fay-LeBlanc's poems, interviews, and reviews have appeared in Boston Review, Guernica, The New Republic, Time Out: New York, Tin House, and Verse Daily, among other places, and are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner and Poetry Northwest. With graduate degrees from UC Berkeley and Columbia University, he has taught writing and literature in public and private middle schools, high schools, and colleges in California, Vermont, New York, and Maine.
Program Director Molly McGrath is a writer and editor, and she integrates the techniques of both trades when teaching our students, and in the past at Waynflete School in Portland, and at schools in Boston and Cambridge. Pink Eraser, an editorial consulting venture, also keeps Molly busy; as its editor she develops the works of new and previously discovered writers. Molly has an MFA in creative nonfiction, and lives in Brunswick with her husband and young son.
Lead Teacher CC Davies Robinson is thrilled to be helping the next generation of Portlanders tell their stories. In addition to degrees from Yale and Bread Loaf, she brings ten years of teaching experience and admiration for great storytelling to her work leading workshops and trainings. Before moving to Portland, she taught public school in New York City and was a Wilson Fellow at Deerfield Academy. She looks forward to working with her former students from King Middle School and Casco Bay High School at the Telling Room. She also runs a tutoring business, PortCity Tutoring.
Program & Volunteer Assistant Heidi Thayer is a poet who lives in Portland. Beginning in the fall of 2008, Heidi will attend Simmons College and pursue a master's degree in English and Teaching.
Thanks
All photography on the site was done by Laura Lewis. For more information about her work please visit her website.
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