Thank You to Our 2024 Authors!

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.

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.

Vermont author, Kenneth M. Cadow has spent a lot of time in the woods, in the wood shop, and working with young adults in schools as an art teacher, English Teacher, STEM teacher, wood shop teacher, and high school principal. He and his wife, Lisa, have three grown children, a border collie named Quinine, and a cat named Rosie. Ken serves on the boards of Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation and Vermont Rural Education Collaborative. He presents frequently to teachers and educator training programs on rural education, general education and career preparedness, education and boys, and general education / community partnerships. Gather is his first novel.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

She is also co-founder of Africa ELI (Education and Leadership Initiative) along with the Lost Boys of Sudan and resettled in Vermont which supports refugee girls education. She is currently Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont.

Author of the collection of poems “Mountain Spells,” (Rootstock publications, 2024), former Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine, and 2024 nominee for the Poet Laureateship of Vermont, Afrofuturist poet, bass clarinetist, and composer Toussaint St. Negritude conjures whole liberations in full tempo. US Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks described his work as "full of sweet sounds and surprises." Originally from San Francisco, Toussaint has lived and broadly thrived across the African Diaspora, from the sacred mountains of Haiti, to the Coltrane District of North Philadelphia. He, along with bassist Gahlord Dewald, is the leader of the band Jaguar Stereo!, a free-form ensemble of his own poetry and improvisational jazz, and his works have been widely published and recorded for over 40 years. On an alpine sanctuary facing east, Toussaint St. Negritude continues to thrive in the farthest elevations of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pamela N. Walker is an Assistant Professor of African American History at the University of Vermont.  Broadly, her work examines motherhood, race, activism, benevolence, ideas about the “South,” epistolary writing and political consciousness in 1960s-era social movement networks. She is currently working on a book titled Signed, Sealed, Delivered:How Black and White Mothers used the Box Project and the Postal System to Fight Hunger and Feed the Mississippi Freedom Movement, which is under contract with the University of North Carolina Press. Signed, Sealed, Delivered tells a new and illuminating story of ordinary Black and white women’s overlooked participation in the modern Civil Rights Movement using one of the nation’s largest federal agencies: the U.S. Postal System. She teaches classes on African American History, Black Women’s History, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement.

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. 

Brian is the author of the award-winning fantasy trilogy, The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, which has been translated into a dozen languages worldwide; Skullsworn, a stand-alone novel set in the same world; and the newest installment, The Empire’s Ruin. His books have been translated into a dozen languages.

After teaching literature, philosophy, history, and religion for more than a decade, Brian began writing fiction. He now lives on a steep dirt road in the mountains of southern Vermont, where he divides his time between fathering, writing, mountain biking, splitting wood, skiing, and adventuring, not necessarily in that order. He’s managed to wean himself off social media, but can be contacted through his website: www.brianstaveley.com.

Stephen P. Kiernan's most recent book is the novel The Glass Chateau. Between his fiction and decades of journalism, he has had nearly five million words in print. A graduate of Middlebury College and the Iowa Writers Workshop, his work has won wide recognition -- including the George Polk Award, the Scripps-Howard National Journalism Award and the Brechner Center's Freedom of Information Award. His fiction has been optioned for film and TV development, and has been translated into many languages. He lives in Vermont.

BIANCA STONE is an award winning poet, teacher and mentor living in Vermont. She is the author of the five books, including the poetry collections, What is Otherwise Infinite (Tin House, 2022) winner of the 2022 Vermont Book Award; The Möbius Strip Club of Grief (Tin House, 2018), Someone Else’s Wedding Vows (Octopus Books and Tin House, 2014) and collaborated with Anne Carson on the illuminated version of Antigonick (New Directions, 2012). Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poets and Writers, The Nation and elsewhere. She co-founded the poetry-based nonprofit, Ruth Stone House, where she teaches classes on poetry and poetic study, hosts the Ode & Psyche Podcast and is editor-at-large for ITERANT magazine.

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.

Jim is the last full-time resident on a one-lane, dirt, dead-end road at the tip of a long peninsula in the middle of a very large lake. He enjoys biking and kayaking.He was born and raised in the foothills of the Longfellow Range of the Appalachian Mountains in western Maine. He moved to Vermont in 1981. Here, he continues to appreciate the vibrant colors of woods, fields, and hills and the cold black and white of winter which are often subjects of his poetry. He joined BWW in 2018 as a member of the “Poetry Feedback Workshop” where he shares his passion for poetry. Jim teaches at the Community College of Vermont. His poetry has been published in “Poem City,” Burlington Free Press, “The Poetry Path” BWW,  “Maya’s Review: The Closed Eye Open,” and appears in the March 2024 editions  of “Ink In Thirds” and “Cold Lake Anthology.” He is the author of  “Picture Perfect Poems."

Heather is an owner/founder of 1852 Media and provides clients personalized attention so that their vision can shine. She is a licensed attorney and voracious reader who adores falling in love with a new book. She is passionate about helping clients come up with creative solutions, build their brands and expand their reach. Heather also owns the company Very Vermont, that creates and engraves custom products. She sits on the Board of After Action, a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of trauma survivors. Heather is originally from Pennsylvania but currently lives in Vermont with her husband, their son, dog, thirteen goats and a cat.

Samantha Kolber is the owner and publisher of Rootstock Publishing and the author of Birth of a Daughter (Kelsay Books, 2020), a 5-Star Readers’ Favorite, Gold Winner in Realistic Poetry in the Human Relations Indie Book Award, and Poetry Winner in the 2023 San Francisco Book Festival. She received her MFA in creative writing from Goddard College, and completed a post-grad semester in poetry at the Solstice MFA Program at Pine Manor College. Previous jobs include event & marketing coordinator at Bear Pond Books, associate director of sales & marketing at Tupelo Press, managing editor of Hunger Mountain at VCFA, and publications & communications manager at Goddard College. Hobbies include baking, reading, writing, gardening, and walking her dog Ziggy.

Print & Production Director, Rachel Fisher, has been with Onion River Press since 2017. In that time she has helped more than 100 authors realize their dream of being published. While she took a long "break" to raise a family, her background is in publishing, starting as an editorial assistant in New Jersey and leaving publishing as the Managing Editor for Hyperion Books for Children/Disney Press in 2001.

Miciah Bay Gault is director of the Vermont Book Award. She’s also the author of the novel Goodnight Stranger (Park Row, 2019), which was nominated for a Shirley Jackson award and longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s first novel prize. She’s been a fiction fellow at Bread Loaf and a visiting writer at the Vermont Studio Center, and her fiction and essays have appeared in Tin House, The Sun, The New York Times Modern Love Column, Poets & Writers, and other places. She teaches in the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and works at Vermont Humanities.