Here in New England: Unforgettable Stories of People, Places, and Memories That Connect Us All by Mel Allen

From the time he published his first story in Yankee in 1979 to the day he retired as its editor in 2025, Mel Allen’s writing has captured the unique essence of New England and the people who call it home. Here for the first time, Allen has collected 45 of his favorite pieces, adding intimate new introductions and postscripts to put them in context. The feel and flavor of New England lives within the covers of this engaging collection.

Publisher:‎ Earth Sky + Water
Paperback
Print length:‎ 320 pages
Item Weight:‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions:‎ 5.98 x 0.87 x 8.9 inches

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mel Allen has spent nearly half a century finding fascinating people and places he wanted to write about and assigning countless others to the finest writers in New England. He became Yankee’s fifth editor in the summer of 2006, after previous roles as writer, senior editor, and executive editor. In 2018, he was inducted into the Folio Magazine Hall of Fame for editorial excellence. He has taught magazine writing and creative nonfiction for the past 25 years, divided between the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and MFA Bay Path. His previous book is A Coach’s Letter to His Son. He lives and writes in New Hampshire.

Advance Praise:

"Time to meet Mel Allen's Yankee neighbors: some are geniuses, some are ordinary. Some are lucky, others underdogs. But their stories all brim with decency, dignity, kindness and courage. These are our neighbors, too--and you will love them all. At a time when our world can seem random, faceless, even cruel, this beautifully written book restores your faith in humanity." –Sy Montgomery, NYT bestselling author of Soul of an Octopus

“Mel Allen knows more about the ins, outs, ups, downs, nooks, crannies, backroads and highways, quaint villages, industrial hot spots, seascapes, moonscapes, deciduous trees, hermits, gladhanders, major and minor-league franchises, two-bit carnivals and blue lobsters of New England than any man who has walked the local earth since Henry David Thoreau. Travel with him here and see what he sees and hear what he hears, things you never would notice. Enjoy. This is great stuff.” -- –Leigh Montville, NYT best-selling author of Ted Williams, the Biography of an American Hero

“Mel Allen writes love stories – but not the expected type. In his stories couples and families are united in their love for their work, their neighbors, their place in the world. Devotion is Mel’s subject. They may be saving a dairy farm after a fire, shepherding a town through the closing of its paper mill, rescuing two tired circus elephants, or showing others how to lead the good life. Their stories shine here. If there’s a secret to the magic that Mel conjures, it’s this: “I am not with them to write a story,” he says. “I am there to let their story be told.” He listens. That’s devotion.”
-- Howard Mansfield, author of I Will Tell No War Stories

“If you want to know what New England is like, begin with its people. 'Here in New England' is packed with more vivid and unforgettable characters than a Dickens novel: from a retired sardine packer to America’s best-selling novelist; from the vet who persuaded his small town to adopt two orphaned elephants to the founding parents of the back-to-the-land movement; from the unassuming woman who took that iconic photo of Lake Champlain’s Champ to Major League Baseball’s most venerable talent scout, and so many more. These are not portraits, but personal stories that clutch and claw at the heart, each and every one, with all the ways, large and small, that human beings can triumph and fail and persevere.”—Richard Adams Carey, author of Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman

“For more than 50 years, Mel Allen has been paying attention to New England. To its light, its landscapes, and most of all its people. With a clear eye and an extraordinary ear for its quirks and character, he has assembled a portrait of a region across time that is both immediately recognizable and continuously surprising. This is not the New England of tourist brochures, and it is all the more lovely for it. If you want to understand the place in all its flinty grace, just read this book.” —Rowan Jacobsen, author of A Geography of Oysters and Apples of Uncommon Character

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