Chard deNiord & Sydney Lea

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 are held outside in a tent with socially distanced seating.

Chard deNiord was the poet laureate of Vermont from 2015 to 2019. He is the author of six books of poetry, most recently, In My Unknowing, (University of Pittsburgh Press, February 2020), Interstate, (The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015) He is also the author of two books of interviews with eminent American poets. In 2017 he co-edited an anthology of Vermont poets with Sydney Lea titled Roads Taken, Contemporary Vermont Poetry.  He founded the Spirit and the Letter Poetry Seminar in Patzcuaro, Mexico in 1998 and then the New England College MFA program in Poetry in 2002, which he also directed for nine years. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Providence College, the Essay Editor at Plume Magazine, and a trustee of the Ruth Stone Trust.

Sydney Lea was Vermont Poet Laureate from 2011-2015. Lea is the author of thirteen collections of poetry, most recently, Here, (Four Way Books, 2019), a novel, and four volumes of personal and one of critical essays. His forthcoming book of newspaper columns, Seen from All Sides: Lyric and Everyday Life, comes out in July 2021. He founded and for thirteen years edited New England Review. A former Pulitzer finalist, Lea has taught at Dartmouth, Yale, Wesleyan, Vermont and Middlebury Colleges.