SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS

From Julian Edelman to Rob Gronkowski to Malcolm Mitchell to Matt Light, N Magazine has covered some of the biggest breakout stars of the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl dynasty. But no story drew the kind of national attention that longtime Sconset resident Bill Belichick and his partner, Linda Holliday, received when they appeared on the cover of the July 2017 issue. Three years in the making, the Belichick-Holliday cover story gave readers a rare glimpse into the private life of one of the most legendary figures in all of sports. Contrary to what most might think of the notoriously no-nonsense coach, Belichick showed his lighter side during the interview when asked whether his generous salary was substantial enough to afford food at the Sconset Market, which prompted a belly laugh. Holliday and Belichick discussed their life outside of football, particularly the mission of the Belichick Foundation, which has helped a number of students on Nantucket. The resulting cover story went viral, appearing in magazines and newspapers, on television, and over the radio waves as sports talk fodder. A few years later, Belichick’s son and Patriots defensive coordinator Steve and his wife Jennifer kept the family tradition alive by appearing on the August cover.

U.S. PRESIDENT

Minutes after Joe Biden was confirmed as president of the United States, N Magazine revealed its November cover featuring him as the president-elect, quite possibly the first publication to do so in the country. The perfect timing was the result of several years of communicating with Biden’s team during which time N Magazine ultimately negotiated the rights to reprint an excerpt of Biden’s memoir, Promise Me, Dad, in which he writes about his family’s longtime love for the island where they’ve been spending Thanksgiving for more than forty years.

PHILANTHROPISTS

From Gordon Gund’s quest to cure blindness to John Johnson’s supporting the island’s performing arts, N Magazine’s cover stories have featured some of the country’s most inspiring philanthropists. Yet few have made the kind of impact on the island as ReMain founder Wendy Schmidt and her husband, Eric, who appeared on the cover of our July 2021 issue—making it the first time the couple had ever appeared on a magazine cover together.

ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS

Movie stars are nothing new to Nantucket, but occasionally some real blockbusters show up. Such was the case when Ron Howard came to the island to promote his film adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea. The Academy Award-winning director granted N Magazine an in-person interview discussing how he brought Philbrick’s words to the big screen. Howard was the second Oscar-winner featured in N’s pages after actress Olympia Dukakis.

GRAMMY AWARD WINNERS

Nantucket has proven to be surprisingly fertile ground for launching music careers. Look no further than Brynn Cartelli, who appeared on our cover after winning NBC’s The Voice at the age of fifteen after she was discovered on Nantucket while performing at Jetties Beach. But when it comes to breakout Nantucket musical talent, Meghan Trainor takes the cake. Born and raised on Nantucket, Trainor shot to stardom with her single “All About That Bass,” which earned her Grammy nominations for best song and best record and a Grammy win for best new artist. Though she now lives in California with her family—including her father Gary whom N Magazine profiled in 2018—Meghan remains connected to her island home, appearing on the cover of our truly sweet May 2015 issue.

U.S. AMBASSADORS

Nantucket might just be a small island off the coast of Massachusetts, but it has a global voice by way of several U.S. Ambassadors who have made it their summer retreat. N Magazine has profiled virtually all of these ambassadors on Nantucket, from the steward of “the special relationship” Louis Susman to the sitting chief of protocol, Rufus Gifford. Other notable ambassadors with Nantucket ties profiled in our pages include Matt Barzun, Elizabeth Bagley, James Nicholson, Nancy Soderberg, Timothy Broas and most recently, Vicki Kennedy who is serving as Ambassador to Austria in the Biden administration.

HOLLYWOOD STARS

N Magazine made its official debut twenty years ago featuring two of its most beloved actors, the late Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Since then, we’ve featured a half dozen Hollywood actors on our covers, from Michael Douglas to Robert DeNiro to Eric Dane to Nantucket’s own Skyler Wright—not once, but twice! In 2015, in a fitting full-circle moment, Ben Stiller, the son of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, graced the cover of N Magazine to mark the 20th anniversary of the Nantucket Film Festival. When asked why he’d remained so devoted to the festival since its founding in 1995, Stiller claimed in our interview: “They have some very damaging photos of me making out with my cousin behind the Chicken Box back in 1980.”

U.S. SENATORS

From Ed Markey to Scott Brown to Bill Frist to Chris Dodd to the late Harris Wofford and Ted Kennedy, N Magazine has interviewed U.S. senators on both sides of the aisle. Yet perhaps the most notable of those interviews was with then-Senator John Kerry who had just announced his 2004 presidential bid when he spoke to N Magazine, making it some of his first public comments and the first cover he appeared on as a presidential candidate in the country.

U.S. REPRESENTATIVES

From Joe Kennedy III, to Bill Keating, to Dylan Fernandes, to Ben Barnes, N Magazine has gotten an exclusive look inside the House Chambers on a number of occasions over the last twenty years. With each of these interviews, N Magazine has tried to ask the hard questions that impact our readers and the country as a whole.

OLYMPIANS

A surprising number of Olympians call Nantucket their summer retreat and N Magazine has profiled most of them over the last twenty years. From fencer Jed Dupree and figure skating champions Dorothy Hamill and John Misha Petkevich to hockey gold medalist A.J. Mleczko and rower Lyman Perry, Nantucket has been well represented on the world stage. Most recently, gymnastics gold medalist Aly Raisman graced our July 2019 cover in honor of her appearance speaking for A Safe Place.

GOVERNOR

While enjoying the highest approval rating in the country, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker appeared on the cover of the July 2016 issue. The press must have earned some favor from the governor’s office because the following year Governor Baker officially made July 21, 2017, N Magazine Day in Massachusetts. Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, who was also profiled in the magazine that same year, made the declaration at N Magazine’s fifteenth anniversary party.

NEWSCASTERS

Nantucket has never been far from the anchor desk as media personalities flock to the island in droves come mid-summer. Along with local stars such as Natalie Jacobson, Heather Unruh and Sara Underwood, we’ve covered many national news personalities, including David Gregory, Brian Williams, Chris Matthews, Katie Couric, John King, Jim Acosta, Leslie Stahl, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. In this issue, we’ve added to our list by interviewing breakout CNN star Kaitlan Collins, which can be read on page 136 in this issue.

WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF

To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, N Magazine featured an exclusive interview with former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card who was by President George W. Bush’s side throughout the day of the attacks and the many long days that followed. The riveting issue featured in last year’s September issue took readers inside the inner sanctum of the White House during a period that redefined American history.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS

Thanks in large part to the Nantucket Book Festival, which celebrated its ten-year anniversary last month, Nantucket consistently hosts some of the most gifted literary talents in the world. We’ve featured a number of these authors on our covers, including off-islanders such as Sebastian Junger and Dennis Lehane. But many more of our bestselling cover stars have been found in our own backyard, from the late David Halberstam, to Suzy Welch, to Nathaniel Philbrick, to Elin Hilderbrand.

ASTRONAUT

N Magazine is constantly on the hunt for out-of-this-world stories. In July 2018 we landed just that when interviewing NASA astronaut Drew Feustel while he was orbiting the earth as part of a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. “We can easily see Nantucket from space,” Feustel said while soaring 250 miles over the globe. “It looks like a great place to visit! A nice little slice of heaven off the eastern coast.” After Feustel returned from space, he shared his adventures with a live audience at the Dreamland in an event sponsored by N Magazine.