Gert Alper
Gert Alper was born in Zurich, Switzerland and trained as a Chef in Lucerne. As his many reviews and letters attest, he has given the Swiss Hutte a European flair and has created a country inn which measures up to many of the famous inns in the US or Europe. It is no accident that Robert Mondavi (of the Mondavi Winery) and his wife chose the Swiss Hutte as their destination in the Berkshires. Gert Alper is proud to be a chef and this shines through in his cuisine. Simplicity and high quality ingredients are his trademarks. A lot of his produce is grown right in the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley. Gert features some of the most delectable foods in the country including Fois Gras, Coach Goat Cheese and Markistos Tender Greens, to name a few. You’ll find things like domestic rack of lamb, soft shell crabs, Black Angus Beef, milk-fed veal and free-range chicken on his menu. All the baking is done on premises; even his European hard rolls are made from scratch. Everyday, creme brulee is made from locally produced Jersey cream. His meringues are to dream about, and if you're lucky you might get to taste one of his famous souffles. Of course, you’ll find the well known Wienerschnitzel or Geschnetzeltes Kalbfleisch served with either Rosti or Spatzli. Enjoy cheese fondue in front of the two fireplaces in the restaurant. Outdoor patio dining, anyone? We’ve got it and it’s surrounded with a fragrant flower and herb garden and matching table settings. It’s all here at the Swiss Hutte. We can't wait for you to visit.
Gordon Hyatt
Gordon Hyatt is an award-winning American writer and television producer. He was raised in Lee, graduated Lee High School in 1952 -- and went to CBS in New York where he produced over 30 documentary films for Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace and Bob Trout. Since then he has written and produced pubic events -- three at Tanglewood benefiting Arrowhead,and Shakespeare & Company. He is married to author Carole Hyatt. Gordon and Carole live in New York City and Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Grace Rossman
Grace Rossman is a senior at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. “Activated” by an activism class she took with Jennifer Browdy during the fall of 2013, Grace developed "The Belly Monologues," a multimedia project focused on body image, relationships, identity, eating behavior, and the many intersections thereof. Following the example of audacious author-activists like Eve Ensler (of "The Vagina Monologues" fame), Grace hopes to spark conversation and shift paradigms by honestly and unabashedly acknowledging the world as it is. Currently working on a book of short essays and poetry entitled Insatiable, she is ready and eager to sink her teeth into a cornucopia of meaty subjects revolving around desire, consumption, and nourishment.
Gregory Whitehead
Roving correspondent Gregory Whitehead is an acclaimed radiomaker, long distance walker and desperado philosopher.
Grigori Fateyev
Grigori Fateyev, RA is the principal and owner of Art Forms Architecture, based in Hillsdale, New York. For the past 20 years, he has been designing residential, commercial, and municipal projects throughout the Berkshires, the Hudson Valley, and New York City. His local projects include TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge and The Green Houses in Great Barrington.
Guido Penzini
Guido Penzini is a Berkshire County business owner.
Hannah Van Sickle
Hannah Van Sickle is a Berkshire County native who resides deep in the woods of South County where she spent summers as a child and is now raising her own daughters. An English teacher by training, Hannah now works as a freelance writer, academic tutor and writing coach.
Harriet Bergmann
Harriet Bergmann is a long-time part-time resident of Mount Washington. She and her husband and their Springer Spaniel Banksy commute to the Mountain from New Haven. A retired professor of English, she's currently an adjunct at Yale, teaching creative writing. In New Haven she runs three memoir-writing groups. She reviews theater in the summer, gardens, and enjoys visits from her three grandchildren.
Harriet Ziefert
Harriet Ziefert is a children’s book author and the publisher of Blue Apple Books. Her latest books from Red Comet Press include “Be Thankful for Trees” and three titles in the Really Bird Series, including “I Really Want To Be First”, I” Really Want To Fly To the Moon”, and “I Really Want a Bigger Piece.” She lives and works full time in Great Barrington.
Heather Bellow
A former reporter and Managing Editor for The Edge, Heather Bellow is now an investigative reporter for The Berkshire Eagle. She lives in Great Barrington.
Heather Meehan
Heather Meehan graduated from Simon’s Rock College in May 2014 and elected to stay in the Berkshires where she currently practices Ashtanga yoga, interns at Community Access to the Arts, acts as the writer and social media manager for Moon-in-the-Pond farm in Sheffield, and writes poetry in her spare time.
Heebie GB
Heebie GB is a Great Barrington resident who enjoys snow shoeing, breadmaking, and receiving messages from the great beyond.
Henry Pease
Historian Henry Pease has come out of retirement to occasionally tell tales of local history.
Hester Velmans
Hester Velmans is a novelist and prize-winning translator of literary fiction. Born in the Netherlands, she grew up tri-lingual, having lived in Paris, Geneva, London and New York. After a rewarding but stressful career in the magazine and TV news business, she moved to the Berkshires to write and translate full time. She is a 2015 NEA Translation Fellow and the author of two popular children’s books: Isabel of the Whales and Jessaloup’s Song.
