FARMINGTON — Maine author Sarah Braunstein read from her novel, “The Sweet Relief of Missing Children,” Thursday night as part of the University of Maine at Farmington’s Visiting Writers Series.

Braunstein, a 2007 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award winner, moved to Maine five years ago with her husband. She teaches at Harvard University Extension School and Summer School, the Stanford University Online Writer’s Studio, and in the low-residency MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. She read excerpts from her critically acclaimed 2012 novel to an audience of UMF students and professors.

Professor Jeffrey Thomson introduced Braunstein, describing her novel as “beautiful, wonderful, dark and disturbing.”

Before reading, Braunstein spoke of her admiration for the UMF campus, saying that she was “impressed with this place.”

“I can’t get over this gathering,” Braunstein told the audience. “I spoke earlier at one of your classes, ate dinner here and I think you guys have a lot of energy and charm.”

Braunstein added that she “didn’t want to do my stale, old readings that I usually do, but instead do something that’s really entertaining,” after which she read several excerpts from her novel, the intertwining story of three different teenagers who all go missing. 

The excerpts Braunstein read from follow the character of Sam, a 16-year-old boy.

“Some of you here have recently been 16-year-old boys,” Braunstein said as the audience laughed, “so tell me if I got it right.”

Following the reading, Braunstein told students she finds writing to be “an exhilarating struggle.”

“I always have to force myself to sit there and start writing,” Braunstein said. “I have learned to enjoy editing though. The first draft is always a struggle, but I’ve found a real pleasure in shaping and then reshaping the story. You’ve got to get through the first draft though. I try to make a mess of it, and then submit to the mystery.”

Braunstein smiled at the audience of young writers and said, “A lot of you can probably relate to this.”

One student asked Braunstein what was the best and worst writing advice she received. Braunstein laughed and lauded the student’s question before responding/

“The best and worst advice I’ve received is one and the same: ‘show, don’t tell.’ I know a lot of teachers will tell you to show what you’re trying to say instead of just telling it, but I think there’s a danger in that,” she said.

Braunstein explained that “sometimes, by focusing on every little detail and magnifying, it hurts the writing.

“It’s what one of my professors called ‘object naturalism,’” Braunstein said. “It’s when you take a normal object and render it in such detail that you get bogged down in it. I think there’s a place for exposition in writing.”

Braunstein’s stories and essays have appeared in the Green Mountains Review, Five Chapters, AGNI, Post Road, Ploughshares, The Sun, Nylon Magazine, Maine Magazine, The New Guard, and on NPR’s All Things Considered. She also co-wrote a play with Michael Barakiva and Amy Boyce Holtcamp called “String Theory: Three Greek Myths Woven Together,” which was produced in New York City in 2009 and at Vassar College in 2010.

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