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Join Michelle Arnosky Sherburne at the Fletcher Free Library for a discussion of Abolition & the Underground Railroad in Vermont.

Many believe that support for the abolition of slavery was universally accepted in Vermont, but it was actually a fiercely divisive issue that rocked the Green Mountain State. In the midst of turbulence and violence, though, some brave Vermonters helped fight for the freedom of their enslaved Southern brethren. Thaddeus Stevens—one of abolition’s most outspoken advocates—was a Vermont native. Delia Webster, the first woman arrested for aiding a fugitive slave, was also a Vermonter. The Rokeby house in Ferrisburgh was a busy Underground Railroad station for decades. Peacham’s Oliver Johnson worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison during the abolition movement. Discover the stories of these and others in Vermont who risked their own lives to help more than four thousand slaves to freedom.

Michelle Arnosky Sherburne lives with her husband and son in Newbury, Vermont. She is a Vermont historian and has spent years researching the Underground Railroad and the Civil War, lecturing at schools and local organizations. Michelle co-authored A Vermont Hill Town in the Civil War: Peacham’s Story and is a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines. She works at a weekly newspaper when not on history quests.

Join us at this event with Archer Mayor, part of NEFCU's Distinguished
Vermont Writers Series, at 141 Harvest Lane in Williston.  For more
information, call NEFCU at 800-400-8790.

Join us at this event with Sydney Lea, part of NEFCU's Distinguished
Vermont Writers Series, at 141 Harvest Lane in Williston.  For more
information, call NEFCU at 800-400-8790.

Join us at this event with Andrea Chesman, part of NEFCU's Distinguished Vermont Writers Series, at 141 Harvest Lane in Williston.  For more information, call NEFCU at 800-400-8790.

Andrea’s latest book is, Pickled Pantry which has more than 150
recipes for pickles, relishes, chutneys, salsas, sauerkraut and kimchi.
It’s a book for beginners and experienced picklers alike, with a whole
chapter on single-jar recipes. Andrea is a prolific writer whose
articles have appeared in Cooking Light, Fine Cooking, Food & Wine and The New York Times, to name just a few. A Vermont Life contributing editor for 12 years, she is also the author of Recipes from the Root Cellar: 250 Fresh Ways to Enjoy Winter Vegetables; 250 Treasured Country Desserts; and The New Vegetarian Grill Special Note: Andrea will bring samples of her delicious picklings and preservings for tasting at her appearance. 

Award-winning Vermont director Jay Craven will present his new film, Northern Borders, at 6:30pm on Thursday, August 22nd and Friday, August 23rd at the Contois Auditorium in Burlington, Vermont—as part of Craven’s 100 Town Tour of northern New England this summer. Craven, who is currently featured in Orion Magazine (www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/7595/) for his place-based film work, will introduce the picture and lead a post-film discussion.

Northern Borders is based on Howard Frank Mosher’s award-winning novel that was recently declared by The London Guardian as one of the “Top Ten Books Featuring Grandparents” (others included Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). The picture stars Bruce Dern (Coming Home, Alfred Hitchock’s Family Plot) and Geneviève Bujold (Anne of a Thousand Days, King of Hearts). Dern was recently named Best Actor at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, for Alexander Payne’s new film, Nebraska which he shot immediately after completing Northern Borders. Both Bujold and Dern have received Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Emmy nominations. Bujold has also won an Emmy and Golden Globe. Northern Borders also stars Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (Moonrise Kingdom) and 2010 Tony Award nominee Jessica Hecht (Sideways, Friends).

Northern Borders tells the story of ten year-old Austen Kittredge, who is sent to live on his grandparents’ Kingdom County Vermont farm, where he has wild adventures and uncovers long-festering family secrets. It’s 1956 and Austen experiences rural Kingdom County as a place full of eccentric people including his stubborn grandparents, whose thorny marriage is known as the Forty Years War. Initially feeling stuck in this fractured household, young Austen plans a quick exit but ends up stranded with no choice but to navigate and endure. A humorous and sometimes startling coming-of-age story, Northern Borders evokes Vermont’s wildness, its sublime beauty, a haunted past, and an aura of enchantment.

Northern Borders was produced as the result of a unique partnership between Jay Craven’s non-profit Kingdom County Productions and Marlboro College, where Craven is professor of film. The picture was made as the outcome of a semester-long film intensive called Movies from Marlboro. It was produced on a lean budget, through the collaboration of 20 young filmmaking professionals and 34 students and recent graduates from 15 colleges, who worked in substantial roles in every level of production. A new 2014 Movies from Marlboro project will produce Peter and John, based on Guy de Maupassant’s ground-breaking 1887 novel. That production will again partner professionals and students from multiple colleges who earn academic credit for a “semester away” from their home school. Information is available at Movies.Marlboro.edu or by contacting Jay Craven (jcraven@marlboro.edu).

