“Hay Day,” by Nancy Brown of Bethel, was chosen as one of 12 short stories by Maine writers to be included in the recently released book, Summer Stories, which also features a series of paintings by Maine artist Leslie Anderson of Portland.

Local residents will recognize both the places and some of the circumstances in Brown’s story, which takes place as Tropical Storm Irene is bearing down on the Bethel area in late August of 2011.

Brown, who serves as the Citizen’s Bethel correspondent, grew up in town and graduated from Gould Academy. She left the area after high school and lived in several cities around the U.S., but returned to her childhood home eight years ago. She lives in the house where she grew up, which was purchased by her great-grandparents in 1905.

“My family is here,” she says. “And I really like the people in this area, the sense of community.”

Although she has always written for pleasure, most of the jobs Brown held during her time away from Maine were physically demanding ones that many would consider nontraditional careers for women. She has worked as a pipefitter, an Amtrak electrician, and an airplane servicer. “And I loved every single one of those jobs,” she says.

The desire to focus on her writing prompted her to return to college at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., where she was living at the time. She wanted, she says, “to learn the craft of writing.” After completing her B.A. in English and Women’s Studies in 2005, she decided it was time to come home.

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“I’m a Maine person, and I’m a Maine writer, and everything I write sounds like it comes from Maine, not from the south, or California, or any of the other places I’ve lived,” Brown says. “I lived in Virginia for 10 years, and it’s a nice place, but it isn’t home.”

In 2006 she took a position as circulation director at the Norway Memorial Library, and simultaneously enrolled in the University of Southern Maine’s low-residency Stonecoast Program to complete her M.F.A. in Creative Writing. She gives high marks to the program, and since 2007 she has met regularly with a writing group that grew out of its members’ participation in Stonecoast.

The written works that appear in Summer Stories were selected for the collection by Ron Currie, Jr., an acclaimed novelist and short story writer from Waterville, through a competition sponsored by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Leslie Anderson’s paintings, evocative of summertime in Maine, served as inspiration for the stories.

Brown’s piece is paired with a painting of a farmer on a tractor haying his field.

A sampling from her story: “The tractor convoy rumbled down Route 2, crossed the Androscoggin River, passed Riverside Cemetery where Jared Finley lay slumbering under his granite gravestone, and lumbered into Deb’s fields to bale the sweet hay.”

Other story titles from the collection include “Hauling Buoys,” “Clammer,” “Fair Night,” and “Last Night at the Lake.”

“I’m a big believer in writers entering contests,” Brown says, adding that it’s a way for writers to get their work into books and into the hands of readers. Prior to entering the Summer Stories contest, Brown had written a short story that received Honorable Mention in the MWPA’s 2012 Maine Literary Awards Contest.

Published by Shanti Arts in Brunswick, Summer Stories is available at local libraries and from local and online booksellers. There will be a book debut celebration, which Brown will attend to read from her work and sign copies of the book, on Sunday, Dec. 8 from 3 to 5 p.m. at Couleur Collection, 240 US Route One in Falmouth.


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