- On this episode of "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip," we're heading to Vermont, where mountains, forests, and small towns have inspired generations of writers.

- The Green Mountain State may be small in size, but it's made big contributions to American literature, especially through the art of poetry.

- From classics, such as "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," and "The Wild Iris," to contemporary works like "The Secret Library," and "The Cemetery of Untold Stories," Vermont continues to nurture storytellers whose work resonates far beyond its borders.

- Join PBS Books, the Library of Congress, and the Vermont Center for the Book on a literary adventure through Vermont.

This is "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip."

- [Announcer] This program is brought to you in part by Libro.fm.

Libro.fm partners with more than 4,000 bookstores around the world to sell audiobooks, encouraging more people to read, while supporting local independent bookstores.

(graphics whooshing) - Well, hello and welcome.

I'm Fred Nahhat here with Lauren Smith from PBS Books.

- Come along as we explore our nation's storied past and spotlight the landscapes, books, and voices that continue to shape America's literary story today.

- Each stop on our reading road trip offers a new window into America's story.

Visit the PBS Books YouTube channel to explore the full series and subscribe so you never miss a single destination.

- Today, we're exploring Vermont, a state where rolling mountains, winding country roads, and a deep connection to the natural world have shaped generations of writers.

From quiet villages to vibrant creative communities, here, storytelling is woven into the fabric of life.

- We are a small town masquerading as a state because everybody knows each other here.

We really do have a strong sense of community, and of course a strong sense of our connection with nature, which shows up in a lot of our literary traditions.

- I have never been anywhere in any gathering in Vermont where people didn't respond with enthusiasm when I said I write books for a living and wanna know all about it, and wanna dive in and wanna find out which local indie bookstore they can find my books.

And it's been a really warm and welcoming place to be a creative writer, to be a creative thinker.

- There are tons of small bookstores, and it's just a really wonderful place to take a book anywhere with you, whether it's hiking on a trail or sitting by a lake, or being outside with your friends and family.

- When I think of Vermont, it's really kind of this breathtaking whimsy that you get as you're kind of traveling through the mountains and valleys and across the rivers and lakes.

It's really breathtaking and incredible to see.

- One thing about the beauty of the landscape that's different in Vermont is that we don't actually allow for billboards here.

So a lot of the sightseeing and driving around is not marred by having to see advertisements blocking out the trees and skies.

- And the long winters I think are ideal for the pilgrimages that we make with reading.

The whole landscape looks like a blank piece of paper.

For a writer, it's perfect.

It's almost as if nature too is with me at that blank page where we're both beginning.

- Part of the beauty of Vermont is its drama.

And I encourage people to come here and see the golden orange hues of the foliage.

Come in the summer and pick strawberries and blueberries.

Come in the winter and ski.

Come in stick season and sing the Noah Kahan song.

But come to Vermont all year round, it will always welcome you.

(gentle upbeat music) - From poetry and journalism to fiction and social commentary, Vermont's writers have explored some of America's most enduring themes, our connection to the land, the pursuit of a meaningful life, and the communities we build along the way.

- [Jacob] So we wouldn't be able to talk about Vermont's literary heritage without speaking about Robert Frost.

- [Christopher] He was the first poet laureate of Vermont.

And of course, he was also the national poet laureate and the first poet to read at a presidential inauguration when he read his work at John F. Kennedy's inauguration.

- [Sarah] So Robert Frost is known for moving around a lot.

Everyone wants to claim him.

Vermont claims him with two places, the Robert Frost Stone House and Museum, which is in Bennington, Vermont, the Southern Vermont, and the Robert Frost Farm in Ripton, Vermont.

- Robert Frost really is of the landscape and the small town Vermonters and New Englanders.

He really listened to the landscape, observed it carefully, listened to his neighbors.

- He's really a poet of hidden depths, and we can think about him as somebody who writes quaint poems about the maple trees and the snow, but in fact, he's talking about really intense elements of the human psyche and our issues of feeling really separate from one another.

So these are the things that I love about Robert Frost.

