www.wellsreserve.org/news/2005-07-12_woodard.htm

LOBSTER COAST AUTHOR TO SPEAK AT WELLS RESERVE

WELLS, MAINE - On Thursday, July 28 at 7 pm, The Lobster Coast author Colin Woodard talks at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farm. The presentation is free with Wells Reserve admission, but donations are accepted. Reservations are not needed. Please bring a mug for free organic coffee or tea. For information, call (207) 646-1555.

In The Lobster Coast, Colin Woodard tells how the humble lobster rose from a source of cheap bait to a worldwide delicacy, from servants' food to one of the essential underpinnings of the economy and culture of the North Atlantic coast. In his 2004 book, the veteran journalist has also created a startling portrait of the Maine coast and the forgotten origins of New England, a fascinating tale of intrigue, conflict, and stubborn perseverance.

This is the third in the Wells Reserve's 2005 monthly lecture series. Next up: Lighthouses with Tim Harrison on August 25.

Publisher's Description of The Lobster Coast

Nearly a decade before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, European settlers were eking out a living on the rocky coast of Maine. Their descendants fended off aggrieved Indians, French raiders, English lords, and greedy land speculators to found one of America's most iconic and compelling cultures: the lobstering communities of coastal Maine.

In this riveting history of his native state, award-winning journalist Colin Woodard reveals Mainers' increasingly difficult struggle to hold on to their communities and the early American ideals that have sustained them. The Lobster Coast tells a story as big as America itself, from the formative experiences of the colonial era to the perils of failing to conserve a cultural and environmental heritage in the face of uncontrolled growth and development.

About Colin Woodard

Colin Woodard is an award-winning journalist and author. A native of Maine now living in Portland, he has reported from more than forty foreign countries and six continents and lived for more than four years in Eastern Europe. He is currently a science and international news correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education and a regular contributor to The Christian Science Monitor.

Woodard has covered a wide-range of issues, from ethnic conflict in the Balkans and peacekeeping in Guatemala to the destruction of coral reefs and the effects of global warming on Antarctica. Since 1989, Woodard has been based in Hungary, Croatia, Washington, DC, and on the US-Mexico border near Brownsville, Texas.

Woodard is a 2004 recipient of the Jane Bagley Lehman Award for Public Advocacy, given by the Tides Foundation for his global reporting on environmental issues. He has also been awarded numerous fellowships including a Pew Fellowship in International Journalism at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and policy fellowship at the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest, and journalism fellowships from the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Institute for International Education, and the United States Antarctic Program. He is a graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago, where he was awarded the 1997 Morton Kaplan prize for his thesis on the causes of ethnic conflict in the Balkans.

About the Wells Reserve

The Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, with facilities at historic Laudholm Farm, is committed to investigating coastal environments and increasing understanding of their ecology. The reserve receives core funding from the nonprofit Laudholm Trust and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Wells Reserve is located at 342 Laudholm Farm Road, just off Routes 1 and 9 near the Wells-Kennebunk line. For more information, visit www.wellsreserve.org.

# # #
NEWS HOME