Plans are complete for Bookstock 22, which will take place on June 24-26 in the village of Woodstock. The Green Mountain Festival of Words is excited to be back after a two year hiatus.  The three-day festival will center on the historic Town Green, with a mammoth used book sale, exhibitors, music, food, festivities, virtual reality, and more.

There will be something for everyone, with over 50 authors, and 39 author events across genres.  Whether your tastes tend to memoir, crime, history, humor, Vermont poetry, or graphic novels, you will be sure to find something to suit you over the three days of events.

The line up includes Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar, brought to us by the generous support of Pentangle Arts.  American writer, spy novelist, and former CIA officer Valerie Plame joins Robert Kerbeck, author of Ruse: Lying the American Dream from Hollywood to Wall Street, to talk leaks, sneaks, and other assorted spy stories.

Vermont authors, both local and around the state, round out the festival whose return this year, and extensive program, was facilitated by a grant from the Woodstock Economic Development Commission.

Fasten your seatbelts as journalist and much-lauded travel writer Julia Cooke shares the glamour, danger, and liberation of commercial flight in the Mad-Men era, in her book Come Fly the World.  Julia and her family made Woodstock their home during covid.

Historian and former national park superintendent Rolf Diamant will be on hand to discuss how anti-slavery activism, civil war, and the remaking of government gave rise to the American public park and concept of national parks.

Memoirist and **Woodstock native Bruce Coffin shares his new book, Among Familiar Shadows, a compassionate and enlightened look back on the people who have meant the most to him.

Don’t miss the program**, Welcome to Vermont: Home to sorcery, secrets, mystery, and mayhem** : a conversation between Trish Esden author of the new Scandal Mountain Antiques Mystery series and the Northern Circle Coven series and Jennifer McMahon, New York Times bestselling author of eleven suspense novels, many set in Vermont.

Vermont Poet Laureates will be in full force. **** A special gathering will feature Chard deNiord (author of six collections, including In My Unknowing)and Pulitzer Prize finalists Sydney Lea and Mary Ruefle, longlister for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry.

The festival’s youngest presenter will be ten-year-old  Levi Goodan (illustrator) and his mom, poet Kimberly Burwick .  They will discuss their collaboration, The Rainbow Balloon, created during the first wave of lockdowns. A story of hope and resilience, the book offers a springboard toward a “new normal”.

Woodstock Union High School students in Andrew Smith’s computer programming class  will return to The Green to demonstrate Virtual Reality (VR) with headsets donated by Bookstock.  According to Andrew’s report from the event in 2019,  “Two VR systems ran simultaneously, allowing about 40 people to experience VR for 10-15 minutes each. Participants ranged in age from early elementary kids to senior citizens, and they were able to choose from a variety of VR experiences, with differing levels of immersion and intensity. After strapping on a headset and picking up hand trackers, participants rode roller coasters, interacted with robots, sat alongside refugees in a boat crossing the Mediterranean, climbed rock cliffs, and created 3D-painted works of art.”f

For some Poetry in Concert, plan on a performance by Los Lorcas.  Celebrating their new release Last Night in America, poets Partridge Boswell and Peter Money, along with guitarist Nat Williams, fuse poetry and music in a passionate and surprising mash-up. Los Lorcas blur boundaries between spoken word and song, weaving poetry with Andalusian ballads, blues, rock, folk, reggae, hip hop, Americana and jazz in pursuit of the cante jondo (deep song) championed by Federico Garcia Lorca.

The three day festival will coincide once again with Artistree’s book art exhibition, “Unbound”,  at their gallery in Pomfret.

Visit Bookstock’s new website www.bookstockvt.org for additional details on all the 39 author events and other entertainment.  Plan to be Part of the Story.