About Me

In my early teens, I joined the tribe of “journal keepers” that Joan Didion describes in her essay, “On Keeping a Notebook,” those of us with a “peculiar compulsion” to write down life, so we don’t lose it. I sometimes hid a notebook on my lap to record conversations at the dinner table, to capture their voices.

When I left home at eighteen and lived on a sailing ship, my desire to write was unleashed. I had a big journal, an incredible story, lots of people to observe, and I often filled ten pages a day. Afterwards I became an archivist, keeping journals, letters, and photo albums of each era of my life, little knowing what a resource this would be for writing a memoir decades later.

In my 20’s, my fascination with observing vivid moments of life led me to write poetry. I read poetry every night, and for my thirtieth birthday party, I convinced my friends to hear Robert Bly read his translations of poems by Pablo Neruda and Rainier Maria Rilke. That night Bly spoke to the poets in the audience. Don’t be in a hurry to publish when you are young. Learn to do something very well, and keep writing. Someday you’ll have something to say.

Over the next thirty years, reading and writing poetry nourished my spirit and gave me a creative outlet in the midst of practicing Acupuncture, marriage and raising two children, and living in a creative community in Maine. When I completed a collection of poems, I created small booklets to share with friends and family, and I began to read at poetry readings.

When I was nearly fifty, I knew the three women who opened Left Bank Books. I was inspired, and told them, If you can do this, then I can bring out a book of my poetry. I remembered Robert Bly’s injunction. I decided I’d finally learned to do something well enough. Left Bank Books promised to launch my book, and I’ve released every book I’ve written since in their beautiful book store.

In 2006, I was named the Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine. I coordinated community poetry readings, wrote a weekly newspaper column highlighting Maine poets, and co-organized the Belfast Poetry Festival for several years. I co-directed teams of poets and artists to collaborate for the Belfast Poetry and Art Walk for seven years.

Spending time on islands in Penobscot Bay off the Maine coast inspired many poems. I collaborated with Michael Weymouth, placing my poetry and essays with his paintings and photographs to create a beautiful coffee table book, Maine: (Island Time).

Working on an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction at Stonecoast, my skillful teachers challenged and encouraged me to go deeper into my past. Writing Implosion: A Memoir of an Architect’s Daughter (2018), I honored what was both remarkable and devastating in my childhood with my brilliant but dominating father.  I was awarded writing fellowships at Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Jentel Artist Residency Program on a cattle ranch in Wyoming, and Art Week on Great Spruce Head Island, Maine.  After that, painter and writer friends and I created our own artist residencies on islands.

These last five years I returned to the year I was eighteen and lived on a sailing ship. I read through my letters and journals, located and interviewed a few students and teachers from the school, returned to the Sea Cloud to sail for 4 days, and then I wrote Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year.  Enjoy reading the adventure!

My journals

The Fab 4 Poets

Photo by Amy Wilton