ELLSWORTH – Martin Dibner Memorial Fellowships in poetry have been awarded to Gary Lawless of Nobleboro, Weslea Sidon of Seal Cove and Jim Glenn Thatcher of Auburn and Freeport.

The Maine Community Foundation awards the fellowships annually to Maine writers seeking to develop their skills. A volunteer committee comprised of three poets selected this year’s winners from 16 applicants.

Lawless, a graduate of Colby College, co-owns Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick and is publisher of Blackberry Books. He has published numerous books of poems and has read his work at poetry festivals and readings in the U.S. and Europe.

An independent arts educator, Sidon has taught at the Summer Festival of the Arts in Southwest Harbor since 1989 and has been a mentor in poetry for the Maine Alliance for Arts Education’s LINC program. She is a graduate of Brooklyn College.

Thatcher holds degrees from SUNY New Paltz (BA), Lehigh University (MA) and Vermont College (MFA). He is an instructor for the Writing Center at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn campus.

Novelist and historian Martin Dibner served on the Maine and California Arts Commissions and was the first director for the Payson Gallery at Westbrook College. Several friends created the fund to honor Dibner’s contributions to the art of writing. The fellowship alternates between fiction and poetry from year to year.

For more information, visit www.mainecf.org or call 1-877-700-6800.


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