"The Dipper" is our monthly newsletter, where we highlight readings, events, calls for submission, and other literary-related news for the coming month. If you have news or events to share, let us know!  

December News

Last month we welcomed a new reading list from Lizzy Fox, whose first book of poems, Red List Blue, is coming out from Finishing Line Press in January 2021.

In her reading list, Lizzy shares some of her favorite speculative literature, from fantasy trilogies to poetry, with “titles that sparkle with the sublime, the surreal, and the spectacular.” Check out her list, and then put Lizzy’s book on your wish list!

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Yes, it’s that time again: time to buy everyone you know a big pile of book for the holidays! This year, it’s especially important to support your local, independent bookstores (and local theaters, performance venues, artists, musicians, restaurants, and the other small businesses in our towns).

Throughout November, we posted book lists to our social media channels, including 2020 books with New England ties (many of these books are by authors who appeared in virtual events we helped organize, or whose thoughts appeared in interviews and reading lists on our blog this year), suggestions from four of our favorite Upper Valley independent bookstores, and some of our personal favorite books that we’ve read this year. We’ve included all those lists in this newsletter. Coming up later in December we’ll be featuring the favorite books of the Junction Magazine editors!

If all these lists aren’t enough for you, be sure to check out all the reading lists we’ve published on our blog. And The Book Jam’s holiday book list from their recent Virtual Pages in the Pub event. And then there’s always the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2020.

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As we think about the coming holidays, you, our far-flung friends, are in our thoughts. We know it’s a hard time, and those of us in the northern hemisphere may find it a long, cold winter. But the light is soon on its way back, and we have each other, and books, and this vast and strangely connected virtual world. And for that—and for you—we are so very grateful. Stay safe everyone. See you in 2021!

—Rebecca and Shari

Book Shopping Lists for the Holidays

New England Ties

The books in this list all came out in 2020 and have New England ties. Most are by authors who live and work in New Hampshire and Vermont. They are all, without question, worth a read. Many of them are among our favorite reads of the year and have been featured in interviews and reading lists on our blog.

Fiction

• Before Familiar Woods, by Ian Pisarcik

• Beneficence, by Meredith Hall

• The Mountains Wild, by Sarah Stewart Taylor

• Ogadinma, by Ukamaka Olisakwe

• The Shame, by Makenna Goodman

• The Wife Who Knew Too Much, by Michele Campbell

• The Chicken Sisters, by KJ Dell’Antonia

Nonfiction

• This Brilliant Darkness, by Jeff Sharlet

• The Land of Milk and Honey, by Bill Mares and Ross Conrad

• Officer Clemmons, by François Clemmons

• Yellow Bird, by Sierra Crane Murdoch

Upper Valley Booksellers’ favorites

We asked the owners of the local independent bookstores we frequent to each share two of their favorite titles. Aside from librarians, no one knows how to match a reader to a book quite like an independent bookseller. Maybe you’ll find your match in this list.

Left Bank Books – Rena J. Mosteirin

• The Langston Hughes Reader – I love this book. It feels like an invitation to discover (or re-discover) the wide-ranging genius of Langston Hughes in novels, stories, plays, autobiographies, poems, songs, blues, pageant, articles, and speeches.

• She's Not There, by Jennifer Finney Boylan – This is a brilliant memoir of a gender transition. The prose is musical, the voice is brave. When Boylan spoke at Dartmouth I was impressed by her warmth, humor, and joy. I've given this book to many friends since then.

Norwich Bookstore – Liza Bernard and Penny McConnel

• Spirit of Place: The Making of a New England Garden, by Bill Noble – With close to 300 enticingly beautiful photographs, all taken by Bill in his Norwich garden, the book addresses both the pleasures as well as the challenges of creating and sustaining a garden in New England. It offers ideas and suggestions to anyone who already has a garden as well as to those beginning to think of how to start their own. The photos are reason enough to buy or give this book, but the text is so personally written that the reader feels as if she is on a personal garden walk with the very experienced author.

• Flavor, by Ottolenghi – Explores the elements of process, pairing, and produce to create vibrant plant-based main courses, sides, and desserts. Gorgeous photographs, clear instructions, foodie inspiration!

