ANTHOLOGY: CELEBRATING
WRITERS OF THE PIONEER VALLEY

Gallery of Readers Press

www.galleryofreaders.org

Gallery of Readers Press, the Northampton nonprofit and publisher that supports the work of area writers, took its name from the place it first held readings for some of those writers: in Hosmer Art Gallery at Forbes Library.

In the 25-plus years since those events began in late 1990, the group, headed by writers Carol Edelstein and Robin Barber, has switched its readings to Smith College, and it’s also supported a growing catalog of writers. In fact, more than 100 of them are included in a just-published anthology.

“Celebrating Writers of the Pioneer Valley” includes the work of 103 writers, from well-known names such as poets Martín Espada, Richard Michelson and Lesléa Newman as well as any number of up-and-coming writers. Many are leaders or members of writing groups in western Massachusetts.

The collection offers a rich mix — poetry, essays, short memoirs, fiction — whose topics can be poignant, funny and somewhere in between.

In “Rumors of her Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated,” Karen Skolfield, winner of the 2014 PEN New England Award in poetry, describes the difficulty in talking about death with her young son after they drive past a cemetery.

“He’s crying, he’s tapping my shoulder, / I’m exclaiming over a stray dog and do you think / we’ll get more snow, wouldn’t you love more snow / Walker; he’s saying when is Daddy going to die, / don’t die before me …”

Or how about “Gotham,” a first-person piece by Northampton writer James Kent about his experience working on set construction for a TV pilot to be filmed in New York? He knows how to grab the reader’s attention with his opening line.

“It is sometime between coffee and lunch when I nearly cut my left index finger off with the molten edge of the cutting wheel … I peer into the dark hole of my work glove and for a moment my legs nearly give out as I see nothing but crimson and feel nothing but pain.”

Thankfully, Kent didn’t lose his finger, and his article offers an interesting glimpse, a snapshot, of what it’s like to do some of the grunt work on a movie or TV set.

“Celebrating Writers of the Pioneer Valley” is full of just those kinds of moments, writes Edelstein: “Open this book anywhere to begin. You will find delights, sorrows, instruction, contemplation.” 

There will be book launch for the new anthology Sunday at 4 p.m. at Weinstein Auditorium, in Wright Hall at Smith College.

 

EXTRA! EXTRA! MORE RECIPES FOR
VALLEY VEGETABLES

By Claire Hopley

Levellers Press

www.levellerspress.com

Food writer Claire Hopley tapped into the Valley’s agricultural speciality — vegetables — with her 2013 book full of imaginative recipes for legumes. With her new book, “Extra! Extra!” Hopley says she’s gone back to the well because not long after she published her first book, “I began thinking of extra recipes I wished I’d included.”

That’s worth considering, she notes, for as varied and delicious as the local vegetable crop can be, “at times you can find yourself wondering, ‘What on earth am I going to do with this lot?’ ”

Hopley offers 100 suggestions in her book, which dispenses with a table of contents and uses the alphabet as the basis for recipe organization: “A” is for arugula and asparagus, for instance, “B” is for beans, beets, bok choy and broccoli, and so on. The recipes are dressed up with enticing pictures of the finished presentations by her husband, Robert.

Indeed, there are more than a few artful-looking arrangements, like the spherical symmetry of the asparagus and fiddlehead platter, served with a mustard, cream and chive sauce — a springtime Valley meal if there ever was one.

Another colorful arrangement comes from Hopley’s recipe for stir-fried oyster and shiitake mushrooms with zucchini and summer squash.

As winter begins, there’s plenty of vegetable richness here — soups, salads, main and side dishes, breads, even desserts — to remind you of the bounty to come from the next spring and summer.