Planning Committee

Bookstock is truly a community event… planned, produced and hosted by nonprofit organizations, with the support of local & regional businesses, and by generous individual donors & volunteers. The friends of Bookstock are too many to name. But, you know who you are and the festival thrives because of each of you. Everyone involved in the Festival benefits and is grateful.

Bookstock’s core planning teams include:

Bookstock Board

Board Member: Suzanne Affeldt moved to Woodstock with her family in early 2022 from Tucson, Arizona. She has spent her career working in both public and private sectors. Suzanne has extensive experience in fund development, event planning, operations management, program development and public relations. She is currently working in development at Dartmouth Health. Her position on the board is to spearhead the fund-raising aspect of Bookstock.

Board Member & Vice Chair: Peter Gilbert, has a broad knowledge of the cultural resources of Vermont, largely be virtue his serving as executive director of Vermont Humanities for 16 years. He has followed Bookstock’s development over the years and has spoken and introduced speakers at Bookstock.  He is helpful in networking with cultural resources throughout Vermont to strengthen our all-Vermont draw.

Board Member, Paul Jensen is new to the Bookstock board, joining in December 2021. His family moved from Washington, DC to Woodstock in 2020, and he was thrilled to learn that the village hosted an annual literary festival. Paul earns a living by ghostwriting, leading corporate writing workshops, and helping health and science organizations improve how they communicate with the broader world. When living in DC, Paul was active in the Writers Center in Bethesda, MD. The only secret he keeps from his wife is this: while she was away on business during 2021’s Bookstock, he brought a hundred books home from the book sale.

Board Member & Secretary: Nan McCann spent weekends in the area, stumbled upon Bookstock and soon ‘became part of the story’ by volunteering. She is co-founder of PME Enterprises, a sales & marketing agency with an emphasis on national & regional B-to-B conferences, events and expositions. Her recent work focuses on delivering better consumer results with women, moms and families. Nan spent years in radio networking, and target marketing, but began her career teaching English to high school trade students in Connecticut. She now calls the Upper Valley her full-time home and the Bookstock Literary Festival a passion.

Board Member: Ann Quasman moved to Woodstock in 2014 after a full career in investment management/banking, followed by a career in developing workshops for women in transition, hosting a broadcast radio show focused on women’s issues, and founding a scholarship essay contest for high school girls called Girls Gone Great, which now operates as a non-profit. When Ann moved to Woodstock, the very first event she attended was Bookstock, and she fell in love. Since then, she has attended, volunteered and is now a member of the board. Her position on the board is as the Partnership Lead, working to create strong and effective relationships within the community.

Board Member & Chair: Peter Rousmaniere co-founded Bookstock in 2009 and has been involved with the festival throughout its lifetime.  He is especially interested in enabling people to find their own expressive voice through meeting authors at Bookstock. He buys books at the used book sale, reads them, gives them back, and buys more. He is active in the North Chapel (Unitarian) church. He has co-produced several cultural events in the Town.

Board Member & Treasurer: Dave Whitney, has been an attendee of Bookstock since 2013 and a volunteer since 2016. He has been involved in the collection of the books and management of the festival’s used book sale since 2017. Prior to moving to Woodstock, as part of his technical job he spent many years as a member of a team planning topics, speakers, and scheduling for a twice a year computer related conference.

Bookstock Staff

Event Managers: Morgan & Jeremiah Brophy (StrongRabbit), StrongRabbit provides event and production management, solving problems before they arise, and brings the vision of those who dream big to life. They are a swiss army knife – production & event management, box office support, volunteer management, websites, graphic design, video editing, merch & swag, marketing, operations, scenic elements, carpentry, electrics, and more. Having moved back to the Upper Valley after a decade away, they bring experience from the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Washington National Opera, Drum Tao, and more, and are excited to bring their knowledge of event management to Bookstock. info@bookstockvt.org

Program Director & Author Relations: Elizabeth Wilcox returned to Vermont in 2020 to start AuthorPods, an information, event, and scheduling platform that seeds community-driven conversation about books with an initial focus on Vermont authors. Having lived in Vermont and attended Middlebury College, Elizabeth previously worked in London, Hong Kong, and the U.S. as a journalist and producer before moving into developing digital content, including training in social and emotional learning. She is the author of The Mom Economy (Berkley, 2003) and The Long Tail of Trauma (Green Writers Press, 2020), and cofounder of AmeUp, a networking group for creative entrepreneurs in the Upper Valley. An excerpt from her upcoming novel awarded her finalist for the 2021 Vermont Writers Prize. info@bookstockvt.org

Poetry Director: Chard deNiord is the author of seven books of poetry, the most recent of which are In My Unknowing  (U. of Pittsburgh Press, 2020) and Interstate (U. of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), and two books of interviews with eminent senior and mid-career American poets titled Sad Friends, Drowned Lovers, Staple Songs (Marick Press, 2011) and I Would Lie To You If I Could (U. of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). He served as Poet Laureate of Vermont from 2015 to 2019, during which time he co-edited with Sydney Lea, his predecessor as Poet Laureate of Vermont, the anthology Roads Taken, Contemporary Vermont  Poetry, which is now in its third edition and contains poems by 142 Vermont poets. He presently serves as the essay editor at Plume Poetry Journal and just completed co-producing the documentary film by Nora Jacobson on the life and career of the poet Ruth Stone titled Ruth Stone’s Vast Library Of The Female Mind, which will air on PBS later this year. He retired from teaching at Providence College in 2020, where he taught for twenty-two years and is now Professor Emeritus of English and Creative Writing. He lives in Putney, Vermont with his wife Liz, who is a painter. info@bookstockvt.org

Also:

Used Book Sales:
Books are donated at the Norman Williams Public Library. Publicized and organized by Bookstock & NWPL. Proceeds support both organizations.

At the Bookstock Tent on The Village Green
Management & Coordination:
Dave & Sherry Whitney
info@bookstockvt.org

At The Norman Williams Public Library
Management & Coordination:
Liza Bernard
www.normanwilliams.org

Books by 2023 Featured Bookstock Authors
Sold on The Village Green by Yankee Bookshop:
Kari Meutsch & Kristian Preylowski
Yankeebookshop.com

Strategic Planning
Senior Advisor:
Michael Stoner
info@bookstockvt.org

Virtual Reality Tent on The Green
Woodstock Union High School
Program Advisor
Andrew Smith

Bookstock Event Venue Liasons:
Woodstock Chamber of Commerce – Beth Finlayson
Norman Williams Public Library – Liza Bernard
Pentangle @ Town Hall Theatre – Alita Wilson
Artistree – Marie Cross
Woodstock History Center – Jennie Shurtleff
North Chapel – Joanne Boyle
Thompson Senior Center – Pam Butler
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park – Kelly Sczomak