Author Kerri Arsenault will give a presentation focusing on her new book, “Mill Town,” at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 28, at the Bailey Library in Winthrop. Courtesy photo by Erik Madigan Heck

Author Kerri Arsenault will give a presentation focusing on her new book, “Mill Town,” at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 28, at the Bailey Library in Winthrop. The event is the seventh part of a yearlong series celebrating Maine women that will run through 2021.

Her book is one of O Magazine’s Best Books of 2020, a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics Prize for Best First Book, and the winner of the Maine Literary Award for nonfiction.

The book examines the rise and collapse of the working-class of Mexico and Rumford and the area’s social and environmental plight. Arsenault grew up in Mexico and structures the book as a memoir, interweaving the story of the mill with that of her Acadian family, who have lived in the area for generations.

Arsenault received an MFA from the New School, studied in the Master Programme in communication for development at Malmö University, Sweden, and received a BA from Beloit College. She also served as a mentor for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program.

The event will take place in the King Event Room on the first floor of the library. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call the library at (207) 377-8673.