D. Slayton Avery was raised on pondwater and blackflies in the wilds of Woodbury. She enjoys playing with words, which is sometimes work. But sometimes her work is taken seriously, with publications in a growing number of online and print journals and anthologies. She is the author of two books of poetry and one of flash fiction. D. is the 2024 Vermont Writers poetry prize winner, and PSOV’s 2025 Arthur Wallace Peach Award winner. She founded VerseVillage to celebrate local poets and poetry in her hometown of Hardwick.

Cindy Ellen Hill has penned four poetry collections, Wild Earth (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 novel in sonnet verse, Leeds Point, will be released by Selkie Songs Press in summer 2026. Her poetry has been included in Flint Hills Review, Anacapa Review, Measure, and on National Public Radio. She has won the Vermont Writer’s Prize for poetry and fiction, and received NENPA awards in journalism. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing.

Sunday Afternoon Poetry at the Jaquith monthly poetry readings are free and open to the public and held at the Jaquith Public Library, 122 School Street, Marshfield, Vermont.

sponsored in part by Jasper Hill Farm