Camden Public Library plans to host Maine author Robin Clifford Wood at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 15, for an online book talk and narrated slideshow about her new book “The Field House: A Writer’s Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine.”

The book is a blend of biography and memoir recounting the life of writer Rachel Field. The story is told by the woman who lived in Field’s old island home in Maine, sparking a unique sisterhood across time.

Born of illustrious New England stock, Field was a National Book Award-winning novelist, a Newbery Medal-winning children’s writer, a poet, playwright, and rising Hollywood success in the early 20th century. She died at age 47, at the pinnacle of her personal happiness and professional acclaim.

Fifty years later, Wood stepped onto the sagging floorboards of Field’s long-neglected home on the shore of an island in Maine and began dredging up Field’s history. She uncovered uncanny coincidences and odd connections between Field’s life and her own that kept her focused during a 27-year journey to research Field’s life.

Wood is an author, poet, blogger, and essayist. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale, a Master of Arts in English from the University of Rochester, and an Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program.

Wood’s writing has been featured in Port City Life magazine, Bangor Metro, the Bangor Daily News, Maine Public Radio’s “Music That Moves Me” series, and Solstice Literary Magazine, which published her essay, “How Do You Help Your Parents Die” in 2019.

One of her poems, “The Ballad of Hadlock, the Seal Hunter Showman,” was produced by Penobscot Theatre Company as part of its fall 2020 audio theatre program.

To request a Zoom link to attend, email jpierce@librarycamden.org. For more on this and other programs from the Camden Public Library, visit librarycamden.org.

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