The University of Maine at Presque Isle will present Maya Williams, former poet laureate of Portland, Maine, and New England Book Award and Maine Literary Award finalist, as a 2024-2025 Libra Distinguished Lecture Series speaker on Wednesday, March 5 at 6 p.m. in the Campus Center. Williams will deliver a presentation titled What’s So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway? The public is encouraged to attend this free event, which will also be offered virtually through Zoom.
Equal parts poetry reading and writing workshop, Williams will read from a new chapbook What’s so Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway? as well as other poems from previous poetry collections, then engage with the audience in a Q&A and writing exercises, featuring generative writing prompts based on the poems shared.
“We all have something to grieve about,” Williams said. “What better place to do it than at our own curated pity parties?”
Williams, a self-described religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor, served as Portland, Maine’s seventh poet laureate from July 2021 to 2024 and currently serves as an Ashley Bryan Fellow. Williams’ debut poetry collection Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) was selected as a finalist for a New England Book Award. A second poetry collection, Refused a Second Date (Harbor Editions, 2023), was selected as a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. Williams’ third poetry collection, What’s So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway?,was selected as one of four winners of Garden Party Collective’s chapbook prize in 2024.
Williams was one of three artists of color selected to represent Maine in The Kennedy Center’s Arts Across America series in 2020, one of The Advocate’s Champions of Pride in 2022, and one of Maine Humanities Council’s recipients of the Constance Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2024.
Williams has featured as a guest artist, panelist, and speaker in spaces such as The Mixed Remixed Festival in Los Angeles, Calif., The Interfaith Leadership Institute in Chicago, Ill., Black Table Arts in Minneapolis, Minn., and TEDxYouth at Cape Elizabeth High School.
Williams graduated with Bachelor’s degrees in Social Work and English from East Carolina University in May 2017, and earned a community practice-focused Master’s in Social Work and Certificate in Applied Arts and Social Justice from the University of New England in May 2018. Williams graduated with a Master’s in Fine Arts for Creative Writing with a Focus in Poetry from Randolph College in June 2022.
Williams has competed locally and nationally in slam poetry since freshman year at East Carolina University under the slam team Word of Mouth in Greenville, North Carolina. While with them, Williams placed in the top 20 at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) in 2015, and opened for folks such as Indira Allegra, Neil Hilborn, and Angela Davis. Williams was a finalist of the Slam Free Or Die Qualifier Slam for their National Poetry Slam (NPS) 2018 team and a runner up of the Slam Free or Die Individual Slam Championship in 2018.
The University’s Libra Distinguished Lecture Series was established in 1999. Each year, the LDLS Committee sponsors four to six speakers who come from Maine and beyond, representing a range of disciplines and viewpoints. While the emphasis tends to be on featuring visiting academics, it is not exclusively so. The speakers typically spend two days at the University meeting with classes and presenting a community lecture.
UMPI welcomes the campus and community to hear Williams speak on March 5. Chapbooks will be available for sale. For more information about Williams, see mayawilliamspoet.com. For more information about this event or to get the Zoom link, contact Kayli Malenfant at (207) 768- 9426 or email kayli.malenfant@maine.edu.