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FARMINGTON — Thursday, June 16 at 6:30 p.m. Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers will host a book launch, signing, and celebration of food and community at Farmington Public Library for the book Breaking Bread: Essays from New England on Food, Hunger, and Family.

Join Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers as they host five stellar Farmington-area authors—Desi Van Til, Bill Roorbach, Patricia O’Donnell, Wesley McNair, and Lewis Robinson—reading from Breaking Bread, an essay collection of 70 renowned New England writers talking about food and how it sustains us: mind, body, and soul. The event will take place on Thursday, June 16 at 6:30pm at the Farmington Public Library located at 117 Academy Street in Farmington, Me.

In Breaking Bread, top literary talents and food writers explore local foods, family, and community, delving into how what’s on our plate engages with what’s off: grief, pleasure, love, ethics, race, and class. Here, you’ll find Lily King on chocolate chip cookies, Richard Russo on beans, Jennifer Finney Boylan on homemade pizza, Susan Minot on the non-food food of her youth, and Richard Ford on why food doesn’t much interest him. Nancy Harmon Jenkins talks scallops, and Sandy Oliver the pleasures of being a locavore. Other essays address a beloved childhood food from Iran, the horror of starving in a prison camp, the urge to bake pot brownies for an ill friend, and the pleasure of buying a prized chocolate egg for a child.

“The pieces strike a nice emotional balance and demonstrate ‘in each bite we often feel a sense of nostalgia and memory that has the power to transport us to a different time and place.’ These intimate reflections hit the spot.” –Publishers Weekly

Profits from this collection will benefit Blue Angel, a nonprofit combating food insecurity by delivering healthy food from local farmers to those in need. For more information regarding this event, contact Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers at 778-3454 or by email at info@ddgbooks.com.