The Academy Award-winning writer of the iconic film On Golden Pond, Ernest Thompson, will make a special appearance at Jesup Memorial Library, in Bar Harbor, on Thursday, August 13 at 5:30 PM. Join Thompson in conversation with New York Times bestselling author Caroline Alexander about his new literary thriller, Out Clause, followed by a Q&A. Books courtesy of Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops will be available for purchase and signing by the author. This event is free and open to the public. And you can take photos with Oscar!
Thompson’s sprawling epic is a gripping page turner that asks a probing question: What if you could leave your life? Every year 500,000 Americans go missing, 1500 never return. Where are they and is there a connection? Yes. Out Clause.
“The incomparable wordsmith Ernest Thompson’s latest book grabbed me from the get-go; engrossing characters and what a ride!” says multiple award-winning actress Jean Smart about Thompson’s masterful novel. "It also teases with a titillating question: if you could … would you?” Start a new life, that is (and commit to living a better one).
Employing the patented three Hs (Heart, Humor and Hope) that Thompson brings to everything he creates, from his hilarious and deeply moving play and film On Golden Pond to his equally engaging novel The Book of Maps, Out Clause invites you to reevaluate your own life and challenges you to commit to being your better angel (in the book, there are consequences for anyone who fails to).
“While On Golden Pond is a story of forgiveness andThe Book of Maps is all about redemption,” Thompson said, “Out Clause is an important reminder in these complicated times that we don’t have to accept the status quo or suffer the pain we feel or the helplessness. We can rise up in our own form of rebellion and negotiate a workable out clause.
No stranger to Bar Harbor, Thompson’s visit is something of a homecoming. Two of his independent films played at Reel Pizza as part of the Maine International Film Festival, first the elegiac Time And Charges and, the following year, Heavenly Angle, his hilarious take on the filmmaking process itself and how fine the line can be between artistic integrity and the cynicism that seems increasingly prevalent in these perilous times. The weekend his latter film screened, Thompson was busy shooting scenes for a music video, using scores of Bar Harbor locals and capturing iconic, recognizable settings throughout the city and surrounding area. “You Are Loved,” which Thompson returned to share at the next season’s film festival, has enjoyed enduring popularity on YouTube where viewers can find it easily and dance along.
Ernest Thompson’s work has won an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, Writers Guild and Broadway Drama Guild Awards and been nominated for a Tony, an Emmy and a British Academy Award. His plays have been seen in theatres around the world, his most enduring, On Golden Pond, translated into 30 languages and presented in more than 40 countries. Current projects include an On Golden Pond Broadway revival, directed by and starring the author; true also of his new one-man play, Archie Parish’s Parting Words, now on tour; his newest play Grand Time; the short film The Constituent; and the movie sequel, Home On Golden Pond. His novel Out Clause is now available. A prolific lyricist, his song with Carly Simon, “The Father Daughter Dance,” will soon be playing at a wedding near you. With his writer wife Kerrin Thompson, he established Rescind Recidivism, a prison writing program giving inmates a chance to feel creative as well as human, capable and worthy.