Presented by The Porch Fall 2025 Visiting Writers Series

About Megan Mayhew Bergman: 

Originally from North Carolina, Megan Mayhew-Bergman is an author, speaker, and teacher who writes about the natural world and remarkable women in a science & art-forward way - and likes to help others do the same. She serves as Director of Middlebury College’s Creative Writing Program and the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, and is the author of three books, Birds of a Lesser Paradise, Almost Famous Women, and How Strange a Season, published in March 2022. How Strange a Season was featured as a New York Times Editor’s Choice and in the New Yorker’s Best Books of 2022 list, and was longlisted for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Fiction Prize, The Story Prize, and the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. Bergman is currently writing a book on the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

About Mary-Elaine Jenkins:

Mary-Elaine Jenkins is a Brooklyn-based songwriter, singer, and guitarist. A native of the South Carolina Lowcountry, her sound combines manifold influences with a distinctly southern sensibility. MEJ has been named among “5 Up-And-Coming Women Musicians You Should Know About” (Bust Magazine), described as "standing righteously above other young pretenders" (Glide Magazine), and her voice has been called "a mix of cloves, sage, ash, thorns, and honey” (The Deli NYC). She is a fixture in the New York music scene, has toured Europe, and has supported artists such as Martha Wainwright, Courtney Marie Andrews, Teddy Thompson, and John Craigie. Her full-length debut, "Hold Still," was released in 2018 and she is currently at work on a new record.

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