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Sunday, March 22, 2026

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Sheela Clary

Sheela Clary is a writer and teacher born and raised in South Berkshire county. She's interested in exploring the issues that affect the region, and in building community through place-based storytelling classes and events. She teaches Italian language and cooking, as well. Her writing can also be found at her Substack newsletter, Clarity. (https://sheela.substack.com Clarity | Sheela Clary | Substack a periodic, carefully composed newsletter exploring my obsessions, such as the state of our common life in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, the stories of unheard-from people, the beauties of Italian, and the mysteries of good writing. Click to read Clarity, by Sheela Clary, a Substack publication. Launched 8 months ago: sheela.substack.com

written articles

Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: How to undo things in Italian

I have been studying Italian since 1990, but I keep getting delighted anew. Right now, a source of fresh delights is one of the Italian versions of the English “un.”
Spotlight

BUSINESS MONDAY: Spotlight on No Comply—the new kid in Great Barrington’s food scene

The eatery on State Road has generated lots of buzz—and questions about the meaning of the name (answered here!).
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: The ‘impact’ of Community Impact Fees

Municipalities around the state have interpreted the rules as well as could be expected, and the evidence shows that Great Barrington has done much better than most.
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: Half emergencies

For me, for us, the current trend toward warmth instead of cold and rain instead of snow is a sadness simple, a simple loss, a long, felt absence of this thing that we love and miss, an absence about which there is nothing to be done.
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: Debate v. outrage

So, if I am not outraged, why am I speaking up? Because not only the outraged ought to be speaking up.
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: How we live our days

I am off to a good start to the new year, writing this essay instead of following the siren call of the (very old) news.
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: Trust thyself

I started cold water swimming last summer and have continued with it because when I was feeling bad, it made me feel good. That’s it. That’s my research. My happier body is the evidence.
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: The community chord

Ugliness on the Great Barrington Facebook Community Board has a big bark, but not much bite. In that, our board continues to follow the natural flow of human life.
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: We can do cold things

In my mind’s eye, I see a line of skeptical, even horrified faces, friends who wouldn’t get waist deep in the Green River on a scorcher in July, much less any day in late October.
Life In the Berkshires

Part Two: Berkshire County’s reckoning with cannabis: Impactful decisions at state and town levels regarding community impact fees

The Great Barrington Selectboard has decided to follow the lead of Boston, Northampton, and Cambridge not to include community impact fees as part of renewals of Host Community Agreements for the town’s six dispensaries.
Life In the Berkshires

What is going on at the Brick House in Housatonic?

While local chef Krissy Williams is not reopening the Brick House, she is creating a pub, a new establishment named the Common or Garden Pub.
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: What we run over

A turtle’s journey is, as Hoagland puts it, “like the nightmare most of us have whimpered through, where we are weighted down disastrously while trying to flee; fleeing our home ground, we try to run.”
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: My kind of dream house

These kids have not given up on anything, or anyone. They have not gotten the memo that resignation and discord are the order of the day. They are fresh-eyed, full of faith, fun-loving. Ready.
Viewpoints

SHEELA CLARY: Good at my job

How am I supposed to figure out the hundreds of points at which all the hundreds of mom jobs aren’t mine anymore?
Life In the Berkshires

An afternoon to say thank you: Immigrant community honors supporters

On April 23, the Berkshire Recognition Awards Ceremony thanked 21 Berkshire County-based organizations and 50 individuals who serve and support Berkshire County’s Latino immigrant community with advocacy; education; immigration assistance; and meeting basic needs for food, shelter and clothing.
Life In the Berkshires

April wood-firing at Simon’s Rock: It all gets interesting after 2,300 degrees

In the world of wood-fired pottery, the interesting stuff starts happening above 2,300 degrees. Color is created not by glazes applied ahead of time, but by the interaction between extremely hot fire and the surface of the clay. At the highest temperatures, the pots are, in Harry’s words, “glowing hot and starting to melt, and receptive to the organic matter that is whooshing in and around them.”
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