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Due to the snow, this event will take place ON ZOOM ONLY. Please register to attend virtually here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CVejNKuZTiiu0g_b_VCK9w
On Tuesday, January 16, at 6:30 p.m., award-winning author Irene M. Drago will present an illustrated talk, “How to Weave Maine’s Shipbuilding History—the Brilliance of Holly Bean, Dunn & Elliot, and Percy & Small—into Compelling Fiction,” ON ZOOM with the Camden Public Library. This event kicks off a 2024 Speaker Series co-sponsored by the Camden-Rockport Historical Society and is free and open to the public.
Born in the shadow of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Irene M. Drago developed a keen interest in every kind of watercraft at an early age. Before moving to Maine, she worked for the Defense Department as a Russian analyst, earned a Master of Arts degree in Spanish language and literature, and taught at the high school and college level. Her debut novel, Daughters of Long Reach, was a 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner, First Novel and led to a sequel, The Maine Point. More recently, Lavinia Wren and the Sailmakers is a 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, Regional Fiction. If Drago isn’t penning a story, you’re apt to find her giving a shipyard tour at Maine Maritime Museum or leading a creative writing workshop. But in fair weather, there’s a good chance you’ll find her piloting her Maritime Skiff on Casco Bay.
Drago’s bestselling novel, Lavinia Wren and the Sailmakers, pulls the thread of love, not war, through history. Orphaned by the Civil War, Vinnie finds a home in Thomaston, Maine, and grows up with a view of the Georges River, busy shipyards, and the forbidding wall of a prison. In 1865, on the verge of turning thirteen, she meets the son of a shipbuilder, two young sailors, and the raven-haired daughter of a ship carver. For the next sixty years, their lives remain entwined through joy and sorrow as schooners replace square-rigs, German U-boats appear off the coast, horse drawn carriages give way to automobiles, and airplanes take flight.
Ms. Drago’s historical novels are published by Maine Authors Publishing and are available for sale at most indie bookstores in Maine and online through the publisher at www.maineauthorspublishing.com.