Jay Craven’s Vermont films have been called “New England westerns,” for their larger-than-life characters, archetypal themes involving vanishing ways of life, and their wild and rough-hewn natural settings, where an outlaw culture thrives in the margins. Craven’s films have played in 53 countries and throughout the U.S. and Canada. His awards include two New England Emmys, two National Endowment for the Arts film production grants, and The Producers’ Guild of America’s 1995 NOVA Award for Most Promising New Motion Picture of the Year. Special screenings include The Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, the American Film Institute, Harvard Film Archives, George Eastman House, Cinémathèque Française, The Constitutional Court of Johannesburg, La Cinemateca Nacional de Venezuela, and Beijing Normal University.

Northern Borders tickets will be available at the door. Proceeds will pay the film’s completion costs – and help launch Movies from Marlboro - 2014. Cape Cinema screening schedules and showtimes are available at CapeCinema.com. Northern Borders 100 Town Tour schedules are available online at KingdomCounty.org or by calling 802-357-4616.

Welcome to the Burlington Book Festival! The Queen City’s annual celebration of the written word offers readings, signings, panels, workshops, demos, family activities, and special events featuring literary luminaries from around the world and just around the corner. All events are free of charge and open to the public. As in years past, Phoenix Books will be handling book sales as the official Festival Bookstore. Click through to visit the official festival website.

We'll also be hosting Burlington Book Festival events at Phoenix Books Burlington:

Friday - Burlington's First-Ever New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest
7pm:  So you want to know what happens behind the scenes at The New Yorker cartoon department? Here's your chance. Come to Phoenix Books for this special Burlington Book Festival contest, and be ready to submit your wittiest captions for drawings by acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss. Winners will be chosen - live, in person, and out loud - by a panel of celebrity judges, including Josie Leavitt, Jim Romanoff, and Kevin Byer.  Harry Bliss himself will emcee. Winning captions will be published in Seven Days! Other great prizes include signed prints and autographed copies of Harry Bliss' Death by Laughter. Spectators welcome, but participation is encouraged! Want to get your creative juices flowing? Visit Phoenix Books Burlington now to view the three cartoons in question.

Saturday - Families at Phoenix
12pm:  Marilyn Webb Neagley: Loosie B. Goosie
1pm: Brian D. Cohen: The Bird Book
2pm: Eileen Christelow: Five Little Monkeys Trick-or-Treat
3pm: Laban Carrick Hill: When the Beat was Born
4pm: Tracey Campbell Pearson: Elephant's Story

Sunday - Women's Work Reading Series
12pm: Jessica Maria Tuccelli: Glow
1pm: Angela Patten: High Tea at a Low Table
2pm: Professor Emerita Cardy Raper: A Woman of Science
3pm: Abigail Carroll: Four Squares

And that's only the events at Phoenix Books Burlington!  You can find the full schedule for the Burlington Book Festival at the offical festival website.

Full Circle is about living life fully, embracing our age, and celebrating our elders.  We're going to bust some myths wide open and have a whole lot of fun in the process!

Phoenix Books will be selling books at this weekend-long festival!  Come visit us there.  You can find more information at www.fullcirclefestival.com

Phoenix Books is excited to announce this very special event with Chris Bohjalian and Stephen Kiernan!

Chris Bohjalian is the critically acclaimed author of sixteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Sandcastle Girls, Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, and Midwives. His novel Midwives was a number one New York Times bestseller and a selection of Oprah's Book Club. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and three of his novels have become movies (Secrets of Eden, Midwives, and Past the Bleachers). He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter. Visit him at www.chrisbohjalian.com or on Facebook.

Stephen Kiernan is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop fiction MFA program and holds an MA from Johns Hopkins University. In his twenty-five years as a journalist, he has won more than forty awards. He is a popular media commentator and the author of the non-fiction books Last Rights and Authentic Patriotism.

 

 

 

 

 

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PLUS: Win Chris Bohjalian— in your living room!
Have you always wanted to ask New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian what Sybil Danforth was really thinking in “Midwives”? Or why he wrote “The Sandcastle Girls” from the perspective of a woman? Or how “The Light in Ruins” was born?

Here is your chance: Chris Bohjalian will join your book group in your home to discuss any of his books with you and your group! One name will be drawn from a hat at his kick off event for “The Light in the Ruins” at the Fletcher Free Library on July 8th– brought to you by Phoenix Books! The only stipulations…
1– You must be present to win
&
2– The group must meet within 65 driving miles of Lincoln, Vermont

Not in a book group? No worries! If you win and you are not in a book group, Chris will take you and 2 of your friends to lunch at Leunigs’s on Church Street. So join Chris on July 8th- and bring him home!

Join us for a birthday extravaganza in celebration of the tenth anniversary of Tracey Campbell Pearson's Bob.  We'll have facepainting, a story walk, and Bob-themed crafts - and a visit from Tracey Campbell Pearson herself!

Tracey Campbell Pearson is the beloved author and illustrator of many children’s books, including The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson, a Booklist Editors’ Choice Top of the List–Youth Picture Book winner and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. She lives in Jericho Center, Vermont.

Screen-Free Week is a national celebration when children, families, schools, and communities spend seven days turning off entertainment screen media and turning ON life!  It's time to unplug and play, read, create, garden, explore nature, and spend time with family and friends.