Still North Books & Bar – Allie Levy

• The Decameron Project – A stunning new collection of stories from writers including Mona Awad, Tommy Orange, Margaret Atwood, and many more, commissioned by the New York Times Magazine. We are, still, in the midst of a global pandemic—and will be healing from this massive shock to all of our systems for years to come. The Decameron Project gives us the space to reflect on what the first nine months of this crisis have meant for us all, while reminding us of that which draws us to literature: the power of connection.

• Wintering, by Katherine May – Winters in the Upper Valley are long. This one is going to be even longer. Katherine May's memoir of a season, interspersed with lessons from mythology, literature, and the natural world, is a soothing, healing guide to getting through difficult times, and finding beauty in winter. Best read while sipping tea and wearing the coziest socks you can find.

Yankee Bookshop – Kari Meutsch and Kristian Preylowski

• Humans, by Brandon Stanton – A beautiful color photography and personal story documentation that spans the whole world, and reminds us that we're not that different in our stories: the love, loss, struggles, successes, humor, and heartbreak that we all share, that we all connect with, that which makes us all Humans.

• The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by V.E. Schwab – A magical story spanning hundreds of years, a deal with the devil, a romance for the ages, and what it really means to be able to leave your mark on the world. Did you love The Night Circus? You'll love this one too.

Literary North Favorites

We each narrowed our lists down to a paltry nine, which I’m sure you can appreciate was a bit excruciating. It helped a bit that many of our favorites appear on each others’ or the above lists, so we chose not to duplicate those.

Shari’s list

• The Gimmicks, by Chris McCormick

• Children of the Land, by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

• My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, by Jenn Shapland

• Real Life, by Brandon Taylor

• The Exhibition of Persephone Q, by Jessi Jezewska Stevens

• The Margot Affair, by Sanaë Lemoine

• Riding with the Ghost, by Justin Taylor

• The Fixed Stars, by Molly Wizenberg

• Luster, by Raven Leilani

Rebecca’s list

• They Came Like Swallows, by William Maxwell

• Last Days of the Dog-Men, by Brad Watson

• We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

• Owl's Head, by Rosamond Purcell

• Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Syllabus, by Lynda Barry

• Trace, by Lauret Savoy

• The Salt Path, by Raynor Winn

• Just Us, by Claudia Rankine

December’s Shooting Stars

A cool literary find from each of us to help light up your month!

• The wonderful Vermont author Robin MacArthur has started sharing recommendations (books, music!) over on her website. She has the best taste, so I’m always excited to see a new post. You’ll find these posts in the News and Updates section of her website. —Shari

• Say what you will about Twitter (and I will agree with most of it), but sometimes it offers riches. For instance, poet Jericho Brown’s recent tweet thread about the use of metaphor in Lucille Clifton’s “the lost baby poem” is the encouragement I (and maybe you also) need today to “begin your poem in language rather than in idea.”—Rebecca

December Highlights

Phoenix Books hosts a virtual reading from the new poetry anthology Together in a Sudden Strangeness: American Poets Respond to the Pandemic, with Didi Jackson, Major Jackson, Jay Parini, Dennis Nurkse, and Clare Rossini on December 1 at 7:00 pm.

The Still Queer Reading Series returns to Still North Books & Bar for a virtual conversation with poet Mark Bibbins on December 1 at 7:00 pm.

Bennington College virtually launches the new issue of the Bennington Review on December 2 at 7:00 pm.

Jasmin Darznik, Bianca Stone, Koon Woon, and Jennifer Wortman read as part of the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ 2020 Fall Reading Series on December 4, at 5:30 pm

On December 9 at 5:00 pm, poet Patricia Smith leads the second session in “The Black Matter is Life: Poetry for Engagement and Overcoming,” an online conversation series that discusses and deconstructs poems by African American poets. This session’s theme is “In protest.”

Chelsea Catherine and Thomas Christopher Greene will be in virtual conversation hosted by Bear Pond Books for Catherine’s debut novel, Summer of the Cicadas, on December 10 at 7:00 pm.

