Arlene Iris Distler

Arlene Iris Distler is a poet, journalist, and visual artist.

She resides in Brattleboro, Vermont, where she has raised her four children, and where she has been an activist for the arts, especially literary arts.

She is co-founder, with her late partner, Marty Jezer, of Write Action, a networking and advocacy organization whose mission is to strengthen a community of writers and to encourage, nurture, and promote the literary arts in the at-large community.

She has two books of poetry, Voices Like Wind Chimes, published by Finishing Line Press in 2014, and This Earth, This Body, published by Kelsay Books in 2022. Her poems have appeared in journals in print and online, and several anthologies including Blueline Press' Birchsong: Poetry Centered in Vermont, Vol 1 and 2, and Roads Taken: Contemporary Vermont Poetry, 3rd Edition, edited by Chard DeNiord and Sydney Lea, published in 2022.

She has had a successful career as a journalist with feature articles on artists and the arts for Art New England, Artscope, American Craft, