2019 Commencement Address, University of Maine at Farmington

Commencement / Graduation 2019. Saturday, May 11 2019 10:30am. Pulitzer-winning Maine author Elizabeth Strout was the keynote speaker and received an honorary degree at the University of Maine at Farmington's 2019 Commencement ceremony.

“I’m a writer and so I spend a great deal of my time alone. And every decision I ultimately make on that page, I make alone. And then the work goes out into the world.... What I do (I have come to realize this) is an act of faith. And whatever you all will do will also be acts of faith.

You don’t have to be a teacher or a writer to understand that we are all connected and that what we do every day will ripple out in ways that we will never know.... But we don’t have to know. We just have to trust that whatever we do in the world will find its way to a person who needs it.”

— 2019 Commencement Address, Univeristy of Maine at Farmington

Address by Elizabeth Strout at 2019 Univ. Maine at Farmington Commencement, YouTube, published on May 14, 2019.

Olive, Again

I'm happy to let readers know that I have a new book, OLIVE, AGAIN, coming out next fall, October 15, 2019.

Here is the press release from my U.S. publisher, Random House:

Random House is thrilled to announce the return of the beloved Olive Kitteridge in Elizabeth’s Strout’s next novel, OLIVE, AGAIN, which will be published on [October 15], 2019. “It turns out – I just wasn’t done with Olive,” said Strout. “It was like she kept poking me in the ribs, so I finally said, ‘Okay, okay…”

OLIVE, AGAIN will pick up where OLIVE KITTERIDGE left off, following the next decade of Olive’s life – through a second marriage, an evolving relationship with her son, and encounters with a cast of memorable characters in the seaside town of Crosby, Maine.

The character of Olive Kitteridge has achieved an iconic place in the imaginations of millions of readers since the 2008 publication of Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, OLIVE KITTERIDGE. In 2014, it was turned into an acclaimed HBO series, which won 8 Emmys, including Best Actress to Frances McDormand for her performance in the title role.

In the citation for the Pulitzer Prize, the committee noted that the novel “packed a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed, and fascinating.”

Apparently, I was not through with Olive, nor she with me!

NOTE: This post originally gave a publication date of Sept 3. That has been updated to Oct 15.

New York Public Library 2018 Library Lion

I'm deeply honored to be named a 2018 Library Lion by the New York Public Library, a library that reaches out to everyone, no matter who they are or where they came from.

Guest of Honor at Yaddo Summer Benefit

“These places—like Yaddo—don’t just happen by magic. You people put your trust and your resources into those whose work may not show up for years, or may never show up. But you do it anyway. Because you know that a society must value the arts. And what you are doing here is an act of faith.”

— Elizabeth Strout, Remarks at Yaddo Summer Benefit 2018

Taobuk Award for Literary Excellence

Honored to receive the Taobuk International Award for Literary Excellence from the Annual Taobuk Taormina festival in gorgeous Taormina, Sicily.