Verandah Porche (born November 8, 1945) is a poet living in

Guilford, Vermont Guilford is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The town was named for Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford. The population was 2,120 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a tot ...

Biography

Porche (born Linda Jacobs) attended public schools in

Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, th ...

, graduated from

Teaneck High School , motto_translation = To enrich the mind and improve the character , fundingtype = Public , schooltype = high school , grades = 9– 12 , district = Teaneck Public Schools , enrollment = 1,239 (as of 2021–22) , faculty = ...

in 1963, and went on to

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, graduating in 1968. That same year, with some friends, she founded a commune in southern Vermont called Total Loss Farm where she still lives. Their adventures were chronicled in two books by

Ray Mungo Raymond Mungo (born 1946) is an American author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books. He writes about business, economics, and financial matters as well as cultural issues. In the 1960s, he attended Boston University, where he served ...

: ''Famous Long Ago'', and ''Total Loss Farm''. Porche also contributed significant portions of prose and poetry to ''Home Comfort: Life on Total Loss Farm,'' a 1973 collection of stories and essays by residents of the commune, edited by Richard Wizansky.

Career

Verandah Porche at Brattleboro Station as the Train Rolls In

Porche has published three books of poetry, ''The Body's Symmetry,'' ''Glancing Off,'' and ''Sudden Eden.'' ''Sudden Eden'', the most recent collection, includes work from the 1990s to the 2010s. Porche has published in ''

Ms. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...

'', ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'', ''The New Boston Review'' and ''Vermont Organic Farmer'', among others. During the past 30 years, she has traveled from her home in rural Vermont, writing with and for people in grange halls and garages, elementary schools and Elderhostels, nursing homes and daycare centers, mansions and soup kitchens, board rooms and basements, homes and jails, literacy programs and colleges. Porche has developed a practice called "told poetry" or shared narratives that enable people who need a writing partner to create, preserve and share personal literature. She has been engaged in residencies at the Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vermont, and Real Artways in Hartford, CT. which resulted in a published collection of her poems titled "Listening Out Loud." Recent residencies include the Police Poetry Project with teenagers and local police in Bennington, VT, and Music of Our Spheres with a 90-member women's chorus in Brattleboro, Vermont. Currently she is collaborating with vocalist and composer Patty Carpenter resulting in the CD '' Come Over.''

Awards

The Vermont Arts Council in 1998 awarded Porche a Citation of Merit for her contribution to the state's cultural life. In 2012,

Marlboro College Marlboro College was a private college in Marlboro, Vermont. Founded in 1946, it remained intentionally small, operating as a self-governing community with students following self-designed degree plans culminating in a thesis. In 1998 the colle ...

, Marlboro VT awarded her an honorary degree, doctor of humane letters.

Works

* ''The Body’s Symmetry,'' (Harper and Row), 1974 * ''Glancing Off,'' (See Through Books), 1986 * ''Welcome To Total Loss Farm''. Longhouse, 2006. * ''Sudden Eden''. Verdant Books, 2012.

Anthologies

References

External links

"Author's website"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Porche, Verandah Living people Boston University alumni 1945 births Poets from New Jersey Poets from Vermont Teaneck High School alumni American women poets 21st-century American women