Veterans' Memorial Library

05/29/2026

05/26/2026

Kirkus invites all young bookworms (age 18 and under) to take our reading challenge over summer vacation. Read one book from each of these five categories:
A book about friendship
A travel story
A summer camp book
A story with an unlikely hero
An adventure novel
Have a grown-up with an email address fill out the submission form with all five titles by Aug. 15, and you’ll be entered in a drawing where five lucky winners will receive a $50 gift card for Bookshop.org.

Read more about the challenge (and get some suggested titles from our young readers' editor)

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/young-readers-take-our-summer-reading-challenge/

Find a book to check off each step, or follow our suggestion. Either way, reading will feel like a game.

05/25/2026

Our Maine Book Club & the library are pleased to invite you to participate in this event. Preregistration & payment is required.

Partnering with Our Maine Book Club to host a book-ish themed cookie decorating night! 📚

Thursday June 18th @ 6:00PM
Veterans' Memorial Library Patten, ME

https://sweetpinemaine.square.site/cookiedecorating

You don’t have to be a book club member to attend!

Tickets are $45 and we will be doing 4 cozy themed cookies (book, candle, bookmark, mug) 🕯️

This is a fun and laid back event - no experience required! All materials provided including exclusive recipe cards and boxes to take home your creations 🤎 Try your hand at a fun, relaxing (and delicious) craft!

YES this event will also be hosted in Presque Isle just nailing down date and time stay tuned! If anyone else in surrounding areas has space and wants to partner in hosting please reach out! 💛

05/25/2026

Our library will be closed in honor of Memorial Day

On we remember and honor all of the American Armed Forces that have died in the service of our country and the preservation of its freedom. In observation of this holiday, all state offices will be closed. Learn more about the history of Memorial Day at https://www.cem.va.gov/history/Memorial-Day-history.asp .

05/23/2026

TONIGHT!

05/20/2026

Sign up here with your VML Library Card
https://my.librarychef.com/veteranslibrary

05/20/2026

ECHOES

in the
FOG

Veterans' Memorial Library

May 21, 2026
6:00 to 7:00 pm

Annaliese Jakimides’s work has appeared in print, audio, exhibit, and performance venues nationally
and internationally. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes and Best of the Nets, she’s been a finalist for many
awards, including the Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize and Maine Literary Awards in multiple genres in
multiple years. Her poetry and prose have appeared in many magazines (Utne, GQ), journals (Beloit,
Consequence), and anthologies (Beacon Press, Golden Books, Seal Press, Henry Holt, Littoral Books, 12
Willows Press, and more). Broadcast on Maine Public and NPR, she’s a freelance writer, editor, and
facilitator who’s worked with environmental justice organizations, international arts groups, and
people in prisons. After decades in the woods of northern Maine, she lives in Bangor.
annaliesejakimides.com and
Christopher Packard is a science teacher, folklorist, and storyteller based in the Greater Bangor area.
He is the assistant director of the International Cryptozoology Museum and the author of Mythical
Creatures of Maine: Fantastic Beasts from Legend and Folklore (Down East Books, 2021) and the
children’s book Lumpy’s Gift (12 Willows Press, 2023). christopherpackard.com
Cynthia Reeves is the author of The Last Whaler and Falling Through the New World—both Foreword
INDIES finalists—and Badlands, winner of the Miami University Press Novella Prize. Her poetry and
fiction have appeared widely, and she has held residencies with the Arctic Circle, Hawthornden
Castle, and the Vermont Studio Center. A graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA program, she has
taught at Bryn Mawr and Rosemont College. Now living in Camden, Maine, she draws inspiration from
the landscapes of her youth, exploring themes of memory, place, and environmental loss.
Ret Talbot is an award-winning independent journalist and writer who covers ocean issues and animals
at the intersection of science and sustainability. His work can be found in publications such as Discover
Magazine, National Geographic, Mongabay, and Yale Environment 360. His most recent book, Chasing
Shadows: My Life Tracking the Great White Shark (William Morrow, 2023), co-written with shark biologist
Greg Skomal, is a conservation success story about restoring an apex predator to an ecosystem. Ret
lives on the coast of Maine with his wife, scientific illustrator Karen Talbot.
Douglas Wright lives in the countryside of Downeast Maine where he works and dreams and writes.
douglaswrightiii.com

05/15/2026

Annual Fiddlehead & Fiddle Festival
Visit our book sale & food booth. Help support the current and future library. booksale