J. Kevin Graffagnino is the author or editor of 16 books on Vermont history, most recently Ira Allen: A Biography (2024). Over the past 40 years, he has spoken more than 800 times in Vermont, in more than half the towns in the state. Dr. Graffagnino served as curator of Vermont history at the University of Vermont's special collections library from 1978 to 1995 and as executive director of the Vermont Historical Society from 2003 to 2008.

Elise A. Guyette is a historian, author, and educator. She has a passion for discovering and teaching about stories that were lost because of the traditional telling of history from the point of view of the powerful. She co-directed Turning Points in American History, a federally funded Teaching American History grant for Vermont teachers, of which many South Burlington teachers took advantage through educational trips to NY, SC, and MN. Dr. Guyette co-founded the Burlington Edible History Tour, which told the stories of various Burlington immigrant groups along with their food traditions and food businesses. Her publications include Vermont: A Cultural Patchwork and Discovering Black Vermont, for which she was awarded the 2010 

Richard O. Hathaway prize for outstanding contributions to the field of Vermont history. Dr. Guyette has many published articles and curricula focused on diverse stories, including teacher's guides to museum exhibits, artifact kits, and theater productions. She has led educational and history workshops in places as varied as Kunming in China, Durban in South Africa, Albuquerque, NM, and throughout New England. She is on the Board of Directors for Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh and is working to create a Burlington History & Culture Center.

Mercedes de Guardiola is the author of “Vermont for the Vermonters”: The History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State. A leading expert on Vermont’s eugenics movement, she testified before the state legislature during hearings in the 2020s. Her research examines public policies around child health and welfare, mass institutionalization and deinstitutionalization, sterilization, and family separation as well as eugenicists' education campaigns. She earned her BA from Dartmouth College and lives in New York City.

Erika Nichols-Frazer is a writer, editor, and poet from the Green Mountains of Vermont. She has published numerous works and won awards for both her fiction and poetry. She is the Editor for A Tether to This World: Stories & Poems of Recovery, (Main Street Rag, 2021) and is the author of the forthcoming collection of poems Staring Too Closely (Main Street Rag, 2023). She is also a journalist for a small-town newspaper and a reading and writing mentor to young adults. In her free time, she cooks for family and friends using the bounty of vegetables harvested from her garden. Her favorite recipes include spinach gnocchi in Gorgonzola sauce and artichokes drizzled in hollandaise. An explorer of the world, and the world of books, she is a graduate of both Bennington College and Sarah Lawrence College. Erika lives in Waitsfield, Vermont with her husband, two dogs, a cat and nine chickens.

Stephen Cramer’s first book of poems, Shiva’s Drum, was selected for the National Poetry Series and published by University of Illinois Press. Bone Music, his sixth, won the Louise Bogan Award. His ninth, The Disintegration Loops, was a finalist for the Vermont Book Award. His most recent is City Full of Fireworks and Blues, out from Shanti Arts. He is also the editor of Turn It Up! Music in Poetry from Jazz to Hip-Hop. Cramer’s work has appeared in journals such as The American Poetry Review, African American Review, The Yale Review, and Harvard Review. He teaches writing and literature at the University of Vermont and lives with his wife and teenager in Burlington. 

Neil Shepard’s ninth collection, The Book of Failures, came out in January 2024 from Madville Publishing. How It Is: Selected Poems, was published in 2018 by Salmon Poetry (Ireland), and in 2019, he edited Vermont Poets & Their Craft (Green Writers Press, VT). His poems appear online at Poetry Daily, Verse Daily and Poem-a-Day, as well as in several hundred literary magazines. He founded and edited for a quarter century the Green Mountains Review, and he currently edits the online literary magazine Plant-Human Quarterly. These days, he splits his time between Vermont and NYC, where he teaches at Poets House.

