The third annual Maine Lit Fest festival, organized by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance (MWPA), brings together established authors, emerging writers, poets and artists alongside enthusiastic bookworms. This year’s theme, “Responding to the Moment,” asks what writers and artists can do in a fraught and rapidly changing world — not only through their work but also by gathering people and paying closer attention to the communities and stories around them.

Across the festival, those ideas take different forms, from conversations about hyperlocal climate and nature writing to those focused on book bans.

Min Jin Lee attends the GQ Global Creativity Awards in New York in 2023. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Featured events include “An Evening with Min Jin Lee,” a conversation with Jennifer Finney Boylan during Banned Books Week and “An Evening with Alexis Pauline Gumbs.”

For each festival, the MWPA selects five fellows — budding writers who take part in planning, producing and developing events and projects for the festival. This year, they are Dija Ali, Audrey Gidman, Kea Krause, Hannah Matthews and Jenna Dela Cruz Vendil. We asked several of them what they are bringing to the festival and what they are most excited to experience.

Kea Krause. (Photo by Tara Rice)

I helped plan the event, “Hyperlocality,” which is a discussion about embracing local narratives in both climate and nature writing. We have two brilliant writers in conversation about this topic. Kate Olson, a Maine-based climate sociologist, has a forthcoming book called “Living Change: Finding Place in a Warming World,” which engages directly with local stories about Mainers. Megan Mayhew Bergman, whose journalism focuses on climate and culture, will also be in conversation. We have two great community partners — Wild Seed Project and Presente! — and you can’t beat our event’s location. It will be at Frith Farm, which is magical in every season, but especially so in the fall. I think we are going to cover incredibly relevant ground for both writers and Mainers alike.

There are so many! Really, you can’t go wrong no matter what you choose to attend!

Hannah Matthews. (Photo by Heather Wasclewicz)

I planned the Songs of No Provenance: An Evening of Live Music and Literary Conversation with novelist Lydi Conklin and special guest artists Kafari, Emily Bielagus (of Wild Yawp), Little Busy, Lana Cooney, Aidan Boardman and more. The novel, “Songs of No Provenance,” celebrates human complexity, messiness and the power of creating art — especially in collaboration and community — when we are made to feel the most powerless. The musicians I’ve invited to respond to Conklin’s writing (and the excerpts they will be reading aloud over the course of the evening) are very different in sound and cultural context, and no matter your relationship to your own shame, fear of creating, exhaustion, burnout and desires toward self-expression, there will be some words and some music for everyone on this beautiful night.

Increasingly, the need to show up and make art is a necessary weapon in our fight against censorship, oppression, greed, the push to monetize all art (and for the artist to create a “brand” of their work and self), and against the deliberate social divisions and the sowing of mistrust of one another. I know of no better response to the proliferating creep of isolation and shame than to gather and celebrate an evening of art across gender identities, sexualities, race, genre and even across various forms of media.

As a creative nonfiction author and lifelong Mainer with deep and love-soaked roots in this (hyper)specific landscape and place, I am over the moon with excitement to attend Kea Krause’s event “Hyperlocality” at Frith Farm.

Audrey Gidman. (Photo by Mea Tavares)

I rented a bus to travel from Belfast to Colby College to bring a group of LGBTQIA+ people living rurally in the Midcoast to see writer and biomythographer Alexis Pauline Gumbs read from her new work. Many people who live rurally don’t know about literary events that happen around the state, and often they don’t know that those events could be for them, too.

I see this event as a response to the moment in its own way. The bus has not been widely broadcast and has instead relied on word-of-mouth networks to fill the seats. It’s getting people together and getting them talking about art and poems and writing. Folks from within an hour of Belfast are making plans to travel to the bus together.

I’m excited to participate in the “Food & Land: Writing from Rural Places” panel. I’m thrilled that the Lit Fest is reaching further into Maine this year and including different regions in these greater conversations. We’ll be enjoying food from local farmer Erica Emery of Rustic Roots Farm and Root Down Market. Everything about it speaks to the moment — community, good food, good soil, right here, right now, together, talking.

Jenna Vendil. (Photo by Louis Torrieri)

I initially planned a writing workshop exploring the question, “Does my voice still matter?” considering the erosion of democracy, the challenges and barriers to civic participation, and the consolidation of power among elected officials whose beliefs don’t reflect the broader public good. The workshop will be held after Maine Lit Fest, but there are so many incredible workshops and events during the festival that explore some of these same themes.

For people living on the margins, “Responding to the Moment” is a constant reality. Writing has always been a means to share our memories, shape narratives and reinvigorate our collective imagination. Audre Lorde and Octavia Butler were writing and responding to the moment, but their work has inspired countless writers, academics and thought leaders, many of whom are participating in Maine Lit Fest.

In the 20 years I’ve been an organizer, advocate and even an elected official, I’ve never seen more people tired, avoidant or disillusioned about their capacity for collective impact. My career has been centered on increasing civic participation and engagement to ensure public policies and systems of government give everyone a fair shot in life. I think creative spaces like Maine Lit Fest can help us to reimagine who we are becoming and build community in the process.

I’m especially excited for the opportunity to see Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Adrienne Maree Brown.

Samara Brass is a writer and editor based in Somerville, Mass.

Maine Lit Fest begins Sept. 30 and runs through Oct. 9 at multiple venues across the state, including Brunswick, Farmington, Lewiston, Northeast Harbor, Portland, Presque Isle, Rockport, Scarborough and Waterville. For the full schedule and to buy tickets, go to mainewriters.org.