Daybreak
All content © Daybreak Upper Valley LLC
© 2026 Daybreak Upper Valley LLC.
I've been a journalist for most of my working life, first writing for publications about state and national politics and about how communities grapple with change, then working for an Upper Valley news startup, and finally, launching Daybreak in early 2019. I really like telling people stuff they didn't know.
Liza Bernard is a voracious reader who enjoys both printed volumes and audiobooks. Formerly co-owner of the Norwich Bookstore, she maintains her connections with readers and writers as the Programming and Marketing Librarian at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock, Vermont.
Michaela Lavelle loves people, books, and spaces where those things can come together. She is the Director of the Quechee/Wilder Libraries in Hartford and can be found playing volleyball, taking long walks, or attempting to bake without a recipe when she is not in the stacks.
Jared is an adult services librarian at the Howe Library in Hanover. He purchases a range of nonfiction for the library and conspires with a colleague to devise the library’s programming. When otherwise free, he’s usually in the mountains, swimming in local ponds and rivers, trying his hand at new cuisines, reading, or dreaming of walking the Scottish Highlands.
Erica Houskeeper is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Burlington, Vermont. She publishes Happy Vermont, a website, newsletter, and podcast about exploring the Green Mountain State.
Emma Kaas co-owns the Norwich Bookstore with her husband, Sam Kaas. When she’s not at the bookstore, you’ll most likely find her reading books, baking bread, tinkering with spreadsheets, or pulling tarot cards.
Kari Meutsch and Kristian Preylowski co-own and run the Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock.
Corin Hirsch has covered the food and drinks world for Seven Days and Newsday, and contributes to The Guardian, Wine Enthusiast and other publications. She can also be found tending bar at the Woodstock Inn.
Carin Pratt is one of the remarkably knowledgeable crew at the Norwich Bookstore—and an ardent recommender of books. Before she landed in these parts, she spent 27 years at CBS News, including two decades as the executive producer of Face the Nation.
H Rooker is the Assistant Store Manager at Still North Books and Bar, and a lifelong New Englander.
Kate Oden is a freelance writer, editor, and translator living in Hanover. She publishes more brief book reviews on Substack.
Peter Orner is a novelist, story writer, and essayist—as well as chair of the English and Creative Writing department at Dartmouth. His most recent book, Still No Word from You, was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. He is a volunteer with the Norwich Fire Department.
Sam and Emma Kaas own and run the Norwich Bookstore.
Lexi Krupp is an independent journalist based in Burlington. She previously reported on health care for Vermont Public.
Eric Francis is a veteran Upper Valley freelancer, covering crime, fires, natural disasters, and the occasional rabid bobcat.
Rena J. Mosteirin is the author of Disaster Tourism (BOA Editions) and Experiment 116 (Counterpath Press). Mosteirin is co-author, with James E. Dobson, of Moonbit (punctum books) and Perceptron (punctum books). Mosteirin teaches at Dartmouth College and owns Left Bank Books.
Jeff Sharlet is a professor of creative nonfiction at Dartmouth College and the bestselling author and editor of eight books including The Undertow, The Family, and This Brilliant Darkness, which begins in the clock tower of the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction and ends in Norwich, where he lives with his family and creatures.
Matt Golec is a former Upper Valley writer, teacher, and board game designer. You can learn more at mattgolec.com.
All content © Daybreak Upper Valley LLC
© 2026 Daybreak Upper Valley LLC.