Honey Sharp
Honey Sharp settled in the Berkshires full time many moons ago when she opened Honey Sharp Gallery and Ganesh Cafe in Lenox, Mass. Married to David Lippman she had three children and kept serving on various nonprofit boards. With a love for gardens, the environment and design, she became a landscape designer and worked for 14 years as the garden editor for Berkshire HomeStyle. She divides her time now between the Berkshires and Mexico where she rediscovered her passion for photography. Visit her at her blog at: www.honeysharp.com .
Howard Lieberman
Howard Lieberman is a local musician, writer, and lapsed tech guy who moved full-time to the Berkshires ten years ago. An entrepreneur, teacher, and speaker, he previously worked in sound at Bose and Apple, studied acoustics at MIT, and, most recently, composition at Juilliard. Howard is currently at work manifesting blogs and books about innovation, innovators, and innovation relationships. Howard has the good fortune to work mostly in and around world-class innovation cultures, including Apple, Bose, DARPA, MIT, and Juilliard. More information is at HowardL.com
Howard Weinberg
Howard Weinberg is a TV journalist ("MacNeil/Lehrer"; "Bill Moyers"; "CBS Sunday Morning" and "60 Minutes") and documentary filmmaker (“'Topless Cellist' Charlotte Moorman", "Sid at 90" and "net.LEARNING"). He is also a Script-Doctor who lives in New York City and part-time in the Berkshires. A digital immigrant, he recently bought a wallet with RFID protection.
Howie Lisnoff
Howard Lisnoff is a freelance writer. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and on online sites. He taught in public schools, colleges, and community colleges for forty years. He lives in Egremont, Massachusetts.
I.M. Dybbuk
I.M. Dybbuk refers those curious about his qualifications and frame of reference to S. Ansky’s play, "The Dybbuk or Between Two Worlds," written exactly 100 years ago. He recommends the Tony Kushner translation, if the reader is unfamiliar with Yiddish.
Igor Greenwald
Igor Greenwald is a longtime business journalist, occasional local columnist and a founding member of Civil Liberties Pittsfield.
Irene Goldman-Price
Dr. Irene Goldman-Price has taught American Literature and Women’s Studies at Boston University, Penn State University, Hazleton, and Ball State University, where she also chaired the Women and Gender Studies Department. As a public scholar she has written and lectured about women’s literature and women’s issues in a variety of venues. She is the editor of "My Dear Governess: The Letters of Edith Wharton to Anna Bahlmann" (Yale University Press 2012), and most recently of "Selected Poems of Edith Wharton" (Scribner 2019). She lives in Great Barrington, Mass.
Irina Fursman
Irina Fursman FDN-P, INHC, is the Founder and President of Odysseys into Wellbeing, an executive health coaching and functional health business. She is a Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner and a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. A skilled health detective and guide, Irina helps senior executives and business owners proactively identify hidden stressors and self-healing opportunities. Based on these, Irina helps her clients create and integrate personalized self-care systems into their daily lives so they can both enjoy the career success they’ve achieved and feel great as they begin to plan the next chapter of their lives. A maverick who defies conventional wisdom, Irina firmly believes that our forties, fifties, sixties, and beyond are not synonymous with aches, pains and chronic disease. Career success does not have to come at the expense of our health. We can be both healthy and successful now and later so we can fully enjoy all the fruits of our efforts. A former corporate executive with North American and Global responsibilities, Irina fully understands the stress and unique challenges of balancing life, business, and health faced by executives and business owners. Irina’s Executive Health Coaching programs work especially well because they are designed with these needs and challenges in mind. Irina is a graduate of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition®, a true industry leader in functional health education, and of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Irina received her MBA with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and her A.B. In Economics, summa cum laude, from Bryn Mawr College. She is a member of the Association of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Professionals.
Isa Goldberg
Isa Goldberg recently graduated from Amherst College, majoring in psychology. She also has a background in writing and filmmaking. She will be spending the next few years in Israel.
J. Peter Bergman
J. Peter Bergman was the Director of Communications at Herman Melville's Arrowhead and, for seven years, the Executive Director for the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society at Steepletop in Austerlitz, New York. In the past he has been a writer for The Berkshire Eagle, Berkshire's Week, The Advocate, The Berkshire Beacon, and The Independent, and is a contributor to The Edge and BerkshireBrightFocus.com. He is a novelist, poet, and author of short fiction. His book, "Counterpoints," won the 2002 Friends of Charles Dickens Award and his second novel, “Cement Dust,” won a 2020 IPPY Award for fiction. He has been a paid theater critic since he was 15 years old.
Jack Trowill
Graduated from University of Delaware with Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree. Grew up in a family of railroaders. Worked for GE/Lockheed Martin for 37 years, principally in logistics, technical publishing, televised training productions. Have had published technical, fiction, historical, railroading articles. Lectured on railroads, circus history, local history, spelunking.
