‘Out on the Deep Blue’ an anthology of fish stories

SOMESVILLE – In “Out on the Deep Blue,” 19 writers take readers on a first-person odyssey through the commercial fishing industry, from sea-urchin diving in the waters off Maine to winter crabbing in the Bering Sea.

Five of those authors with Maine ties – John Cole, Michael Crowley, Linda Greenlaw, Seth Harkness and Paul Molyneaux – will sign copies of the book from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Port in a Storm Bookstore in Somesville.

Cole recently was inducted into the Maine Press Association’s Hall of Fame. The Brunswick author has written more than a dozen books about Maine, fishing and the outdoors. His writing has earned the Academy of New England Journalists’ Yankee Quill Award and the Outdoor Life Award for Environmental Writing.

After fishing for six years on the Bering Sea on halibut schooners out of Seattle, Crowley now lives in Maine and writes about the fishing industry. He works as an editor at National Fisherman and is a contributing editor for Seafood Business and Workboat magazines.

Greenlaw’s powerful account of her years as a swordboat captain out of Gloucester, Mass., “The Hungry Ocean,” gained her much acclaim. She now lives on Isle au Haut, the focus of her latest book, “The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island,” which comes out in May.

On land, Harkness is an accomplished runner, and he has taken his speed underwater as an urchin diver. Molyneaux has fished for 23 years and writes about fishery issues for The New York Times, National Fisherman and Wildlife Conservation magazine.

The anthology, which also includes essays by Peter Mathiessen and Spike Walter, is edited by Leslie Leyland Fields. Fields is a poet, fisherman and assistant professor of English at the University of Alaska.

For more information, call Port in a Storm Bookstore at 244-4114 or visit www.portinastormbookstore.com.