One hundred years ago, Middlebury resolved “to conduct a School of English at the Inn next summer.”

That next summer, fifty students embarked on a journey of discovery and metamorphosis at the newborn graduate school located in the mountains beyond Middlebury. Travel along ten miles of winding dirt stagecoach road would have given these students ample time to imagine the intellectual possibilities of a summer devoted to study within a remote and spectacular backdrop.

Bread Loaf Reunion

In response to the pandemic, we made the tough decision not to offer any face-to-face programming—including our Centennial Reunion and events—at the Bread Loaf campuses in summer 2020. Be assured that we—the Bread Loaf administration, faculty, and staff—are developing ways for us to stay connected and to learn and grow together, nonetheless. 

Centennial Giving

You can help shape Bread Loaf’s second century. Make a gift for financial aid to build support for student scholarships.

Make Your Centennial Gift

Every year, exceptional teachers who would contribute to classrooms and community—at Bread Loaf and beyond—do not enroll because they cannot afford the cost of a Bread Loaf summer. Additional funding for scholarships will enable more teachers to say yes to Bread Loaf and to take what they have learned back to their schools. Funds raised through the Centennial Challenge will make that dream a reality.

Bread Loaf Centennial Journal

In celebration of the idea that sparked the Bread Loaf School of English one hundred years ago, the creativity that is ignited each summer at Bread Loaf’s campuses, and the imagination that will fuel our next one hundred years, we asked alumni, current students, and faculty to contribute their creative work to our online, multimedia Centennial journal.

We accepted submissions of poetry, stories, essays, memoirs, creative nonfiction, flash fiction, one-act plays, lyrics, comics, photography, video, photo essays, documentaries, two-dimensional art, videos of performances and readings, or an as-yet unimagined genre of creative work.

Online Centennial Book Shop

In celebration of our Centennial, Bread Loaf faculty, staff, and alumnae/i publications are available for browsing and purchase through the website of the locally-owned Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury.  

Shop the Online BLSE Centennial Book Store
25 photos in a gris showing different BLSE students wearing their t-shirts.
Bread Loafers far and wide proudly show their support on International Bread Loaf T-Shirt Day.

International Bread Loaf T-Shirt Day

One hundred years ago, Middlebury College’s board of trustees voted to open a school of English on the Bread Loaf campus. And we’re so glad they did. We commemorated that date, August 31, 1919, by instituting the first-ever International Bread Loaf T-Shirt Day.

Bread Loafers around the country and the world celebrated the founding of Bread Loaf by joining us in wearing their favorite Bread Loaf t-shirts on August 31, 2019

Update Your Information