Curling up with a good book in the dead of winter is one of life’s coziest small pleasures. That’s one reason Seven Days has traditionally run its Winter Reading Issue in late December. This year, we’ve rebranded it slightly as, simply, the Reading Issue, expanding our gaze to reading material that isn’t tied to the season.

That doesn’t mean this issue lacks for wintry tales. Ferrisburgh author Leath Tonino’s brisk short story about winter camping, “The Distant Snowy Mountain,” might chill your bones as much as it warms your heart.

Of course, sometimes the most harrowing and compelling tales aren’t made up. That’s what Mary Ann Lickteig discovered while reporting her piece about three Somali Vermonters who recounted their journeys to the United States in a new book, Deep North: Stories of Somali Resettlement in Vermont.

Historical fact and fiction blend in Stephen Kiernan‘s new novel, The Glass Château. The Charlotte author traveled to Europe and learned to blow glass in Burlington to weave his gripping yarn of healing and redemption set in post-war France.

Kiernan’s latest comes to the masses via William Morrow, a major publisher. In Hancock, the small, mighty and provocatively named Whiskey Tit publishes books no one else will. You may eventually find a few of them in our monthly series “Page 32,” which offers short takes on some of the multitude of Vermont-authored books.

In some books, words take a back seat to pictures — for instance, in Carolyn Bates’ trio of tomes about public art in the Queen City, Street Murals of Burlington: Past and Present. Meanwhile, at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester, concurrent exhibits showcase two beloved children’s book artists: Ashley Bryan and Salley Mavor.

Sometimes, you’ve gotta eat your words. Food writer Jordan Barry interviewed farmer-poet Lucas Farrell of Big Picture Farm about writing, confections and beloved animals. Two other local scribes wax poetic on the joy of cooking.

Finally, Chelsea Edgar helps us understand the life and times of Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning Vermont poet Louise Glück, who died in October. “She wanted to write for the ages,” Edgar writes, and the evidence suggests she succeeded.

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This article appears in The Reading Issue 2023.

Dan Bolles is a culture coeditor at Seven Days. He joined the paper in 2007 as its music editor, covering Vermont's robust music, comedy and nightlife scenes for a decade before deciding he was too old to be going to the Monkey House on weeknights to...