The History of Poor Farms in Vermont / Thu Nov 5 / 6:30-8 PM

The History of Poor Farms in Vermont

The true story behind the award-winning new novel, Asa James*, describing life on a Vermont poor farm.

Thursday, November 5th from 6:30 – 8:00 PM in the SAL Room

Asa James, Winner of the 2025 prizes for Historical Fiction in the Feathered Quill Book Awards and National Indie Excellence Awards.

A book signing will follow the talk.

About the author:

Jodi Lew-Smith lives on a hill farm in the rural Northeast Kingdom of Vermont with her husband, dog, chickens, and 250 apple trees.

She has always been a writer but also enjoys biology, which comes out in her fiction. She holds a bachelor’s in English literature, a master’s in botany, and a doctorate in molecular genetics and works as a biocurator for a genomic database. Her stories and essays have appeared in various journals, including a story in The Wax Paper that was nominated for a 2019 Pushcart Prize. Her novel The Clever Mill Horse won the 2014 James River Writers Indie Novel Contest, the 2014 Feathered Quill Book Awards prize for historical fiction, and the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Awards prize for historical fiction.