Carl Little
Eric Hopkins by Maine author Carl Little

Carl Little

Carl Little is the author of many art books, including Edward Hopper’s New EnglandThe Watercolors of John Singer SargentNature & Culture: The Art of Joel Babb, and Irene Hardwicke Olivieri: Closer to Wilderness. His 2011 book Eric Hopkins: Above and Beyond won the first John N. Cole Award from Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. He and his brother David Little have co-produced four books, most recently, Art of Penobscot Bay

Little lectures widely; venues include the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Wadsworth Athenaeum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, and many Maine libraries. He contributes to a number of publications, including HyperallergicArt New EnglandMaine Boats, Homes & HarborsOrnamentThe Working Waterfront, and Island Journal. In 2021 the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award for his art writing.

Little’s poetry has appeared in a wide range of literary journals, including the Paris ReviewKennebecHudson Review and Maine Arts Journal. He is the author of Ocean Drinker: New & Selected Poems (Deerbrook Editions). His poetry has appeared in several anthologies edited by Wesley McNair as well as well as Local News: Poetry about Small Towns and 3 Nations Anthology: Native, Canadian & New England Writers

A native New Yorker, Little holds degrees from Dartmouth (BA in English), Columbia (MFA in writing) and Middlebury (MA in French). Prior to moving to Maine in 1989, he was associate editor at Art in America magazine. 

Little joined the staff at the Maine Community Foundation in 2001 as director of communications and marketing (he retired in 2021), following an eight-year tenure as public affairs director and Ethel Blum Gallery curator at College of the Atlantic. He lives and writes in Somesville on Mount Desert Island.