YARMOUTH, Maine — Shannon Butler, a Caribou native and 2009 graduate of Caribou High School, will sign copies of “All is Calm,” her new anthology of Maine writers and Christmas stories, at Noyes Flower and Plant Shoppe on Saturday, Nov. 23, from 11 a.m to 1 p.m.
The shop, where Butler worked for several years during high school and college, is located at 11 Franklin Street.
In the anthology “All is Calm: A Maine Christmas Reader,” Butler captures the simple charm and magical beauty of a Maine Christmas using essays from such gifted writers as John N. Cole, Roy Barrette, Ethel Pochoki, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow while sprinkling in holiday facts and news items to create a special holiday gift to readers.
Published by Islandport Press of Yarmouth, the book features 40 essays and news stories dating from 1863 that offer a fascinating and often heartwarming look at the evolution of Christmas in the Pine Tree State as well as thoughts on what makes it so special.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the chaos of the holiday season. It’s important that we take time to reflect on our shared past, and acknowledge the many passed down traditions we still embrace as well as traditions that have changed,” Butler said. “The stories in ‘All Is Calm’ are intended to give readers a moment of pause, to take time between parties, shopping, and decorating to savor this special time of year.”
In the book, Butler features other Maine writers including May Davidson, Helen Hamlin, Thomas Hanna, Trudy Chambers Price, Dean Lunt, Bill Caldwell, Shawn Callahan and Tristan Noyes, while also mining 19th- and 20th-century newspapers and magazines for holiday-related stories that speak to the spirit of a Maine Christmas. These news articles include stories that detail Christmas traditions on a Casco Bay lightship, at a Northern Maine lumber camp, and on the remote islands of Maine.
Butler is also a graduate of Caribou High School and the University of Maine at Farmington’s creative writing program, interned at Echoes Magazine, and has worked at Islandport Press for six years. She currently lives in Kennebunk.
