CAMDEN — On Saturday, August 3, at 4 p.m., Linda Buckmaster will give a “walking tour” of her traveling literary exhibit, “Of Cod and Communities,” at the Camden Public Library. The inside talk is the kickoff the for the exhibit’s residency in the Picker Gallery for the month of August.

The exhibit is adapted from Buckmaster’s book Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, a Finalist in the Maine Literary Awards. For the exhibit Buckmaster collaborated with Portland designer Lori Harley to create eight 3’ x 5’ soft fabric banners printed with text and images to reflect the centuries-long interrelationships between the North Atlantic cod and humans on both sides of the Atlantic. For the walk, Buckmaster will talk about the social content of the banners and the process of creating them with over thirty images.

The exhibit is traveling to coastal libraries over the year. Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport is a co-sponsor, and the exhibit is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Linda Buckmaster has lived within a block of the Atlantic most of her life, growing up in Florida and living in Midcoast Maine for fifty years. She has an MFA from the University of Southern Maine, and her poetry, essay, and fiction have appeared in over forty journals. She was previously Atlantic and Gulf Editor for “National Fisherman.” Two of her pieces have been listed as Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2013 and 2020. Her hybrid, Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands (Huntress Press 2022), is the first installment in a series of creative and eclectic responses to the beauties and realities of islands across the North Atlantic Rim. lindabuckmaster.com.