Top News—Alumni: Related Content
Bennington College is the only college Michael Pollan ’76 applied to. Pollan’s mother had attended Bennington in the fifties, and he remembered reading through her college papers, which were kept in the attic of his childhood home, and thinking about how extraordinary it was to have been taught, as she was, by poet Howard Nemerov and literary critic Kenneth Burke.
The Advocate highlighted Will Greer '24 and his campaign for Vermont state representative in the Bennington 2 district.
by Jeffrey Perkins MFA ’09
Atlas Obscura Co-Founder Dylan Thuras '04 on Bennington, Travel, and the Unexpected
A misty figure floating beyond the end of the world. The eerie sounds of pianos streaming from Jennings practice rooms with no one at the keys. The spine-chilling feeling of eyes watching you from the woods.
What comes to mind when you think of the seasonal thinning of the veil? Alumni share their original non-fiction account of hauntings at Bennington, micro fiction, and poetry about the spooky side of autumn. Read if you dare.
By Ashley Brenon Jowett
Illustration by Nate Padavick
As a homage to Dylan Thuras ’04’s Atlas Obscura, we’re sharing seven of the website’s wondrous Bennington-area places. You will barely be able to resist using the map for a spooky road trip this fall.
More than 100 people attended the Ben Belitt Colloquium on Arts and Literary Culture in Tishman Auditorium on Bennington College’s campus on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. They joined panelists Pulitzer Prize Winner Jericho Brown, the MacArthur Award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem ’86, celebrated poet Camille Rankine, and moderator and Bennington faculty member Benjamin Anastas to learn about the life and work of Queer Black poet and essayist Reginald Shepherd ’88, an underrecognized member of the Bennington literary community in the eighties. Below is a piece Lethem wrote for and read at the event.
Bennington College alumni are publishing novels, memoirs, non-fiction, poetry, and photography books. Check out the round up below to learn who is publishing, winning awards, and appearing in paperback this fall.
Local indie-folk-rock musical artist Carling Berkhout '19 spoke to The Brattleboro Reformer about her latest album, Omens.
On the warm perfectly cloudless evening of September 12, about thirty local Bennington alumni gathered at the President’s residence, the Brick House, in Shaftsbury to catch up with College news and each other. They graduated between 1962 and 2024. What they have in common is a love of the creative and interdisciplinary environment Bennington provided and their willingness to stay in or return to the area.
Exhibition reveals the personal collections of Bennington College community members September 17–November 23.
Saving Democracy Together, an innovative non-partisan online and in-person course open to students, alumni, and the public, attracted more than 250 online registrants and 100 in-person participants in its first of seven sessions on Thursday, September 5.
Bennington College is pleased to announce Shay Totten ’91 as its new Director of Alumni and Constituent Engagement. Shay Totten starts at the College on Monday, September 9, and reports to Vice President for Institutional Advancement Allison Gomes.
Jeff Curto MFA '83 was one of Bennington's first MFA students and the only one in photography when he came to Bennington, graduating in 1983. He studied with Neil Rappaport, a documentary photographer who taught at Bennington for 27 years.
This summer brings some great opportunities to see Bennington alumni and faculty making music across the country. Follow the links below for tickets, info, and good vibes.
By Craig Morgan Teicher
Anna Gazmarian (MFA, ’20, Nonfiction) began work on what would become her debut, Devout: A Memoir of Doubt (Simone & Schuster, 2024), while she was a nonfiction student in the Bennington Writing Seminars. The book chronicles her struggles with bipolar disorder as a member of the Evangelical community, where prayer was posited as the only solution to mental health distress. I talked to Anna on the heels of her book tour. Among other things, we discuss writing, publishing, and going to church at the gym.
Poet and Memoirist Safiya Sinclair ’10, author of the memoir How to Say Babylon, a National Book Critics Circle Award Winner and one of the most notable books of the year according to the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, TIME Magazine, and many others, will address the 89th graduating class at the conferring of degrees on Saturday, June 1. We connected with her to learn more about her time at Bennington and how it influenced her career.
Winston Foundation Grant funds 2024 Ben Belitt Colloquium on Arts and Literary Culture
Ryan Chigogo ’23, energy analyst at Charles River Associates, reflects on his time at Bennington College.
Article by Gaurav Aung '24
By Gaurav Aung ’24
Bennington College was Florence Gill ’22’s destination long before they knew it existed. Born and raised in Doncaster, England, they had no idea attending college in the United States was an option. After finishing their General Certificate of Secondary Education (roughly the British equivalent of an American high school diploma), they were on a path that would lead them to a strict education at a university in the United Kingdom, yet they found themself at a crossroads: they wanted the depth of a specialized undergraduate degree but also the breadth of study that couldn’t be found in the UK.
Ahmad Yassir ’20 stayed in the town of Bennington after graduation and works as a digital advertising and marketing specialist for the Bennington Banner. He had an amazing 2023.
Recent graduate trustee Alisha Bade Shrestha ’23 discusses her experience studying Performing and Visual Arts at Bennington College and the "small nestled miracles" she found on campus.
During the last few days of the fall term, Jupiter Kalinowski ’23, who studied protein biochemistry and biological research methods at Bennington, was busy in the lab. They were running the final experiment of their senior work.
Stefanos Zogopoulos ’23 credits Bennington for helping him find his true passion.
Bennington alum and notable abstract painter Cora Cohen ’64 donated a large painting to Bennington College before her death in June. The painting was given in honor of Pat Adams, a faculty member teaching during Cohen’s time at Bennington.
Xiao (Smile) Ma ’23 discusses her experience exploring Visual Arts at Bennington.
Jeff Taylor '84 toured with music icon Van Morrison's band for his 2023/2024 US tour.