Sundog Poetry’s mission is to promote poetry for the enrichment of our cultural lives: to support Vermont poets in their development through workshops, readings, and publication; and to cultivate in Vermont audiences of all ages a love and appreciation of this art through a variety of poetry programming.
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Meg Reynolds
BOARD PRESIDENT
Meg Reynolds is a poet, artist, and teacher from New England. Her work has appeared in The Missing Slate, Mid-American Review, Fugue, The Offing, Hobart, Inverted Syntax amongst others as well as the anthologies Monster Verse: Poems Human and Inhuman, The Book of Donuts, and With You: Withdrawn Poems of the #Metoo Movement.
Her first collection of poetry comics, A Comic Year, is available now from Finishing Line Press. She lives in Burlington, VT with her family.
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Barbara Murphy
BOARD VICE-PRESIDENT
Barbara Murphy spent her professional career in higher education in Vermont serving as president for two of Vermont’s state colleges—Community College of Vermont and Johnson State College (now Northern Vermont University-Johnson). She currently serves as a board member to organizations committed to broadening access to the arts especially to those artists historically under-represented. She is a poet and essayist at work on a second collection of poetry. Her poetry has appeared in Green Mountains Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, and Threepenny Review. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, Full Grown People, and Meat for Tea- The Valley Review. She lives and writes in Burlington, VT.
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Bill Drislane
BOARD TREASURER
Bill Drislane, of Jericho, is an avid enthusiast of music and poetry, and has performed, recited, and presented in numerous venues in Vermont and upstate New York. Recent work includes stage productions of Walt Whitman’s poetry in Whitman Aloud and recitations at the Burlington Irish Heritage Festival and at Montpelier’s PoemCity. He brings nonprofit board experience from past positions on the boards of HomeShare Vermont, Camp For Me, and Young Tradition Vermont. He makes a livelihood as an estates and trust attorney in Williston.
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Larissa Hebert
BOARD SECRETARY
Larissa Hebert is a high school English teacher at Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington. She has had poetry published in several publications including the Northern New England Review, Off the Coast and the Knock Literary Journal. Larissa grew up in Wayne, Maine and attended the University of Vermont, where she double majored in German and English. She then received her Master's in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College. While at UVM, Larissa spent a semester abroad at Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany. Larissa lives in Fairfield with her daughter, Ella, and husband, Thomas.
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Sam Boudreau
BOARD MEMBER
Sam Boudreau grew up in St.Albans, Vermont. He’s a Middlebury College alumni, holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Montana, and has taught undergraduate composition courses and poetry workshops. He frequently returns to the classroom to share his love of poetry with young people.
When writing, his work generally centers around queer intimacy, the environment, sociopolitical issues, and food. His poems can be found in miniskirt magazine and Scrawl Place (to name a few). He is ecstatic to be working, living and playing in Winooski, Vermont as a project manager for Vermont Information Processing. Sam is looking forward to engaging with and supporting all Vermont poets, their practice, and their work through Sundog Poetry. He can’t wait to get started!
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Chard deNiord
BOARD MEMBER
deNiord’s poetry collections include In My Unknowing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020); Interstate (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015); Speaking in Turn, a collaboration with Tony Sanders (Gnomon Press, 2011); The Double Truth (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011); Night Mowing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005); Sharp Golden Thorn (Marsh Hawk Press, 2003) and Asleep in the Fire (University of Alabama Press, 1990).
DeNiord has also authored two books of interviews with renowned American poets, Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Stapled Songs: Reflections and Conversations with Twentieth Century American Poets (Marick Press, 2012) and I Would Lie To You If I Could (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). DeNiord is Professor Emeritus of English and Creative Writing at Providence College and the former Poet Laureate of Vermont. He lives in Westminster West, Vermont with his wife, Liz.
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Neil Shepard
BOARD MEMBER
Neil Shepard has had a long involvement in the world of poetry: his eighth book, How It Is: Selected Poems, was published in 2018 by Salmon Poetry (Ireland); in 2019, he edited the anthology Vermont Poets and Their Craft (Green Writers Press, VT). His new manuscript, The Book of Failures, is scheduled for release in 2024. His poems appear in several hundred literary magazines, among them Harvard Review, New England Review, North American Review, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, and Southern Review, and they have been featured online at Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and Poem-A-Day (from the Academy of American Poets).
Shepard has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, and he has been a visiting writer at the Chautauqua Writers Institute, The Frost Place, and Ossabaw Island Writers Retreat. He founded and directed the Writing Program at the Vermont Studio Center and has taught in the low-residency MFA program at Wilkes University (PA) and in the BFA Creative Writing Program at Johnson State College. He also founded the literary magazine Green Mountains Review and was the Senior Editor for a quarter-century; since 2020, he has edited the online literary journal Plant-Human Quarterly. He currently splits his time between Vermont and New York City, where he teaches poetry workshops at Poets House. Outside of the literary realm, Neil is a founding member of the jazz-poetry group PoJazz.
Photo: Lynn Saville
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Drew Frazier
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Drew Frazier has a passion for and history of supporting communities of artists working at the intersection of creativity, technology and change. His experience has been focused on content and tech management across industries as disparate as community media and captive insurance. He is actively involved in the Vermont arts scene through projects such as PechaKucha Night Burlington and The Quarry Project.
Earlier, Drew studied Creative Writing and English at Concordia University in Montreal and at the University of Vermont. He lives in Burlington with his wife and 2 sons and enjoys a variety of pastimes including travel, music, and a small handful of quasi-athletic activities.
Founders
Sundog Poetry is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization funded through programming, grants, and the generosity of individuals, businesses, and organizations.
Support our work and help strengthen poetry in Vermont→
We are a remote organization serving the entire state of Vermont. Our events are held in various venues, which have included independent bookstores, performing art spaces, cafes, schools, libraries, art galleries, and iconic Vermont venues like Shelburne Farms and Burlington’s ECHO. Our retreats are held at Fielder Farm at the base of Camel’s Hump in Huntington, a short drive from Burlington and Vermont’s major airport.