Vermont Almanac: For Your Reading Pleasure
Just published.
For the born-and-raised Vermonter. For you, Vermonter or Vermont-adjacent, who moved here years ago, or last month, and who struggles to describe what it’s like to live here. For your big city friend who visits, takes in Vermont in brief sips and is always waiting to discover more. For once-Vermonters whose careers took them elsewhere and you know they’re homesick. The third volume of the Vermont Almanac is now available. Your holiday shopping? Done.
First, it’s gorgeous, rich with artful paintings and photographs that track a year that begins with the harvest month of October. There is a handful of recipes, like Cornmeal Fried Trout with Bacon and Sage, and Rhubarb Crumble, scattered among the almost 300 pages. Local history about clothespins, and Joe Citro’s delve into The New England Fat Men’s Club (yes to weigh-ins and games of baseball; no to pole vaulting.) But mostly, the Almanac is a treasure of words, essays about how Vermonters live on and interact with the natural world: bees and cheese and farm machinery, sugaring and luthiery. After reading Jim Stoops’s “Witch Windows,” you will never have to ask again; you’ll be able to explain why they exist.
One section titled Interconnection is dedicated to “our social ecosystems.” My own contributed piece, “Vermonters Speaking,” starts with a little history (thank you, Sarah Rooker of the Norwich Historical Society), takes note of more modern, digital forms of communications including Rob Gurwitt’s Daybreak, and ends up—where else?—in a Vermont general store. It’s where you look your neighbor in the eye.
Other Upper Valley writers are included in this volume: Micki Colbeck’ s poem, “Footfall;” Li Shen’s “Mud Season Science.” Chuck Wooster of Sunrise Farm in White River Junction writes to question the wisdom of local eggs selling for $3.00 a dozen.
Curl up, read on.
For further information or to order a copy, click here. Copies are also available for sale at your local bookstores.
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.