Working Waterfront

Wulp’s poems prove wit, insight, reflection sharpen with age

Cormorant Time: A Madman’s Journal. Poems Written in a Time of Fever by John Wulp. Camden, Maine: Philip Conkling & Associates, 2016. 190 pp. “Can one man have been a United States Marine Corps honor guard at the White House, a photographer, a producer, a playwright, wait—a short-order cook, an… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Bryan’s ‘Freedom Over Me’ earns Newberry honor

Islesford’s Ashley Bryan, the author and artist whose books, illustrations and paintings have reached world-wide audiences, was honored this month for his latest children’s book Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life. The book won a Newbery Honor Award, a runner-up to the Newbery Medal.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Map-making as art

When most of us think of mapmakers, we think of the big names in mapmaking: Google, Garmin/DeLorme, Rand McNally. These are companies engaging in cutting edge technologies to push cartography into the future. But there are lesser-known mapmakers contributing to the field right here in Maine, and their work spans… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Book review: National parks as ‘breathing places’

The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks. By Terry Tempest Williams When filmmaker Ken Burns set out to document the history of America’s “best idea”—our national parks—he called on a number of distinguished writers and historians to help testify to their special place in our land—and… SEE MORE

Volunteers and supporters celebrate WBFY/100.9 FM going on-air.

Working Waterfront

Hyperlocal radio: Belfast has new low-power radio station, joining Eastport, Rockland and Standish

Some 20 years ago, a weather-related disaster struck a small town in South Dakota, and officials wanted to reach residents with emergency information. The five radio stations heard in town were programmed remotely, pulling in music and talk via satellite dish, and so were useless in the emergency. That scenario,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The play’s the thing

One of the purposes for which I was hired to come teach on North Haven, nigh on 12 years ago, was to direct plays. The theater program, formalized by the school's relationship with John Wulp, had achieved some renown through original programming and attention paid to contemporary classics by Brecht… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Peter Ralston’s ‘Pentecost’ named Maine’s ‘most iconic’ image

You know the image. Prints have been sold on every continent but Antarctica. And you know it because it tells a story, a story that resonates both with those visiting our state and those who have lived here for generations. “Pentecost,” as Peter Ralston called the photograph he shot that… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A wife tells her husband’s abuse story

Dirt Roads & Diner Pie by Shonna Milliken Humphrey Published by Central Recovery Press, 2016 The title Dirt Roads & Diner Pie suggests a travel guide, tips for a trip off the beaten path, advice for a journey into the heart and soul of a place, with a chance to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Available Light: The intersection of poetry and Castine

Available Light: Philip Booth and the Gift of Place Jeanne Braham; Bauhan Publishing, Peterborough, New Hampshire, 2016; color photographs; 144 pages, paperback, $23.95. In the mid-1980s, Island Institute co-founder Philip Conkling traveled to Castine to interview Philip Booth for an upcoming issue of the Institute's Island Journal. Booth, Conkling later… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A love letter to the seasons

Summer To Fall: Notes and Numia from the Maine Woods Dana Wilde/North Country Press 2016 Remember in the film Jerry Maguire when Dorothy says, “You had me at hello…”? Author Dana Wilde had me at the first paragraph of the preface when he writes: “…this book is about the transit… SEE MORE