From Project to Publication: "Digby's Journal"
By Katie Heim Binas '25
In my freshman year, I reached out to the nonprofit organization Maine’s First Ship (MFS), which is based in Bath, Maine. MFS focuses on understanding and sharing the local history of the Popham Colony: the first British colony founded in what is today New England, and the colony which built the Virginia, the first English ocean-going ship constructed in the “New World.” I’d had a long-time interest in the history and construction of wooden ships, so naturally, MFS and the story of the Virginia caught my eye. I offered to volunteer for them during Project Week, and they responded by asking if I could write a historical fiction story about the Popham Colony.
I’ve loved (and been involved in) creative writing since I was a kid, so I couldn’t believe how lucky I was that my creative writing was something MFS could benefit from. I’d always been interested in speculative and contemporary fiction, so I’d never delved into historical fiction, but I was eager to take on the challenge. I started by reading several sources, both primary and secondary, in order to get a comprehensive background on the colony’s history and details. Then, I interviewed the shipbuilders at MFS—who were working on constructing a full-scale, historically accurate replica of the Virginia—and searched through technical drawings to understand the full process of building the ship. It was only after all of this that I began to outline Digby’s Journal, which tells the colony’s history through the fictional journal entries of its head shipwright.
My work on Digby's Journal, of course, spanned far beyond my freshman-year Project Week. Over the course of the next two (almost three!) years, I finished the first draft, edited and reconstructed it according to the suggestions from MFS volunteers, gave it a few edits of my own, and finally was able to begin the process of formatting and self-publishing the story. In December [2024], I got to sign and sell copies of Digby's Journal for readers at the MFS Authors’ Festival, and the story is currently for sale in the MFS Visitor Center as well as the bookstore Gulf of Maine Books (located in Brunswick, Maine). I'm extremely grateful for the opportunities that Project Week gives to students at Commonwealth, because on my own, I never would've thought to reach out to MFS and get involved like this.
At Commonwealth, I'm currently the co-Editor-in-Chief of Helicon Magazine. I've also created an after-school writing workshop where each week I design a session on a specific theme, so that interested students can improve their writing skills and have some fun in a space with other writers.