Chilmark Library: A Perfect Summer Evening!

Here in Ashfield, it may still be August, but the trees are turning orange, and the nights are beginning to dip down to 50 degrees. While we might normally be sad, we've had such a wonderful summer—and are planning a fantastic fall—that we can't help looking forward to the changing of the seasons. 

Our SISTERS celebration at Chilmark Library, on Martha’s Vineyard, was an incredible experience. We had fantastic readers, which was, of course, what made the evening so magical. Many many thanks to cookbook author Jessica Harris, who’s new book High on the Hog hits stores in January; psychologist and novelist Carol Gilligan; and the inimitable Rose Styron, poet and human rights activist, for an incredible evening. Thanks, too, to the Chilmark Library staff, especially Ebba Hierta, who put in a 12-hour day and still somehow managed to be amazingly cheerful and helpful throughout! 

Yet again, the reading was full to overflowing. Ebba actually had to turn people away at the door! Luckily, PlumTV and MVTV caught the whole reading on tape, and interviewed the readers and Jan, for those who missed it. We’ll post the link as soon as we get it. Jan started the reading, which was dedicated to the memory of Marcy Slater, with two poems from SISTERS: “sisters,” by the late great Lucille Clifton, and “Two Years” by Muriel Rukeyser. Jessica Harris followed with a deeply moving, funny reading of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”—a meditation on roots, separation, and family history. Carol read several poems, including Maxine Kumin’s “The Last Good War,” “Sweet Dreams” by Joyce Armor, “A Family Resemblance” by Audre Lorde, and “I Needed to Talk to My Sister” by Grace Paley, before finishing with Joan Baez’s charming excerpt from Daybreak. Rose brought the reading to a happy close with Dorothy Parker’s arch and heartbreaking “Letter to Helen Rothschild Droste.” 

Afterward, the readers mingled with audience members and PlumTV’s intrepid reporter conducted interviews. Then a private post-reading dinner at the home of a Press supporter, and the day was over! It went by in a flash. We are so grateful to Ebba Hierta and everyone at Chilmark Library; to Jessica Harris, Carol Gilligan, and Rose Styron; to Bruce and Anne Slater; and to everyone who came out to support Paris Press! 

As summer turns to fall, we’re gearing up for great events around the Pioneer Valley, thanks to a generous grant from the western Massachusetts-based foundation, the Art Angels, as well as a late-September reading at the UConn Co-op, with Catherine Chung (”Hannah”), co-editor Emily Wojcik, poet and director of the Litchfield Writer’s Project Davyne Verstandig, and Lisa Starr, Poet Laureate of Rhode Island! More details to follow soon!