- Again, thinking about what the legacy of literary heritage is in Vermont, it really is kind of this thread of poetry coming from Robert Frost, and then especially talking about Ruth Stone, who lived in Goshen, Vermont, wasn't really well-known until later on in her life, and didn't even become the poet laureate of Vermont until 2007.

- She was also a National Book Award winner and a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

She received many accolades for her work, but also lived a life in solitary at her farmhouse.

- Ruth was, of course, was very special to me because she was my grandmother, a poet who really went to the depths of the mystical within the human psyche and wedded somehow the beauty of the landscape around her and the unseen elements of the scene.

- People don't know that much about it, but it's one of my favorites.

And it's "Who Is the Widow's Muse?"

Which is about loss, bereavement.

Where do we go when the bottom has fallen out of our world?

And it's a beautiful, beautiful book.

Such a wonderful maverick poet.

- One of our very earliest poets was Lucy Terry Prince, and she was someone who we really didn't know very much about until quite recently when scholars started really digging up more information.

- Her poem "Bar Fight" was passed down through the oral tradition, and finally was published by the "Springfield Daily Republic" in the 1800s.

- It's inspiring to know that people like Lucy Terry Prince, who became the first published Black poet in the United States, was able to write even from within the conditions of slavery.

- So also thinking of one of the more modern writing personalities in our state, I'd be ashamed to move on without mentioning Ruben Jackson, who is not only an avid poet, but also an incredible scholar of music and jazz, and in Vermont is really well known as the "Friday Night Jazz" curator for a number of years up here.

Ruben Jackson had a few published works, and his poems are featured in a number of anthologies, but his most recent book of poetry was actually published after his passing in 2024 called "My Specific Awe and Wonder."

And it's really an incredible book of kind of him reflecting on his life.

- [Tillie] So there's a joke that if you picked up a stone and threw it, you would hit a poet or a writer in Vermont.

Most notably, two late women poets spent many years of their life in Vermont.

Louise Gluck is known for winning the Pulitzer Prize and publishing some of the most important contemporary poetry.

- [Bianca] I love her work so much, and I've been writing a lot about her and Frost together and their similarities and differences.

One of my favorite books of hers is "The Wild Iris."

- What would be a favorite of Louise Gluck?

I would say maybe "Meadowlands" or "The Triumph of Achilles."

But she's a wonderful poet.

She became, of course, Poet Laureate of the country.

- Her contemporary, Ellen Bryant Voigt is also one of the most esteemed women poets in contemporary poetry.

They were friends.

They had houses next door to each other in the Marshfield, Montpelier area.

And they were known for having a deep, long friendship and connection to the state of Vermont.

- So with Vermont, while we do have a large influx of poetry and poetry programs, we do have a number of other important authors and writers in our communities.

Sinclair Lewis had a summer home up in Vermont and used that as his spot for writing his really important novels like "Main Street," "It Can't Happen Here," "Babbitt."

- "It Can't Happen Here" is actually a book about what happens in Vermont when a fascist is elected president in Washington DC.

And it's been adapted now a number of times for staged readings, both in Vermont and in other parts of the country.

Sinclair, of course, was famously married to Dorothy Thompson.

- Dorothy Thompson was a really influential journalist at the time, and was actually one of the first journalists thrown out of Germany for reporting on the Nazi party.

Between the two of them, they really created this wealth of really kind of capturing that early 1900s political social sphere and kind of reflecting on it and seeing what are the opportunities for change, but also, "What are kind of those tales we need to keep in mind just so we don't go down a bad path?"

So another topic that's kind of really related to Vermont literature is the focus on the environment and the place itself.

Some of the people that really stewarded this idea of homesteading and environmentalism were Scott and Helen Nearing.

- Scott and Helen Nearing are, of course, more famous for living in Maine, but they lived in Vermont for about 20 years before they moved to Maine from the 1930s to the 1950s.

And they were really sort of the godmother and godfather of the Back-to-the-Land movement that was such a big part of the 1960s.

