Madeleine May Kunin / Walk With Me – Poetry Reading & Conversation

The Yankee Bookshop and the Norman Williams Public Library are pleased to welcome former Governor Madeleine Kunin reading from and discussing her second poetry collection, Walk With Me.

In this collection, the well-versed poet and three-term Vermont governor invites the audience to step into her world, to slow down and find new serenity in older age and unexpected love. Kunin explores the nuances of everyday moments that cultivate a bittersweet appreciation for simple joys. Walk With Me is a beautifully crafted illustration of not only what it means to be a woman on the eve of ninety years of life, but a feminist, a politician, a mother, a lover, a companion, and a living thing in the midst of an ever-turbulent world.

The relationship with the self is a lifelong evolution, a journey that Kunin refuses to tire. Instead, her poems illuminate the confidence and insecurities inherent to all humans, even in older age. The images woven throughout this collection are tender and warm, giving the reader an outlet to appreciate what it means to be alive through each stanza, over and over again.

In her first collection Red Kite, Blue Sky, Kunin established herself as a poet in her own right. The poems in Walk With Me were written in the last few years. True to the poet’s observations in her first collection, the new poems are beautiful, stirring, and often playful tributes to life itself. The important insights—from being an immigrant to losing a spouse, and growing old—will resonate with readers.

Madeleine May Kunin, the first woman to be elected governor of Vermont where she served for three terms, was also the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and U.S. deputy secretary of education. She has written four previous books: Living a Political Life, The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family, Pearls Politics and Power, and Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties. She lives in Shelburne, VT, and is currently James Marsh Professor-at-Large at the University of Vermont, where she gives guest lectures on feminism and women, and politics.

She also served on the board of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), a nongovernmental organization that she founded in 1991, and she launched Emerge Vermont to encourage and support women in politics.

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This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs (below) are appreciated as seating is limited. Your RSVP is a notice of your intent to attend, not a guaranteed seat reservation.

The Yankee Bookshop will be on hand with copies of Walk With Me for purchase and signing. Please email programs@normanwilliams.org for more information.