Burlington

Join us for a reading and booksigning with Nessa Flax, author of the new book Voices in the Hills.  This event is a wonderful opportunity to explore Vermont's culture and values.  As Bernie Sanders put it, "Any reader...will understand more about Vermont-who lives here, and what our values are, and why we love our state-after spending
some time with Nessa’s writing."

Nessa Flax, author of Voices in the Hills, though born a ‘flatlander’ has fully immersed herself in life in the North Country. She lives, loves, breathes and writes about it, in fact, she has become one of the locals. Nessa’s column, ‘Rambling Reflections’ has run for over 10 years in the local paper Journal Opinion, pithily capturing the essence of her surroundings. Her book compiles her greatest columns, somehow touching that magical place where it is easy to imagine ones-self sharing her amazing experiences.

Bernie Sanders sums it up perfectly, “Nessa Flax shows us, teaches us, how much we can understand if we only take the time to pay attention to the world we inhabit. Whether it is the changing colors of fall, or the dedication to work of an older Vermonter in ways that seem wondrous to us now, she focuses her attention on the events in the life going on around us.”

Nessa Flax has been a freelance journalist since 1993. Her features and book reviews have appeared in a variety of publications. She began writing for the Journal Opinion in 1994 and launched her “Rambling Reflections” weekly column the next year. Initially attending Riverside City College and SUNY at Stony Brook, she received her degree from Dartmouth College with the first graduating class of women in 1976. Her professional career has taken her from a secretarial desk to selling motorcycles, into a sixteen-year teaching career that included establishing and coaching the only varsity fencing program in Vermont and New Hampshire public high schools. From her home in Ryegate Corner, Vermont, Nessa writes, provides management consulting services for small businesses, and communes with the forest.

Where's Waldo? In Burlington, of course. He's turning twenty-five this year, and to celebrate, the famous fellow in the striped shirt has been visiting twenty different local businesses all through the month of July.  Visit phoenixbooks.biz to learn how you can find Waldo and enter to win prizes (like a complete six-volume set of Waldo books) - or just come and enjoy the party!  Attendees will get to enjoy free munchies, participate in Waldo-themed activities, and even meet Waldo and Wenda!

This party is the culmination of both Find Waldo in Burlington! and Find Waldo in Essex, Williston, and Jericho!

Richard Russo - the Pulitzer-prize winning author of Empire Falls - and his daughter Kate Russo will speak about their new book, Interventions, at Phoenix Books Burlington on Saturday, June 23rd at 7:00 pm. Richard Russo has been an unabashed supporter of independent bookstores and recently spoke at BookExpo America on “Why Indies Matter,” which is also the name of the American Booksellers Association's newly launched video campaign that captures unscripted testimonials about independent bookstores from authors, customers, and indie supporters around the country.  "I don't want independent bookstores to survive," Russo said in an interview with Publishers Weekly's Judith Rosen.  "I want them to thrive."

In what many perceive as a coldly relentless digital age, Richard Russo has teamed up with Kate Russo to create Interventions, their tribute to the printed book. What makes the book truly special is the unusual format: Each story is an individually soft-bound volume with a cover illustration by Kate. Framable prints of her paintings accompany each book and all are collected into a slipcase. Conceived by Kate's husband, designer Tom Butler, the format is an integral part of Interventions. The Russos' intention is for the reader to experience the work in the tangible, tactile way only a printed book can provide.

Richard Russo is the author of several novels, a collection of short stories, and several produced screenplays. His novel Empire Falls won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He lives in coastal Maine and Boston. Kate Russo was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1982. She moved to Maine with her family at the age of nine. She has a B.A. from Colby College and an M.F.A. from the Slade School of Fine Art in London, England. She currently lives in Rockland, Maine, with her husband, Tom. She has exhibited all over England and recently at Susan Maasch Fine Art in Portland, Maine.

Read Russo's New York Times op ed Amazon's Jungle Logic.
Read the New York Times article, Russo's Family Battles Amazon on Two Fronts.
Read the Boston Phoenix's article, Richard Russo pairs with his artist daughter.
Richard and Kate discussed Interventions on Maine Public Broadcasting Network.
Breitbart review of Interventions: Russo Clings to the Power of the Printed Page.
Visit Richard Russo on Facebook.

Where's Waldo? In Burlington, of course. He's turning twenty-five this year, and to celebrate, the famous fellow in the striped shirt and black-rimmed specs is visiting twenty different local businesses all through the month of July. Those who spot him can win prizes, including buttons, books, and more. From Phoenix Books Burlington at 191 Bank Street to Outdoor Gear Exchange at 37 Church Street, from Global Pathways at 126 Church Street to Homeport at 52 Church Street, Waldo figures are showing up in public areas of local establishments. Anyone who wishes to participate can pick up a “Find Waldo in Burlington!” search list with the names of all the businesses, and collect an "I Found Waldo at ___________" card for each Waldo they spot. Collecting cards in sixteen or more businesses and turning them in at Phoenix Books Burlington will win a Waldo button and an entry for other, larger prizes to be drawn at a Waldo party on July 31. The Grand Prize is a complete six-volume set of Waldo books. People who prefer a shorter version of the hunt can collect the cards from eight businesses and pick up a Waldo button at Phoenix Books Burlington.

