Born in Bar Harbor, Paul Trowbridge grew up in Maine in the summers. He had, he writes, “a real affinity for boats and the docks that came with them.” His parents spent 10 years on Crow Island off Deer Isle, coming and going by way of the lobster dock at Sunshine (his father, writer Clinton Trowbridge, turned the experience into…

Name: Kate Klibansky Title: Senior Community Development Officer Focus: I lead the work of Island Institute’s Resilient Energy team on a federally funded program that supports improving energy reliability, resilience,…

Reflections is written by Island Institute Fellows, recent grads of college and master’s programs who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute,…

The rockbound coast of Maine is home to a greater variety of birds in winter than in summer. Many waterfowl nest on freshwater across northern Canada. Before those waterbodies freeze…

Sargentville’s wharf was bustling on a summer day around 1934 when Evie Kimball (Barbour) made a series of photographs using her 5-by-7-inch view camera. She had repeatedly photographed the area…

Writing for the New York Times, Kim Severson annually digs deeply into food trend predictions and comes up with what we ought to expect to see in the coming year.…

I look around as I sit at a freshly decluttered desk in my studio to write for the first time in 2026. This 8-foot by 10-foot room has been the…

My love of swimming is well documented. But while I don't turn my nose up at a cold dip, the salty miles I log in the Millstream and Pulpit Harbor…

In a Distant Valley By Shannon Bowring (2025, Europa) Author Shannon Bowring describes her fictitious town of Dalton as in “the county”—a reference to Maine’s northernmost Aroostook County. With its…

The View from Here: Reflections on the Deep North, the Wild East By Franklin Burroughs (Down East Books) In his 50-plus years in Maine, the South Carolina-born writer Franklin Burroughs…