Jacob Robbins
Jacob E. Robbins is a lifelong Berkshire County resident, heralding from West Stockbridge. His family used to own a Bed and Breakfast there. He covers the towns of Lee, Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, and the surrounding areas, writing about the issues that affect the communities. He writes about politics, education, the environment, and technology. An alum of Monument Mountain Regional High School, he is a recent graduate of American University in Washington, D.C, holding dual degrees in Political Science and Literature. He currently resides in West Stockbridge. You can follow Jacob on Twitter @JacobERobbins and email him at jrobbins@theberkshireedge.com
Jake Borden
Jake Borden is a local photographer who first fell into the craft by reaching out to Berkshire's based National Geographic photographer John Stanmeyer. While learning the trade and being guided under Stanmeyer's established hand, he developed his own personalized and unique point of view. Since then, Borden has expanded his practice by working on stories in Morocco, Georgia, New Zealand and issues he finds important at home in the Berkshires. He is a graduate of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School and Monument Mountain Regional High School. In the future Borden hopes to continue to travel and bring back photographs that instill a sense of community to those at home and around the world.
James Abruzzo
James Abruzzo, full-time Lee resident is Managing Director, Nonprofit Practice, DHR Global and co-founder of the Institute for Ethical Leadership at Rutgers Business School. He is well-known management and compensation consultant to nonprofit organizations, an international arts management professor, and frequent contributor to various publications. His podcast, The Search for Arts Leadership is on Spotify.
James Crisp
James Crisp has been an architect for well over 20 years. His architectural firm, Crisp Architects, designs projects throughout New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. In April of 2007, Taunton Press published 'On the Porch' by James M. Crisp and Sandra Mahoney.
James F. Birge
James F. Birge is president of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
James Harris
James Harris has worked in the Berkshires since 1975 as a newspaper reporter, an advertising copywriter, and English teacher. Blissfully idle these days.
James Sleeper
James Sleeper is a lecturer in political science at Yale and the author of "Liberal Racism" (1997) and "The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York" (1990). He lives in Alford.
Jamie Larson
Jamie Larson spent his salad days in hard news, received an M.A. in Journalism from NYU, wrote for a number of places, from The Register Star to the New York Times and worked investigations for the The Albany Times Union. Working mostly magazine and digital these days, he estimates he’s written 500 to 1,000 published articles on Hudson Valley/Berkshire business, culture and farming. Larson now resides in Red Hook, New York, with his wife and two children. He is currently engineering a clock with a single 100-year hand, plays disc golf, cooks, writes fiction, and recently entered an armistice with his tenant groundhog, as she has just produced four cute pups from beneath the tool shed.
Jamie Paxton
Jamie Paxton is a chef and local foods advocate whose work focuses on helping people learn about and access local, seasonal, and sustainable food. She lives in Great Barrington and works in the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley.
Jan Hutchinson
Jan Hutchinson has gravitated toward the reading and writing of poetry for over sixty years. Though publication has never been her focus, she has two poetry collections in print: Poems of Prayer and Heresy and raggedy prayers and crooked ladders (from UUMSB), both with whimsical drawings by the late Stockbridge artist Chet Kalm. Through recent decades she has given workshops and readings, mostly locally, and taught generative writing to groups of homeschool students and elders. Jan raised three daughters in the Berkshires and has worked, in various capacities, at Bard College at Simon’s Rock for thirty years. Currently, she is partially retired but serving at Simon’s Rock as a writing tutor and academic advisor.
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs is a retired law professor who now calls Housatonic home. She is an " amateur" poet who also likes to play pickleball. Look for her on the court, so far no poems about pickles though.
Jane Kavanau
Jane Kavanau has taught a course called “Getting Organized” in various adult ed classes. She is now coaching, by phone, people who want help with getting things done. She can be reached at 413-281-6903 ( cell/text) or at helpwithdecluttering@gmail.com. Please feel free to contact her to hear more about how the process works.
Jane Ralph
Jane Ralph serves as Executive Director of Construct Center for Affordable Housing serving the southern Berkshire community.
Janey Beardsley
Berkshire Edge intern Janey Beardsley is an up-and-coming journalist in the Berkshires. She got her start interning at Berkshire Record in 2017, and now covers stories surrounding Berkshire businesses for The Edge. A resident of Sandisfield, Janey attends Westfield State University where she has taken on the role as general news editor for the second year at its student newspaper, the Westfield Voice. Janey is a junior who plans on double majoring in communications with a concentration in journalism, and English with a concentration in writing.
Jarice Hanson
Jarice Hanson is Professor Emerita from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, where she was a member of the Department of Communication.She is also author/co-author or editor of many books, including a textbook called “Taking Sides: Controversial Issues in Media and Society. Her recent solo-authored books include "24/7: How Cell Phones Change the Way We Live, Work, and Play," and "The Social Media Revolution: An Economic Encyclopedia of Friending, Following, Texting, and Connecting." She is also an actor who has worked extensively in theatre, most recently in "A Walk in the Woods" for New Century Theatre in Easthampton, Mass., and as the pill-popping matriarch in "August Osage County," at The Provincetown Theater in Provincetown, Mass. She has appeared in films as well, including "The Ascendants," "The God Question," and the forthcoming "Coda," and on TV, most recently in episodes in the first season of "CastleRock," and "SMILF." Her theater reviews have appeared in IntheSpotlightInc.com for many years.
