Special Events

Date/Time: Tuesday, March 10, 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Location: McGoldrick Center, salons A – C
USM Portland Campus

Fee: $25, includes a continental breakfast.

Hear author Ron Currie speak about his book in conversation with Franco-American poet Jeri Theriault. Plus, join in the discussion as Anna Faherty, archivist with the University of Southern Maine Franco-American Collection, with Andrew Beaupre, curator of Archaeological Collections Maine State Museum, and Ron Currie address, “What does it mean to be Franco-American today?”

Registration required by March 3. Find One Book listed under Special Events. Participants are asked to purchase or borrow a copy of the book.

About the Book

Set in Waterville, Maine, The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a crime saga like no other, with a ferocious matriarch at its bruised, beating heart. With sharp wit and profound empathy, award-winning author Ron Currie delivers an unforgettable novel exploring love, retribution, and the ancestral roots that both nurture and trap us.

Reflective Writing

NEW extended deadline: March 3. As an optional reflection on your reading, Currie has shared an essay prompt: “In what way has your family’s distant past had a direct effect on who you are?” Submit up to 500 words. Your essay may be selected to be shared at the event. Essays can be emailed to richard.cass@maine.edu.

About the Author

Ron Currie
Ron is the author of four novels and one collection of short stories. He has won the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award, the Addison M. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Library Association’s Alex Award, and the Pushcart Prize. His books have been translated into 15 languages, and his short fiction and nonfiction have received recognition in Best American anthologies. As a screenwriter he worked most recently on the Apple TV+ series Extrapolations and has developed projects with AMC Studios, Amblin Television, and ITV America. He lives in Portland, Maine and teaches in the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast MFA program.

Speakers

Jeri Theriault, poet and visual artist
Jeri is a Franco-American poet and visual artist who grew up in Waterville and graduated from Colby College.  Her newest book, Self-Portrait as Homestead, focuses on family and heritage, specifically the Franco-American culture of Waterville. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Exchange Award, a Maine Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship, the 2022 Norwood Prize (New Ohio Review), and a Maine Literary Award. Jeri’s 34-year teaching career included six years as English Department chair at the International School of Prague. Currently, she conducts cross-disciplinary workshops and collaborates with her husband, composer and cellist, Philip Carlsen.

Anna Faherty, USM Franco-American Collection
Anna holds an MA in History and a MS in Library Science with a concentration in archives. She is the archivist at the Franco-American Collection, located on the Lewiston campus. As the solo arranger at the Collection, she: manages volunteers, interns and student workers, provides K-12 and university level instruction on primary sources and Franco-American history in Maine, coordinates community events, accepts archival donations, assists researchers, processes collections, and engages in preventative preservation practices to help meet the Collection’s mission to preserve and promote the Franco-American culture and history in Maine.

Andrew Beaupré, PhD, Archaeological Collections, Maine State Museum
Curator of Archaeological Collections Maine State Museum. He is a graduate of North County Union High School, the University of Vermont (BA), Western Michigan University (MA), and the College of William and Mary (Ph. D).  Dr. Beaupré has made the French Colonial world and French-Canadian diaspora the focus of his historical and archaeological research. A native of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, he is the grandson of French-Canadian immigrants to the New England mills. Beaupré has excavated on both sides of the modern U.S./Canadian border and published on French Jesuit material culture, historical archaeology of military instillations, and contact period border politics as well as community archaeology, landscape archeology, and heritage studies. He currently resides in central Maine with his wife, son, and daughter.