They together wrote a book called "Living the Good Life," and lots of other books about simple living out in the country.

- How they lived and what they live for is how so many of the Vermonters I know, how they live and what they believe in.

I think that's also interesting when the work of people has become so much steeped into the culture of a place that it doesn't have to have their name on it.

You know, it's like a beautiful painting of a landscape that hasn't been signed.

It almost belongs to all of us.

(gentle upbeat music) - Vermont's literary tradition remains as vibrant as ever.

Today's writers continue to explore identity, history, imagination, and the connections that bring communities together.

One such author is Kekla Magoon, who helps young readers navigate questions of identity, history, and belonging.

- We really appreciate having Kekla here because she brings a vision of what Vermont is that is frequently different from what people experience in their day-to-day life in school or in their community.

To be able to really have difficult conversations and to do that through the lens of middle grade and young adult literature is a really special experience for kids because they can really see themselves, I think, in her work.

And that's great.

- I'm an author of books for children and young adults, and that covers everything from kindergartners who are reading picture books and families that are reading picture books to their young children, all the way through elementary school, middle school, and high school.

I write books that tend to have thematic connections: identity, community, empowerment, social justice.

I write a lot about the civil rights movement, both in historical and contemporary contexts, connecting the struggles of the past to the struggles of today, writing about Black American history, both in nonfiction and in fiction.

So I cover a lot of genres in my work.

I have written everything from science fiction to graphic novels, to mysteries, to contemporary, young adult literature.

I am wanting to tell stories that weren't on the shelf for me when I was 12.

And so most of my books are speaking to an audience that's between about 10 and 16 years old, that age when you're still trying to figure out who you are, trying to understand who you are in relation to your family, in relation to your friends, in relation to your community.

I hope that it is inspiring to young teens to look for their own way to be contributors to the world, to be world changers, to be someone who owns their own voice and uses it for whatever they think is most important in the world.

That's the underlying message of a lot of my books, the sense that every kid has a voice, every kid has power, every kid has a way to make an impact on the world.

They just have to figure out what it is.

And that's not an easy process for anyone, but when you see models in stories, it gives you some ideas.

- Through graphic novels that blend personal reflection with imaginative storytelling, Tillie Walden has become one of Vermont's most celebrated voices.

- Tillie Walden is really kind of this up and coming legacy in the cartooning world.

She first came to Vermont to study at the Center for Cartoon Studies and is now a professor there.

And she has some incredible work.

Her memoir "Spinning" was the winner of the 2018 Eisner Award, and so she's one of the youngest winners of the Eisner Award ever.

We should also mention that she was Vermont's fifth cartoonist laureate - The position of the cartoonist laureate is so special because in, in most states, it's very hard as an artist to be recognized at that level.

And it really changes your perspective as an artist to feel so recognized.

And it is a reason why I think a lot of cartoonists specifically are drawn towards Vermont.

And every cartoonist laureate we've had, like Ed Koren, like James Kochalka, like Alison Bechdel, have all found their own sort of style for how to spread the word about art and cartooning around the state of Vermont.

I make comics and graphic novels, typically book length, largely for teens.

That's my main audience.

I write a lot of queer stories.

I've written sci-fi.

I've written romance.

I've written more autobiographical work.

My latest book is called "Charity and Sylvia," and it's about two women who really lived in Vermont in the 1800s.

They were a couple.

They were two women who were married, just like I'm a woman who's married, only 200 some years later.

And I couldn't have told Charity and Sylvia's story without being here in Vermont.

I was able to learn about them through the archive at the Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury.

Community museums and these smaller archives have a lot of competition out there in the world.

They're big, giant museums that everyone knows about.

And I think there's so many stories hiding in historical societies, in archives, in libraries.

And my hope is that my writing inspires people to come to these places and investigate.

Every community has its own history.

And to make it matter and to make it important, someone has to show up and read it.

- Bianca Stone carries forward a remarkable family legacy while championing new generations of poets through her work as the Vermont Poet Laureate.

