Northern Maine is becoming a writer’s haven for students and followers of author Cathie Pelletier.

Her personal love of northern Maine is attracting attention in her writings and teaching.

Pelletier grew up in Allagash. She wrote about her 91-year-old father’s life as a logger in “A is for Allagash.” In chapters ordered alphabetically, the biography describes memories and experiences her father shared about living as a lumberjack in the Allagash.

Her father’s family grew up speaking French. Their French-Acadian roots come from her grandmother Thibodeau’s family name. In an interview taped for Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Pelletier talks to her father about special local traditions, like dipping for Easter Water, which only works on the “third dip.” They share the mysterious family tradition of “blood stopping,” a psychic folklore ability that certain people have where they can coagulate blood.

One life writing project led to another and now Pelletier teaches workshops at the University of Maine in Fort Kent and at the University Of Maine Presque Isle. Her students are creating a body of personal memories in her writing classes. Eventually, their collective work will become a cultural history of the St. John Valley.

Writing about her love of family and the familiar places she knows along Aroostook County’s scenic St. John River is attracting students and visits to the area from creative artists.

Written memories become more valuable as the years go by, she says.

“Anytime you preserve anyone’s memories, especially if they happen to be the oldest citizens of a town or area, you can’t help but add to the archival information of how life was lived in the 1920s and 1930s,” says Pelletier. “We can appreciate how technology has changed the way of life in the St. John Valley.”

Pelletier is involved in the planning of the 2014 World Acadian Congress. Stories she writes will be published to present to the Congress, a cultural festival scheduled for three weeks in northern Maine and neighboring Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada.

Cultural events planned for the Congress include over 100 family reunions and many concerts.

“I hope to get Louisiana Cajun singer, fiddler and songwriter Doug Kershaw up here for the program,” she says. Kershaw speaks French and also has French-Acadian ancestry. Pelletier worked with Kershaw for three years on his personal memoir “The Ragin’Cajun.” He even came to Allagash to attend a birthday party for her father.

Pelletier is an award-winning writer and an alumna of the UMaine-Fort Kent.

She has published seven novels authored under her name and two using the pseudonym of K.C. McKinnon. She co-wrote “100 Ways to Beat the Blues” with Nashville’s country music star Tanya Tucker.

“The Christmas Note” was co-authored with the late country music icon Skeeter Davis, a children’s book based on the singer’s childhood. Her own Christmas memoire is “Christmas in the Allagash.”

Her writing seminars at UMaine-Fort Kent and -Presque Isle often invite well known guests. New England poet and Maine resident Wesley McNair has spoken to students via teleconference and read some of his poetry.

Songwriter and performer David Mallet attended one program hosted in a local café, where he entertained a packed audience and answered questions about his career.

“Our classes are lively,” she says.

Pelletier started a small publishing company called Northern Maine Books. She is busy writing and publishing her books including those about the Allagash, and memories of the St. John Valley’s history and culture.
 
 

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