Vermont Studio Center is hosting two Writer to Writer events this month on December 11 and 16, featuring Laura van den Berg in conversation with Nina McConigley, and Afaa Michael Weaver in conversation with Gary Copeland Lilley. Both online events start at 7:00 pm.

Join Antidote Books on December 17 at 7:00 pm as they host an at-home literary event featuring a double memoir debut and conversation with poets Meredith Clark and Arisa White.

Visit our calendar for detailed information about these events and more!

Worth a Listen or Watch

• Local author Makenna Goodman was featured on the Slow Stories podcast. A thought-provoking episode—we’re sure you’ll find it interesting.

• Did you know The Booker Prizes has a YouTube channel? So much goodness there to explore. Tune in to watch brief videos about this year’s shortlisted novels, including a video about the 2020 winner, Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart.

We're Looking Forward to These December Releases

• Dark, Salt, Clear, by Lamorna Ash (Bloomsbury, December 1)

• Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, by Leslie Brody (Seal Press, December 1)

• Big Girl, Small Town, by Michelle Gallen (Algonquin, December 1)

• The River Within, by Karen Powell (Europa, December 1) 

Calls For Submission and Upcoming Deadlines

Bloodroot Literary Magazine
Bloodroot is accepting new, unpublished poetry, fiction, and essays for its spring 2021 issue. Send a Word document with 3 to 5 pages of poetry or 10 to 12 pages of fiction and nonfiction. For anything outside that scope, like an experimental form or digital project, please send a one-page proposal and they will be in touch if they want to see more.
Deadline: December 15 | Details

The Dorset Prize for Poetry
Tupelo Press is seeking submissions of previously unpublished, full-length poetry manuscripts. The prize is open to anyone writing in the English language. This year’s judge is Tyehimba Jess. The winner receives a $3000 cash prize and a week-long residency at MASS MoCA, in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, 20 copies of the winning title, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion.
Deadline: December 31 | Details

Vermont Writers’ Prize
The Vermont Writers’ Prize is accepting essays, short stories, plays, or poems on the subject of Vermont: its people, its places, its history, or its values—the choice is yours! Entries must be unpublished and 1,500 words or less. The Writers' Prize is open to all Vermont residents and students except for employees of Green Mountain Power and Vermont Magazine. Please submit only one entry.
Deadline: January 1 | Details

The Frost Place Chapbook Competition
The competition is open to any poet writing in English. The selected winner’s chapbook will be published by Bull City Press in the summer following the competition. The winner receives 10 complimentary copies (from a print run of 300), a $250 prize, full scholarship to attend the Poetry Seminar at The Frost Place (including room and board), and gives a featured reading from the chapbook at the Seminar. $28 entry fee.
Deadline: January 5 | Details

Zig Zag Lit Mag Issue.10
Submissions are open for Issue.10 for those who live, labor, or loiter in Addison County, Vermont. Zig Zag accepts submissions in any genre and topic, including fiction, nonfiction, dramatic forms, and poetry. They also accept art. You can submit up to three pieces of writing and/or art.
Deadline: January 5 | Details

Carol Lee Vail Prize for Emerging Poets
Sponsored by the Poetry Society of Vermont, the winning poems will be published in the 2021 Mountain Troubadour. The winner will receive $750; the second-place winner will receive $100; and three runners up will receive $50 each. Submit up to three poems in a Word file with all poems in a single document, and no names on the poems. There is a 40-line maximum per poem, including title and spaces. Do not enter any previously published poems. Entrants must have not more than one published book. $15 submission fee.
Deadline: January 15 | Details

Neukom Literary Arts Award for Playwriting
The Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College is accepting of full-length plays and other full-length works for the theater addressing the question “What does it mean to be a human in a computerized world?” The award comes with a $5,000 honorarium as well as a support for a two-stage development process with table readings at local arts festivals. Note that works that have received a full production are not eligible for the competition.
Deadline: January 15 | Details

A Bridge to Japan: A Poetry Broadside Contest
Sponsored by the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Project, this digital poetry broadside contest will be judged by poet and translator Patrick Donnelly. Entered broadsides can be designed and printed on a computer, by letterpress, or as a hand-made monoprint. There are two categories of entries: Adult and Youth (age 17 and younger). One winner and two honorable mentions will be chosen in each age category. Both first-place winners will receive $100 cash prizes. Four honorable mentions will receive $25 cash prizes. For more information, contact Tammi Truax, Portsmouth Poet Laureate at .
Deadline: January 31 |