Alison Prine’s latest collection of poems, LOSS AND ITS ANTONYM (Headmistress Press, 2024), won the 2023 Sappho’s Prize in Poetry and came out in March. Her debut poetry collection, STEEL (Cider Press Review, 2016), was named a finalist for the 2017 Vermont Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Five Points, Harvard Review, Prairie Schooner, and others. She lives and works in Burlington, Vermont. Visit her at alisonprine.com.

Daniel Mills is the author of the novels Revenants and Moriah and of the short fiction collections The Lord Came at Twilight and Among the Lilies. His novella “A Song in the Night” is currently available from Zagava Books. In 2019-2020, he created and produced the historical true crime podcast These Dark Mountains exploring life and death in late 19th Century Vermont. His original research has appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books. He lives in Hinesburg.

Margot Harrison is the author of four young adult novels, including an Indies Introduce Pick, two Junior Library Guild Selections, and two Vermont Book Award Finalists. She grew up in New York and now lives in Vermont. The Midnight Club is her debut adult novel.

Horror enthusiast. That’s Kristin Dearborn in a nutshell. This life-long New Englander and horror writer was destined to write about anything that screams, squelches, or bleeds. Her first literary love was Michael Crichton. Her second, Stephen King. Dearborn earned her M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University and has been on the horror scene since 2010. She’s the author of Faith of Dawn (2024) Downlines (2023) The Amazing Alligator Girl (2022)  Sacrifice Island (2018), Woman in White (2017), many short stories, and more. When she’s not unleashing a fresh new nightmare onto the page, Dearborn is probably searching for one. Or if she’s taking a break from all things blood-curdling, she’s likely scaling rock cliffs, hiking the northeast, hanging out with her pets, or gallivanting the globe.

Amber Roberts writes contemporary romance about unabashedly nerdy characters in ridiculous situations. She lives with her husband, two children, and formerly feral cats in the Vermont woods, where eating maple creemees is a year-round activity. She spends her time copywriting, forgetting to water her plants, and awkwardly replying “you too” at inappropriate moments.

Katherine Arden is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of books for adults and children, including The Winternight Trilogy and The Small Spaces Quartet. She has been a finalist for Hugo and Locus awards, as well as the Vermont Book Award. Her novel Small Spaces was on more than 25 state reading lists and won awards in three states, including the Vermont Golden Dome award. 

Laurie Forest is a New York Times, USA Today, Publisher's Weekly and International Bestselling Author who lives deep in the backwoods of Vermont where she sits in front of a wood stove drinking strong tea and dreaming up tales full of dryads, dragons and wands.

Madison has been a storyteller since she was a young child, her first original story being a tale called Quest Kids written when she was nine, bearing nearly as many illustrations as there was text. Now, her stories hold far more words than illustrations, but she still exudes her love for the arts in her chapter heading illustrations and maps.

She Who Chose War is Madison’s romantic fantasy debut, its sequel, She Who Brought Death, and prequel, He Who Chose Love, releasing later in 2024. Her writing journey has just begun, as she weaves together tales of epic worlds brimming with magic, diverse cultures, and tantalizing romance.

Sean Prentiss is the award-winning author of Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave, which won the National Outdoor Book Award, Utah Book Award, and the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, and the author of Crosscut: Poems. He is also the series editor for the Bloomsbury Writers Guide and Anthologies Series. Two books, Environmental and Nature Writing and Advanced Creative Nonfiction are written by Prentiss. Prentiss is co-editor of The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre: Explorations in Creative Nonfiction and co-editor of The Science of Story: The Brain Behind Creative Nonfiction. He and his family live on a small lake in northern Vermont, and he serves as an associate professor at Norwich University. 

Thomas Christopher Greene is the critically acclaimed author of six novels and one memoir-in-stories. His fiction has been translated into 13 languages and has found a worldwide audience. His 2014 novel, THE HEADMASTER’S WIFE, was an international bestseller, and his 2007 novel, ENVIOUS MOON, was long listed for the Dublin International Literary Award. Tom is also an educator, who founded Vermont College of Fine Arts, and served as President from 2007-2020. He is a restaurateur who owns Hugo’s Bar and Grill in Montpelier, a bistro and music club. A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, he has lived in central Vermont for thirty years.

