Offsite in Burlington: Bailey Seybolt: Coram House
Schedule
Thu Apr 17 2025 at 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
266 Pine St, Burlington, VT 05401-4751, United States | Burlington, VT
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"Coram House is the perfect thriller—the kind you race to finish and simultaneously hope will never end" —Kate Brody, author of Rabbit HoleJoin Vermont author Bailey Seybolt for the launch of her debut novel, Coram House, which follows a struggling true crime author as she finds herself in the middle of a series of murders. Bailey will be in conversation with fellow Vermont author Miciah Bay Gault at the Venetian Soda Lounge at 266 Pine Street in downtown Burlington.
Sharp Objects meets I Have Some Questions for You in this haunting novel—inspired by a true story—about a crime writer who risks everything as she investigates the mystery of two deaths, decades apart, at a crumbling Vermont orphanage.
On a blistering summer day in 1968, nine-year-old Tommy vanishes without a trace from Coram House, an orphanage on the shores of Lake Champlain. Some say a nun drowned him, others say he ran away. Or maybe he never existed. Fifty years later, his disappearance is still unsolved.
Struggling true crime writer Alex Kelley needs a fresh start. When she’s asked to ghostwrite a book about the orphanage—and the abuses that occurred there—she packs up her belongings and moves to wintry Burlington, Vermont.
As Alex tries to untangle the conflicting stories surrounding Tommy’s disappearance, her investigation takes a chilling turn when she discovers a woman’s body in the lake. Alex is convinced the death is connected to Coram House’s dark past, even if local police officer Russell Parker thinks she’s just desperate for a career-saving story. As the body count rises, Alex must prove that the key to finding the killer lies in Tommy’s murder, or risk becoming the next victim.
Drawing inspiration from the real-life stories of St. Joseph’s Orphanage, Coram House “reckons with both the long aftermath of violence and the hazards of writing true crime. It is an eerie, suspenseful mystery, sure to find readers among fans of Tana French” (Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy).
Bailey Seybolt grew up in New York City. She studied literature at Brown University and creative writing at Concordia University. She’s worked as a travel writer in Hanoi, a tech writer in San Francisco, and many writerly jobs in between. She now lives with her family in Vermont, not far from Lake Champlain. Coram House is her debut novel.
Miciah Bay Gault grew up on Sanibel Island, Cape Cod, and other places by the sea. A graduate of the Syracuse MFA program, she now teaches in the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and coordinates the Vermont Book Award. Miciah was the editor of the literary journal Hunger Mountain for 9 years. Miciah lives in Montpelier, VT with her husband and three children.
DATE: Thursday, April 17th, 7-9 pm
LOCATION: The Venetian Soda Lounge, 266 Pine St, Burlington, VT 05401
TICKETS: Admission to this event is free and open to all. Advance registration is requested.
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Where is it happening?
266 Pine St, Burlington, VT 05401-4751, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
