Past Presenters

 

Recent VCCA Presenters

Katherine Patterson (fiction,  2018 keynote address): author of more than 30 books, including 17 novels for young people. She’s twice won the Newbery Medal (for Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved). The Great Gilly Hopkins won the National Book Award and was a Newbery Honor Book. For the body of her work, she received the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. In 2000 was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.

Christopher Williams (songwriting): Hailing from Nashville, … a songwriter, storyteller, and entertainer – offering songs that are honest and confessional, yet never overbearing; and performances that engage audiences with an appealing mix of intense passion and humor.  With “lush guitar work, and sweet soaring vocals,” (Boston Phoenix) punctuated by the percussive vulnerability of a single African djembe hand drum and that strong baritone voice, Williams continues to be a “hard-touring singer-songwriter and a master at spreading his personal energy out into a live audience.”

Elisabeth Ehmann Miller (painting): The daughter of missionaries to Spain, Elisabeth Miller grew up aware of and inspired by the works of Europe’s master painters. She apprenticed under Classical Realist, Jacob Collins in New York City and earned a MFA from The New York Academy of Art.

Paul Rogers (photography): a native of Stowe, Vermont and holds a BFA degree from  the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. He works as a freelance photographer specializing in commercial, documentary, landscape, and fine art photography. He has used photography (and video) services to support Christian missions in 16 countries (including extended trips to China and Southeast Asia).

Matthew Dickerson (narrative nonfiction, historical fiction, and fantasy literature): is the author of: several novels (medieval historical fiction as well as fantasy literature); numerous works of narrative non-fiction nature writing; a biography of the late singer-songwriter Mark Heard; and several critical studies of fantasy literature and the writings of J.R.R.Tolkien and C.S.Lewis. He was selected as artist-in-residence at Glacier National Park in June of 2017 and artist-in-residence at Acadia National Park in May of 2018. www.matthewdickerson.net and www.troutdownstream.net

Abigail Carroll (poetry): is a poet and author whose most recent book, Habitation of Wonder (Wipf & Stock, 2018), is an offering of poems that travels the intersection of the natural landscape and the landscape of spirit. In addition to several other books, she has also published poems in The Anglican Theological Review, The Christian Century, Crab Orchard Review, Midwest Quarterly, River Oak Review, Sojourners, Spiritus, and Terrain. Her prose has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Boston Globe. 

 

Eric Taylor (prose):holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He has taught college-level writing, editing, and ESL, and has led workshops at the New England Young Writer’s Conference at Breadloaf, the Gove Hill Summer Christian Writers’ Retreat and elsewhere. Eric is  author of Using Folktales and editor of the contemporary language version of William Penn’s Some Fruits of Solitude, and his poetry and creative non-fiction have most recently appeared in Poetica and Plough Quarterly. Writing for children and young adults is Eric’s passion.

Kevin Moffat (painting)  is a Spontaneous Prophetic Painter of over 400 images during worship. As an itinerant minister of the WORD thru art, Kevin looks to paint what God is speaking to the church in those moments while worshiping at conferences and prayer meetings in many states in the USA as well as Europe. He is a graduate of Maryland Art institute where he majored in print making and architectural design. Hand painting silk scarves, Kevin has a business called Manna Silks (Mannasilks.com), that sells to 50 stores in New England. His art and silk scarves can be found on the internet. (Mannaart.com\)

Other Past VCCA Artists and Presenters: