Local author Anne Cyr’s new poetry book, “The Wondermaker,” was released by Moon Pie Press earlier this summer. The collection flows from present day to memoir, love vignettes, world travels, and, finally, an excursion through Maine’s four seasons.

Readers have responded in delight to the humor and the simple elegance of her uplifting words. Her poems have been described as “talking right to my heart” and as “finding miracles in the overlooked and commonplace.” A local garage becomes an “unexpected oasis”; a lowly seam ripper becomes an instrument of love; an abandoned blue beach shovel serves to reignite childhood’s enchantment and the search for something worth keeping.

Cyr’s father, Ira Amesbury, was a locally known artist and poet and greatly influenced her writing ventures. In the nearly 15 years since retiring from teaching in Maine’s public schools, Cyr has been taking writing classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at USM, and she credits the teachers and her writing cohorts for helping her to refine her craft.

“The Wondermaker” is now available at all Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops. There will be a book signing at the Sherman’s Boothbay store on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 1 to 3 p.m. 

Cyr is also participating in the “Last Fridays Mini Art Market” at the Southport Island Store on Friday, Sept. 25, from 5 to 7 p.m.