Vermont Reads 2026 Author Presentation
About this Event
Weybridge, Vermont in February 1807 is small, cold, lonely, and beautiful. As an unwed woman with few prospects, Sylvia Drake resides with and cares for her sister’s rambunctious family. But today the house is abuzz awaiting a guest—Charity Bryant. So opens Charity and Sylvia by Tillie Walden, the award-winning, Vermont-based cartoonist and author of Spinning and On a Sunbeam.
Created by Walden from archival materials at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury, and other primary and secondary sources, Charity and Sylvia is a groundbreaking biography that is also the story of 19th century America. Join us for this special presentation from Walden about the creation of this book.
Join us at the University of Vermont for this special presentation withTillie Walden in conversation with Coco Moseley, Executive Director of the Sheldon Museum, about the creation of this book. The talk is free and open to all – students, faculty, staff, and the general public!
After the program, join the world premiere of Composer Clarice Assad’s work, Summerland, also based on the story of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake. It will be performed at the Flynn Center that same evening, Friday, September 18. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at www.flynncenter.org, student discounts are available.
This talk is sponsored by the New England Humanities Consortium and the UVM Humanities Center.
Paid public parking for this event is available at the UVM Gutterson Garage off Spear Street, a ten-minute walk to the UVM Recital Hall. Additional, limited parking is available on South Prospect Street.
About the Author
Tillie Walden is the award-winning, Vermont-based cartoonist and author of Spinning and On a Sunbeam and Charity and Sylvia. Tillie served as Vermont’s Fifth Cartoonist Laureate from April 2023 to April 2026. She won the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work at 22 years old, for her graphic memoir Spinning, making her one of the youngest Eisner Award winners ever. She received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2018 for On a Sunbeam.
Her work includes a graphic novel trilogy featuring The Walking Dead character Clementine and two middle grade graphic novels created with musicians Tegan and Sara. Clementine: Book Three by Tillie Walden is currently nominated for a 2026 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in the category of Best Publication for Teens. She is a graduate of The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) class of 2016 in White River Junction and became a professor at CCS in 2021.
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