Skidompha’s Chats with Champions is delighted to announce a Skidompha Library Special Event. Award-winning columnist Bill Nemitz will visit Damariscotta on Oct. 6 at 10 a.m. at the Lincoln Theater. Please allow time for parking. This special event includes a ticket price of $10, with all proceeds going to support the library’s “Chats with Champions” series. Tickets may be purchased in advance at Skidompha and will also be available at the door on the day of the event.

A columnist for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, Bill’s appearance is especially timely since he will be focusing his remarks on the upcoming election, including both the presidential race and its implications for down-ballot voting here in Maine. Of particular interest will be how recent headlines, including those generated by our governor, might affect the political balance of the next Maine Legislature.

Bill Nemitz began writing his column for the two newspapers in 1995. His focus has been on Maine’s people, politics and other issues but his work has taken him to Iraq, Afghanistan, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Manhattan after 9/11, the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, and Haiti aboard a Maine-based relief ship.

Nemitz is a past president of the Maine Press Association and for many years taught journalism part time at St. Joseph’s College of Maine in Standish. He served for eight years, including three as chairman, on the board of trustees for the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland.  He has also lectured on a number of journalism topics at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va.

In 2004, the Maine Press Association named him “Maine Journalist of the Year” for his reporting on the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Battalion in Iraq. In 2007, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the New England Newspaper Association. Bill was inducted into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame in 2015.

Chats with Champions is a community offering from your national award winning Skidompha Library and is sponsored by Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop. For more information call 207-563-5513.