Pauline Inman's “Fisherman’s Boots,” 1943, wood engraving, edition eight of 40. COURTESY TIDES INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM OF ART, EASTPORT

Working Waterfront

Pauline Inman engraves Downeast shore

Inman belongs to a diverse and exceptional line of printmakers who have found inspiration in Maine, from Frank Benson, Ernest Haskell, Rockwell Kent, Stow Wengenroth, Carroll Thayer Berry, and Peggy Bacon to Thomas Cornell, Marvin Bileck, Holly Meade, Alison Hildreth, Susan Groce, and Siri Beckman—to name (quite) a few. SEE MORE

Dave Brayton prepares to harpoon a swordfish on the Georges Bank. PHOTO: PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

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Capturing the kill

He used a polarizing filter to help lessen the glare on the surface so the swordfish could be clearly seen; those preparations, coupled with some savvy darkroom work, produced the cover shot. SEE MORE

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Susan Webster and Stuart Kestenbaum harmonize

Kestenbaum has noted a sense of mortality in some of these poems. Two pieces titled “Eternity” address the end of life, “some pa/rt of me adrift/gone floating o/ver this sweet/and sad world." SEE MORE

Ice on the streets of Gardiner, approximately where the Hannaford grocery store currently stands. PHOTO: MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

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Ice made historic floods worse

During flooding events, ice floes can collide with structures, causing additional damage. This was notably the case during the historic Great Flood of 1936. SEE MORE

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Lora Whelan’s travel lift

“If you like industrial equipment, and I certainly do,” Whelan writes, “a travel lift is hard to resist.” She calls it “the lifeblood” of a boatyard, moving vessels from the water onto land. “I had never given it a good look-see to understand how it worked,” she relates... SEE MORE

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Stephen King likes it darker

King has never shied away from commenting on politics, especially when it comes to 45 (“Since I write horror novels for a living, I feel I have some authority when I say that four more years of Donald Trump in the White House would be an absolute nightmare”). SEE MORE

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Minot’s latest airs unhealthy yearnings

She worries all the time about the quality of her parenting. After experiencing the early loss of her own parents and her divorce after having a child, Ivy feels guilty for her son’s equivalent loss of a mother-father dyad. SEE MORE

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No way in for novel’s protagonist

Morgan Talty, a member of the Penobscot Indian Nation, grew up on its reservation near Bangor. His first book, out several years ago, was a brilliant collection of short stories SEE MORE

C. Ronald Bechtle in his Maine studio, ca. 2002. PHOTO: COURTESY REID BECHTLE

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A modernist visits Hinckley boatyard

Bechtle offered an intriguing assortment of symbols and shapes to represent the marine setting, including bright red pennants, a black cross, circles, and squares. SEE MORE

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Why deadly storms aren’t so super

Category Five: Superstorms and the Warming Oceans That Feed Them By Porter Fox (Little, Brown 2024) I found Porter Fox’s Category Five: Superstorms and the Warming Oceans That Feed Them a riveting read. So much so, I think I lost focus, experiencing the book more as a series of edge-of-the-seat… SEE MORE