From the Fishouse: About: About From the Fishouse

About From the Fishouse

The Fishouse, Pittston, Maine

Founded in Maine by Matt O'Donnell, From the Fishouse is a non-profit (under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code) that promotes the oral tradition of poetry. Our free online audio archive showcases emerging poets (defined for this purpose as poets with fewer than two published books of poetry at the time of submission) reading their own poems, as well as answering questions about poetry and the writing process. Our mission is to provide up-and-coming poets an outlet to a wider audience, to provide the public with greater access to authors reading their own work, and to provide an educational resource to students and teachers of contemporary poetry.

Lawrence Sargent Hall (1915-1993). Photo from the 1961 Bowdoin Bugle, courtesy of Bowdoin College.

From the Fishouse takes its name, and the spelling of "Fishouse," from the writing cabin of the late writer, Lawrence Sargent Hall. Hall renovated the former codfish-drying shack into his writing cabin and wrote in the space for 50 years, including his Faulkner Award-winning novel, Stowaway, and his O'Henry Award-winning short story, The Ledge, named in 1999 as one of The Best American Short Stories of the Century. An employee of Bowdoin College (where Hall taught) rediscovered the cabin in 2003, just as Hall left it when he died ten years earlier. With the generous permission of Lawrence Hall, Jr., O'Donnell moved the Fishouse to the woods behind his home to use as his own. Except for O'Donnell's own few writing tools, the Fishouse remains as Hall left it, down to the thesaurus and decanters, photo of Hall's dog, Jack, and even firewood for the stove.