KINGFIELD – For author Clif Travers, his new book is, in some ways, a visit back home.
The Stones of Riverton is a volume of short stories spanning two hundred years. The stories take place in Riverton, a fictional town loosely based on the town of Kingfield. The geography of Riverton echoes the streets of Kingfield, and many of the last names are found in the history of Franklin County.
The synopsis states, “The Stones of Riverton is a collection of linked short stories and novelettes inspired by the gravestones in a small Maine town. The stories are bound together by place and ancestry spanning over 200 hundred years. They un-bury an often shameful history of unexplained deaths and deeply held secrets in a town that is divided both economically and culturally. While fictional, the stories are grounded in the lore, rumors, and fables that were told to the author by parents, grandparents, and local storytellers.”
“There are fourteen stories and a prologue. Some of the voices speak from the grave in search of resolve. Others struggle with the conflicts and the sweet-and-sour of life in a town where everyone knows you and your mistakes. But most importantly, these stories are about the secrets of both the living and the dead that reveal the prejudices and the shameful pasts that often exist in rural communities.”
The stories are snapshots into what might have been. While the stories and the people within them are fictional, there are familiar threads that weave in and out of the text. Each story is headed by the text from the gravestone that inspired the work.
Travers was born in Boston and grew up in Kingfield. The grand house on Winter’s Hill, known as the Inn on Winter’s Hill or Santosha at Hillholm Estate was originally built for his great-grandmother Ada, whose family history goes back to the beginning of the town. As a child, Travers helped his father with the landscaping and care of Riverside Cemetery along the Carrabassett River. Travers spent time reading the names and brief epitaphs on the gravestones, and this is where his stories first began.
Travers worked as a visual artist after college. He lived in Boston for 25 years and in Brooklyn for 15, but when he moved back to Maine, his stories began to come together. He currently lives in Portland and owns a cabin in Kingfield, where he spends as much time as the temperature allows. Currently, he is working on two projects, a set of novellas and an illustrated young adult book. When he is not writing, he also teaches creative writing workshops.
The 14 stories in The Stones of Riverton took about five years to write and another three to publish. The book was published on September 1, 2023, by Down East Books. Travers held a reading at Santosha at Hillholm Estate in early September and hopes to hold another reading in Franklin County in the future.
The Stones of Riverton can be purchased in bookstores and online at DownEastBooks.com
