The 2020 Island Journal features our take on how the coast and islands helped Maine navigate its independence 200 years ago from Massachusetts, and how its long ocean shores played an important role in the state becoming prosperous. We also feature a report from the French islands of Saint Pierre et Miquelon off the coast of Newfoundland, which are recovering after the cod moratorium; a look back at painter John Marin through his letters and journals; and profiles of Stonington siblings taking over the family’s lobster buying station, a young man with Pakistani heritage who found a home for a time on Frenchboro, and father-son artists who find inspiration in Maine and its islands. This edition also includes a fun story about four women on Little Cranberry Island who plunge into the ocean each month of year, a natural science piece on the ancient horseshoe crab, and poems selected by our guest poetry editor, the award-winning poet Sophie Cabot Black.