- [Christopher] Bianca Stone is our current Vermont Poet Laureate, traveling the state, really taking on that role with great energy and enthusiasm.

She's helping to teach young people how to write poetry about America and about Vermont throughout this coming season of the 250th.

- I'm first and foremost a poet.

So I write poetry books, and I've written four full length poetry books and various smaller chatbooks, they're called.

I think of my poetry as engaging, with a larger conversation in poetry throughout time.

So I try not to stay confined to any sort of narrative understanding of my personal experience.

The modern poem, which we probably are most familiar with, is something between nonfiction and fiction.

Poetry, as we know, deals so much with the poet's life.

At the same time, if you look deeper into the poems, it's a mask of the persona.

It's a mask of that person.

And so we explore different elements of identity and self.

And I think of my audience as people who want to engage in that conversation, too.

Because poetry for me is not telling a story to somebody or trying to tell them how to live, but it's inviting them into a conversation.

And the poem is full of holes and full of uncertainty and full of things that don't make sense for a reason, because those are the moments that the reader comes in and makes meaning, too.

So, I hope for a readership that wants to do that.

And I've found it because I've seen it, and I've had these conversations with people, and I've seen their poems, too, and our poems interacting.

And it's a beautiful thing.

(chuckles) It's a beautiful thing.

- An acclaimed novelist Julia Alvarez draws on both her Dominican heritage and her Vermont home to create stories that connect cultures, generations, and communities.

- So growing up in Connecticut, Julia Alvarez was a writer that I knew very early on in my life.

We read a lot of her books and stories in middle school, with "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," being a really big one.

And it's incredible that she made her second home up here in Vermont as a professor at Middlebury College for a number of years.

Her influential stories of capturing not only Latin American people in the United States, but also the Dominican Republic culture through "In the Times of the Butterflies" about the Mirabal sisters.

It's really just kind of a masterclass on how to create creative historical fiction.

- We all as writers have our root systems and our material, our childhoods, our families, our personal histories that are the stuff that we bring into the storytelling.

But I write because literature is the big table set for all.

It's the big campfire.

We come from our individual tribes, but we're all sitting in the huge circle that includes all of the human family.

So, I write for ultimately my audience, but, you know, I care very much about my communities, the communities that I now live in, the communities I've lived in, and of giving voice to those stories.

And it's a way of celebrating them, not by painting them in a Pollyannish brush as everything's just hunky-dory, but by seeing it and hearing it, which is the thing I was praising also about Frost, that he listened and that he observed accurately.

And he got out of the way and expressed that landscape and those people.

So I'm not writing to sort of tell my story, though I'm telling stories that come from my background.

And they're stories for us all.

(graphics whoosh) - Vermont's libraries reflect the character of the state itself.

Whether housed in historic buildings or serving as modern community gathering spaces, they connect readers to knowledge, creativity, and one another.

- [Jacob] Libraries are often central places for communities to gather and share resources, but also have unique heritage and cultural importance, depending on the library.

- [Christopher] Every town has a library, and they all have a really unique character to them.

And there's over 180 local libraries.

And some of them are just a tiny one-room space, and some of them are really grand and amazing.

- [Jacob] One of the most impressive libraries in Vermont, in sheer scale, is the St.

Johnsbury Athenaeum created in 1871.

It's part of the legacy of the Fairbanks family in that area.

- [Sarah] When you walk inside, there are these stunning little spiral staircases that go up to the upper level of the stacks.

- [Jacob] So it really is this impressive display of architecture, but also has a really unique collection of artwork.

- [Christopher] And it serves as the public library.

So there's community events all the time.

There's a wonderful youth club that operates out of the library, and lots of different activities for people in the community.

- The Royalton Memorial Library in South Royalton, Vermont is a wonderful spot, especially for its kids' space.

As someone who has a toddler, I'm always on the lookout for large and wonderful collections of children's books and pictures books, and a space that really welcomes kids in, areas to do arts and crafts, great programming, a really comfortable space.

And the Royalton Memorial Library is one that my son and I go to constantly, and we really appreciate.

