Spring 2021

Martha Boschen Porter Fellow

In partnership with The Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation

In April, we welcomed visual artist Ashley Eliza Williams of Hadley, Massachusetts as the first of two 2021 Martha Boschen Porter Prize Fellows. The MBP Prize recognizes outstanding writers and artists living in Berkshire and/or Columbia Counties. As many of our residents are apt to do, Ashley forged strong relationships with other residents, and, while this is not an unusual occurrence, we are always especially thrilled when full-fledged collaborations happen as well…

As Ashley states: “One of the best things about being a resident at Millay Colony was getting to know the fellow residents, especially fiction writer Lee Conell. During many early morning hikes up Harvey Mountain, Lee and I developed a friendship and a collaborative project. We started regularly visiting a single rock in Edna St Vincent Millay’s Garden. This quickly became a ritual of observing and documenting the rock at different times of day and night, in the snow, the rain, and the sunlight. I am working on a series of paintings of that rock. Lee is working on a series of short stories about the rock. Our project is simultaneously ‘about a rock’ and also (in Lee’s words) ‘about memory, geology, friendship, surviving a pandemic, art-making, inner lives, inner cores, and ghosts.’ We hope to finish our collaboration this summer.”

Needless to add, we await this publication eagerly as the combined gifts of Ashley and Lee (who discovered while at Millay that she had won a Wallant Award for Jewish American fiction) promise to be as compelling as their individual works are.