Connie Voisine’s passion for literature began with childhood trips to the Fort Kent Public Library.
Since then, the New Mexico resident has published several books of poetry, earned a Guggenheim Fellowship and, most recently, received the 2025 New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Her experiences growing up in northern Maine’s St. John Valley colored her writing, as did the common threads she found early on with a famous author whose books celebrate rural life: Laura Ingalls Wilder. She came to realize her own life could be worth writing about.
Voisine’s love of reading began with Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” series, which focuses on late 19th-century pioneer life in the American Midwest. The stories were not far off from life in rural Maine, and her family has plenty of similar stories about farming and building homes and barns, she said.
“Those books really sent a message to me that such a life, maybe even the life I was living, could be the stuff of literature,” she said. “She wrote about poverty. She wrote about difficulties, and she also wrote about joy and pleasure and rural life. It just sent a strong message to me, even as a kid, that what you are living now is an important thing.”
Even within Maine, the Valley is a distinct region along the northern Canadian border with a strong Acadian heritage and many residents who speak both French and English.
“One thing about growing up in a unique culture is that you sort of don’t know how unique it is until you leave,” she said. “You think everybody has the same childhood when you’re a kid.”
The region is also known for its long winters. As a child, Voisine spent this time reading at the public library.
Reading was important because she was not interested in sports, especially in the winter, she said. Instead, she would often walk to the library after school and take out as many books as she could.
“It was a way to travel with your mind,” she said. “The whole world opens up when you read; you can go anywhere.”
Voisine said she enjoys Stephen King novels and takes pride in the fact that he’s a Mainer. She also remembers being happy to learn that another Maine writer, Cathie Pelletier, who is also from the St. John Valley, was receiving praise in The New York Times for her first novel, “The Funeral Makers.”
“That’s very impressive to anyone from Maine who wants to be a writer, and that [Pelletier] has really made herself a life out of it is inspirational,” Voisine said.
Pelletier, who is from the even more rural town of Allagash, said she and others from the Valley are happy to see Voisine’s success.
“Northern Maine is proud of her,” Pelletier said of Voisine. “Let’s not forget she has already been given a Guggenheim and a Fulbright (I’m still waiting for my Guggenheim). How proud her parents must be. And trust me, this isn’t their only bright kid.”
Voisine and Pelletier met for the first time in 2023 at a book signing event in Fort Kent.
The New Mexico Excellence in the Arts award is “not the kind of thing you apply for,” Voisine said, adding it was nice to receive the nod.
Award recipients are not told who nominated them. It is also somewhat rare for writers to receive it, as it is usually given to visual artists, she said.
Voisine’s love of books has continued, and her career has allowed her to keep books at the center of her life. In addition to publishing her own work, she teaches creative writing at New Mexico State University.
It’s a gift to be able to talk about books all day, she said, adding her husband is also a writer.
And her career has helped her see the world. She traveled to Northern Ireland during a Fulbright Fellowship, during which time she wrote her most recent work, a book-length poem called “The Bower,” and taught at an Irish university.
Voisine was pleasantly surprised to see the significant cultural differences.
“My husband plays fiddle and my daughter plays fiddle,” she said. “So over there, fiddlers are like rock stars, and so are poets. So it’s perfect for us. People really respect, in that culture, writers, poets and musicians.”
It was such a profoundly positive experience that Voisine said she and her family plan to move there upon retirement.
Her decision to turn her passion into a career has not diminished her love of books and literature, Voisine said.
“I’m not going to make my millions by teaching, but it’s a great life,” she said. “If you play it right, it’s a great life.”
