Hi, friends:
Perhaps you’ve noticed that we’ve been running more personal essays in Hampshire Life as of late. Most are contributed by outside writers in the community, but today’s piece is written by our own Steve Pfarrer, who covers art and culture throughout the Pioneer Valley for the Gazette.
During a typical week, Steve zigzags all over the region interviewing artists, authors, entrepreneurs, fashion designers, historians, musicians, social-justice warriors, weathermen, you name it. Amazingly, he does all of this without a cell phone. (I know!) So far, this hasn’t been an issue; I’ve never once had a problem reaching Steve. Furthermore, I understand his wariness about getting a cell phone and admire his refusal to be a servant to a 5-inch screen.
So, a few months ago, I asked Steve to write an essay called, “Why I don’t have a cell phone.” He resisted for a while, not wanting to focus too much on himself, but he came around, and what I appreciate about the resulting piece is how, while personal, it’s also a broader meditation on how phones can both connect and disconnect us as human beings. And after writing the essay, Steve is actually considering getting a cell phone so that he can stay in touch, via texts, with his college-aged kids. “I’d say it’s possible,” Steve recently said. “We’ve been talking about getting rid of our landline.”
Anyway, it’s no coincidence that Steve’s got a great attention span. He’s a big reader and our resident books columnist. This week, he reviews Northampton author Jeanne Birdsall’s latest installment of her Penderwicks series, “The Penderwicks at Last.” The Washington Post compared her storytelling to “drinking lemonade on a swing on a summer day.”
I also wanted to let you know about an upcoming event at Amherst Books, at 8 Main Street in Amherst. On Wednesday, May 23, at 7 p.m., author and former Amherst College visiting writer Alexander Chee (“The Queen of the Night”) will give a reading and book signing to celebrate the publcation of his first collection of essays, “How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.”
“We chose his collection as our Book of the Month for May as it’s a great book for recent graduates: a thoughtful and compelling exploration of becoming one’s self; reckoning with memory and experience,” says bookstore employee Rebecca Tishler.
As for Alexander Chee, he’s happy to be returning to the area, he recently told me via Twitter: “I wrote several essays in the new collection while I was the visiting writer at Amherst College, and have stayed friends with my former colleagues. Amherst College’s creative writing program and community remains the standard against which I’ve judged all others since, and I appreciate in general the many readers and writers who make the Valley what it is. It is a little bit of a homecoming.”
Welcome back, Alexander!
Hope you all have a great weekend.
Brooke Hauser