Poetry at Fruitlands: Elizabeth McCarthy, Anatasia Vassos, James K. Zimmerman

Elizabeth McCarthy lives in an old farmhouse in northern Vermont. Retired from teaching, she turned to poetry in 2020 when the world closed down and time became a windfall. She is a member of the Poetry Society of Vermont and the Lockdown Poets of Aberdeen, Scotland, an online international group of poets. Elizabeth enjoys running with her husband along the woods roads in the Northeast Kingdom where they train for local and national races. Many of her poems have been found during those long slow runs. Elizabeth’s first manuscript, Digging Potatoes, was shortlisted in the Hunger Mountain: VCFA May Day Mountain Chapbook Series Contest in 2021. Since then she has published four collections of poetry, including; The Old House (a self-published poetry memoir,) Winter Vole (Finishing Line Press 2022,) Hard Feelings (Finishing Line Press 2024) and Wild Silence (Kelsay Books 2024). 

Anastasia Vassos grew up in Cleveland. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets. She is the author of Nostos and Nike Adjusting Her Sandal. Find her work in RHINO, Whale Road Review, Thrush, Comstock Review, and elsewhere. For the past 19 years, she has ridden her bicycle in the Pan-Mass Challenge, and raised over $106,000 for stem cell research at Dana Farber. She is a reader for Lily Poetry Review, speaks three languages, and lives in Boston.

A frequent Pushcart Prize nominee, James K. Zimmerman‘s work appears in Chicago Quarterly Review, december, Folio, Lumina, Nimrod, Pleiades, Rattle, and Reed, among numerous other journals and publications, and is also featured on websites such as The Poetry Foundation, American Life in Poetry, and Vallum. He is author of “Little Miracles” (Passager Books), “Family Cookout” (Comstock) – winner of the Jessie Bryce Niles Prize – and “The Further Adventures of Zen Patriarch Dōgen” (Poetry Box). Valuing his neurodivergence as an essential wellspring of his creative inspiration, he also cultivates roses, orchids, friends, and paradoxical questions in his spare time. He can be contacted at https://jameskzimmerman.net.

The reading will be held in the Fruitlands Museum Wayside Visitor Center. Parking is available next to the building and the Visitor Center is wheelchair accessible.

Readings are free with admission to the Museum’s Art Gallery, Gift Shop and Visitor’s Center: $5 for nonmember adults, seniors, students, and children ages 5-13. There is no charge for Trustees Members or children under age 5.