Phoenix Books offers discussion series by authors and experts on issues relevant to our community, like the environment, universal health care, economic development, and education. Events at Phoenix Books are free (unless otherwise indicated), open to the public, and handicapped accessible.
Click on any of the entries in the calendar below for a description. For more information on any of these upcoming events, scroll down. For information on past events, visit our previous events page.
Michael Hastings
At age twenty-five, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for
Back in New York, Hastings had fallen in
love with Andi Parhamovich, a young idealist who worked for Air
America. A year into their courtship, Andi followed Michael to Iraq,
taking a job with the National Democratic Institute. Their war-zone
romance is another window into life in Baghdad. They call each other
pet names; they make plans for the future; they fight, usually because
each is fearful for the other's safety; and they try to figure out how
to get together, when it means putting bodyguards and drivers in
jeopardy.Then Andi goes on a dangerous mission for her new employer --
a meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters that ends in
catastrophe.
APRIL is 
National Poetry Month is a month-long, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets. The concept is to widen the attention of individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic range and concern. The Academy hopes to increase the visibility and availability of poetry in popular culture while acknowledging and celebrating poetry’s ability to sustain itself in the many places where it is practiced and appreciated.
NPM Event: Our Community Writes Poetry Night
Join us in the Cafe at Phoenix for an open mic to kick off National Poetry
Our host for this and our other two NPM Open Mics will be Yvette Frock Gottshall. Yvette was born in Texas and was raised around the world. Through her life experiences she discovered her two most passionate vocational pursuits: teaching and writing. She is a published poet who dabbles in translation & creative non-fiction. She is also a painter and an avid critical reader. She recently took a break from teaching to prepare her first collection of poetry for publication.
NPM Event: High School Open Mic
Join us in the Cafe at Phoenix to kick off National Poetry Month! Bring your best and/or favorite original poetry to read out loud, the way poetry was meant to be shared and enjoyed. Participants please call 872-7111 for more info.
NPM Event: Middle School Open Mic
Join us in the Cafe at Phoenix for a friendly afternoon of shared poetry. Bring your best and/or favorite original poetry to read out loud, the way poetry was meant to be shared and enjoyed. Participants please call 872-7111 for more info.
(Scroll down for more NPM Events!)
Saturday, April 3rd at 7:00 pm
Ben Hewitt
Even as the recent financial downturn
threatens to cripple small businesses and privately owned farms, a
stunning number of food-based businesses have grown in the
region - Vermont Soy, Jasper Hill Farm, Pete's Greens, Patchwork Farm
& Bakery, Apple Cheek Farm, Claire's Restaurant and Bar, and
Bonnieview Farm, to name only a few. The mostly young entrepreneurs have
created a network of community support; they meet regularly to share
advice, equipment, and business plans, 
Ben Hewitt writes about sports and the outdoors for a wide variety of
publications, including Bicycling, Men's Journal, Mountain Bike, Outside, and Skiing. He lives in Vermont. You can read his Gourmet magazine article about Hardwick here.
Wednesday, April 7th from 6:00-8:00 pm
Phoenix Books Open Mic Night
Come check out the local talent at
your local, independent bookstore!
Thursday, April 8th at 7:00 pm
David Carkeet
"Anyone who doesn't laugh out loud at David Carkeet's writing needs to have their pulse checked. He's a very clever fellow, and this is a deftly funny book." --Carl Hiaasen
Check out Margot Harrison's glowing review of From Away in Seven Days!
David Carkeet was born and raised in the Gold Rush town of Sonora, California. He attended college at U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Davis, followed by graduate school at the University of Wisconsin and Indiana University. David is the author of six novels, two novels for young adults, and a memoir. His short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Poets & Writers, The Village Voice, and many other publications. For many years, David taught linguistics and writing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He also directed the MFA program there and edited its literary journal, Natural Bridge. He lives in Middlesex, Vermont.
Saturday, April 10th from 2:00-4:00 pm
Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: Metaphors for Uncertain Times
Recognized as an innovator in the field of mindfulness-based psychology,
Dr. Arnie Kozak is northern New England’s leading expert in the field.
Dr. Kozak’s ability to translate ancient healing traditions into
pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of
metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Learn more at his website or in this article from Vermont Digger.
