If there were such a thing as a National Bibliophile Index, Vermont would rank at or near the top of the list. Vermont has more bookstores, libraries, published authors and publishing houses, per capita, than virtually any other state in the country. It follows that the Green Mountain State also boasts the most avid consumers of both nonfiction and literature, based on sales.
So when Vermonters put on a book festival, they set the bar high. This weekend, the state is bookended by two — in Burlington and Brattleboro — that showcase impressive lineups of local and national authors and poets, including more than a few National Book Award winners and finalists.
The one-day Green Mountain Book Festival in Burlington is scaled down from previous years but still robust, while the Brattleboro Literary Festival is expected to draw thousands to southern Vermont and features more than 40 authors over three days. The biggest challenge facing local word nerds will be deciding which festival to attend.
On Saturday, October 18, the Green Mountain Book Festival will celebrate science fiction. Headlining the event is its only non-Vermont writer: John Scalzi, New York Times best-selling author of the Old Man’s War series — including the series’ seventh book, The Shattering Peace, released last month — and When the Moon Hits Your Eye, which came out in March. A former columnist with the Fresno Bee, Scalzi first made a name for himself as a blogger in the early days of the Iraq War. He’s also a former president of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association and the winner of multiple Hugo Awards — the Oscars of sci-fi and fantasy writing.
“If you like science fiction, this will be the one to go to,” said festival organizer, historian and author Andrew Liptak, who wrote a 20-year retrospective of Scalzi’s career.
Scalzi is famous for his experimental and often humorous storytelling. Redshirts, which won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel, satirizes the familiar Star Trek trope of lower-ranking crew members getting killed by aliens on away missions, invariably while wearing the titular red shirt. In a similar vein, When the Moon Hits Your Eye ponders what would happen if the moon actually turned to cheese. Liptak will interview Scalzi about the business of sci-fi and its place in pop culture at a free event on Saturday evening at Fletcher Free Library.
Other sessions will include readings and discussions with some of Vermont’s own authors of speculative fiction — a genre of works that feature alternative histories, futuristic technology or supernatural elements. Among them are Craig Alanson, author of the New York Times best-selling series Expeditionary Force; M.T. Anderson, a 2006 National Book Award winner for The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party; and William Alexander, author of the National Book Award-winning Goblin Secrets.
The festival will also feature two former Seven Days staffers: Margot Harrison, author of six novels including the forthcoming The Library of Fates, about a book that can foretell the future; and Emily Hamilton, who writes about, as she put it, “genre-bending cyberpunk” and “women kissing in space.” Her debut novel, The Stars Too Fondly, came out last year.
These and other panel discussions and readings, held at Fletcher Free Library and Phoenix Books on Church Street, will charge nominal fees, which will be waived if attendees purchase a featured author’s book.
As for the Brattleboro Literary Festival, it’s nearly impossible to do justice to the 44 accomplished authors who will grace six venues throughout downtown Brattleboro; the festival’s 32-page program nearly qualifies as a novella itself.
The festival kicks off on Friday, October 17, with “Books to Looks,” a literature-themed fashion show during which local models will coordinate their clothing and accessories with the color schemes of notable book jackets.
Among the festival’s highlights is a Saturday panel discussion with Ocean Vuong and Cara Blue Adams. Vuong was born and raised in what was then Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and later immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee in 1990. He is the author of two poetry collections as well as the New York Times best-selling novels On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and this year’s The Emperor of Gladness. Adams, a New Hampshire native raised in Vermont, is the author of You Never Get It Back, which was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice in 2021 and awarded the John Simmons Short Fiction Award.
Other notable guests include Swedish-born writer Jonas Hassen Khemiri, the author of six novels, seven plays, and a collection of essays, short stories and scripts. Khemiri, whose work has been translated into more than 25 languages, was the Ben Belitt Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bennington College in 2023. His 2018 novel, The Family Clause, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Though the Brattleboro Literary Festival leans heavily toward fiction, it also features nonfiction books that steer clear of current events.
“We try to stay out of politics, because that’s just journalism in a book,” said Sandy Rouse, former owner of the Book Cellar in Brattleboro, who founded the festival 24 years ago.
A standout among this year’s nonfiction presenters is the UK’s Adam Higginbotham, whose book Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space won multiple awards and was named one of the best books of 2024 by half a dozen publications, including the New Yorker, the Washington Post and the Atlantic.
As is always the case at the Brattleboro Literary Festival, Vermont will be well represented among the literati. Featured poets include Carlene Kucharczyk, former Vermont poet laureate Chard deNiord and U.S. Navy submarine veteran turned poet David Kent Young; middle-grade and young adult novelist Jo Knowles; and New Yorker cartoonists and authors Glynnis Fawkes and Harry Bliss.
With such a diverse offering of authors and subject matter, it’s natural to ask about the Brattleboro festival’s criteria for choosing guests. As Rouse explained, the organizers seek a diversity of voices, especially underrepresented ones, whose works are more literary than popular. Or, as she put it, “Something that people will read again in 20 years, or 50 … It’s not going to last for five minutes and next year be in a landfill.”
Brattleboro Literary Festival, Friday, October 17, to Sunday, October 19, at multiple locations in Brattleboro. Free. brattleborolitfest.org
Green Mountain Book Festival, Saturday, October 18, at Fletcher Free Library and Phoenix Books in Burlington. Prices vary. greenmountainbookfestival.org
The original print version of this article was headlined “Page Visits | Dueling book festivals in Burlington and Brattleboro deliver impressive lineups of national-caliber authors”
This article appears in Oct 15-21 2025.
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