Putney Public Library

Library Closed for Town Meeting Day
2025-03-03 - 2025-03-04

Storytime
2025-03-06 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-03-13 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-03-20 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-03-27 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-04-03 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-04-10 10:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York)
Join us for stories, songs and crafts. For young children and their siblings and caretakers are welcome to attend.

Music & Movement
2025-03-08 08:00 - 09:00, 2025-03-22 08:00 - 09:00, 2025-04-05 08:00 - 09:00
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.

You Draw Me, I Draw You
2025-03-08 10:00 - 11:30

Bob Etzweiler Presents Getting to Know our Wild Neighbors: Learning about the world around us through wildlife tracking
2025-03-10 17:30 - 19:00
Bob Etzweiler Presents Getting to Know our Wild Neighbors: Learning about the world around us through wildlife tracking
Monday, March 10th at 6:30pm
Join Bob Etzweiler for Getting to Know our Wild Neighbors: Learning about the world around us through wildlife tracking on Monday, March 10th at 6:30pm at Putney Public Library. Bob will share stories and photos of local wildlife tracking adventures, and give participants pointers on identifying tracks for themselves. He’ll also bring plaster track casts, skulls, bones, and other related items for folks to interact with. Species touched on will include white-tailed deer, coyotes, moose, bobcats, beavers, red & gray foxes, river otters, humans, black bears, domestic dogs, and more.
Bob Etzweiler is a longtime teacher at the Vermont Wilderness School, leading both youth and adult programs. He runs our Lynx Tracking Expedition, Hunting Apprenticeship and Summer Tracking Intensive. Bob has over a decade of experience in Wildlife Tracking, has been hired on wildlife track surveys, and is CyberTracker Specialist certified. He’s a skilled and passionate tracker and teacher.
Putney Library is located at 55 Main Street in Putney, VT. This program is free and open to the public.

Poet Chard deNiord Reads
2025-03-11 17:30 - 19:00
Tuesday, March 11th at 6:30pm
Join local poet, Chard deNiord for a reading of his two most recent books, One As Other and In My Unknowing at Putney Public Library on Tuesday, March 11th at 6:30pm.
Chard deNiord is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Westmister West (forthcoming in May, 15 2025), One As Other (Green Writers Press, 2024), and In My Unknowing (University of Pittsburgh Press 2020). He is also the author of two books of interviews with American poets titled Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Stapled Songs, Conversations and Reflections on 20th Century Poetry (Marick Press, 2011) and I Would Lie To You If I Could (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). His poems have appeared in numerous poetry anthologies and literary Journals, including The Paris Review, Poetry, APR, The Kenyon Review and others. He is Professor Emeritus of English and Creative Writing at Providence College where he taught for twenty-two years. He serves as the essay editor for Plume Poetry. From 2015 to 2019 he served as Poet Laureate of Vermont. He lives in Westminster West, Vermont with his wife, Liz.
Putney Library is located at 55 Main Street in Putney, VT. This program is free and open to the public.

Stitch Together
2025-03-12 17:00 - 19:00, 2025-03-26 17:00 - 19:00, 2025-04-09 17:00 - 19:00
Stitch Together
A new fiber arts group is forming 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
2025-03-16 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.

Putney Amblers Walking Group
2025-03-19 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-03-26 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-04-02 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-04-09 14:00 - 15:00, 2025-04-16 14:00 - 15:00
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.

Helping Our Community To Help Their Animals - WCHS
2025-03-19 17:30 - 19:00
Windham County Humane Society will share information about services and resources to support Vermont’s animals and their people.

VT Reads Author Visit - M.T. Anderson
2025-03-25 16:00 - 17:00
Author M. T. Anderson will discuss how living alone with a dog in the midst of the Covid shutdown in Vermont led to the writing of his Newbery Honor-winning fantasy Elf Dog & Owl Head. He’ll talk about the bond between human and animal—and how it might be different in Vermont than in some other places. Kids are encouraged to bring and tell their own stories of the extraordinary animals they’ve known. This presentation is part of VT Reads with support of Vermont Humanities Council. To learn more about M.T. Anderson and his book Elf Dog & Owl Head read his essay here: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/08/08/elf-dog-larue-a-guest-post-by-m-t-anderson/

