Brad Kessler & Dona Ann McAdams in Norwich

Join author Brad Kessler and award-winning photographer Dona Ann McAdams for a reading from their book The Woodcutter's Christmas! Unwrap the deluxe, expanded, and republished edition of one of the most heartwarming Christmas stories of our time. Each year a New York family looks forward to the day in early December when the woodcutter arrives with his Christmas trees on the sidewalk below their apartment… Featuring elegant black-and-white photographs by an award-winning photographer, The Woodcutter's Christmas takes readers on a reflective journey, blending the serene beauty of Vermont winters with the bustling streets of Manhattan. Seen through the eyes of a man who nurtures Christmas trees, this story explores the contrast between nature's slow, steady rhythms and the fleeting, disposable culture of modern society. When the woodcutter sees the trees he lovingly raised discarded on city curbs after the holiday season, his perspective shifts. The lessons, spirit, and meaning of Christmas is beautifully reinforced in Kessler's lovely text. Brad Kessler, a critically acclaimed novelist, was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Fiction for his novel Birds in Fall (2006), a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, and a Whiting Award in Fiction. His other works include North (2021), Lick Creek (2001), and the nonfiction work, Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, a Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese (2009). A graduate of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, he is the editor and cocreator of Deep North: Stories of Somali Resettlement in Vermont (2023). His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and Literary Hub. He teaches in the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Dona Ann McAdams, storied photographer and activist, has exhibited her photographs at numerous institutions, nationally and internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The recipient of the Vermont Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2005, she is also the author, most recently, of Black Box: A Photographic Memoir (2024) and the subject of a traveling exhibition, which debuted at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery in 2025. www.donaannmcadams.com.