(click on each of the thumbnails for its entire picture). All photos © L. Ava-Matthew

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Did you guess where our Belle bag is?

Lois, our editor and founder, made the four-hour train trip down to New York City from the Boston area recently for the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. One of the literary events she attended was held very close to Washington Square Park where the Belle bag photo was taken. The park is perhaps the best known visual landmark for Greenwich Village, an area where, in years past, such authors, playwrights and poets as Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Alice Walker, Susan Gladspell, Louisa May Alcott, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Anaïs Nin, and Ruth McKenny resided or spent significant time. Photos from the PEN event will be in our next issue, but here are a few photos from our editor's visit—

Thumbnails, Left to right:

1. When in New York City, some of us enjoy shopping for fabric in the "garment district". This is a wee portion of offerings from Rosen & Chadick Fabrics at the corner of 7th and 40th streets (2nd & 3rd floors), and across from the Parsons School of Design.
2. An indoor sculpture garden in the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The gilded figure in the center of the photo (and in the thumbnail) is a copy of "Diana of the Tower" by American sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens. The area has about two dozen sculptures by American artists on display here.
3. 972 5th Avenue, the home of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, also known as the "Payne Whitney House". Built at the beginning of the 20th century in the high Italian Renaissance style, the building was designed by architect Stanford White. I found the facade details on left side of the building so exquisite, I had to take a photo. This is also where one of the PEN events took place.