Greetings from the wilds of S. Dartmouth MA, 65 miles due south of Cambridge. I think some of you are aware that, on an impulse last weekend, I rented a rather small and rustic farmhouse near Slocum’s River Reserve for the next couple of months (it was a real bargain off-season 😊) and skipped town with my husband, my three kids, and my son’s girlfriend. So the six of us are isolating in a remote place, balancing our time between all the things we do that are now online-only—including my daughter’s voice lessons—mostly while seated around the dining room table or huddled by the wood-burning stove, with lots of weekend hiking, biking, cooking, READING, and various artistic endeavors. Newton public schools are still saying there’s a chance school will start up again on April 7th, in which case some of us would move back up to Newton, but I remain skeptical based on what we’re hearing from the rest of the world.
Can’t wait until it gets warm enough to kayak on weekends and use the back deck! In short, we’re doing our best to stay positive and turn this upset and uncertainty into a frontier adventure (forgive me, but I’m a native Manhattanite) and family bonding experience.
On the work side, I’ll confess I’m struggling a bit with the hours of video conferences each weekday— for those, I have to sit in one of the bedrooms so as not to disturb other family members—but I realize it must be so much harder to focus for the many of you who have younger kids at home. As I said at the last stand up, please take it easy on yourselves during this time of adjustment to ongoing work, family, medical, and geopolitical developments.
At our senior team meeting this week, it was inspiring to hear about the department all-hands meetings taking place across the Press on Zoom, some combined with virtual happy hours! Not only have we picked up in the WFH world where we left off in the office world, but in many instances, new collaborations and connections are forming as we work together to meet new challenges. For example, a terrific team including Hannah and Katie Stileman worked very quickly together to launch a new series of virtual book talks, MIT Press Live!, to provide an alternative to in-person author events that are not possible at this time. The first virtual author event kicks off on March 31st, with Alex Berke, author of Beautiful Symmetry.
For the complete schedule, visit the MIT Press blog. I encourage each of you to attend these events.
It is a challenging time for all of us at the Press, and no doubt for our authors too. It is no exaggeration to say that life and work as we know them have been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. As we operate remotely now in a way that ensures everyone’s health and safety, I hope you all continue to find inspiration and meaning in the power of words and text, and in the important work, we all do together, to disseminate trustworthy, quality information to the research community and broader world of readers.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
