Mick Blackistone
Mick Blackistone has written adult and children’s books, countless articles and talks about watermen and the Bay for almost five decades. Mick has spoken to thousands of elementary age school children in the Mid-Atlantic region, college students, legislators, and Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs. “Nothing is more pleasing to me than being on a commercial fishing vessel or pulling off the side of a country road and watching a farmer work his harvest. “Those things, and speaking to people about watermen and the Bay, continually looking at where I live through spiritual eyes that have not changed in over 60 years,” he says.
Mick has worked as a congressional press secretary; President of his own public relations firm, M.S. Blackistone & Associates, Inc.; Vice President of the National Marine Manufacturers Association; Executive Director of the Maryland Watermen’s Association’s Crab Restoration
Around the Bay, Inc.; and, a commercial waterman.
He has been widely recognized including:
Named an ‘Admiral of the Chesapeake’ by Governor Schaefer
Recipient: Maryland Salute to Excellence Award
USEPA Environmental Education Achievement Award for his book The Day They Left The Bay
Named Mid-Atlantic Marine Education Association’s Non-Traditional Teacher of the Year for his book The Day They Left The Bay
Recipient: Maryland Council of Teachers of Language Arts’ Frederick Douglass Award for Outstanding and Innovative Programs in Communication
Recipient: Marina Owners Association of America’s Bob Geisler Award
Recipient: U.S. Yacht Racing Association’s -Community Achievement Award for his book Broken Wings Will Fly
Numerous Resolutions and Citations from the -Maryland General Assembly, Maryland Watermen’s Association; and, United States Coast Guard
Mick Blackistone was appointed by three U.S. Presidents to serve on the prestigious Department of Transportation National Boating Safety Advisory Council.
He lives in southern Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
Featured Books
Just Passing Through is an insightful book by poet Mick Blackistone with photographs by Marion E. Warren. Capturing everday thoughts and presenting hidden treasures located in changing communities of the Chesapeake region, Just Passing Through creates images for readers regardless of where they live. After all, in one way or another, we are all just passing through...
The late Marion E. Warren, renowned for his photographs and publications, took assignments for the Smithsonian Institution, the State of Maryland and numerous other nationally recognized institutions, agencies, companies and print media. In 1987 he donated over 100,000 negatives and prints to the Maryland State Archives. He published six books of his photographs including: The Annapolis Book. He lived in Annapolis Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay since 1948.
Remembering You is a book of the human spirit and the capacity of love to connect us to our past. It embodies death as a powerful, and yet subtle, force that touches us in an ironically positive way that truly helps mold us into who we are and who we become. Having served in parish ministry for over 35 years, I am able to identify with much of Remembering You. This book has enabled me to better articulate, express, and cope with many of my own losses and those of others. It is clearly one of the most insightful readings I have enjoyed in many years. Remembering You touched my heart in a most profound way!
-The Rev. William H.C. Ticknor,
Rector, St. James Parish
Lothian, Maryland
Sally and her dog Tucker often sat overlooking the water and watched her friends sailing their boats. The sight filled her with pain and anger, because Sally was sitting in a wheelchair. She would never be able to walk again, or ride a bike, or race her sailboat.
Sally had been sad and unhappy ever since the car accident that left her with a disability. She might have stayed that way, except for two things. At the doctor's office she met a man whose wheelchair was not a prison. And then Tucker found a little duck with a broken wing. This unlikely pair taught Sally that with help from others, a determination to succeed, and lots of hard work, miricles can happen.
Jennifer Heyd Wharton of Annapolis, Maryland, is an award-winning watercolorist who has exhibited in major mid-Atlantic galleries.
Old Seagull noticed a sadness falling upon his part of the great Chesapeake Bay. He gathered Osprey, Bluefish, and Eagle at the Lighthouse to learn what was wrong. The humans were taking away the food and spoiling the water for the animals, birds, and waterlife of the Bay. Only if all the Bay creatures left their homes would humans learn their unhappy lesson. And only the old waterman with a twinkle in his eye could tell people how to bring them back.
The Day They Left the Bay is a charming and enlightening modern fable for children and their parents and teachers as well, of how humankind must get along with its fellow creatures to preserve our natural heritage no matter where it's located.
Lee Boynton is an acclaimed artist well-known in the Chesapeake Bay area for his paintings.
Contact Mick
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