Here's the complete list of businesses taking part!

• Kiss the Cook 72 Church Street Burlington
• Vermont Butcher Block 63 Church Street, Burlington
• Catamount Store 46 Church Street, Burlington
• Vermont Violins 23 Church Street Burlington
• Outdoor Gear Exchange 37 Church St Burlington
• Burlington Records 170 Bank Street, Burlington
• Tradewinds 110 Church Street, Burlington
• Lippa's Jewelry 112 Church Street, Burlington
• Boutiliers 194 College Street, Burlington
• Isabean 206 College Street, Burlington
• Danforth Pewter 111 Church Street Burlington
• Optical Center 107 Church Street Burlington
• Uncommon Grounds 42 Church Street Burlington
• Apple Mountain 30 Church Street Burlington
• Homeport 52 Church Street Burlington
• Sweet Thing 101 Church Street, Burlington
• Global Pathways 126 Church Street, Burlington
• Jim's Sports Burlington Town Center Mall, 49 Church Street, Burlington
• Zinnia 57 Church Street, Burlington
• ...and, of course, Phoenix Books Burlington!

Waldo is the creation of Martin Handford, whose entertaining drawings of crowd scenes swept the world in 1987. Since then, the Where’s Waldo books have held a cherished spot on bookstore shelves the world over. There are now over 55 million Waldo books in print worldwide and they’ve been translated into eighteen languages. An entire generation has grown up searching for Waldo and his cast of wandering companions.

In celebration of Waldo's longevity and popularity, his American publisher, Candlewick Press, is teaming up with the American Booksellers Association and 250 independent bookstores all across the country, including Phoenix Books here in Burlington, to have fun and encourage people to visit local businesses. There is no charge to participate, and the game lasts for the entire month of July. For more information about hunting for Waldo in Burlington, call Phoenix Books at 802-448-3350.

By the way, Phoenix Books Essex is doing a Where's Waldo hunt of its own!  Find out more on our upcoming events page.

Join us for a poetry reading with W. S. Di Piero!

W. S. Di Piero, winner of the 2012 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, is the author of ten books of poetry; the most recent is Nitro Nights (Copper Canyon, 2011). His poems have appeared frequently in Poetry, The New Yorker, and Threepenny Review, and he has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, and other periodicals. He’s a well-known essayist on art, literature, culture, and personal experience. The latest of his five essay collections contains his recent art writings: When Can I See You Again? (Pressed Wafer, 2010). His autobiographical essays have appeared twice in Best American Essays. His books also include translations from Greek and Italian. Di Piero has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award. He lives in San Francisco.

“Di Piero’s work is forceful and engaging. Whether he’s describing the vivid street characters from his childhood in South Philadelphia, the restorers in the Strozzi Chapel at Santa Maria Novella in Florence, or the apricot trees in his backyard in San Francisco, Di Piero looks at the world with a painter’s eye and a poet’s sense of craft.”
–- Harvard Review

“Di Piero’s poems throb with the intensity of urban life, buried anger, and old griefs that still ache.”
--San Francisco Chronicle

“His poems have the texture of American cities, the sights, sounds, and especially the smells of where we’ve lived in the last thirty years, and he has caught our American voices in all their glory and banality, our diction and our inflections, even when we’re talking to ourselves. By some magic – let’s call it inspiration – he knows us even when there’s almost nothing to know.”
--Philip Levine, Ploughshares

Join acclaimed author-illustrator Bonnie Christensen for a discussion and signing of her newest book, I, Galileo.  This event is free and open to the public, and copies of Bonnie's books will be available for purchase and to have signed.

Christensen adopts the voice of Galileo and lets him tell his own tale in I, Galileo, an outstanding picture book biography. The first person narration gives this book a friendly, personal feel that makes Galileo's remarkable achievements and ideas completely accessible to young readers. And Christensen's artwork glows with the light of the stars he studied.

Galileo's contributions were so numerous--the telescope! the microscope!--and his ideas so world-changing--the sun-centric solar system!--that Albert Einstein called him "the father of modern science." But in his own time he was branded a heretic and imprisoned in his home. He was a man who insisted on his right to pursue the truth, no matter what the cost--making his life as interesting and instructive as his ideas.

Bonnie Christensen is the author and illustrator of the Schneider Family Book Award winner Django and Woodie Guthrie: Poet of the People, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and a New York Times Notable Book. Her illustrations also appear in the London Folio Society's edition of The Grapes of Wrath and over ten children's books, including Pompeii, Lost and Found by Mary Pope Osborne. She lives in Wilson, North Carolina, and has strong ties to Vermont.

Join Evelyn Geer and the Lepine sisters to learn about the stories behind Evelyn's new book, The Lepine Girls of Mud City: Embracing Vermont. Books will be available for purchase and to have signed. You can also meet Evelyn and the Lepine sisters on June 23rd at Phoenix Books Essex.

