Author Talk Linda Buckmaster "Elemental: "A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands"

In Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, Linda Buckmaster follows the call of the elements—rock, sea, sky, wind. Elemental is the first installment in a series of creative and eclectic responses to the beauty and realities of islands in Maine, Newfoundland, and northwest Scotland. Through essay, poetry, and fiction, Linda traces the imprint of the lowly salt cod over time in communities across the North Atlantic and Caribbean. The book is beautifully designed throughout by Graphic Artist Lori Harley in Portland. Previously an editor for National Fisherman magazine and former Poet Laureate of Belfast, Linda knits fact and lyric into her narrative net.  

Linda Buckmaster has lived within a block of the Atlantic most of her life, growing up in Florida and living in midcoast Maine for fifty years. She has an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. Her poetry, essay, and fiction have appeared in over forty journals. She has held residencies at Vermont Studios Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Obras Foundation among others. Two of her pieces have been listed as Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2013 and 2020. Her hybrid memoir, Space Heart. A Memoir in Stages, was published by Burrow Press in 2018. Her latest hybrid, Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands (Huntress Press, 2022), is the first installment of a multimedia North Atlantic Rim Project.