Longtime Yankee Magazine editor and writer Mel Allen will present his new book “Here in New England: Unforgettable stories of people, places, and memories that connect us all” on Saturday, October 11 at 2 p.m. at MainStreet BookEnds of Warner as part of the town’s Foliage Festival. Books will be available for $20.
From the time 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 writer, has captured New England’s unique sense of place and the people who call it home.
“I see the stories in these pages as miniature pictures of New England that reveal a larger life around them,” Allen writes. “To tell these stories, I have entered the lives of people for hours or days — and when they open their own lives, their hearts, the words they speak become intimate albums. They tell me details of their lives that they may not tell anyone else. And it is up to me to treat those words with deep respect… The most important words in this book’s title for me are “that connects us all.”
Allen also writes, “We live now in a time where division has become the backdrop to our lives. But when I look at the stories here about people overcoming seemingly impossible obstacles, of others reaching out to help their neighbors, of entire communities pulling together when all seems lost, or of thousands of people searching a wilderness for a lost child, I see a common humanity that has always been part of the New England landscape.”
MainStreet BookEnds of Warner is located at 16 East Main Street in Warner.
For more info, visit MelAllenNewEngland.com