Welcome to The Other Maine

Hi. Let's try something new, shall we?

Ethically, I don’t want them in there, but I kind of think shopping carts in the Kenduskeag Stream are kind of… beautiful? In like a symbolic, harsh juxtaposition kind of way. Photo by me.

Why hello there. It’s your ol’ pal, Emily Burnham. Remember me?

I used to write for a great Maine newspaper (still do, on occasion). I’ve been a YouTuber and a radio personality, a host and (barely) a comedian. You might remember me from my former columns (Rockin’ Out, Hard Telling Not Knowing), my blog (Culture Shock), and my newsletter (The B-Side), all for the Bangor Daily News. I wrote a book. I’m relentlessly enthusiastic.

These days, I’m in a different line of work, which has afforded me the chance to reimagine the Stuff I Do. What do I really care about? Who am I as a writer? What are the creative endeavors that matter the most to me, and how do I make it a pleasurable and sustainable part of my life? What does it all mean, man?

Which brings us to this email that has unexpectedly arrived in your inbox. Welcome to The Other Maine. It’s my new Substack. It’s starting right now.

Why this format? Because I’m pretty good at it. Why Substack? Because it’s an easily accessible platform for creators, and especially for writers, and there’s a lot of you on here.

And why The Other Maine? Because I think most of us live in The Other Maine, regardless of where we are geographically in the state. Most of us don’t have lots of money. Most of us have regular jobs. We don’t live in homes that could be featured in Architectural Digest. We do not eat lobster every day. We are kind to our neighbors. We struggle to pay our bills, but we manage to have a lot of fun while doing it. Our shoes must be comfortable and practical, in addition to being cute.

I typed Maine into a godawful AI generator. Ah, yes, the famous melting houses of coastal Maine. And check out that doorway overhang on the left with the thing growing out of it. You know, over by the pine tree that’s growing out of the lighthouse. AI is getting so good, guys.

If you type ‘Maine’ into some godawful AI generator, whatever the image that it spits out – that is not us. That’s the thing that exists in fantasy. If you’re coming here to chase that fantasy, that’s fine – welcome to Maine! Give us your money! But let’s not pretend that’s the life that the vast majority of Mainers are living. We’re here living in The Other Maine.

We’re going to start with two emails a week. On Tuesdays, you can expect a piece of writing from me – a personal essay, a more traditional feature story, an interview with an interesting person, maybe a review of something from time to time. This is where I will get creative. This is where you can expect the unexpected.

And then, on Thursdays, you can expect a weekly curated rundown of cool shit happening in Bangor and the surrounding areas, a snarky (but informative!) look at the Maine news of the week, updates on important things happening in our communities, and other miscellaneous little tidbits. This is where you can expect to always have a pretty good handle on what’s happening in this neck of the woods.

And by this neck of the woods, I mean Bangor, and probably around an hour or so outside of it – Waldo and Hancock counties, and maybe a little bit of Piscataquis sometimes too. Will this eventually expand beyond that area? I certainly hope so! But let’s start with the region where I live and which I’ve spent most of my career covering – Bangor will always have my heart, and that will never, ever change. That’s an Other Maine Promise™.

Before we go any further, I want to add that if you’ve completely forgotten about the other newsletters I used to write, if you have absolutely no interest in anything I’ve just described, if you find me terribly annoying, or if you are on a spiritual quest to rid yourself of any and all extraneous emails, please, by all means: unsubscribe. Not only will I not be offended, I will appreciate your honesty. I expect some of you will! I am prepared for it!

If you’re into it, though, I can promise you that this will, at the very least, be informative and entertaining. If this goes well, I plan to add guest writers and more days of content in the coming months. I’ve got big plans for this sucker.

Are you into it? Leave a comment. Let’s take this journey together.

– Emily