Mon, 05/11/2020 - 09:18 am

LISA KRISTOFF

Thomas Block’s art created for Books In Boothbay. Courtesy photo

Every day, Maine summer events are being canceled due to concerns about contributing to the spread of COVID-19. On Friday, May 8, Maine’s Summer Book Fair: Books In Boothbay was placed on this running cancellations list.

The event committee – Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library Director Joanna Breen, assistant director of community engagement & nonprofit management Desiree Scorcia, longtime Books In Boothbay organizer Sharon Pulkkinen and Cheryl Blaydon – made the decision.

Breen said there was also input from their partners at Boothbay Railway Village and Sherman’s. “We deliberated for some time about whether we could make it work and mutually agreed that the nature of the event doesn’t lend itself to social distancing,” including the authors’ networking luncheon that follows the fair, Breen said. “We’d rather do (the event) up big next year.”

“It is a total bummer; a sad story,” Breen said. “But we've had supportive feedback from the announcement on social media that it was the right decision, we appreciate that in light of how tough it was to actually make the final call.”

“The authors were wonderful; we'd reached out to let them know we were trying to figure out a way to hold it and to solicit feedback, and they were great about providing that. So the final cancellation didn't surprise anyone,” added Scorcia.

An estimated 300 people attend the annual event. Breen said that “far exceeds the state cap of 50. We just couldn’t see a path to making the book fair both safe and profitable.”