Summer Reading Program - Color Play, Make Sun Catchers
2025-07-28 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
Join Susan Hessey & Amber Paris to explore how the colors mix and create new colors! We will make beautiful sun catchers while playing with shapes to learn how all the beautiful hues we see are made.

CREATING GREAT CHARACTERS: A reading a discussion with Michelle Blake and Dennis McFarland
2025-07-29 17:30 - 19:00
CREATING GREAT CHARACTERS: A reading a discussion with Michelle Blake and Dennis McFarland
Tuesday, July 29th at 6:30 pm at Putney Public Library
Writers and husband-wife team Michelle Blake and Dennis McFarland will read from their books and then open a discussion about the process of finding a persona voice in poetry or creating a character in fiction writing. If you’re writing a novel or short story, or you’re an avid reader who wants to know more about writers’ work behind the scenes, join the discussion, ask some questions, pitch some ideas. Books they will be reading from are in the library, also, so if you want a deep dive, read one of these ahead of time:
Blake books:
HOW TO ENTER THE PALACE, poems and THE TENTMAKER, mystery
McFarland books:
NOSTALGIA, novel and LETTER FROM POINT CLEAR, novel
Michelle Blake wrote a trilogy of mysteries, with Lily Connor, and her chapbook, Into the Wide and Startling World, was selected for the New Women’s Voices Series at Finishing Line Press. In 2014, she published a collaboration with visual artist Fran Forman, in which she wrote a series of poems and a fable. She has published poems and essays in MORE Magazine, The New York Times, Ploughshares, Southern Review, Banyan Press Anthology, Cedar Creek Review, Prairie Schooner, Solstice Lit Journal, Cider Press Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Asheville Poetry Review, and many other magazines and anthologies. Her latest book of poems, How We Enter the Palace, was published this year by Green Writers Press.
Dennis McFarland is the bestselling author of seven novels: Nostalgia, Letter from Point Clear, Prince Edward, Singing Boy, A Face at the Window, School for the Blind, and The Music Room. His short fiction has appeared in The American Scholar, The New Yorker, Prize Stories: the O. Henry Awards, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. He has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wallace E. Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, where he has also taught creative writing.
Putney Public Library is located at 55 Main St in Putney, VT. This event is free and open to the public.

Putney Amblers Walking Group
2025-07-30 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-08-06 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-08-13 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-08-20 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-08-27 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-09-03 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-09-10 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-09-17 14:00 - 15:00 and 3 more dates
Would you like to get outside and walk in the company of others? The Putney Amblers is a casual walking group sponsored by Putney Public Library. Moseying with others is a great way to get out and be a part of a community group.
The Putney Amblers meet for walks at 3:00 pm on Wednesdays, changing spots and routes each week. Please feel free to join us on an impromptu basis, or email Susan Heimer to register to get weekly location and weather-related updates: heimer.susan@gmail.com Walks will last from 60-90 minutes depending on the will of the group.

Summer Reading Program - Sidewalk Chalk Party
2025-07-30 15:00 - 16:00
You are invited to Putney’s community sidewalk chalk party! Make art, make friends, make connections. Enjoy snow cones and chalk art!

Creating Worlds, Changing Perspectives: A collage and poetry workshop with Jackie Proulx & Bianca Zanella
2025-08-05 17:30 - 19:00
Creating Worlds, Changing Perspectives
A collage and poetry workshop with Jackie Proulx & Bianca Zanella
Tuesday, August 5th at 6:30pm at Putney Public Library
Make collages and write ekphrastic poetry in community at the Putney Public Library, guided by two Vermont artists who will be in residence at In Situ Polyculture in Westminster.
Ekphrastic poetry is a form of writing that uses vivid, detailed descriptions of a visual work of art to create a literary piece. Make a collage and then swap with another workshop participant to write a poem inspired by their work! Supplies will be provided by the presenters. Participants do not need any prior experience with collage or poetry and don’t need to bring anything except some curiosity. Ages 10 and up welcome. No registration needed.
Jackie Proulx is a Vermont-based artist, educator, and University of Vermont certified death doula. Through art forms such as collage, dance, and poetry, she has found ways to express complex emotions and uncover deep truths about grief, loss, and connection. With years of experience working in education and social services, she is passionate about accompanying people as they discover and strengthen their voices, craft their stories, and make informed choices on their journey.
Bianca Amira Zanella is a queer Vermont-based performance poet, multidisciplinary artist, and poetic medicine healer. Zanella serves the community using poetry as a path to wholeness as The Paper Poet, designing experiences to decrease hardship while increasing heartship. Zanella’s work is an invitation to surprise and delight, often welcoming word play and playful presence into a creative healing experience, a mutual making. She creates wonder, deep reflection, and promotes social interdependent change through her poetry and interactive poetic experiences.

