Poet Begins Six-Month Amy Clampitt Residency

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — Poet Dora Malech has been named the 22nd recipient of the Amy Clampitt residency.

For 15 years, the Amy Clampitt residency has provided poets and literary scholars a paid six- or 12-month stay at Clampitt’s former residence near Lenox, Mass., where they can focus exclusively on their work. Residents are selected by a committee that includes prize-winning poet Mary Jo Salter; Clampitt’s editor at Knopf, Ann Close; and Massachusetts-based poets Karen Chase, of Lenox, and John Hennessy, a past residency recipient currently on the faculty at UMass Amherst.

This one-of-a-kind award was established through the generosity of Clampitt's late husband, Harold Korn, who made provisions for it in his will before his death in 2001.

A poet, professor and visual artist based in Baltimore, Malech graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in fine arts, and earned her M.F.A. in poetry from Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. She has published two collections of poetry, "Shore Ordered Ocean" (2010) and "Say So" (2011), and her work has been featured in the New Yorker, Poetry London, Tin House, The Yale Review and more.

Dalton Board Signs Off on Land Sale Over Residents' Objections

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:50AM / Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Residents demanded the right to speak but the agenda did not include public comment. Amy Musante holds a sign saying the town now as '$20,000 less for a police station.'

DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board signed the sale on the last of what had been known as the Bardin property Monday even as a handful of residents demanded the right to speak against the action. 

 

The quitclaim deed transfers the nine acres to Thomas and Esther Balardini, who purchased the two other parcels in Dalton. They were the third-highest bidders at $31,500. Despite this, the board awarded them the land in an effort to keep the property intact.

 

"It's going to be an ongoing battle but one I think that has to be fought [because of] the disregard for the taxpayers," said Dicken Crane, the high bidder at $51,510.

 

"If it was personal I would let it go, but this affects everyone and backing down is not in my nature." 

 

Crane had appealed to the board to accept his bid during two previous meetings. He and others opposed to accepting the lower bid say it cost the town $20,000. After the meeting, Crane said he will be filing a lawsuit and has a citizen's petition for the next town meeting with over 100 signatures. 

 

Three members of the board — Chair Robert Bishop Jr., John Boyle, and Marc Strout — attended the 10-minute meeting. Members Anthony Pagliarulo and Daniel Esko previously expressed their disapproval of the sale to the Balardinis. 

 

Pagliarulo voted against the sale but did sign the purchase-and-sale agreement earlier this month. His reasoning was the explanation by the town attorney during an executive session that, unlike procurement, where the board is required to accept the lowest bid for services, it does have some discretion when it comes to accepting bids in this instance.