Sarah Laurence

Although I’ve lived in Maine for most of my adult life, I’m a native New Yorker. My artist mom took my brother and me to as many museums as playgrounds and gave us a monthly book allowance. My dad set up a darkroom for me and bought me a microscope when I eschewed dolls. They tolerated my bedroom menagerie: a self-caught snake, a lab-rescued toad, and two cats. I volunteered at an animal shelter and spent free time in Central Park with a group of friends, who are still close to me now. Although I enjoyed city life, I craved the wilderness.

At Harvard College I majored in Government and spent my junior year abroad at King's College, London. I received a Master's in Political Science from M.I.T., focusing on environmental policy. I also studied studio arts at Harvard and at Maine College of Art. I worked for several environmental organizations and for Education First, managing a study aboad program for high school students.

When my British husband became a professor of Japanese Politics at Bowdoin College, we moved to Maine. It was quite a shock for a city girl to live in a small town where the trees outnumbered the people and winters were long. I taught myself to cross-country ski so now I look forward to snow. In a wetsuit, I became an enthusiastic ocean swimmer, and I love to hike in the woods. 

Maine is a fun place to raise a family, but it's quite homogenous. Our kids attended Hebrew School and we’ve lived abroad so they would understand their mixed heritage. I also became an activist for progressive politics in our purple state. For fifteen years, I've been blogging about life in Maine, books, and art. These days I'm more active on twitter and enjoy how social media connects us.

The beautiful coastal landscape led me to a career in the arts. I paint watercolors during the summer in Maine and on Nantucket Island. This website is a virtual gallery for my paintings and photos. My clients include Senator Angus King and author Jane Green. 

During the long winters, I read by the fire and write poetry and fiction. My life in Maine inspired a story about a harbor town girl, who craves the big city, and a lobster fisherman, who loves his remote island. This young adult novel is a modern-day retelling of a classic tale with a feminist twist.

Right before the pandemic, I traveled to the Dominican Republic to research a nearly forgotten story about World War II refugees. When no other country agreed to host more Jews fleeing Hitler, the Dominican Republic offered visas and a sanctuary. Although General Rafael Trujillo was a brutal and racist dictator, he saved thousands of European Jews from the Holocaust. My great grandfather Arthur Lamport helped establish this farming settlement. Inspired by family history and the refugees fleeing war in Ukraine now, I'm currently writing a historical novel about a German Jewish girl and a Dominican veterinarian on a tropical island with dystopian currents.