Cold Lake Anthology
Produced by the Burlington Writers Workshop, the Anthology is seeking submissions of previously unpublished fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Creative nonfiction and fiction pieces should be no longer than 5,000 words in length. Writers should submit no more than one prose piece or 3 to 5 poems per issue. Publication of the print edition of the Cold Lake Anthology 2020 will be in the Spring of 2021.
Deadline: January 31 | Details

Hunger Mountain Creative Nonfiction Prize
Submissions are open for an original, unpublished piece of creative nonfiction, no more than 8,000 words.
Deadline: March 1 | Details

Howard Frank Moser Short Fiction Prize
Submissions are open for one original, unpublished story under 8,000 words.
Deadline: March 1 | Details

May Day Mountain Chapbook Series Prize
Send 30 to 50 pages of fiction, short stories, poetry, poetics, analysis, nonfiction, hybrid, short scripts, experimental biography and autobiography. The series also welcomes new approaches to journalism, scholarship, and critique. The winning author will receive $100 plus fifty 5x7, handmade letterpress copies of their manuscript, designed and illustrated by May Day Studio. $10 reading fee.
Deadline: March 1 | Details

Ruth Stone Poetry Prize
Submit up to three poems in one entry (all three poems in one Word document or PDF).
Deadline: March 1 | Details

Crossroads Magazine
The independent, student-run magazine based out of Burlington, Vermont, accepts very short fiction and poetry, 300 words or fewer. Submissions should be in Word or typed directly into an email. No PDFs, please.
Deadline: rolling submissions | Details

Dartmouth Poet in Residence
The Frost Place’s Dartmouth Poet in Residence program is a six-to-eight-week residency in poet Robert Frost’s former farmhouse. The residency begins July 1 and ends August 15, and includes an award of $1,000 from The Frost Place and an award of $1,000 from Dartmouth College. The recipient of the Dartmouth Poet in Residence will have an opportunity to give a series of public readings across the region, including at Dartmouth College and The Frost Place.
Deadline: none given | Details

Green Mountains Review
GMR is accepting fiction and experimental and hybrid poems. The editors are open to a wide range of styles and subject matter. Please submit a cover letter and include up to 25 pages of prose or up to five poems. $3 submission fee.
Deadline: none given | Details

The Hopper
The environmental literary magazine from Green Writers Press is accepting submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are interested in work that offers new and different articulations of the human experience in nature, specifically nature writing that is psychologically honest about the environmental crisis and the impacts of mechanical modernity.
Deadline: none given | Details

Isele Magazine
Isele Magazine is seeking submissions of essays, fiction, poetry, art, and photography. You may submit up to 8,000 words of prose, six pages of poetry, or one long poem.
Deadline: rolling submissions | Details

Iterant Magazine
Iterant Magazine is seeking poetry, artwork, and essay submissions. Submit 3 to 5 poems, ten pages maximum.
Deadline: none given | Details

Mount Island digital magazine
To focus on their mission of supporting rural LGBTQ+ and POC voices, most of the submission categories are open only to folks who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or POC and who currently live in or hail from a rural area. They do welcome “allies” who do not identify as LGBTQ+/POC/rural to submit in certain categories, such as interviews, reviews, and blog articles. When such categories are open for “ally submissions,” they are labeled clearly as such.
Deadline: open year-round | Details

Nightingale Review
Nightingale accepts and celebrates all types of literary creative expression from queer authors, including poetry, plays, general fiction, nonfiction essays, and book/movie/music reviews. Both established and unpublished authors welcome.
Deadline: none given | Details

Six-Word Quarantine Stories
Do you have a six-word story about your quarantine to share? Tell yours on social media with the hashtag #quarantinesix, and tag @vtartscouncil so they can share your story, too.
Deadline: none given | Details

