Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains Kerri Arsenault (2020) Review by Tina Cohen Mill Town, with no specific location in its title, could refer to a lot of places. Here it refers to Rumford, where Arsenault grew up in the adjacent town of Mexico, across the Androscoggin River from the paper mill. The mill held central importance for everyone; when…

On October 9, 2009, although not despondent, I stood on the Dyer Island Bridge, staring into the modest abyss below and torn between stepping off or returning home. After a…

Dylan Bunker explains his course of study at Maine Maritime Academy in much the way Goldilocks explained her taste in porridge. There are three tracks for the marine engineering degree,…

Landslide By Susan Conley Review by Carl Little Early in season one of the FX series Fargo the ex-stripper Gina Hess says of her misbehaving teenage sons, “They’re wolves.” This…

On paper, Bar Harbor was expecting more than 150 cruise ship visits this year. In reality—fat chance. The COVID-19 tsunami finds the global cruise ship industry in shambles and has…

Eighteen years ago, I sat for the first time on the rugged granite backside of Frenchboro, marveling at the power of the tides and the open water extending to the…

A dead basking shark washed ashore in Bremen in early January. The Department of Marine Resources responded to calls from local residents, and marine biologists took tissue samples. According to…

When legislators in Congress and the state legislature find common interest—across the bodies in which they serve, and even across party lines—they form groups, known as caucuses. It’s a strategic…

A dire decline of North Atlantic right whales and a pair of court rulings are pushing regulators to propose new restrictions on lobstering in New England waters. The proposed regulations…

Les Stanwood is 80 years old and lives in Addison. Although he’s retired, he remains active in his community, serving on the board of a local health agency. The National…