Highlights of 2025 included the continued growth of our Vermont Reads program, several in-person early literacy conferences, a visit to Vermont by the former US Poet Laureate, and another season of Humanities Camps.
Program Highlights
Following the Vermont Book Awards in May, director of the awards Miciah Bay Gault (far right) led conversations with some of the winners and finalists at several Vermont bookstores, including at Phoenix Books in Burlington in June.
Pictured, left to right, are VBA 2024 winners Lucy Ives (Creative Nonfiction), GennaRose Nethercott (Fiction), and Margaret Draft (Poetry.)
Other finalists joined us at the event: Alison Prine, Maria Hummel, Carolyn Kuebler, and Tanya Lee Stone.
We sponsored 16 different Humanities Camps in 2025, including “Get Your Act Together” a drama-themed camp hosted by the Bennington Free Library. Schools, libraries, and nonprofits such as Acorn Youth Arts and Education Justice Coalition of Vermont hosted these camps for middle schoolers around the state. The camps are free to students.
Our Vermont Early Literacy Initiative libraries had a great time at Lake Morey in September with the Four Winds Nature Institute, who reminded us of the importance of outdoor play in early childhood. We got our hands muddy, sandy, wet, and chalky; made fairy houses; built ramps for ping-pong balls; and found insects in the woods to look at in detail. And we talked about books (our favorite subject!)
The Vermont Early Literacy Initiative provides Vermont public libraries with picture books and early literacy training. VELI was founded in 2010 and is now hosted by Vermont Humanities. The 21 VELI libraries represent a diversity in geography, size, audience, and experience.
We concluded the sixth year of our innovative Words in the Woods program with the Young Writers Project at the top of Mount Philo in mid-September. We hosted six different Words in the Woods programs in State Parks in the summer of 2026, featuring poets such as Adrie Kusserow, Matthew Olzmann, and Rage Hezekiah.
The program allows Vermonters and visitors to enjoy our state’s natural beauty while listening to and reading literature in the outdoors. Vermont Humanities covers the entrance fee cost for the day so attendees can enjoy the park before, during, and after each program!
Our 2025 Fall Festival: Resilient Patterns highlighted stories of hope. Nearly 800 people came to hear former US Poet Laureate Ada Limon at the University of Vermont; we’re deeply grateful to UVM for making the event possible after our federal funding was slashed.
Other events included the “A Way With Words” radio show and podcast co-hosts in South Burlington, a community walk and dialogue on resilience at Sage Mountain in East Barre (pictured), and an Indigenous perspective on resilience, connection and adaptation in Brattleboro.
Our Vermont Reads program continued its growth in popularity: the three most popular books in the 24-year history of the program have been in the past four years!
Vermont Reads 2025: The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton became our second-most popular Vermont Reads book ever, with 109 projects taking place in 91 different Vermont communities, including in every county in the state.
We distributed 4850 copies of Brooks-Dalton’s novel, and received our second shipment of the book in November to keep up with demand.
June 17, 2026
