Barbara Ross, Jule Selbo, Nicole Asselin, Gabi Stiteler, Jules O’Brien and Matt Cost engaged in a round of “Ask Me Anything” at the Maine Crime Wave.

Since the Crime Wave rolled through Maine last week, I’ve thought a lot about how fortunate we are to have this amazing crime writing community.

Julie Spencer-Fleming, Bruce Coffin, Paul Doiron and me during “Ask Me Anything.”

Events like the Wave bring us together to talk and laugh, read and commiserate. Writers from other places are amazed by the degree of friendship and support we share. It’s a bond to be celebrated.

The readers at Noir @ The Bar, from left, Katie York, Kate Flora, Chris Holm, Barbara Ross, Jule Selbo, Bruce Coffin, Matt Cost, Paul Doiron and me, with Gabi Stiteler, who was the moving force behind organizing the Friday night event, in front.

This year, Friday night featured readings at a Noir @ The Bar held at the Congress Street venue Novel.

Jule Selbo

Matt Cost

With Jule Selbo and Matt Cost acting as emcees, a packed house heard nine Maine crime writers read five-minute passages from their work. In between the readings there were trivia questions (with fabulous prizes) and plenty of schmoozing in the audience.

It was the perfect first course for the weekend feast of everything crime writing.  In a break with convention, the Crime Wave organizing committee decided this year to move away from panel discussions in favor of roundtable discussions on various topics.

This resulted in active, enthusiastic interaction at every stage of the conference, from informal chats in the library at Mechanic’s Hall to substantive discussions about craft and the writing biz.

The lunchtime interview featured two of Maine’s most well-known crime writers, Julia Spencer-Fleming’s and Paul Doiron.

As the day’s Guest of Honor, Paul Doiron was interviewed during the lunch hour by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Their talk about finding one’s way as a writer was leavened with humor and warmth.

Mary Squibb, a/k/a Sarah Graves, joined us remotely from her home in Eastport to accept the Lea Wait Award.

Mary Squibb, known to her legions of readers as Sarah Graves, writer of the Home Repair is Homicide series, the Lizzie Snow series and the current Death by Chocolate series, was the gracious recipient of the annual award that honors our late sister Lea Wait, who may be gone but will never be forgotten.

A mega panel at the end of the day gathered a dozen writers for a round of “Ask Me Anything,” where everyone razzed Paul Doiron and Matt Cost admitted that if he could be any other writer on the panel, he’d be Chris Holm, and provided specific and hilarious reasons why.

Matt Cost confessing he dreams of being Chris Holm.

Kate Flora, one of the most consistent forces who has nurtured the Maine crime writing community.

This community was built over the years by many people and institutions.

This blog, which Kate Flora and Kathy Lynn Emerson founded oh so many years ago, is a big part of that. The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, which sponsors Crime Wave, is another.

Of course our crime writing community grows out of the rich literary world here in Maine, and thanks are owed to MWPA, its director Gibson Fay-LeBlanc and the rest of the staff, for appreciating and backing the need for an annual gathering of the crime writer tribe.

(Credit for all of the photos to Diane Kenty!)

Brenda Buchanan sets her novels in and around Portland. Her three-book Joe Gale series features a contemporary newspaper reporter with old-school style who covers the courts and crime beat at the fictional Portland Daily Chronicle. Brenda’s short story, Means, Motive, and Opportunity, was in the anthology Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories 2021 and received an honorable mention in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022. Her story Assumptions Can Get You Killed appeared in Wolfsbane: Best New England Crime Stories 2023. A new short story, Cape Jewell, will be published in November in Snakeberry: Best New England Crime Stories 2025.