Photo credit: Edward Brown
Bread Loaf Administration
Michael Collier, Director
Jennifer Grotz, Assistant Director
Noreen Cargill, Administrative Manager
The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is one of twelve summer programs offered at Middlebury College. Others include the Language Schools of Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish; and the Bread Loaf School of English (in Ripton, Vermont; Oxford, England; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Asheville, North Carolina).
Middlebury College complies with applicable provisions of state and federal law which prohibit discrimination in employment, or in admission or access to its educational or extracurricular programs, activities or facilities, on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, place of birth, service in the armed forces of the United States, or against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability.
The Program
DATES: In 2009, the Conference will take place from Wednesday, August 12, to Sunday, August 23.
The first scheduled event is a welcome and reading at 8:15 PM on August 12, but we ask that Bread Loafers plan to arrive by 5 PM that day. The last day of the Conference, August 23, is a travel day; Bread Loafers have breakfast that Sunday and plan to leave by noon.
During the Conference, writing workshops in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction are the core of the curriculum. Each faculty member conducts a small workshop, most often of ten contributors, meeting for five two-hour sessions over the course of the Conference. All participants also meet individually with their workshop leader to amplify and refine what was said in the workshop itself. Faculty give lectures on writerly issues, and one-hour classes on specific aspects of craft. Readings by faculty, guests, and contributors are scheduled in the Little Theater throughout the day and into the night.
We offer many opportunities for you to inform yourself about the world of publishing. Early in the Conference, guest editors and agents give overviews of the industry, describing the functions of agents and literary editors, answering questions, and offering guidelines on how to submit book proposals and full-length manuscripts. You may sign up to meet with an editor or agent in small groups.
Magazine editors, publicists, grant specialists, and other guests offer a range of presentations on topics related to publishing.
Schedule
The schedule varies, but most days look something like this: -7:30 a.m. breakfast
-9 a.m. faculty lecture
-10:10 a.m.-12:10 p.m. workshops/preparation time (alternating days)
-noon - 1:45 p.m lunch
-2:30-3:30 p.m. craft classes
-4:15 p.m. reading or guest speaker
-5:30 p.m. guest presentation
-6:30 p.m. dinner
-8:15 p.m. reading
Workshop meetings take precedence, but hikes, meetings with editors and agents, individual conferences with faculty, and other activities may be scheduled simultaneously with lectures and readings. With so many tempting options, Bread Loafers sometimes take a few days to realize they have to pace themselves.
Location
For those who enjoy outdoor life, Bread Loaf is ideally located at the edge of the Green Mountain Forest in Ripton, Vermont. A junction with the Long Trail, which winds along the summit of the Green Mountains and extends from southern Vermont to the Canadian border, is a short hike up Route 125. The campus also offers many opportunities for recreation: volleyball and clay tennis courts, a softball and soccer playing field, and jogging and hiking trails. A beach at Lake Dunmore is twelve miles away, and Lake Pleiad is a quarter-mile down the Long Trail. In nearby Middlebury you can find country auctions, antique shops, a state crafts center, a fine museum, a movie theater, and riding and golf facilities. The elevation at Bread Loaf is 1500 feet above sea level.
Lodging and Meals
Bread Loafers are housed on the mountain campus of Middlebury College, in the Bread Loaf Inn and its cluster of cottages and buildings. Most rooms are doubles; baths are shared. We make every effort to ensure that roommates will be compatible, and in fact, some lifelong friendships have developed between Bread Loaf roommates. All buildings are within walking distance of the center of the campus, but some are farther from that center than others. We ask admitted Bread Loafers if they plan to bring a car, so we can arrange accommodations suitably. A list of local rentals is available to those who prefer off-campus housing; we endorse neither those properties nor the terms of their rentals.
Meals are served in the dining room of the Inn. There's a well-stocked salad bar, and vegetarian options are available. Bread Loafers who live off-campus may pay for individual meals in the Inn.
Bread Loaf is a smoke-free campus. Vermont State Law prohibits smoking in any building on campus, including dormitories.
Library and Computer Lab
The Davison Memorial Library at Bread Loaf hosts a collection of literature, reference books, and reserve shelves. The downstairs "Apple Cellar" is a full-featured computer room (both Macintosh and IBM platforms), including printers and Internet connections for writing, research, and e-mail. Some zip disk drives are available, and a computer technician is on site most days to help with any questions. Wireless access is available in some public areas.
Travel
The Bread Loaf campus is located in Ripton, Vermont, about twenty minutes from Middlebury. The campus is a 2 1/2 hour drive from Montreal, about 4 hours from both Boston and Hartford, 5 hours from New York City, and 6 1/2 hours from Philadelphia.
In case you would like to use Mapquest for directions, here is an exact address very close to the Bread Loaf campus during the time of the Conference. (Do not send any materials to the address noted here. This is just an address that will allow you to use Mapquest.)
1192 Route 125
Ripton, VT 05766
The nearest airport is located in Burlington, Vermont (BTV), about an hour and ten minutes from the Bread Loaf campus. The Burlington International Airport is served by American, Continental, Delta, Jet Blue, Northwest, United, and USAirways.
Shared taxis from the airport to campus are available.
The College uses a luxury van service called
Middlebury Transit. Details regarding how to make taxi arrangements are included with acceptance materials.
Vermont Transit provides bus service from Montreal, Boston, Albany, and NYC to Burlington, Vermont. Shared taxis from the bus terminal to campus are available. See details noted in paragraph above.