Tuesday, April 13th at 7:00 pm
Burlington College Writes, Hosted by Alice Eckles
Join Alice Eckles for a night of readings with Burlington College writers including Marc Awodey,Anna Blackmer, Nora Mitchell, and Mark Pekar! The cafe will be open and serving food and drink. Alice will also do a "creation story" as part of her reading from A Phrase Book For Spiritual Emergencies.
Alice Eckles is the author of numerous artist books of prose, poetry, and image, as well as A Phrase Book for Spiritual Emergencies. She has published essays in The Seattle Review and The Queen City Review. "Alice Eckles has a gloriously idiosyncratic voice and a serious, hard-won vision of life; she writes amazing sentences," says David Shields.
Marc Awodey is a member of the faculty of Burlington College, the Community College of Vermont, and Johnson State College. He is also an Art Critic at Seven Days, and the Vermont Regional Editor for Art New England. He has published two books of poetry.Anna Blackmer is the Chair of the Humanities Department at Burlington College. She is a poet, teacher, and freelance writer. Anna has been active in Burlington arts community for 30 years, and has been involved in local readings, small press publications, arts reviewing, and programming literary and film events.
Nora Mitchell directed the M.F.A. in Writing Program and taught at Goddard College before joining the faculty at Burlington College in 2003. Nora has published two books of poetry, and her poems have been published in journals such as Green Mountains Review, Hunger Mountain, and Ploughshares and anthologized in Onion River: Six Vermont Poets and Contemporary Poetry of New England.
Agent Martian (a.k.a. Mark Pekar) has written many books and plays; Notes From Spaceship is his first widely published work. Martian divides his time between Honey Space, (an underground gallery in Chelsea, NYC) and northern Vermont. He's also a band leader, part time college instructor, and, in the tradition of Timothy Leary, Agent Martian holds an M.A. in psychology.
Wednesday, April 14th from 6:00-8:00 pm
Knit Night (and Crocheters, too!)
Please join us for our monthly Phoenix
Books Knit Night (and Crocheters, too!). All skill levels
welcome. See you there! Phoenix's
Knit Nights take place on every second Wednesday of the
month, from 6-8 p.m.
Saturday, April 17th at 3:00 pm
Ron Koss
Ron and his twin brother Arnie founded Earth’s Best Baby Food in 1985. In addition to baby food, Ron is a natural foods product innovator. During his long-term employ with the aio Food Group, Ron has secured patents for his work on complete meal supplement ice cream and has also introduced specialized complete meal supplements for people in health recovery situations. Presently, he is working on nutritional products for a global relief aid project. Ron enjoys working as a consultant for socially responsible enterprises and has a special interest in group dynamics, organizational development, and conflict resolution. He lives in Montpelier, Vermont, with his family.
The Earth’s Best Story tells how Ron and Arnie Koss succeeded in creating the first nationally distributed organic foods company to sit next to its mainstream competition on supermarket shelves—a step that revolutionized and empowered the organic-foods movement as a whole—and benefited hundreds of farmers as well as the millions of babies whose very first foods have been organically grown, thanks to Earth’s Best.
People of every imaginable background and station in life want to make a difference with their lives. But how do you effectively do that? How does an idea successfully journey across the wastelands separating fantasy and reality? The Koss brothers take the reader on this journey. Theirs is a tale of idealism, naiveté, and possibility that reflects the quest to find a place in this world by somehow changing it for the better.
Thursday, April 22nd at 6:30 pm
Celebrate Earth Day with the Lake Champlain Committee and the Essex Art League
Join us for a spring evening of lake art, poetry, and natural history served up with light refreshments. Over a dozen area artists from the Essex Art League will exhibited their diverse visions of Lake Champlain. The program also includes a discussion and book reading by author and scientist Mike Winslow.
Mike will draw from the Lake Champlain Committee’s
book Lake Champlain: A Natural History and will address the forces,
phenomena, flora and fauna that help make the lake such an endearing
fixture in our regional consciousness. Written in a light, engaging
style by LCC staff scientist Mike Winslow with black and white
photographs and detailed pen and ink illustrations by Libby Davidson, Lake Champlain: A Natural History
will help people discover and understand the lake’s rich and diverse
resources. “This book goes a long ways toward educating anyone who
loves the sight of Lake Champlain,” notes author and environmentalist Bill McKibben.
