By Emma Stanton, Staff Writer
Bookstock 2025 — a celebration of books, poetry, and a diverse lineup of authors — took place last weekend, in a triumphant return to Woodstock. After Bookstock 2024 was canceled at the last minute, a new board took over the planning and execution of the literary festival, making significant changes to the event. Bookstock board members Jon Spector, Julie Moncton, Michael Stoner, and Priscilla Painton sat down with the Standard to discuss the ups and downs of Bookstock 2025, and to speculate on whether the festival will grace The Green again in 2026.
Stoner, Bookstock chair, began the conversation, stating, “I think that overall, this event was extremely successful. Measured both by our specific personal objectives and the reaction of those in our community who attended, I think we pulled off a wonderful literary event and created the blueprint for the future.”
Painton, vice-chair, echoed that sentiment, saying, “It was fascinating for me to see the degree to which books can impact a community. I found it quite moving that at the end of the day, in a world so overrun by media, we can still bring people together and make them forge a deeper connection with those around them through books.”
Like any complex event, Bookstock encountered a few difficulties last weekend. “There were a few minor complaints,” Spector said. “People complained that we should have had an intermission for some of the longer panels and that sessions were too long in general. Obviously, the uncooperative weather was the biggest negative.”
Late Friday night, the board made the difficult decision to cancel all outdoor events on The Green for Saturday, May 17 due to treacherous weather risks. “We realized that our infrastructure was unfit to handle severe thunder and lightning storms. We had to make the difficult decision to close down the local vendor booths, the musical entertainment, and the used book sale. This decision was made out of our priority to keep our town members safe above all else. We are confident we made the right decision,” Spector told the Standard.
Stoner added to this, saying, “Generally, people were glad that we put safety first and clearly communicated with vendors and attendees about our plans to cancel. We made sure an alert was sent out that Friday night. As a board, we were up until 2 a.m., ensuring we were not only doing the right thing for our community but also continuing to host a wonderful weekend for Bookstock attendees. Thankfully, all the author events on Saturday were indoors and able to still be well attended.”
Moncton also chimed in, saying, “The reason the cancellation and weather issues had little impact on the overall program is in part because of our amazing volunteers. We had people in the pouring rain putting signs on The Green with duct tape. The next night, we had people bailing water out of tents and picking up tents that collapsed. No one complained; all of our volunteers were so eager to help. We just had a truly amazing team — there would have been no Bookstock without them.”
When pressed about Bookstock 2026, the entire board confirmed that the event will continue next year and that the planning has already commenced.
“We are just so overwhelmed by the support of our community, our sponsors, our donors, and our volunteers. Each and every one of these people showed up and supported us and reaffirmed that this is an event our community wants and needs. We are looking forward to next year,” Spector said.
Volunteers were somewhat of a concern for the board before the weekend of Bookstock. “We had no idea how many people would show up,” Spector continued. “In the days leading up to the event, we were just hoping and praying that enough of our community would come out and volunteer so we could run a smooth ship. We put out the call and waited for a miracle. This past weekend, a miracle occurred, and over a hundred people showed up to help us. It was a really beautiful thing to witness, and I suspect we’ll be graced with the same miracle again next year.”
There were some changes across the board for this year’s Bookstock — one being the implementation of tickets that were free but had to be reserved in advance. “The tickets this year gave us a realistic idea of how many attendees we would have at each event. I believe the margin is something along the lines of 50-60% of attendees will be ticketholders. There was, of course, room for people to show up without a ticket, and obviously we also had some no-shows. Overall, ticket sales helped us to gauge which venue should host each event so that we had full rooms instead of half-empty auditoriums,” Stoner said.
The method proved effective as each author-event on Saturday was nearly full, if not overflowing. This was not, however, the case for Sunday, where events at the Little Theater were less than half full. Stoner explained that finding a suitable venue on a Sunday in Woodstock is difficult, as the Norman Williams Public Library is closed and all local churches are in service. Stoner said, “Sunday attendance is historically weaker than Friday and Saturday, but regardless, we were very pleased with how many people attended the poetry panel and the closing ceremony.”
Painton commented on the new committee, saying, “I appreciate that there are at least three, if not more, members of the team who are fairly new to Woodstock, including myself, and that we can work in tandem with veterans like Michael Stoner and Jon Spector to create an event like this. It’s lovely to have a combination of people who come together, regardless of how long they have been a resident of Woodstock.”
Stoner added, “This group is high functioning. Everyone is responsible; they make a commitment and follow through. It creates a very positive work environment and is essential to creating a successful event that is comprised of so many moving parts.”
One of the “moving parts” Stoner alluded to is the board’s commitment to highlighting diverse voices. Moncton agreed, saying, “We want to present both ethnically diverse as well as creatively diverse authors at this event. Peter Canellos, a Supreme Court Scholar, following Marjan Kamali, an Iranian literary powerhouse, created a really wonderful balance to which our attendees were exposed. Our goal above all else is to highlight writers doing interesting work. This commitment will continue to be at the forefront of our planning for Bookstock 2026.”
While no dates have been set yet, the board says they are confident that next year’s event will be even better than this year’s, and that they will continue to strive to bring fresh, exciting, and diverse voices to Woodstock.