- I love the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington.

They have a wonderful children's room.

And I've participated in a number of great events there, including the Green Mountain Book Festival a couple of times.

Earlier this summer, in fact, I participated in their summer reading kickoff, which I've done for a few years in a row now.

And so Fletcher has always felt like a warm and happy place.

It's always felt like a space that is trying to do innovative, artsy things to connect readers with stories and connect readers with authors.

- [Christopher] The Haskell is maybe one of our most unique libraries in that it is only half in Vermont and the other half is in Canada.

- [Sarah] It is a historic Victorian building and also opera house, and was deliberately built to attract, you know, people coming from across the border to attend events.

- [Jacob] It's really impressive to see how the Haskell Free Library adapts to meet the needs of these two very different populations.

And they continue with this legacy of doing a number of programs in English and French.

- [Christopher] We really look to the Haskell as being a place that embodies that spirit of cross-border cooperation and engagement.

- [Bianca] The other library that sticks out is the Ilsley Library in Middlebury.

It's being renovated right now and a massive renovation.

And I can't even believe the size that it's becoming.

Whenever I go past, it's really cool to see.

- [Julia] And thankfully, they've kept the original core of the building.

So still it's got its columns, those noble columns that says, that proclaims, "We are an important space."

Of course, you're the library.

(chuckles) What more important space could you ask for?

(graphics whoosh) (gentle upbeat music) - Independent bookstores are an important part of Vermont's literary culture.

Across the state, these beloved community spaces help readers discover new ideas while fostering a lifelong love of books.

- [Christopher] Vermonters are very proud of their grow local movement, and I think that extends to our literary scene and our bookstore scene, and that we really don't have chain bookstores here.

In fact, I can really only think of one.

And otherwise, all of the bookstores in Vermont are locally owned, independently operated, and they each have their own fun character to them.

- [Jacob] So Phoenix Books is our biggest bookstore in the state, and actually has three locations.

One in Burlington, one in Essex Junction, and then one in Rutland.

But they all kind of coordinate the same way, bringing in big keynote authors and doing fun events like that.

- [Kekla] I did a book launch at the Essex Branch somewhat recently, and they were so warm, welcoming.

The space is so bright and lovely.

And it's such a manageable size as far as bookstores go.

They have so many choices, but also it doesn't feel so overwhelming when you walk in (chuckling) that you couldn't see everything.

You can actually make it around to see everything.

And the staff is really, really lovely there.

- [Julia] We also have the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont.

And they are an amazing place.

I feel very, a great deal of loyalty to them because when my first novel came out, "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," and I wasn't really known by anyone, they set up one of my first readings.

And they do amazing readings, and they have such a wealth of books there.

And it's an amazing bookstore.

- [Bianca] Monroe Street Books is one of those bookstores that you walk in and you have to stop, because it's floor to ceiling books, and the ceilings are very high.

They've got everything, though.

You know, fiction, fantasy, art books.

They have rare books right in the front, signed books, Vermont books.

But mostly, it's like you just browse around for, I could spend easily an hour in there, and it's got that musty bookstore smell I love.

- [Tillie] The Norwich Bookstore is my local bookstore right in the very small heart of Norwich, Vermont.

I'm good friends with the owners.

And part of what I love about the Norwich Bookstore is its interest in bringing writers and creators to the bookstore to talk about what they make.

You can discover so many local authors, and authors from far away.

It is just a beloved bookstore in the community and one that I go to frequently, which is hard for my bank account, but great for my soul.

- [Sarah] My childhood bookstore in Woodstock, Vermont is the Yankee Bookshop.

That is one of the longest running independent bookstores in the state.

It is right on Main Street.

It is a little gem, and they actually just expanded into the next store over.

So they have expanded their footprint.

And it is one of the best bookstores in the state.

- So the Vermont Bookshop in Middlebury is one of the older independent bookstores in Vermont.

It's been around for many, many decades.

And is well known as being Robert Frost Bookshop.

He lived up the road in Ripton and used to shop in the Vermont Bookshop really regularly.

