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A botanical book lies open surrounded by with leaves. Public domain courtesy photo.

Category:
Books

Photo by by Oleksandr K

Independent bookstores have a loyal following in and around the Berkshires, and they grow in an ecosystem of independent presses and local writers, writing residencies and creative centers like the Mount, Edith Wharton’s historic home in Lenox. W.E.B. DuBois, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville and Robert Frost, and Edna St. Vincent Millay and Shirley Jackson have all lived here …

Big River Chestnuts opened a farm stand in Sunderland for the holidays with fresh and roasted chestnuts and more.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Winter holidays

Chestnuts are roasting — over the river and through the woods

December 13, 2021
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I’ve never cracked a hard-boiled egg on my dashboard before … The whole day has been like this, zany and surprising. We’re picnicking in my car in unexpected sun, eating with our fingers, in the middle of an expedition.

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A glass of white wine glows in firelight. Creative Commons courtesy photo
Photo by by Connor Dunn
Winter holidays

Gifts of time and touch can hold warmth

December 2, 2021
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This holiday, I’m looking for gifts like a warm sip of home-made cordial on a cold night — something that takes time and some quiet thinking. And touch.

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A reader holds Emily Dickinson's poems in the sunlight.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Writing

Asking who Emily Dickinson loved

September 22, 2021
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Emily Dickinson is more than I knew. The metaphysical recluse in white is a hurt, outspoken, ardent woman in a smock the wind can blow through.

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An open book rests on a stone bench in the afternoon sun.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Writing

Writers warm up with festivals in early fall

September 8, 2021
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“Despite a strong midday sun, the road was all green shadow thanks to trees thick and tall as a god’s fingers. My old block trees were like zoo elephants — one or two specimens stunted by a cement habitat. But this chaos of greenery had my heart calling dibs.” Quiara […]

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Matt Tannenbaum has run the local independent bookstore (The Bookstore) in Lenox for more than 40 years.
Photo by Susan Geller
Writing

‘Hello, Bookstore’ film appears at BIFF

September 8, 2021
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This week the Berkshire International Film Festival will screen Adam Zax’ new feature film about Matt Tannenbaum and his family, and the community that has carried the Bookstore through the pandemic.

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Ice breaks up on Cheshire Lake, seen from the the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail on a sunny day in February.
Cheshire Lake / Photo by Kate Abbott
Writing

Russell Banks excavates a bare and rugged New England

March 4, 2021
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Russell Banks came to talk about how to put a book together, how to make a character human, how to make us admit that any character, no matter how broken, is like us — how to drop the defenses and put aside the scrims.

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The Clinton Church welcomes the community after a tribute to W.E.B. DuBois at the River Walk.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Writing

W.E.B. DuBois strengthens the soul of a community (February 17 newsletter)

February 23, 2021
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This morning I remembered a day in July in a garden along the Housatonic River. A woman was singing in a strong, rich alto, leading a spiritual in the W.E.B. Dubois memorial garden, and we were thinking about how he felt about the town where he was born. 

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A farmer gathers greens on a late summer morning at Indian Line Farm.
Photo ©2020 by Robert Bildner
Food stories

The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook savors local stories

January 31, 2021
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On a warm and quiet day, Elisa Spungen Bildner was sitting with Kim Wells, the farmer at East Mountain Farm in Williamstown. They had walked up into the woods where his pigs forage in summer …

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Awardwinning poet Safiya Sinclair has won the Whiting Award for her book 'Cannibal.' Photo courtesy of Safiya Sinclair
Safiya Sinclair
Writing

Safiya Sinclair forges a contemporary, supple Carribean voice

November 21, 2016
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In the days after the 2016 election, Safiya Sinclair sat in a quiet study and wrote new poems. She was walking around scared and depressed, she said. The feeling is strong, and it is also familiar.

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Explore the Berkshires
From back roads to backstage
Kate Abbott
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