Helen Whybrow Wins Vermont Book Award for Memoir on Farming and Grief
Helen Whybrow, an award-winning author, shepherd, and farmer based in Fayston, Vermont, has received the 2025 Vermont Book Award for creative nonfiction. Her memoir, "The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life," also achieved recognition as a New Yorker Best Book of 2025 and was long-listed for the National Book Award. The book chronicles her twenty-five years restoring Knoll Farm with her husband, Peter Forbes, where they raise purebred Icelandic sheep and operate a retreat center for social and environmental justice. Whybrow intertwines the seasonal rhythms of sheep farming with personal milestones, including marriage, motherhood, and caring for her mother during her battle with dementia. She discusses how the tangible cycles of life and death on the farm helped her process grief and cultivate a profound sense of belonging. Rather than viewing belonging as a pre-existing state to be found, Whybrow argues it is created through active participation in one's place and community. The narrative highlights the struggles of subsistence farming while celebrating the deep insights gained from committing to a single landscape, offering readers a reflective perspective on listening to and tending the living world.
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Helen Whybrow Wins Vermont Book Award for Memoir on Farming and Grief
Helen Whybrow, an award-winning author, shepherd, and farmer based in Fayston, Vermont, has received the 2025 Vermont Book Award for creative nonfiction. Her memoir, "The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life," also achieved recognition as a New Yorker Best Book of 2025 and was long-listed for the National Book Award. The book chronicles her twenty-five years restoring Knoll Farm with her husband, Peter Forbes, where they raise purebred Icelandic sheep and operate a retreat center for social and environmental justice. Whybrow intertwines the seasonal rhythms of sheep farming with personal milestones, including marriage, motherhood, and caring for her mother during her battle with dementia. She discusses how the tangible cycles of life and death on the farm helped her process grief and cultivate a profound sense of belonging. Rather than viewing belonging as a pre-existing state to be found, Whybrow argues it is created through active participation in one's place and community. The narrative highlights the struggles of subsistence farming while celebrating the deep insights gained from committing to a single landscape, offering readers a reflective perspective on listening to and tending the living world.
VTDigger