Author Julia Alvarez will discuss her research and experiences with Vermont’s migrant workers in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on March 4. Her talk, "Return to Sender,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7:00 p.m.

Alvarez will deliver her talk using her new children’s book, Return to Sender, as a starting point.

Alvarez, Writer-in-Residence at Middlebury College, is a poet, novelist and essayist. She was born in New York City and raised in the Dominican Republic. She has published sixteen books, including How the Garcia Girls Lost Her Accents, Something to Declare, and Saving the World. Her latest book is Return to Sender.

The Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. Talks are held at Brooks Memorial Library.

First Wednesdays is also presented in eight other communities statewide: Burlington (at Fletcher Free Library); Manchester (at First Congregational Church, hosted by Mark Skinner Library); Middlebury (at Ilsley Public Library); Montpelier (at Kellogg-Hubbard Library); Newport/Stanstead, Quebec (at Goodrich Memorial Library and Stanstead College, in alternating months); Norwich (at Norwich Congregational Church, hosted by Norwich Public Library and Norwich Historical Society); Rutland (at Rutland Free Library); and at St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. The program is free, accessible to people with disabilities and open to the public.

Upcoming Brattleboro talks include “I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg” with biographer Bill Morgan on April 1 and “The White Mountain Huts” with Dartmouth professor Allen Koop on May 6.

The Vermont Department of Libraries and Windham Foundation are the statewide underwriters of First Wednesdays. Brooks Memorial Library is sponsored by Brattleboro Savings & Loan, Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, Entergy Vermont; Friends of Brooks Memorial Library, and Merrill-Lynch, Brattleboro.


For more information, contact Brooks Memorial Library at 802.254.5290 or contact the Vermont Humanities Council at 802.262.2626 or info@vermonthumanities.org, or visit www.vermonthumanities.org.

The Vermont Humanities Council is a private nonprofit working to bring the power and the pleasure of the humanities to all Vermonters—of every background and in every community. The Council envisions a state in which every individual learns throughout life—a state in which all its citizens read, reflect, and participate in public affairs.

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