Board of Trustees Member And Writer: Lydia Davis
By Denise Wright
When East Nassau Board of Trustee member and writer Lydia Davis moved from Port Ewen near Kingston over ten years ago, even though she loved her home, she craved a quieter, more rural lifestyle with her husband, abstract painter, Alan Cote According to Davis, they were friends with a painter who lived in East Nassau who recommended the area so, “we visited a few times, asked lots of questions, admired the landscape, with the Kinderhook Creek running through it, and decided to go for it.” Lydia Davis, who has been described by the New Yorker magazine as “one of the most original minds in American fiction today,” has grown to be an intricate part of the East Nassau community’s fabric.
Her award-winning career, which includes a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1997, a Booker International Prize in 2013 (which is one of Britain’s highest literary awards), and, most recently, a Pen/Malamud excellence in short story writing Award in 2020 , has made her a “distinctive voice” in the literary world. East Nassau has played a definite role in her writing. Davis describes how the surroundings in East Nassau have placed her “much more in the natural world,” and that has made “a big difference.” She feels it is much “easier to focus” and that her work has become “more meditative” and “more concentrated.” For example, her story “The Cows” was written after three years of observing three “beautiful” cows that lived across the road from her home. Getting to know the community better in conjunction with focusing on her work has allowed Davis to “turn outward to the surrounding community and larger concerns.”
As a member of the Board of Trustees who was recently sworn in for her third term, Davis originally started her community service in the East Nassau village of about 227 households as a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals “by chance.” She always wanted the opportunity to become more active in her community. After her move to East Nassau, the former mayor, Bob Henrickson, noticed her interest in community activities and asked her to fill a vacancy. When a seat on the Board of Trustees opened up, he asked her to participate, and she agreed. Being involved with the legal workings and “interactions of personalities” has been gratifying for Davis. Davis commented, “The thought that I could actually have an effect on the place I lived, have a hand in making decisions about it—I was moved by that, and I still am.”
Working as a Board of Trustees member has been exceptionally rewarding for Davis. The advantages of having “amazing natural resources” such as community forests and the Kinderhook Creek and no “cumbersome bureaucracy” and “snarls of traffic” allows for a robust small-town community feel in East Nassau. While there are “fewer projects we can develop” and sometimes “fewer people to join in activities,” the approximately 583 East Nassau residents can be involved with their neighbors and their government officials on a personal, engaged level. Community-based enterprises such as a local farm in the village have been welcome necessities during the pandemic. Like the other Board of Trustee members, Davis tries to “pick up on the concerns of the villagers and represent them.” She wants to maintain roads, keep taxes low, and protect the community against emergencies of all kinds. Davis’s concern about the environment and climate crisis prompted her to head the Climate Smart Community Task Force in East Nassau. Davis believes that extreme weather events “can cause damage to our properties and our own health and wellbeing.” The Task Force and the village are now “taking further steps to protect the community against emergencies of all kinds.” The village has taken to join in a project with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County to evaluate and assist the village with strategies to prepare for natural hazards and emergencies. As Davis concluded, “working with others to make us safer and more environmentally sustainable is one of the major things I’m hoping to accomplish as a member of the Board of Trustees. It will take time, but we’ve made a good start on it!”