Samantha Kolber is a mainstay of the Vermont literary scene. As the event coordinator and marketing dynamo behind the fabulous Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vermont, she tirelessly works to connect authors with readers. Samantha is also poetry series editor at Rootstock Publishing, helping to launch the careers of poets from Vermont and beyond. And she volunteers with PoemCity Montpelier, the annual poetry celebration sponsored by the Kellogg-Hubbard Library.

On September 1 she is publishing her very own debut poetry chapbook, Birth of a Daughter (Kelsay Books)! “Birth of a Daughter is an honest and vivid portrait of new motherhood. It is a chapbook about intimacy and love, both for the child and for the self. ‘There is a world at my fingertips. / Or, I am the world — fingertipped’ Kolber writes in her poem ‘A(u)reola.’ These poems are a beautiful witness to that common, yet utterly profound occurrence of birth,” says Bianca Stone, author of The Mobius Strip Club of Grief and A Little Called Pauline.

With Samantha’s permission, we are so pleased to share “Breastfeeding Dyad” from this collection. Congratulations, Sam, on the publication of your first book!

A virtual book launch reading co-sponsored by Bear Pond Books and the Kellogg-Hubbard Library is scheduled for October 9.

From Birth of a Daughter by Samantha Kolber, Kelsay Books, 2020, printed with permission of the author.

Samantha Kolber has received a Ruth Stone Poetry Prize and a Vermont Poetry Society prize. She has published in many journals and anthologies, including Hunger Mountain, Poems2Go, Mom Egg Review, and PoemCity. She received her MFA from Goddard College and completed post-grad work at Pine Manor College’s Solstice MFA Program. She lives in Montpelier, Vermont, where she coordinates events and marketing for Bear Pond Books and is the Poetry Series Editor for Rootstock Publishing. She volunteers with PoemCity, a program of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. “Birth of a Daughter” is Kolber’s first book.