The Mount Welcomes the 2018 Edith Wharton Writers-in-Residence

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Batuman, Jackson and Petty

LENOX, Mass. — The Mount, Edith Wharton's home, has announced the recipients of the 2018 Edith Wharton Writers-in-Residence: award-winning novelist Elif Batuman, book critic and historian Buzzy Jackson, and freelance writer and editor Kate Reed Petty.

The three finalists were selected from a pool of more than 130 applications and will be "in-residence" for two weeks in March. Their residencies will culminate with a public event, Writers in the House, free and open to the public on March 20 at 4 p.m.

Batuman, whose 2017 debut novel "The Idiot" was a New York Times Notable Book of 2017, was thrilled to learn she had earned one of the coveted spots.

"I'm a huge Edith Wharton fan and it will be an honor to work in her home," Batuman said. "I am looking forward to diving into my next project in the very rooms Wharton once occupied."

Buzzy Jackson echoed Batuman’s sentiments.


"I've heard a lot about The Mount; it’s such a spectacular setting. When I learned of the residency, I knew I had to apply," she said.

During her time at The Mount Buzzy will be working on a historical novel.

Kate Reed Petty looks forward to her time at The Mount as it "offers time and space plus a small community of fellow writers. … It sounded like the perfect combination for me to nurture the novel I'm working on."

Christene Barberich, the global editor-in-chief and co-founder of Refinery29, will join the writers as moderator of the Writers in the House event. Barberich, a 2017 Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence, will discuss with them their experience, current projects, careers, and Edith Wharton as a continuing influence on women writers.

This is the third year of the Edith Wharton Writers-in-Residence program at The Mount. Applications for the 2019 residency open June 1, 2018.

 


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Lenox Girls Basketball Earns State Sportsmanship Award

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LOWELL, Mass. — For the first time in the team's history, the Lenox Memorial High School Girls Basketball team has won the MIAA Team Sportsmanship Award.
 
In 2024, the title was awarded to only two of 300 teams in Massachusetts.
 
The school team received the award during the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Basketball State Championships held at the Tsongas Center in Lowell on March 17.
 
"This is a big win for the entire Lenox community," Lenox Principal Jeremiah Ames said. "The Sportsmanship Award recognizes not only sportsmanship on the court, but service to the community and leadership at the school, and the members of our girls basketball team have done precisely that."
 
The team competes in Division 5 of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and earned the No. 3 seed in the recently completed state tournament.
 
"The girls have worked really hard both on and off the court for this award, and I am tremendously pleased that MIAA have recognized those efforts," Lenox Athletic Director Maggie Rivers said. "Let their achievement be a message to girls in Lenox, if you have a passion for the game, step up: because anything is possible."
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