Every day I am taken aback by the pure act of kindness that is directed toward me.

Ship calls to Portland’s International Marine Terminal have steadily increased, more and more Maine officials, economic developers and business people have made the trek to Reykjavik to meet the neighbors, and more Maine goods are outbound along Eimskip’s “Green Line” route to Europe.

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 told literary biographer Jeanne Braham, “said something that spoke directly to my heart: 'The amazing thing about poems, like the amazing thing about islands: to those people to whom they matter, they matter a very great deal.'”

I will not allow any effort to build a wall to go unchallenged or any attempt to curtail the influx of refugees from horror and war…

Their appreciation of the island reminded me to listen again to the quiet.

Sticky, tar sands oil, with its propensity to sink, poses a substantial, long-term, risks to life on the sea floor.

In way over his head and not in an agreeable frame of mind, he stormed across the dining room, gathering his wits about him…

Merasi are not permitted to eat with members of other castes, but here they shared a lunch table with me and a few students.

Wing’s relaxed banter, framed by some stock questions, has produced stories that are lively, reflective, informative and humorous.