Writers Project melds poetry, pictures in ‘Thin Places’

QUEENSBURY, New York (Oct. 20, 2025) — SUNY Adirondack’s Writers Project will discover the intersection of images and phrases with photographer MaryEllen Hendricks and poet Kathleen McCoy in “Thin Places” at 12:40 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27. 

According to historical Celtic beliefs, “thin places” are particular areas the place the boundary between heaven and earth is extra porous.

“I’ve always been interested in recording the beauty of the ethereal, otherworldly quality in nature, so when I heard about thin places, it resonated with me,” stated Hendricks, a photographer whose “Thin Places” collection of photos is exhibited in SUNY Adirondack’s Visual Arts Gallery by means of Nov. 6. 

She spoke with greater than a dozen individuals about locations to which they felt a connection, recorded them sharing their tales, then traveled with them to {photograph} the areas.

“It was just a wonderful way to connect with people and learn about their stories and have these really cool locations where I tried to capture that ‘thinness,’” Hendricks stated.

After finishing the picture challenge, Hendricks acquired an e mail from poet McCoy, a retired longtime distinguished professor of English at SUNY Adirondack.

“How she found me was so interesting, so serendipitous,” Hendricks recalled. “She said, ‘I’m a poet, I did a sabbatical in Ireland, writing a group of ‘Thin Place’ poems, and I’d love to collaborate.’”

McCoy, who teaches this semester as an adjunct at SUNY Adirondack, traveled to Ireland 3 times between 2018 and 2020 to satisfy Irish poets; take part in a poetry convention at Seamus Heaney Poetry Centre in Belfast; write at residencies Anam Cara Writers and Artists Retreat in County Cork and The Moth Writers and Artists retreats in County Cavan. 

At the Writers Project occasion, the 2 will converse concerning the intersection of their works and the way the idea of skinny locations evokes them. 

“I love her poetry; it’s so layered and beautiful,” Hendricks stated. 

“Thin places are generally considered to be geographical places where the proverbial ‘veil’ between the seen and unseen worlds seems thin, permeable, that is, where the spirit of the land connects us to the spiritual, the mysterious and the dead,” McCoy stated. 

The outcomes are “Thin Places,” an unpublished chapbook manuscript, and “Thin Times, Thin Places,” an unpublished full-length assortment, from which McCoy will learn on the Writers Project. “We came up with the idea of playing my poems against MaryEllen’s amazing photos,” McCoy stated.

Hendricks at all times needed to be an artist. She attended Pratt Institute, with an thought she can be an illustrator and graphic artist. “I never saw photography that was art,” she defined. But when she took a pictures elective and was launched to the photographic works of nice artists, every part modified. 

“I loved the dark room experience,” stated Hendricks, who nonetheless shoots on movie. “I ended up switching my major junior year.”

She has labored as knowledgeable photographer since, taking images for a jewellery retailer, inside designers and designers. “That professional work pays for my hobby,” she stated. 

For “Thin Places,” that passion took her all through the Northeast and even to Australia, to seize the great thing about the locations to which her acquaintances spiritually join.

“That indefinable feeling, that feeling of joy when you’re creating, it is a type of spirituality, it began with ancient Celtic Christianity, but now I see it as that universal feeling in nature,” Hendricks stated. “A feeling of connectedness to other creatures, other humans, the world, nature and just the magic of nature and being in nature, you know how that can make you feel, it’s sort of indescribable.”

Hendricks’ “Thin Places” challenge can also be chronicled in a self-published guide that features considered one of McCoy’s poems. Copies might be obtainable for buy on the Writers Project occasion.

The Writers Project is free and open to the general public within the Visual Arts Gallery in Dearlove Hall. Refreshments might be served. The occasion can also be obtainable by way of Zoom at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7977212478?pwd=ZXU5WlpJRXZ1YmZoNFNJak1yYVpSUT09

The Visual Arts Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to three p.m. Monday by means of Thursday; and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday through the tutorial 12 months. 

PHOTO CAPTION: “Isle Iona” by MaryEllen Hendricks