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Reading and Discussion Scholar Bios |
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“Sharing Our Past — Shaping Our Future” Since 1974 |
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Mark Adair has been a contributor to the Vermont Humanities Council since 1995, as both a member of the Speakers’ Bureau and as a Reading and Discussion scholar. He is an adjunct professor at Dartmouth Medical School and a psychoanalyst in Montpelier and White River Junction. He reads ancient Greek every day, has published in both psychoanalytic and classical journals, and has an avid interest in all things classical.
Philip Baruth is a novelist living in Burlington, Vermont. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, in 1993, Philip began teaching at the University of Vermont, where he continues to teach creative writing, autobiography, and eighteenth-century British Literature. In 1998, he began an ongoing collaboration with Vermont Public Radio, writing and performing commentary, as well as writing and hosting VPR’s family story program, Camel’s Hump Radio. His most recent novel is The X President, a dark but affectionate satire of the Clinton years, published in November of 2003 from Bantam Books.
Alan Berolzheimer directs the book publishing program of the Vermont Historical Society, edits the Society’s quarterly newsletter, and works on special projects for the organization. He also works as freelance editor. Alan received a Ph.D. in 20th-century U.S. History from the University of Virginia in 1996. His dissertation is entitled “A Nation of Consumers: Mass Consumption, Middle-Class Standards of Living, and American National Identity, 1910-1950.” Alan lives in Norwich.
Arthur W. Biddle enjoys discussing good books with the kind of sensitive readers attracted to humanities programs. Since he retired from the English department at the University of Vermont, he has traveled and worked in South Africa, India and Southeast Asia, Argentina, Chile, and most recently, China, where he taught during the 2003-2004 school year. He was co-editor of The Literature of Vermont and has published a dozen other books.
Linda Bland’s first book, Don’t Stop at Green Lights, was released by Adams Media in 1998. A former literary agent, Linda is the proprietor of Cahoots Writing Services. She helps established and new authors prepare their manuscripts for sale and publication. She has given presentations for 25 years at five Vermont colleges and universities, IBM, Ben & Jerry’s, and the State of Vermont. Her reading group leadership includes communication with the book’s author, provocative questions, and humor.
Suzanne Brown is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College and has led Vermont Humanities Council and New Hampshire Humanities Council book discussions for over 20 years. Focusing on 19th and 20th century American and English literature, she holds a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. She has published her own short fiction and articles on the short story form. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany and received a fiction-writing grant from the New Hampshire Arts Council.
Peter Burns has been a scholar for the Vermont Humanities Council since 1990. He has led hundreds of discussion groups and a presentation about King Arthur. Peter enjoys writing essays, stories, and poetry. A professional storyteller, he has been a passionate reader since 1962 when he finished reading his first book, Chicken Soup with Rice. He brings an astounding range of knowledge to each program—and homemade cookies, if requested.
Merilyn Burrington has led discussions for the Vermont Humanities Council for a decade. A former school librarian, she is the Director of Prospect Research in the University of Vermont’s Development office. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and a master’s degree in History from UVM. Areas of specialization include 19th century American culture, 19th and 20th century American, Canadian, and British literature, and detective novels. Areas of interest are eclectic and evolving.
Eric Bye is a magazine editor and an accredited freelance foreign language translator. He holds an M.A. in French and also has done graduate studies in Spanish and German. He is active in the Vermont Humanities Council Speaker’s Bureau and Reading and Discussion program, with which he has been involved for a decade and a half. He is also an enthusiastic collector and player of old five-string banjos, and an authority on flintlock firearms.
Francette Cerulli has led book discussions since 1991, preferring to interweave her research with lively group discussions rather than lecture. Cerulli is a bookseller and freelance writer. Her work has appeared in the Times Argus, Vermont Life, Northern Woodlands, and Yankee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Norwich University, and has taught writing in Vermont’s schools and prisons. Cerulli’s The Spirits Need to Eat, a book of poems, was published in 1999 (Nine-Patch Press). |