Rob ran off to the circus in 1969. He trained with mime master Marcel Marceau and received an honors degree in Drama and Literature from Lake Forest College.

In 2023 he wrote his first play, Act 39, which premiered to sold out audiences in the Haybarn Theater at Goddard College. His new memoir:

Circle of Sawdust: A Circus Memoir of Mud, Myth, Mirth, Mayhem & Magic was published in 2024.

In 1987 Rob founded the award-winning international company Circus Smirkus, the only youth circus in America touring under a big top. Smirkus has initiated cultural exchanges with 32 countries, earning the title “The United Nations of the Youth Circus World.” He has written two books on Circus Smirkus.

He created the Parkinson’s Pantomime Project for helping people with movement disorders manage symptoms through mime and circus techniques.

Rob’s awards include Copenhagen’s World Star-Time Gold Clown; The Bessie Award; Russia’s Best Director Prize at The International Festival on the Black Sea; It Takes A Village Award; the Vermont Arts Council Award of Merit, and the 2008 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.  

Adrie Kusserow is the author of three books of poetry (REFUGE and Hunting Down the Monk published by BOA Editions, Ltd, New American Poets Series) and recently, THE TRAUMA MANTRAS: A Memoir in Prose Poems (Duke University Press, 2024), as well as an ethnography American Individualisms (Palgrave MacMillan, Culture, Mind and Society Series). Her work has been featured in The Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, Harvard Divinity Review, New England Review, Los Angeles Review, Prairie Schooner, Plume, War, Literature and the Arts, The Common and numerous other poetry journals and anthologies. She has served as poetry co-editor for Anthropology and Humanism and Green Mountains Review.

Archer Mayor is the author of the highly acclaimed Vermont-based mystery series featuring detective Joe Gunther, which the Chicago Tribune describes as “the best police procedurals being written in America.” His 29th book, BURY THE LEAD, is in stores now.

Protagonist Gunther once worked for the Brattleboro, Vermont, police department and is now a Special Agent for the fictional Vermont Bureau of Investigation. Books about his case-solving prowess have appeared once a year since 1988 and have been published in five languages (if you count British). They routinely gather high praise from such sources as The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the New Yorker, often appearing on annual ten best lists.

Mayor’s novels are rooted in actual field experience. Closely aligned to the Gunther series are the author’s own experiences in Vermont working variously as a police officer and a firefighter/EMT over the past thirty years. Currently, he still works as a medico-legal death investigator for the state’s medical examiner. This background adds depth, detail, and veracity to his characters and their struggles.

Mayor’s diverse prior life also informs his books. He was brought up in the US, Canada and France. He has worked as a

scholarly editor, a researcher for TIME-LIFE Books, a political advance-man, a theater photographer, a newspaper

writer/editor, a lab technician for Paris-Match Magazine in Paris, France, and a medical illustrator.

Before turning his hand to fiction, Mayor wrote history books, the most notable being Southern Timberman: The Legacy of William Buchanan, which concerned the lumber and oil business in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the 1870s to the 1970s. Published in 1988 and well received, it was republished as a trade paperback in 2009 and remains available from the University of Georgia Press.

In addition to writing novels and occasional articles, Mayor gives talks around the country. He has been on the faculty of the Bread Loaf Young Writers conference in Middlebury, Vermont, and the Colby College seminar on forensic sciences in Waterville, Maine.

Archer was honored with the 2016 Robert B. Parker Award. (Parker being “The Dean of Mystery Writers.”) In 2004, he won the New England Independent Booksellers Association Award for Best Fiction—the first time a writer of crime literature has been so honored. He was inducted into Vermont’s Academy of Arts and Science, and, in 2012, was awarded the Vermont governor’s award for Excellence in the Arts. In 2011, Mayor’s 22nd Joe Gunther novel, TAG MAN, earned a place on The New York Times bestseller list for hardback fiction.