The Long Field, a Memoir of Wales and the Presence of Absence

Wednesday, August 18, 5:00. The Long Field: A Memoir of Wales and the Presence of Absence, author talk with Pamela Petro.

The Long Field burrows deep into the Welsh countryside to tell how this small country became a big part of an American writer’s life. Petro twines her story around that of Wales by viewing both through the lens of hiraeth, a Welsh word that’s famously hard to translate, deriving from an old usage meaning ‘long field’, but is also the name for the bone-deep longing for something or someone – a home, culture, language, or a younger self. The Long Field braids memoir with the essential hiraeth stories of Wales, and in doing so creates a radical new vision of place and belonging.

Pamela Petro is the author of three previous creative nonfiction books, including Travels in an Old Tongue: Touring the World Speaking Welsh. She is a Fellow at the University of Wales, Trinity St David, where she directs the Dylan Thomas Summer School in Creative Writing. Pamela is also a photographer and word-and-image artist. She teaches creative nonfiction and graphic novel to undergraduate and postgrad students at Smith College and Lesley University, and holds a BA from Brown University and an MA from the University of Wales.

Email tthorpe@clamsnet.org to sign up and get the Zoom invite. Free. Sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Library. 508-645-3360