The Lepines’ story began in Quebec, from where Maurice and Imelda immigrated to Vermont during the Great Depression. The family farmed, lived off the rich Vermont landscape and instilled a love for it in their daughters, Gert, Jeanette and Therese. As adults, “the Girls” taught school, traveled the world and worked for President Johnson but never forgot their roots. All three returned to Mount Sterling Farm, raising their famed Jersey cows and embodying Vermont’s agricultural tradition. Their story is one of hope and valor—of a family who loved their home and neighbors and left their land as a lasting gift for the world.

Evelyn Geer is a lifelong resident of Vermont and a long-time friend of the Lepine family. During college, she cared for the sisters’ ailing mother, and has remained close to the family since. She has made a living as an artist and journalist, and is a member of the Jacob Walker Art Gallery in Morristown, VT, which was founded by the Lepine sisters. She is also a member of the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, worked for the Stowe Reporter, Stowe Guide Magazine, and The Vermont Journal and Vermont’s Channel 3 TV. She is a member of the Vermont Folklife Center, Stowe Historical Society, and Morristown Historical Society.

Mayor Miro Weinberger will officially welcome us to town, with the requisite scissors and ribbon!

Vermont State Senator Hinda Miller will visit Phoenix Books Burlington to discuss her new memoir, Pearls of a Sultana: What I've Learned About Business, Politics, and the Human Spirit. Copies of this book will be available for purchase and to have signed following the event.

Hinda Miller has been a Vermont State Senator since 2003. As vice chair of the economic development committee and member of the appropriations committee, she has championed legislation promoting the creative economy, green environmental technologies, and complementary medicine as part of quality health care. Born in Canada, she has been, since 1977, a resident of Burlington, Vermont, where she lives with her husband, Dr. Joel Miller. She has two grown children, Macey and Noah. She received a BFA from Parsons School of Design & MFA from New York University as well as an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Trinity College. Before serving in the Vermont Senate, she enjoyed a successful career as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, visiting university professor, corporate director, community activist, and yoga teacher. In 1977, she co-founded Jogbra, Inc., the original maker of the Jogbra women's sports garment. After growing the business into a national brand and selling the company to Sara Lee Corp., Hinda continued on as president, CEO and spokesperson from 1990–1997. Ms. Miller presently sits on the board of directors of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. as chair of the Corporate Social Responsibility and Governance Committees. She is a former board member of the New England Culinary Institute, and is a trustee emeritus of Champlain College. Ms. Miller believes that a strong inner voyage for self-knowledge is the foundation of a successful and purposeful life. She has continually tried to bring spiritual practice into worldly endeavors, always practicing the integration of the material and spiritual world. To that end, she has been a seeker and student of yoga for over 30 years, teaching yoga to prison inmates, teenage mothers, and women of all ages.

About the Book:   This book is a memoir that is equal parts business, politics, and spirituality. Hinda Miller's career has spanned all three, and then some! Inspired by the simple, yet powerful, legacy of her father, Bobo, Ms. Miller and a partner develop and bring to market the Jogbra, the original sports bra. Over the next decade they build their company into a women's sportswear powerhouse. Eventually, the company is sold to a corporate giant, and Ms. Miller begins a new career as an executive. Eventually, she leaves business and embarks on a new career as a Vermont State Senator and board member for such companies as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Throughout all her ventures, Hinda Miller is guided and anchored by a strong connection to the practice of yoga. Now she is preparing for a new venture as a Sultana, a woman of experience and wisdom who is always practicing, always learning, and always grateful.

Join us in welcoming Madeleine M. Kunin to Phoenix Books Burlington!  She'll discuss her new book, The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family.  Copies of the book will be available to purchase and have signed by Kunin.

Madeleine M. Kunin was the first woman governor of Vermont and the first woman in the U.S. to serve three terms as governor. She served as Deputy Secretary of Education and Ambassador to Switzerland in the Clinton administration. Kunin is the author of The New Feminist Agenda; Pearls, Politics and Power; and Living a Political Life. She is also a Marsh professor at the University of Vermont, a commentator on Vermont Public Radio, and founder and board member of the global Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), a nongovernmental organization focused on climate change and civil society. She lives in Burlington, Vermont with her husband, John Hennessey.

About The New Feminist Agenda: Feminists opened up thousands of doors in the 1960s and 1970s, but decades later, are U.S. women where they thought they’d be? The answer is a resounding no.

Women now comprise nearly 60 percent of college undergraduates and half of all medical and law students. They have entered the workforce in record numbers, making the two-wage-earner family the norm. While women changed, however, social structures surrounding work and family remained static. Affordable, high-quality childcare, paid family leave, and equal pay for equal work remain elusive for most women. The U.S. has also fallen far behind other countries on the gender-equity front with fewer women holding federal offices and leading the nation’s top private companies.

It’s time, says former U.S. Ambassador and Governor Madeleine M. Kunin, to change that and usher in a new social revolution. Our inability to invest in families leaves us vulnerable to being reduced to second-rate status in the global economy.

Looking back over five decades of advocacy, Kunin analyzes where progress stalled, examines the successes of other countries, and charts the course for the next feminist revolution—one that mobilizes women, and men, to call for the kind of government and workplace policies that can improve the lives of women and strengthen their families.