In a Valley: A reading of poems by local poet Sara Eddy written in collaboration with Dominique Thiebaut’s landscape photography

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…your heart has always been here, one foot on Mt. Castor, the other on Mt. Pollux, the twins sending out succor and safety to sailors, granting them passage home and blessing them with a constellation’s infinite confidence: you will find your way back, always. (excerpt from “Your Whole Life”) Local poet Sara Eddy will read poems written in response to the photographs of Dominique Thiebaut, whose work is on exhibit in the Hitchcock Center’s Community Gallery. Eddy’s work mines Thiébaut’s lush, romantic visions of the Pioneer Valley with the tools of a life-long native of Amherst, born in Northampton and raised by the banks of the Fort River in South Amherst. Her poems respond to the photographs with a combination of almost familial comfort in the landscape of the valley and a deep curiosity about the geologic and human history of the places depicted. Eddy is a writing instructor at Smith College and author of a recent publication of poems about beekeeping, Tell the Bees, as well as a forthcoming volume of poems about food, Full Mouth. Her collaboration with Thiebaut has resulted in a work-in-progress. Registration encouraged: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-a-valley-registration-92045070283