Putney Public Library Writers Salon featuring Diane Frank, Mary Kay Rummel, and Prartho Sereno via Zoom
2025-03-25 17:30 - 19:00
Putney Public Library Writers Salon featuring Diane Frank, Mary Kay Rummel, and Prartho Sereno via Zoom
Tuesday, March 25th at 6:30pm at
(link: https://tinyurl.com/5996rjvd or on at putneylibrary.org on Calendar)
Putney Public Library Writers Salon is a Zoom series that brings writers across the country together with an enthusiastic audience.
Toni Ortner, the host of this series, has had 33 books published by small presses. The most recent is The Girl in the Yellow Dress by Kelsay Books. In 2025 Passing Through by Deerbrook Editions and The Van Gogh Notebook by the Dancing Girl Press will be published. She was Vice President of Write Action Inc. for many years and taught in the English Department of the University of Connecticut. Her work can be found at toniortner.com
Diane Frank is a poet, musician, author of eight books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400-mile trek in the Nepalese Himalayas. She is the editor of Blue Light Press. While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for poetry. Diane plays the cello with the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra. She teaches poetry, flash fiction, and memoir workshops at San Francisco State University and Dominican University.
Mary Kay Rummel’s 10th book of poetry, titled Little River of Amazement, was recently published by Blue Light Press and explores the meaning of different stages of life. Previous books won awards form New Rivers Press, Bright Hill Press and Blue Light Press. She is professor emerita from the University of Minnesota and taught at the California State University, Channel Islands. She divides her time between St. Paul, MN and Venrura, CA where she was Poet Laureate.
Prartho Sereno’s most recent collection, Starfall in the Temple, was published by Blue Light Press in the Fall of 2023. Her four other full-length books- Indian Rope Trick, Elephant Raga, Call from Paris, and her illustrated Causing a Stir: The Secret Lives of Kitchen Utensils, won national prizes. Poet Laureate Emerita of Marin County (2015- 2017), MFA from Syracuse University(2013) and Radio Disney Super Teacher(2005), she was a Poet in the Schools for 21 years and currently teaches The Poetry Pilgrimage: Poem Making as a Spiritual Practice online. https://www.prarthosereno.com

Teen Book Talk - Gather
2025-03-26 15:00 - 16:00
Discuss this year’s VT Reads book, Gather with special guest, Virgil the therapy dog.

Death by Aloha: A Sideways History of the Hawaiian Islands with Ben Lord
2025-04-10 17:30 - 19:00
Death by Aloha: A Sideways History of the Hawaiian Islands with Ben Lord
Thursday, April 10th at 6:30pm
Tourists are obnoxious … unless you’re one of them. We all want adventure, but every adventure happens in someone else’s backyard. Hawai’i knows this better than anyplace. In this nerdy and interactive travelogue of Hawai’i, Ben ties together tropical science, Polynesian history, and personal stories to explore questions like, “How can we go to paradise without paving it?” and “What do we owe the places we visit?” Less of a talk, and more of a curated conversation, Ben shares a vision of travel that is filled with compassion, insight, and humor. (Okay, maybe not a ton of humor. Ben isn’t really that funny, but you should come anyway.)
Putney community member, Ben, is a science teacher and writer who believes in kindness, curiosity, and gratitude. He hosts a podcast called “I Heart This” as part of his personal quest to make familiar things strange again, so that we can appreciate how wonderful they are. He has been privileged to travel in many wonderful places including Ireland, Alaska, the Caribbean, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and, of course, Hawai’i.
Putney Library is located at 55 Main Street in Putney, VT. This program is free and open to the public.

Mending Bee
2025-04-13 12:00 - 15:00

Read With A Dog!
2025-04-15 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!

Roger Allbee Reads and Discusses New Book: Turning the Soil: 250 Years of Vermont Agriculture
2025-04-16 17:30 - 19:00
Roger Allbee Reads and Discusses New Book: Turning the Soil: 250 Years of Vermont Agriculture
Wednesday, April 16th at 6:30pm at Putney Library
Join Roger Allbee at Putney Library for a reading and discussion of his new book “Turning The Soil: 250 Years of Vermont Agriculture, a distinguished historical book on changes in rural communities, farmers’ activities, agricultural production, farm policies in the State of Vermont over a period of more than 250 years. It is comprehensively analyzed from perspectives of grassroots, state, national and global levels. It is not only a history book on Vermont’s agriculture, but also a panoramic bird’s-eye view of the long history of cultivation and marketing of farm products by Vermont farmers and how many reinvented themselves to survive.
Allbee has a deep connection to Vermont’s agricultural heritage. Growing up in Brookline on a hilltop dairy farm, he witnessed firsthand the resilience and dedication of his ancestors who have been farming the land since 1794.
Roger has a comprehensive background in agricultural policies, international trade, and natural resource management. He has served on the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture in the past for the late then Rep. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. He worked on the Senior Staff for the former Farm Credit Banks and Bank of Cooperatives, and in the past has served as Secretary of Agriculture for Vermont, to name a few of his past professional responsibilities related to agriculture. He also has been the CEO of Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend.
