Ann Dávila Cardinal is a novelist and director of student recruitment for Vermont College of Fine Arts where she earned her MFA in Writing. Her novels Five Midnights (6/4/19) and the sequel, Category Five (6/2/20), are published by Tor Teen. Ann lives in Morrisville, Vermont with her husband Doug and son Carlos, and likes to spend her free time cycling, doing fiber arts, and preparing for the zombie apocalypse.
Vermont authors are invited to join the Vermont Authors Fest Facebook group.
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Barbara Williams Sheperd holds an undergraduate degree from Keene State College and a Master’s in Counseling from Antioch University. She studied writing at the University of Vermont, taking additional coursework at St. Michael’s College, and Johnson and Lyndon State Colleges. She worked thirty years in public education, five as a classroom teacher, and twenty-five as a middle, or high school counselor. She retired from the Essex High School Counseling Department in 2003.
Barbara honed her skills writing thousands of college reference letters, guidance newsletters and directives. Her short stories and articles have been published in Mainstream Magazine, Keene State Today, The Barton Chronicle and the St. Albans Messenger. During the two years she worked for the University of Vermont Extension Service, she wrote a weekly column for The News and Citizen and a monthly newsletter for 4-H families. She even tried her hand at writing blogs for the Flynn Theatre.
During the summers, Barbara lives a quiet life on a small Northern Vermont lake. She recently took up fishing to pass the time during this Covid-isolation-summer, and as an excuse to get out on the water. When winter approaches she flies away to her Florida property with the rest of the snowbirds. There, she starts her day walking the undeveloped trails in her neighborhood, then moves on to creative pursuits.
In addition to writing, Barbara is passionate about genealogy and restoring vintage photographs. She played guitar in a Ceilidh group and clarinet in the Newport Community Band. She sang with Northsong, a Classical Chorus, for sixteen years until the Covid pandemic shuttered the doors on group activities. She started a knitting group at the Goodrich Library that lasted over ten years, again, furloughed by Covid-19.
Barbara has three grown children, and six delightful grandchildren who are not furloughed by the pandemic. People say of her, she makes a friend everywhere she goes.
Vermont authors are invited to join the Vermont Authors Fest Facebook group.
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Second of seven children, teacher, mom of four and pseudo-mom for about a dozen!
I've lived in 7 states, traveled to all but 5. I've worked at jobs from janitor to junior executive. Scout leader for 7 years for girls aged from 7 to 17. I write my fictional stories as warp to the weft of personal experiences. My stories are written with enjoyment in mind.
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Louella Bryant’s novel Cowboy Code is based on the true story of a Virginia mountain town. Other books include While In Darkness There Is Light, nonfiction about the Vietnam era, a story collection, and two Civil War novels for young adult readers. Her award-winning writing has appeared in magazines and anthologies. A graduate of George Washington University and Vermont College of Fine Arts, Louella works as an independent editor. Visit her website at https://louellabryant.com.
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Sharon Darrow is the award-winning author of Picture Books (Old Thunder and Miss Raney; Yafi’s Family; Through the Tempests Dark and Wild: A Story of Mary Shelley, Creator of Frankenstein) and Young Adult novels (The Painters of Lexieville and TRASH). Her poetry for young people and her poems, short stories, interviews, and personal essays for adults have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. Her most recent works are Worlds within Words: Writing and the Writing Life and her first poetry collection for adults, Now in a Far Sky.
Vermont authors are invited to join the Vermont Authors Fest Facebook group.