- [Tillie] Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vermont, from my perspective, is one of the best places to get books for younger readers, specifically tweens.

They have a really active section full of the latest books for any young reader who's interested in graphic novels, in prose, in chapter books.

They really have it all.

- [Jacob] They have a beautiful children's room upstairs where they have my favorite denizan of a bookstore ever, which is Veruca, the tortoise.

And I always have to put an extra quarter in my meter.

(chuckles) Otherwise, I'll get a ticket 'cause I stay too long.

(gentle upbeat music) (graphic whooshes) - For generations, writers have been drawn to Vermont's beauty and creative energy.

Today, literary landmarks across the state offer a chance to explore the places that inspired its most memorable stories.

- [Christopher] Vermont is chock-a-block with literary landmarks, and we are so pleased that Vermont Humanities is to have supported the Brattleboro Words Trail, which helped to identify a lot of the literary landmarks in Southeastern Vermont around Brattleboro.

- And so it's an app you can download or use on your website, and really go through the trail to pick up the different stories.

So if you wanna go and learn more about Rupert Kipling and his house that he had in the Brattleboro area, that's a great way to not only see the house, but see also his literary history, some of the contentions there, and also what it means now to reflect on having these authors as a part of our state.

- [Tillie] So, in Middlebury, Vermont, you'll find the Henry Sheldon Museum, which is one of America's oldest community museums, started by a man, you guessed it, named Henry Sheldon, who was an avid collector and oddball.

And within that collection is the archive and papers from two Vermont women, Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, one of the earliest same-sex couples in America.

And the Charities and Sylvia archive has over 900 letters.

It has multiple journals.

It has poetry.

And not far from Middlebury, Vermont, you'll get to Weybridge, Vermont, where you will find a historical marker at the gravesite where Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake are buried.

They're buried together.

- [Bianca] The Ruth Stone House is an old farmhouse that my grandmother, Ruth Stone, lived in for many, many years.

It's a national literary historic landmark.

So you'll see one of those big green signs out front that says, "The Ruth Stone House."

It has her bio on one side, and on the other side has a poem.

The Ruth Stone House is not open all the time, but we have events open to the public at least once a month, and they're called Beer and Broadsides.

We have a letterpress printer in the house, so we print poems, and we invite you to learn about letterpress printing, and you can take a free broadside.

- [Christopher] Northwestern Vermont, one of our literary landmarks is Rokeby House, which is the home of the poet, Rowland Robinson.

He was a poet in the 19th century.

He was also very well known as an abolitionist, and his house was one of the sites of the Underground Railroad.

And there's a museum there today that you can visit and both learn about the Robinson family's commitment to abolition, but also about Rowland's poetry.

- [Sarah] If I were going to Vermont and I was thinking about the literary landscape, I wouldn't wanna forget the Bread Loaf's Writers Conference.

It's the longest running writer's conference in the history of the US.

It's been over a hundred years in operation.

The Bread Loaf's Writers Conference sits on the top of the mountain Bread Loaf.

It is on part of Middlebury's Bread Loaf School of English campus.

- [Julia] And most major writers have been there, Toni Morrison, Julia Child, Robert Frost, of course, Archibald MacLeish.

It's got all those presences and spirits that abide in the place.

You can actually register and go as a writer or as an auditor, but you can also go as a visitor to the reading.

So that's a stop that I would make.

- [Jacob] So the Bread and Puppet Theater is really something special that we have up here in Glover, Vermont.

The Bread and Puppet Theater was actually first created by Peter Schumann in New York City, and then moved it up to Glover in a huge old 180-year-old barn.

And from there, it's become this museum and nonprofit for theater productions where they use a bunch of different puppetry from huge recycled materials and cardboard to really address current events.

And what's really impressive is they do these enormous puppet shows in the valley.

So folks will come and sit on part of the hilltop, get their trademark fresh bread and butter, and sit there and watch these huge performances happening over the landscape of Vermont.

(graphic whooshing) (gentle upbeat music) - Today's trip through the bookish culture of Vermont is part of a nationwide celebration.

