'The Mastheads' Inaugural Writers' Residency Launches in July

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Mastheads Writers' Residency Program is set to launch its inaugural monthlong residency on July 3 with a launch party at Hotel on North.

Five writers from around the country will converge on the city, each paired with a private studio for a month-long residency, complemented by city-wide public programming and events.
 
The brainchild of husband and wife architecture team Chris Parkinson and Tessa Kelly, The Mastheads project recognizes Pittsfield's legacy of writers of the American Renaissance, including Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Between the years of 1840 and 1860, these authors all produced work in and about Pittsfield.

The Mastheads seek to preserve this history of writing about place through the production of new content and knowledge.
 
"We really want to get the community engaged in this project by using these historic authors to provide a platform for new voices to engage with the contemporary city through the written word," Kelly said.
 
The writers-in-residence for this year are Mariam Rahmani, Justin Boening, Maria Pinto, Greg Allendorf and John Babbott. Click here to learn more about the residents.
 
The writing studios, which will be dispersed across the city at five new sites each summer, then de-installed for the remainder of the year, promote this dual condition-individual introspection from a specific vantage point and connection to a large-scale urban network.  The locations for the inaugural year of the project are Melville and Hawthorne at Arrowhead; Holmes and Longfellow at Canoe Meadows and Thoreau at Springside Park.

Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires Honors Leaders, Volunteers

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
09:07AM / Sunday, May 24, 2026

Liana Toscanini presented the Founder's Choice Award to Smitty Pignatelli for his years of support as state representative. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires held its ninth annual nonprofit awards last week honoring the contributions of those who have helped the community in their own way.

 

The gathering at the Country Club in Pittsfield on Tuesday included the introduction of new nonprofit Executive Director Samantha Anderson, who steps in for retiring founder and director Liana Toscanini. State Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, John Barrett III and Leigh Davis attended the event.

 

Toscanini, who created NPC in 2016, was honored at the conclusion of the evening to mark her decade leading the organization. 

 

"Founders don't just lead organizations, they are the organization in the deepest sense," said NPC Board President Emily Schiavoni. "Their relationships, their instincts, their fingerprints are on everything, and when someone has poured a decade of herself into building something from the ground up, the act of stepping back is not a simple handoff, it's an act of extraordinary trust and courage that brings me to what Leanna actually built." 

 

NPC became something of a chamber of commerce for nonprofits under Toscanini's guidance, creating a hub of support for leadership and networking for the small and large nonprofits that fuel much of the activity within the Berkshires. 

 

She developed more than two dozen programs, including Get on Board, which helps connect community members with nonprofit boards, and a giving-back guide, volunteer fairs, and a resource directory.

 

Schiavoni described Toscanini as a great mentor who has had a big impact in strengthening local nonprofits.