Three By Five
Share a small moment—anonymously—that has altered the path of your life. Record it on a 3" x 5" card and mail it to PO Box 308, Etna, NH, 03750. Or, take a photo of your card and email it to .
Deadline: none | Details

Listening in Place Sound Archive
The Vermont Folklife Center invites you to send in recorded interviews and sounds of daily life in an effort to open hundreds of small windows into the experiences of Vermonters during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Vermont Folklife Center will make these recordings available on their website and social media to foster connection and sharing, and will also archive the recordings for posterity.
Deadline: none | Details

Writing the Land
Writing the Land is a collaboration between local land trusts and poets to help raise awareness for the preservation of land, ecosystems, and biodiversity. Poets and land trusts are being enrolled on a rolling basis. They are especially seeking under-represented poetic and environmental voices, but welcome all poets at any stage of their career and would like everyone to contribute to this project. If you are an interested poet, please fill out the information in the contact form on their website or email Lis McLaughlin at . You will need to submit a 50- to 75-word third-person bio, three pieces of work, and list which locations or regions you are willing to travel to.
Deadline: rolling submissions | Details

Upcoming Workshops and Classes

Listening in Place - Building Conversations for Civic Action
December 5, 2:00 to 4:30 pm
This workshop focuses on the crises of 2020 as an opportunity to reflect and learn from the social unrest, vulnerabilities and sacrifices experienced across the state and nation. This workshop will introduce and demonstrate the tools of Listening in Place, an initiative of the Vermont Folklife Center, that was launched at the early stages of the pandemic as a way to share our common experience and to create a record of how Vermonters are responding to this unprecedented time. Now calls to support Black Lives Matter and pledge greater commitments to eradicate racism in all its forms have propelled many of us out of lockdown and to re-evaluate how we stand for justice for our communities. This workshop is an open call for anyone who desires to prioritize these concerns.
Location: online | Cost: by donation | Details

Six-Week Workshops with Joni Cole
Mondays, December 7, 14, 21 and January 4, 11, 18, 6:30 to 8 pm
Tuesdays, January 5 to February 9, 10 to 11:30 am OR 6:30 to 8 pm
Thursdays, February 4 to March 11, 10 to 11:30 am OR 6:30 to 8 pm
These small-group workshops are open to writers of creative nonfiction and fiction of all levels. Each group offers participants motivation, personalized instruction on craft, and a small supportive community (5 participants max). Come to the first meeting (and every meeting) with 3 to 4 pages of something brand new or revised to share for verbal feedback. Pre-registration is required. Contact the instructor at .
Location: online | Cost: $200 | Details

Inner & Outer Weather: Character in Fiction
December 12, 9:30 am to 12:00 pm
Join Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA Candidate Jonathan Calloway as he discusses how our stories’ characters, like ourselves, each carry a lifetime’s worth of experience, much of which the outer world is oblivious. Through generative writing exercises and close readings of excerpts from a wide range of fiction authors, you will investigate how perception can be used as a tool to shape evocative environments, sharpen focus, and redefine the boundary between the individual and the whole. You will have the opportunity to share and receive direct feedback from instructors and fellow participants, as well as acquire a set of tools to further your own unique explorations of the caverns of character development.
Location: online | Cost: $25 to 65 | Details

Writing for Healing Workshop with Vicky Fish
Wednesdays, January 6 to February 3, 6:30 to 8:00 pm
This five-week workshop will create a safe and supportive environment for you to explore your healing through the written word. During each session, prompts will be offered as the springboard for in-session writing. Sharing will be encouraged but not required. Prompts will also be offered for your own writing between sessions. While writing is therapeutic, this is not a formal therapy group. Pre-registration is required. Contact the instructor at .
Location: online | Cost: $165 | Details

Graphic Memoir Workshop with Melanie Gillman
January 11 to 15
Need that kicker to get started on telling your personal story through comics? Eisner and Ignatz award-nominated graphic novelist Melanie Gillman will walk you through the basics of writing and drawing your graphic memoir—from brainstorming, to scripting, to drawing, to publishing. Topics to be covered include narrative building, developing a unique personal voice and visual style, and effective pitching and publishing practices for graphic memoirs.
Location: online | Cost: $1000 | Details