Co-Presented with Toadstool Bookshop
Join us for a special afternoon in collaboration with Toadstool Bookshop. Each ticket includes the latest issue of Yankee Magazine and a copy of Mel’s book, Here in New England.

Mel will share visuals, insights from his book, and reflections on his time as the former editor of Yankee Magazine. He’ll be joined in conversation by author Howard Mansfield, offering a rich discussion of Mel’s past and present work. The program will also feature a live musical performance by Ben Cosgrove.

Mel Allen Bio:

From the time Mel Allen published his first stories in Yankee in 1977, to the day he retired in 2025 as only Yankee’s fifth editor in its storied 90 year history, his work, both as editor and author has captured New England’s unique sense of place and the people who call it home. The feel of New England lives within the covers of this book. Sometimes a book lets us see with new eyes. This is one of those books.

Mel Allen taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 27 children through months of Maine winters. From his first two stories in Yankee’s December 1977 issue to a January day in 2025 when he closed his office door for the last time, he spent nearly half a century finding people and places whose stories he wanted to know and assigning countless others to the finest writers in New England.

He became Yankee’s fifth editor in the summer of 2006, after previous roles as senior editor and executive editor. In 2018, he was inducted into the Folio Magazine Hall of Fame for editorial excellence. Mel has taught magazine writing and creative nonfiction for the past 25 years, divided between the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and MFA Bay Path. He lives and writes in New Hampshire.