Poetry and Pet Loss: Writing Through Grief

Researchers are finding that humans grieve their animal counterparts more at times than if they lost a human family member or friend. The Auburn Public Library is joining fellow animal lovers together on Thursday, May 28th, 2026 for a program that is part poetry reading/part pet grief writing workshop from the 2025 Maine Literary Arts Fellow, Lynne Schmidt. 

This presentation will be broken into three parts: reading poems, writing poems, and sharing. Attendees will walk away with a "10 Prompts for Processing Pet Grief" handout which they can use at home to continue writing through grief. 
 

About the presenter:

Lynne Schmidt (they/she) is the queer, disabled, neurodivergent grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and a mental health professional with a focus in trauma and healing. They are the 2025 Maine Literary Arts Fellow, the first and third-place winner of the 2025 Books on the Bosque Contest, winner of the 2025 Mary Collar Memorial Award, 2025 Strong Point Of View Award, 2020 New Women's Voices Contest, and more. Lynne is the author of the chapbooks, Dying Dog Poems, The Unaccounted For Circles Of Hell, Dead Dog Poems, and Gravity. In 2012 they started the project, AbortionChat, which aims to lessen the stigma around abortion. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her pack of animals to humans.