Island Journal

Ask a Sternman: From Teaching to Hauling Lobster

Vinalhaven has been a constant in Wilson Boone’s life since he was two years old, when his family started spending summers on the island. Originally from Springfield, Mass., Boone spent several years traveling the world after studying sociology at UMass Amherst, with teaching stints in southeast Asia and Nepal. But… SEE MORE

Profiles

Island Journal

Gary Lawless: A Life in Literature, Activism, and Islands

While living with Gary Snyder in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the mid-1970s, Gary Lawless remembers the celebrated poet and the people around him becoming excited about the idea of watershed politics and bio regionalism “and trying to figure out how best to live in a place while doing the… SEE MORE

Profiles

Island Journal

Ask an Aquaculturist: Growing shellfish was a ‘trial by fire’

Stonington native Abby Barrows owns and operates the Deer Isle Oyster Company, a small-scale aquaculture farm where she raises oysters, sugar kelp, and—experimentally for now—dulse and scallops. While she was born and raised on Deer Isle, Barrows' journey—fueled by a restless, wandering spirit—has been anything but short, straight, and narrow.… SEE MORE

Island Journal

The Last Fish House on Otter Creek

On a warm July afternoon, Steve Smith sat outside a fish house in Otter Creek on Mount Desert Island, telling stories. There was the time it was “Blowin’ like a bastard from the north,” and his skiff capsized. A pair of park visitors heard Smith calling for help, hopped in a nearby rowboat and rescued him. While Smith regaled me with this tale, a large gull landed gracelessly on a nearby piling, evidence that there was once a functioning dock here, now buried by debris from the 2024 winter storms. SEE MORE

Island Journal

Samuel French Morse: A Trip Outside

“A poet, more likely than not, has to take his local identity for granted. If he feels he is ‘from away,’ he will be. If he is too much concerned about where he comes from or where he is, what he makes of the relation between himself and his part… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Where the Harbor Bears Your Name

Joseph William Lunt wakes up before the sun in a house that sits on a harbor that shares his name. Aboard his lobster boat Heritage, Lunt does what his ancestors have been doing for over two centuries—he harvests the bounty of Downeast Maine waters. His wife Teenie Lunt also fishes… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Suhail Bisharat – A Natural Diplomat on Chebeague

The power is out on half of Chebeague Island. Most toilets aren’t flushing and a few roads have downed trees across them, but the high winds haven’t stopped the boats from running. At the ferry landing, Suhail Bisharat stands with his hands behind his back, smartly dressed and smiling warmly.… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Doing Door-to-Door Advocacy for Water

Think of how many daily interactions you have with water—morning coffee or tea, washing hands, flushing a toilet, preparing food, watering plants or animals, showering. Now imagine each of those interactions being dangerous and tainted with harmful chemicals and toxins; instead of a simple turn of the tap, each of these interactions requiring bottled water or water sourced from as far as a 30-minute drive away paying 35 cents a gallon. SEE MORE

Island Journal

Island Bound—A Home Away, Yet Not Away

What follows is adapted from Abigail Trafford’s memoir, High Time (Tide Pool Press, 2023). Trafford, whose career included reporting, writing, and editing at The Washington Post and U.S. News & World Report, has come to the multi-generational family retreat at the north end of Vinalhaven her entire life. The author… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Objectively Caring for Her Community

Photos by Barry Fitzsimmons A career in journalism means being an observer, not a player. It means not taking sides, even when it comes to an endeavor as worthy as eldercare for a small island community. Susan Stranahan says that when she left daily journalism and moved to Chebeague Island… SEE MORE