Northshire Bookstore Event: Brad Kessler and Dona Ann McAdams – “The Woodcutter’s Christmas”

(Manchester Center, VT) On Saturday, December 6 at 6:00 pm, Northshire Bookstore will host
author Brad Kessler and photographer Dona Ann McAdams to discuss their latest collaboration,
The Woodcutter’s Christmas.
The critically acclaimed author and award-winning photographer will discuss their book, one of
the most heartwarming Christmas stories of our time. Each year a New York family looks
forward to the day in early December when the Woodcutter arrives with his Christmas trees on
the sidewalk below their apartment.
Featuring elegant black-and-white photographs by an award-winning photographer, The
Woodcutter’s Christmas takes readers on a reflective journey, blending the serene beauty of
Vermont winters with the bustling streets of Manhattan. Seen through the eyes of a man who
nurtures Christmas trees, this story explores the contrast between nature’s slow, steady rhythms
and the fleeting, disposable culture of modern society. When the Woodcutter sees the trees he
lovingly raised discarded on city curbs after the holiday season, his perspective shifts. After a
chance meeting in Manhattan with a kindred spirit, the lessons, spirit, and meaning of Christmas
is beautifully reinforced in Kessler’s lovely text.
Brad Kessler is a critically acclaimed novelist whose work has been translated into several
languages. He won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Fiction for his novel Birds in Fall (2006),
a Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as a Whiting Writer’s
Award. His work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times Magazine,
The Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and Lit Hub.
Dona Ann McAdams studied photography at the San Francisco Art Institute and has an M.F.A.
in Visual Arts from Rutgers University and a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Empire State
College. McAdams has exhibited at many places, nationally and internationally, including the
Museum of Modern Art, NYC; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, and The
International Center for Photography. In addition to The Woodcutter’s Christmas, she is the
author of Black Box: A Photographic Memoir (Saint Lucy Books 2024), a book of performance
photography, Caught in the Act (Aperture 1996).
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For more information on this or other events, email events@northshire.com, or visit the
Northshire Bookstore website at www.northshire.com.