Maine author who predicts US ‘on verge of collapse’ to speak at Word Festival

By Steele Hays

BLUE HILL — Best-selling Maine-based author Colin Woodard will be speaking at this year’s Word literary arts festival in Blue Hill, appearing October 25 at the Blue Hill Congregational Church, according to organizers.

Woodard, who has a summer home in Stonington and lives in the greater Portland area, has written six books, including the best-selling “Lobster Coast.”  His newest book, “Nations Apart,” will be released in November, and makes the case that “the United States and its democracy are on the verge of collapse.” 

Woodard worked previously as a state and national affairs writer for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram and has received a George Polk Award for outstanding investigative journalism. He was named Maine Journalist of the Year in 2014, and was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. He is currently a contributing writer with Politico.

Woodard will be joined at the festival by another former Maine reporter, Alicia Anstead, who is currently an instructor in the journalism and writing programs at Harvard University Extension School. Anstead is a director of Downeast Speaks, an annual community storytelling event with ISLE Theater Company in Deer Isle. As an arts reporter at the Bangor Daily News she won numerous awards for her writing. 

Woodard and Anstead will focus on America’s regional divides, a theme Woodard explored in his book “American Nations.” 

The preliminary schedule for the 2025 Word festival is now available online at www.wordfestival.org

Maine-based journalist Colin Woodard. Photo courtesy of Colin Woodard.