“Mike Winslow and Libby Davidson, with clear and lucid prose and
accurate, charming illustration, answer dozens of questions that have
occurred to me over the years, and better yet they answer questions it
hadn’t even struck me to ask. This is less like a field guide, and more
like having a wise naturalist 
along with you on a trip.”
The goal of the Essex Art League is to support the appreciation and creation of art among artists and in the Chittenden county area. Members meet monthly to share ideas and information, create and implement programs, and participate in show venues. Recent programs and events include their Lang Farms Holiday Show, Spring Fine Art Gala, and the Student Art Incentive Scholarship Program.
Wednesday, April 28th at 7:00 pm
Charlotte Dennett and The People v. Bush
Dennett’s wild ride through politics began when she read The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by lawyer Vincent Bugliosi (best known for his prosecution of Charles Manson). In it, Bugliosi stated that one path to prosecuting George W. Bush could be taken by a state attorney general—should one take up the cause. Soon after, Dennett launched her attorney-general race in Vermont, signed up Bugliosi as her special prosecutor in the event that she won, and together the two made headlines across Vermont and the nation for changing the face of American grassroots democracy.
In The People v. Bush, Dennett recounts her seminal effort to prosecute the former president, introduces readers to a world where the actions of a few can indeed empower the many, and reports on the current state of the movement to hold Bush accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Author and attorney Charlotte Dennett has been practicing law since
1997, with an emphasis on personal injury litigation and suing the
government under the Freedom of Information Act. She's also been a
reporter in the Middle East and is the coauthor with her husband, Gerard
Colby, of Thy Will Be Done-The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson
Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil.
Tuesday, May 4th at 7:00 pm
Howard Frank Mosher at Essex Cinema
Wednesday, May 5th from 6:00-8:00 pm
Phoenix Books Open Mic Night
Come check out the local
talent at
your local, independent bookstore!
Wednesday, May 12th from 6:00-8:00 pm
Knit Night (and Crocheters, too!)
Please join us for our monthly Phoenix Books Knit Night (and Crocheters, too!). All skill levels welcome. See you there! Phoenix's Knit Nights take place on every second Wednesday of the month, from 6-8 p.m.
Wednesday, June 2nd from 6:00-8:00 pm
Phoenix Books Open Mic Night
Come check out the local
talent at
your local, independent bookstore!
Saturday, June 5th at 3:00 pm
Philip Ackerman-Leist
Ever since Thoreau’s Walden, the image of the American homesteader has been of someone getting away from civilization, of forging an independent life in the country. Yet if this were ever true, what is the nature and reality of homesteading in the media-saturated, hyper-connected 21st century?
Up Tunket Road is the inspiring true story of a young couple who embraced the joys of simple living while also acknowledging its frustrations and complexities. Ackerman-Leist writes with humor about the inevitable foibles of setting up life off the grid—from hauling frozen laundry uphill to getting locked in the henhouse by their ox. But he also weaves an instructive narrative that contemplates the future of simple living. His is not a how-to guide, but something much richer and more important—a tale of discovery that will resonate with readers who yearn for a better, more meaningful life, whether they live in the city, country, or somewhere in between.Philip Ackerman-Leist and his wife, Erin, farmed in the South Tirol region of the Alps and North Carolina before beginning their twelve-year homesteading venture in Pawlet, Vermont. Ackerman-Leist is a professor at Green Mountain College, where he established the college farm and sustainable agriculture curriculum and is Director of the Green Mountain College Farm & Food Project.
Wednesday, June 9th from 6:00-8:00 pm
Knit Night (and Crocheters, too!)
Please join us for our monthly Phoenix Books Knit Night (and Crocheters, too!). All skill levels welcome. See you there! Phoenix's Knit Nights take place on every second Wednesday of the month, from 6-8 p.m.
Ongoing
Art Exhibit
Phoenix's cafe is home to a rotating art exhibit featuring approximately two dozen members of the Essex Art League. Come browse beautiful art as well as great books! And don't forget to check back; the entire exhibit is changed every two months.
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