Stitch Together
2025-08-06 17:00 - 19:00
Stitch Together
A vibrant fiber arts group is gathering at Putney Library and you’re invited! Come knit, crochet, embroider, mend or work on any handwork craft in the company of others. The library is cozy and the lighting is perfect for needlework of all kinds! Beginners are welcome!
The group will meet twice monthly on Wednesday evenings from 6pm-8pm.

Mending Bee
2025-08-10 12:00 - 15:00
Do you have a pile of nice wool socks with holes, favorite jeans that would be perfect if not for a rip in the knee, or sweaters with moth holes?
Bring your ailing fabric items to Putney Library. Advice and support are always available, but you’ll be the mender of your own items.
Sewing machines and darning tools are available to use during the Bee.

Library Closed for Lighting Installation
2025-08-11 07:00 - 2025-08-13 17:00
Putney Public Library to Close for Lighting Installation
Putney Public Library will close to the public from Monday, August 11th-Wednesday August 13th for the installation of outdoor lighting. The library will re-open on Thursday, August 14th for regular hours, which are Monday-Friday 10:30am-6pm and Saturdays 10am-1pm.
While the entire front lawn area and entrance will be inaccessible, the parking lot will remain open, the Wi-Fi will be on (with the exception of any time the power must be off) and the library book drop will be moved next to the parking lot so that books can be returned.
Putney Library was the recipient of ARPA funding from The Town of Putney to help increase safety and visibility outside the library with outdooring lighting and we look forward to this improvement to our grounds.
Putney Public Library is located at 55 Main Street in Putney, VT. This program is free and open to the public.

Emma Paris, Youth Poet Laureate to Read
2025-08-19 18:00 - 19:30
Join Putney resident and Youth Poet Laureate of Vermont for a reading at Putney Public Library on Tuesday, August 19th at 7pm.
Emma will be reading work written in her first year at Bennington College that has evolved from research and data that she has studied and interpreted using experimental formulas to transcribe into her poetry. This data, primarily derived from wolf restoration research, has determined line, syllable, and word count in her work, in order to embed the data in the form itself, not simply stopping at content. In addition to her scientific poetry, Emma will also be sharing work from her upcoming poetry debut, The Animal Wife.
Emma Paris (she/her) is a Putney local and student at Bennington College studying Poetry and Ecology with a focus on environmental data interpretation for creative work. Emma’s writing centers the interwoven web of trophic cascades (both natural and fabricated) that shape our interactions with each other, and the individual and collective return to innate wilderness. Through her work as a poet and student ecologist, Emma experiments with the undulating intersection of creative writing and science, while creating poetry that is both inherently and intentionally political. Satisfying the urge of creative instinct is a methodology of personal justice, sharing and creating the work with others is where collective justice begins. Her writing has appeared in VTDigger, the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast, the Northern New England Review, Harpur Palate, and more. She interned at Green Writers Press during the winter of 2025, helping edit and proof upcoming titles in poetry. Emma was recently named the Youth Poet Laureate of Vermont for 2025. Keep up with her on Instagram at @vt_youth_poet_laureate_2025
Putney Public Library is located at 55 Main St. in Putney, VT. This program is free and open to the public.

