BRATTLEBORO-ByWay Books & More, 399 Canal St., will host Joanne McNeil Hayes Sunday, Jan. 11, at 2 p.m. as she presents her collection of poetry based on the midwestern small town of Naperville, Illinois.
Jennifer Ramstetter assisted McNeil Hayes with her prairie research. Part of that research was discovering the many connections between Vermont and Naperville with early 19th-century Vermont residents emigrating to Naperville specifically in search of fertile farmland.
McNeil Hayes grew up in Naperville, writing poems about midwestern small-town life before moving to Vermont. She earned a Bachelor of Science in English from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in the history of ideas/American studies from Johns Hopkins University. While a professor of English, gender and women’s studies, and American history at Greenfield (Mass.) Community College, McNeil Hayes participated in poetry readings in the Northeast and Hawaii.
She culminated her midwestern life experiences in her most recent book of poetry, I am the Prairie, published in 2025.
Ramstetter provided the book’s foreword and highlights the connection between the prairie life and the ecology McNeil Hayes’s poetry showcases. Ramstetter is a professor emerita at Marlboro College and Emerson College, where she taught biology and environmental studies.
For more information, contact the bookstore 802-490-8014 or contact@bywaybooks.co, or visit bywaybooks.co.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.