Lit Notes: Cheryl Strayed at VCFA, Katherine Paterson at Book Fest

Published August 13, 2014 at 10:00 a.m.

Cheryl Strayed

The literary heavy hitters keep coming at Vermont College of Fine Arts. This Friday, VCFA welcomes best-selling author Cheryl Strayed, whose memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is now a movie starring Reese Witherspoon and due for an Oscar-courting December release. For more details, see our Calendar section.

Looking further ahead, it's time for lit lovers to save the dates of the 10th annual Burlington Book Festival: September 19 to 21. In a year when young-adult tales seem to reign supreme, both on best-seller lists and at the box office, perhaps it's appropriate that the fest is dedicated to one of the honored grandmothers of modern children's lit: Katherine Paterson of Barre. Her classic Bridge to Terabithia is familiar to both readers and moviegoers, and she has won two Newbery Medals, two National Book Awards and Sweden's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, among many other honors.

Don't look for Paterson at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, which hosted the BBF for the past several years; this year, the three-day celebration of the written word moves uphill to the Fletcher Free Library. The Friday opening ceremony will feature an appearance by Paterson and a tribute address from Tanya Lee Stone of South Burlington, herself a prolific children's author. (She'll publish her 100th book this year.)

Also on the BBF's schedule: a Saturday evening launch party for the first issue of Mud Season, the new literary journal from the ever-burgeoning Burlington Writers Workshop. While this initial installment will be digital only, the editors plan to have their first print issue out next May. Submissions are open to all; find the guidelines at mudseasonreview.com.

The BWW also recently scored a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation to run a series of "digital storytelling" workshops with Nate Herzog of StoryHackVT at its writing center located in Burlington's Studio 266. Find upcoming workshop info at burlingtonwritersworkshop.com.

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