The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference runs through Saturday, August 24, giving Vermonters the opportunity to attend free lectures and readings by some of today’s best fiction and nonfiction writers and poets.
The event, held on the Bread Loaf campus of Middlebury College in Ripton, began in 1926. The event, which offers workshops, classes and readings for aspiring writers, has attracted renowned authors in the past, including Robert Frost, Carson McCullers, John Irving, Anne Sexton, Richard Wright, Eudora Welty, Terry Tempest Williams, Toni Morrison and Julia Alvarez.
This year’s 11-day conference features nearly 20 faculty and guest speakers. Here are seven of those authors and related events (all in the Little Theater) that the public can attend.
Jenny Boully
Boully, a nonfiction writer, is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of “Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life.” The Bennington College professor has two upcoming books: “close cover/strike gently” and “Parallax.”
16:15 Wednesday, 21 August, readings by Jenny Boully And Matt Johnson
Jamel Brinkley
A native of New York City, Brinkley wrote Witness: Stories, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize in Fiction, and A Lucky Man: Stories, a finalist for prizes including the National Book Award. Brinkley teaches at the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
20:15 Thursday, August 22nd, readings by Jamel Brinkley And Margot Livesey
Xochitl Gonzalez
Gonzalez’s novel, Olga Dies Dreaming, was named to the 2022 best-of lists by The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR. As an editor at the Atlantic, Gonzalez was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary last year. Her latest novel, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, was published in March.
20:15 Wednesday, August 14, welcoming ceremony with a reading by Xochitl Gonzalez
Samantha Hunt
Hunt, a graduate of the University of Vermont, published a nonfiction book about death and hauntings called “The Unwritten Book: An Investigation” in 2022. She is also the author of novels, including “The Invention of Everything Else,” a fictionalized account of the life of Nikola Tesla.
Sunday, 18 August, 9 a.m., lecture by Samantha Hunt on the topic “An Atlas of Everything: Maps, Invisible Worlds and Writing”; 4:15 p.m., Thursday, August 22nd, readings by ‘Pemi Aguda, Erin Marie Lynch And Samantha Hunt
Rebecca Makkai
A graduate of the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College, Makkai is known for her novels The Great Believers, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and I Have Some Questions for You, a New York Times bestseller. She spends her summers at a lake in Addison County.
20:15 Monday, 19 August, readings by Rick Barot And Rebecca Makkai; Friday, 23 August, 9 a.m., lecture by Rebecca Makkai“Can’t go over it, can’t go under it”
Adrian Matejka
Born in Germany and raised in Indianapolis, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award in 2013 for his third book, “The Big Smoke.” He is also the author of the graphic novel “Last on His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century,” which will be published in 2023.
20:15 Saturday, August 17, readings by Paul Lisicky And Adrian Matejka
Dinaw Mengestu
Mengestu, who was born in Ethiopia and raised in Illinois, is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His novels include “How to Read the Air,” “All Our Names” and “Someone Like Us,” which was published July 30.
20:15 Thursday, August 15, readings by Carmen Gimenez And Dinaw Mengestu
When you go
WHAT: Bread Loaf Writers Conference
WHEN: Wednesday, August 14 to Saturday, August 24
WHERE: Middlebury College Bread Loaf Campus, Ripton
INFORMATION: Free. www.middlebury.edu/writers-conferences/
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at [email protected].
