Major Jackson in conversation with Ellen McCulloch-Lovell

Join us on the Campus at Marlboro Music for a series of thoughtful public conversations about the ideas that shape our lives. Authors, poets, historians, and essayists will explore enduring questions through the lens of literature, history, memory, place, ethics, creativity, and civic life. Rather than traditional book talks or readings, each gathering is built around conversation—an opportunity to listen deeply, ask questions, and consider multiple perspectives in the company of others. Whether you are an avid reader, a lifelong learner, an aspiring writer, or simply curious about the world around you, we hope you will join us.

In Conversation: is being offered in conjunction with the culminating performances of Marlboro Music’s Artist Residency program. It is presented in partnership with Word House, led by Vermont writer Robin Marie MacArthur, and supported by a generous grant from the Vermont Humanities Council. A reception follows each event.

All In Conversation: events take place on the Campus at Marlboro Music (2582 South Rd, Marlboro, VT) in the Whittemore Theater. Registration is required. A suggested donation of $25 helps support the series, but all are welcome regardless of ability to contribute. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, complimentary admission is available for students and members of the community for whom cost would otherwise be a barrier. Reservations open approximately four weeks before each event. Seating is general admission. Books will be for sale before and after the event.

About the Writers

Major Jackson

Major Jackson is the author of six books of poetry, including Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems (2023), The Absurd Man (2020), Roll Deep (2015), Holding Company (2010), Hoops (2006) and Leaving Saturn (2002), which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for a first book of poems. His edited volumes include Best American Poetry 2019, Renga for Obama, and Library of America’s Countee Cullen: Collected Poems. He is also the author of A Beat Beyond: The Selected Prose of Major Jackson edited by Amor Kohli. Jackson’s new book, A Bowl of Goodness: Nourishing Poems with a Side of Soup is an anthology of contemporary poems and soup recipes to nourish us, comfort us, and bind us together.

Ellen McCulloch-Lovell

Ellen McCulloch-Lovell currently serves as the President of the Wolf Kahn Foundation and as a consultant to The Endeavor Foundation for higher education. She served as the eighth and first female president of Marlboro College from 2004-2015, after which she was appointed Rock Point Legacy Minister at the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, and then Interim Executive Director for the Vermont Studio Center, an artists residency community in Johnson, VT. Ellen also served as U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy’s chief of staff in Washington, D.C. from 1983-94. In 1994, she was appointed Executive Director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a presidential advisory committee, and next joined First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s staff as deputy chief of staff, then as director of the White House Millennium Council. After the White House, she went to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to found the Veterans History Project. She started her career as program director, then executive director, of the Vermont Arts Council, the state cultural agency, from 1970-83. She received her BA in philosophy from Bennington College and her MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College. Her book, Gone, was reissued by Janus Press in 2021. She continues her civic engagement on the boards of the Windham Foundation, Friends of Writers, and Marlboro Music.