Baron Wormser & Ron Padgett

Back Roads Readings was created to bring esteemed poets and writers, both local and regional, to read their work to people in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Readings are followed by a book signing and reception and held on the HCA Main Stage.

Baron Wormser is the author of twenty books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, including his memoir, The Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet’s Memoir of Living Off the Grid (2006), about the experience of 25 years of living in rural Maine.  His latest book of poems is The History Hotel, published by CavanKerry Press in 2023. His honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation; the Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry; and the Kathryn A. Morton Prize. From 2000 to 2005, he served as Poet Laureate of the State of Maine. He is the founding director of the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching and the Frost Place Seminar.  His essays were included in Best American Essays 2014 and 2018, and his poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. Wormser lives in Montpelier with his wife Janet.

Ron Padgett is a poet, teacher, translator, collaborator, memoirist, and editor.   His book, How Long (2011), was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry; his Collected Poems (2013) won the LA Times Prize for the best poetry book of 2014, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. His most recent book of poems is Dot (2022). He has translated Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Max Jacob, and Pierre Reverdy. Among his many honors are the Harold Morton Landon Award from the Academy of American Poets for his translation of Apollinaire’s selected poems; the Shelley Memorial Award (2009) and the Frost Medal (2017), both from the Poetry Society of America. Seven of Padgett’s poems were used in Jim Jarmusch’s film, Paterson (2016). He divides his time between New York City and Calais.