2026 marks the United States 250th birthday.

So PBS Books has partnered with the Library of Congress to celebrate the stories, authors, and books that define each corner of our nation.

- The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world.

It's located in Washington, DC.

But did you know that they've established affiliated centers for the book in communities across the US?

Their mission, make the Library of Congress and its resources even more accessible to all Americans.

(graphic whooshes) - I'm Lee Ann Potter, the Director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress is the congressional library, and the national Library of the United States, and the largest library in the world, with more than 181 million items, from photographs to maps, from motion pictures to sound recordings, from newspapers to manuscripts, and more.

Oh, and yes, there are books, millions of them.

In this series, "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip," you will hear about many books and authors and poems and short stories, and more, and how together they make up our nation's literary heritage.

As you do, I hope you will keep in mind that while they are all unique and come from different parts of our vast country, they all have something very important in common, they all live in the collections of the Library of Congress.

You will also hear about the library's affiliated centers for the book.

There is one in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

These centers promote reading, libraries, and literacy, and they celebrate and share their state or territory's literary heritage through a variety of programs that you will hear about in this very special series.

(graphic whooshes) - Today, we're joined by the Vermont Center for the Book, whose headquarters are in Montpelier, but work in all corners of the state.

- [Jacob] So here at Vermont Humanities, we are the state affiliate for the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the Vermont Center for the Book through the Library of Congress.

So what this means is that we do a lot of different programs and initiatives focusing on literacy, supporting readers, and exploring those ideas.

- The Center for the Book came to Vermont Humanities as part of our early literacy programs, specifically the Vermont Early Literacy Initiative, which helps to train librarians in early literacy skills for the littlest readers, for the zero to fives.

We also run programs called Never Too Early and Read With Me.

Never Too Early is a program for childcare providers, or early educators, often in parent child centers around the state, but even more frequently in home-based daycares.

So we provide, again, professional development, which is required for maintaining their licenses.

And we provide free books that daycare centers and home daycare providers can have in their collection to use with the kids that are in their care.

- And so one of our flagship programs here at Vermont Humanities is our Vermont Reads.

And this is a statewide program that follows the school calendar year, where we select a book to be kind of our hallmark book for the year.

We provide up to 75 free copies of that book for community programs through a simple application.

And then we'll do other supplemental programs throughout the year to provide more context around the themes and the topics of that specific book.

Every year, I really look forward to our Words in the Woods program.

It takes place during the summer months and is a partnership between us, the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont State Parks System.

And so we bring our treasured poets from across the state into the state parks to do these free community readings.

And because our literary heritage is so connected to nature, it just seems like such a natural fit to have these events.

It's really great to see the community that's kind of become a part of our Words in the Woods program each year.

- If you'd like to learn more about the Vermont Center for the Book and its early literacy programs, or Words in the Woods events, you can visit them online at vermonthumanities.org.

- Vermont's literary legacy is every bit as inspiring as its landscape.

Thank you again to the Library of Congress and Vermont Humanities for partnering with PBS Books as we travel across the country, exploring the books, authors, and destinations that define America's story.

- Have you visited any of these places, read works by any of these authors, or have a favorite Vermont literary destination of your own?

Tell us your story in the chat or comments.

- And if our visit to Vermont has inspired you to explore the literary heritage of your own state, the Library of Congress is a great place to begin.

Visit in person in Washington, DC, search its vast digital collections online, or connect with your local center for the book.

- For more information on the authors, institutions, and places featured in this episode, visit us at pbsbooks.org/readingroadtrip.

- This is just one stop along the way.

On the PBS Books YouTube channel, you'll find the full journey, stories from across the country, all in one place, ready to depart whenever you are.

- Until next time... - [Both] Happy reading!

(bright music) - [Announcer] This program is brought to you in part by Libro.fm.

Libro.fm partners with more than 4,000 bookstores around the world to sell audiobooks, encouraging more people to read while supporting local independent bookstores.

(gentle bright music)