Richard Russo is an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and teacher. He was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his novel Empire Falls. It was adapted into an HBO mini-series, starring Paul Newman, Ed Harris, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Helen Hunt. His previous works include Bridge of Sighs, Mohawk, The Risk Pool, Nobody’s Fool and Straight Man, as well as his short story collection, The Whore’s Child. Richard lives in Portland with his wife, Barbara.

View video from the event below:

Video Recorded February 23, 2016

Mary Pols writes primarily about sustainability for the Press Herald. She came to the Press Herald in late 2013 to work on Source after a long career writing about movies. She has almost, but not quite, broken the habit of waking pre-dawn on Oscar nomination day. Mary was born in Portland and raised in Brunswick, but was away for 25 years so it’s been a thrill for her to learn about her state in the 21st century. She studied art history at Duke and her masters in journalism is from UC Berkeley. She’s happiest reporting a story in Maine’s great outdoors, whether she’s watching seaweed farmers plant a crop or eating fresh caught perch with an ice fisherman while a hungry eagle hovers nearby. History really floats her boat as well (once she wrote an entire story about the life of a very old and rare apple tree in Freeport). She lives in Brunswick with her hockey-obsessed son and their dog, a foster-fail kitten and an elderly Maine Coon.