A book re-publication, masterclasses, and conference presentations illustrate the ‘life-changing’ moments that come with a Cheshire Academy education
The cacophony in the van heading from Emily Dickinson’s Massachusetts home back to campus would have been enough to make the famously reserved Belle of Amherst blush.
Four girls threw their heads back in unison. “Wind in my hair, I was there,” they sang. “I remember it all too well!” Their impromptu Taylor Swift song fest drew connections between the writer they’d immersed themselves in all day – participating in a masterclass at the annual Tell It Slant Poetry Festival – and the woman who is arguably today’s best-loved poet. The van driver, English Teacher Allison Bass-Riccio, wasn’t surprised.
“Around 10 p.m., they catch a second wind. They’re kids!” she said, laughing. “But this is a great way to synthesize what they are learning and what they encounter in the world around them. It’s experiential learning that they won’t forget.”
For Bass-Riccio, the trip means an extra-long workday. But the benefits are worth it, she said. Like many CA teachers and staff, she actively plans such above-and-beyond learning, bringing her own expertise and unique writing, researching, and even publishing opportunities to her students.
It’s been a busy, exciting year for Bass-Riccio and her students. In addition to the Amherst masterclass, where they were the only teenagers among many veteran and published poets, a handful of her interns are celebrating the June re-publication of a novel by 20th-century American author Hazel Hawthorne Werner that they’ve been transcribing for months. The CA students formally shared their work on preserving Werner’s archives at a 2024 Southern Connecticut State University conference, where they joined master’s-level presenters. In November, members of the Academy’s All School Read student and faculty committees traveled to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference in Boston, where they presented “Hope and Wonder: Cultivating Connection and Community through an All School Read,” which they then demonstrated to professional teachers gathered from across the nation.
“They’re presenting to English teachers who are well-versed in their careers,” said Bass-Riccio. “They simulated our program in roundtable presentations that each student led all alone.”
Re-Introducing an American Original: Hazel Hawthorne Werner
Hazel Hawthorne Werner isn’t a household name. But she sure knew a few. A longtime resident of Provincetown, MA, she was a writer, feminist, and member of “Bohemian royalty,” who fraternized with E.E. Cummings, Tennessee Williams, and Eugene O’Neill, to name a few of the celebrated American icons who visited her sandy, electricity-free ‘dune shacks,’ Thalassa and Euphoria. Jack Kerouac wrote part of On the Road in one of her shacks.
“She’s part of the literary elite of America,” said Bass-Riccio, who has been researching and writing about Werner for years. “You name ’em, she knew ’em. But her voice was sadly forgotten.”
Having been given possession of Werner’s archive, Bass-Riccio saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her students. They could help her sift through the writing, photos, and keepsakes, learning about the process of archiving and getting an intimate look at the inner lives and creative energy of both American literary giants and an unsung feminist voice. Once they dug in, new possibilities arose. Enamored by Werner’s authentic prose, they decided to transcribe and re-publish her out-of-print 1934 novel Salt House, spending months transcribing, making grammatical changes and otherwise illuminating the older text for a 21st-century audience. Bass-Riccio wrote an afterword for the book, and the girls will hold a pre-release party at Re-Read Books in Cheshire on Wednesday, May 28.
Emma DiBenedetto-Arrowood ’26 transcribed many of the pages, donning gloves to turn pages in the original edition they had. Emma, who will travel to a creative writing internship at The New York Times this summer, said she knew nothing about archival work until the book project. She also learned lessons that go well beyond the classroom.
“Hazel was powerful as a woman for that time,” she said. “I think she was a lot different than the people you read about in history books. She was just a casual person – living and changing and making a difference just by being her.”
Learning Together: All School Read
Many of these students, among others, participated on the committees for All School Read, a three-year-old project Bass-Riccio leads that has brought noted authors to campus to discuss a book the entire community has read, discussed, and taken to heart. This year’s speaker, award-winning author Elizabeth Bradfield spoke about Toward Antarctica, an evocative account of her time working as a naturalist on a ship. The memoir is written in the impressionistic 17th-century Japanese form of haibun and was a stepping-off point for art projects, nature walks, writing sessions and more for weeks leading up to her February appearance.
Seven students – Avery Fowler ’27, Ishaan Pandey ’27, Lucy McDermott ’25, Naomi Wolfe ’25, Ally Pine Maher ’27, Deanna Dixon ’26, and Laney Paul ’26 – served on the 2024-25 planning committee and some explained the various aspects of the project during the NCTE conference session, which also included CA teachers Nicole Beaudwin and Dave Samuels, and Director of Residential Life Jennifer Guarino. During the post-talk roundtable, one student led an ASR-themed “hot cocoa chat” while others recreated discussion sessions, showing teachers how they could incorporate CA’s approach in their classrooms across the country.
“It was really cool,” said Lucy McDermott, who designed this year’s All School Read t-shirt. “I’ve never done anything like that.”
Walking the Walk…
Students apply to become what Bass-Riccio calls “Hazel interns,” volunteering to organize the archives and transcribing the book. Each fall, they’ve also gotten the chance to understand Werner’s life on a field trip to Provincetown, performing community service and visiting the American Antiquarian Society, historical sites, and Werner’s shacks in the Peaked Hill Bars Historic District. It’s a mile-long walk in the sand before they reach the humble sites, a place usually off limits to all but professional writers who win fellowships to stay there.
…and Talking the Talk
Last year, some of the 11 students who have interned on the Werner project presented on the little-known writer at a Women’s Student Conference at SCSU, where Bass-Riccio taught for 10 years and is earning her MFA in Creative Writing. Using the conference theme of “Exploring Our Mother’s Garden” as inspiration, the students talked about intergenerational storytelling, stewardship of the earth, and passing on feminist values to their ‘colleagues,’ who were all in college, graduate school, or beyond, Bass-Riccio said.
Now that Salt House has been re-published by the nonprofit Provincetown Arts Press, Bass-Riccio and next year’s interns will continue organizing the archive.
“And they will all be acknowledged by name in the book for their work,” she said with an excited smile. “These are great experiences for them. Presenting to teachers? One of the parents emailed me afterward and said, ‘I think it was a life-changing event for her.’ That makes every minute that goes into it worth it. You stand there and you’re just…I’m so proud of them.”