Cordage & Chords: Hands-on demonstrations in cordage-making and book arts accompanied by a special musical performance
2025-08-28 17:30 - 19:00
Cordage & Chords
Thursday, August 28th, 6:30 pm – 8 pm at Putney Public Library
Hands-on demonstrations in cordage-making and book arts accompanied by a special musical performance
Join the August cohort of artists-in-residence from In Situ Polyculture Commons* for hands-on demonstrations in Cordage Making and Book Arts, accompanied by a special musical performance, songs written for acoustic guitar and voice.
It’s a demonstration, a workshop, a salon— a chance to chat with fascinating and talented people all while keeping our hands busy!
This event is free and open to the public.
Featured Visiting Artists:
Ro Adler
Grace Emmet
Hayley Ferber
Cindy Ellen Hill
& Naomi Harrison-Clay
In Situ Polyculture Commons is an artist residency and eco-cultural catalyst in Westminster, VT. A registered Vermont non-profit, ISPC supports cross-pollination between creative and research disciplines, re-skilling and material knowledge for artists, and the cultivation of rich creative practices in balance with rest through our residencies and programming. Learn more at www.insitupolyculture.org
Ro Adler is an interdisciplinary artist who makes paintings, prints, digital designs, large-scale protest art, and communal site-specific ecological art. Ro teaches, facilitates, develops art education programs, builds art for actions, and creates interdisciplinary community projects that combine gardening, herbalism, fiber arts, and earthy ritual. Their work is about communities telling their stories, and the relationships between people and land, and it lives in the gardens, classrooms, telephone poles, and streets of Philadelphia.
roadler.us / @roroadler
Grace Emmet is an eco-artist, educator, program director, naturalist, and sustainability advocate. She holds her BFA in Illustration from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Her work has been shown in galleries, museums, and universities across Massachusetts. Grace lives and works out of the beautiful nook of Outer Cape Cod tucked in-between two seasides.
https://www.graceemmet.com/ / @graceemmet_illustration
Hayley Ferber is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores nautical and maritime themes through artist books, block prints, and paintings that reflect on struggle, resilience, and discovery. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Cuttyhunk Island Artists’ Residence (2024) and ChaNorth (2021), and has exhibited widely in group shows across the U.S. Hayley is also an educator and arts administrator who holds an MAT in Art & Design Education from RISD and a BS in Studio Art from NYU.
@hayleyferber / www.hayleyferber.com
Naomi Harrison-Clay is a songwriter and improviser based in New York City. She has a BA in Music from Mills College where she studied experimental composition, free improvisation, and extended vocal techniques. She has toured in the United States, Canada, and Mexico with the experimental folk duo Junior Mint Prince, whose debut album “I Saw Freak Joy” was released by Sweet Wreath in 2023. Naomi’s creative pursuits are driven by a fascination with the healing potential of vocal catharsis, which she explores as a student of Ethelyn Friend, a teaching member of the International Roy Hart Center. Naomi’s vocal explorations are also informed by ancestral frameworks of health and energetics which she studies at Arbor Vitae School of Traditional Herbalism.
https://www.instagram.com/naomijuniper_/
Cindy Ellen Hill is the author of Wild Earth and Other Sonnets (Antrim Press 2021), Elegy for the Trees (Kelsay Books 2022), Mosaic: Poems from Travels in Italy (Wild Dog Press 2024), and Love in a Time of Climate Change (Finishing Line Press 2025). Her poetry has been included in Treehouse Literary Review, Flint Hills Review, Anacapa Review, and The Lyric. Her essays on sonnet elements have recently appeared in American Poetry Review and Unlikely Stories. She holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives in Vermont.
https://www.cindyellenhill.com/
Putney Public Library is located at 55 Main St. in Putney, VT. This event is free and open to the public.

Library Closed for Labor Day
2025-08-31 - 2025-09-01

Artist Reception: Man with No Country by Saad Hindal
2025-09-07 14:00 - 18:00
Saadhindalart.com

Stitch Together
2025-09-10 17:00 - 19:00, 2025-09-24 17:00 - 19:00, 2025-10-08 17:00 - 19:00
Stitch Together at Putney Library
Come knit, crochet, embroider, mend or work on any handwork craft in the company of others. The library is cozy and the lighting is perfect for needlework of all kinds! Beginners are welcome!
The group will meet twice monthly on Wednesday evenings from 6pm-8pm. The next meetings are:
Putney Library is located at 55 Main Street in Putney, VT. This program is free and open to the public.

Music & Movement
2025-09-13 08:30 - 09:30, 2025-09-27 08:30 - 09:30
Join Sarah & Stu for a fun, playful, and participatory song circle for children ages 0-5! In this dynamic class, children (and their caregivers) will be invited to sing, play, and move their bodies to the sounds of uplifting American and world folk songs accompanied by guitar, ukulele & mandolin.

Read With A Dog!
2025-09-23 14:30 - 15:30
Practice your reading skills with Virgil, our therapy dog volunteer and his human Abigail. All ages and abilities welcome
Virgil loves to listen!

Make Your Own Medieval Shield or Banner
2025-10-04 09:00 - 10:30
Fun for all ages! Outdoors behind the library at 10am. In case of inclement weather, the event will move to The Grammar School’s auditorium.
Presented in partnership with The Grammar School

Fall Puzzle Race
2025-10-04 12:00 - 16:00
Can you complete a jigsaw puzzle faster than your friends and neighbors? Putney Public Library will be hosting our Puzzle Race on Saturday, October 4tt1pm. Register a team of 3-5 puzzlers at https://forms.gle/gcaLpeyCUPjhJqNS7 by Saturday, September 20th for a friendly competition to see who can complete a 500 piece puzzle the fastest.
Want to join but don’t have a team? Email us to join an all-comers puzzle team!
Each team will receive the same puzzle. The team that finishes first wins bragging rights!
There will also be a Puzzle Swap during open hours 10am-1pm that Saturday and through the Puzzle Race. Bring a puzzle, take a puzzle from the puzzle table.
