Annual Report

Meg Reynolds, Board President

Bethany Breitland at Next Stage Arts in Putney

Our spring AMP event featured poet Ben Pease and Vermont Book Award winner Bianca Stone. They were joined in the beautifully restored Calais Town Hall by Aesthesia Orchestra and photographer Bram Towbin. We’re looking forward to bringing AMP Night to the Upper Valley on Nov. 16th at Junction Arts & Media in White River Jct. with an intergenerational group of performances featuring former Vermont Poet Laureate Sydney Lea with Diana Whitney, Jolivette 'the poet warrior', Djeli, Barbara Murphy and music from Nanai.

Bianca Stone at the Calais Town Hall | photo: Bram Towbin

On a 95°, humid, mid-Summer evening nearly 60 people came out to celebrate queer poetry at the Karma Bird House for our signature Justice – And Poetry – For All event. While enjoying mouth-wateringly delicious food from Harmony’s Kitchen, we heard poetry and music from Beck Anson, Tatiana Bruno, James Crews, Harmony Edosomwan, Elio Haag, and Holly Painter. In front of stunning lake views, a student group from BFA St. Albans explored poetry with James Crews from the rooftop conference room pre-event.

Harmony Edosomwan at Karma Bird House

This year, we brought our annual Share Your Heart, Share The World event to Franklin County, where 36 high school students from CVU, Rice, and BFA St. Albans enjoyed a day of poetry with workshops, lunch, free writing time, a keynote from former Maine poet laureate Baron Wormser, and a lively open mic session with so much participation we ran out of time.

We also were grateful to have Sarah Audsley, Duncan Campbell, Lizzy Fox and St. Albans native Julia Remillard on hand to lead additional workshops.

Duncan Campbell and students at the First Congregational Church in St. Albans | photo: Renzo Pizzigalli

Earlier this Fall, we were delighted to bring celebrated Vermont poets Karin Gottshall and Daniel Lusk to the Green Mountain Book Festival where they capped off Lit Night at the Lamp Shop. We look forward to working with the Festival on this event again next year.

Soon after the writing of this letter we’ll be in the foothills of Camel’s Hump for a weekend-long poetry retreat at Fielder Farm with Neil Shepard and Alison Prine. Amidst this inspiring mountain landscape, attendees will have time to deepen their understanding of poetic craft and generate new poems.

CVU, Rice, BFA St. Albans students and teachers at the First Congregational Church in St. Albans

We have exciting things in store for the coming year. In addition to propelling a new voice onto the poetry scene with the publication of the next Sundog Poetry Book Award winner and producing signature events like Justice – And Poetry – For All and AMP Nights, we’ll be launching some new initiatives.

After this year’s historic weather events, climate change is more than ever on the mind of many Vermonters and poets all over the state. We plan to make space for this conversation within our programming next Fall through an interdisciplinary exploration of eco-poetics.

We’re also excited to deepen our youth engagement by starting a Vermont chapter of the Youth Poet Laureate program in collaboration with Urban Word, one of the oldest and most comprehensive youth literary arts organizations in the United States. We’ll support Vermont schools and students throughout the process of selecting Vermont’s first Youth Poet Laureate, a program that recognizes both artistic excellence and civic engagement. Stay tuned for more details.

What we know is that we most certainly cannot do this work alone and without your continued support. Please consider making a contribution to Sundog Poetry — no amount is too small. We must keep poetry alive for all — this is our commitment to you. 

Thank you on behalf of all of us at Sundog Poetry

Board of Directors: Bill Drislane, Emer Feeney, Larissa Hebert, Barbara Murphy, Chard deNiord, Meg Reynolds, Neil Shepard

Managing Director: Drew Frazier