Write in Maine

PORTLAND – Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance will present “The Business of Writing: Everything You Need to Know about Writing Professionally in Maine,” from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, March 30, at the University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Family Library.

The daylong conference will provide “how to” information from publishers, editors, distributors, marketing professionals and booksellers in Maine.

Cost is $75 for members and $125 for nonmembers. Early registration is suggested. For registration information and a list of conference presenters, visit www.mainewriters.org.

FarmShare sign-up

AUGUSTA – Seniors, age 60 or over with incomes below $18,130 are eligible to receive $100 of free locally grown fruits and vegetables this coming season through the Maine Senior FarmShare Program. Sign-ups are under way.

For a list of participating farms, seniors can contact their local Area Agency on Aging at 1-877-353-3771. The list is also available at www.getrealmaine.com/farmshare. The supply of the $100 “shares” is limited and will be distributed by farmers on a first-come, first-served basis. As farms fill their shares, they are removed from the Web listing.

There are 7,500 individual shares available to seniors statewide, but due to the popularity of the program, organizers expect that most farms will have their quota of shares filled early.

Bloom openings

BOOTHBAY – Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has extended the application deadline for it Keller BLOOM Program to March 17. A research experience for high school juniors, the BLOOM Program enables 16 Maine students to spend a week at Bigelow in West Boothbay Harbor with marine scientists and oceanographers.

This year’s program is scheduled for May 14 to 18, and includes a variety of laboratory and field activities dealing with marine biology and the ocean environment.

Activities and costs are funded through donations to the laboratory. Maine public and private high school students who are in their junior year may apply. Visit http://www.bigelow.org/keller/ for more information and applications. Letters of recommendation can be emailed to [email protected].

Writer to speak

PORTLAND – Dava Sobel, award-winning writer of “Longitude” and “Galileo’s Daughter,” and former New York Times science reporter, will speak on two dates at the University of New England. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

She will talk at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, in the Sarton Room, Abplanalp Library, Westbrook College campus, 716 Stevens Ave., part of UNE’s Maine Women Writers Collection Spring 2006 Event Series.

Sobel will present a lecture at noon Thursday, April 20, in the St. Francis Room, Jack S. Ketchum Library, university campus, 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford. A book sale and signing will take place at 11:30 a.m.

Sobel will discuss the art and challenges of writing about science and the history of science for a general audience. The lecture is part of the Core Connections Spring Lecture Series focusing on “The Art of Science/ The Science of Art.”

For more information on collection spring events, visit www.une.edu/mwwc or contact Cally Gurley at 221-4324 or [email protected].

For more information on the Core Connections Spring Lecture Series, visit www.une.edu/cas/core/lectures.asp or contact Elizabeth De Wolfe at 602-2322 or [email protected].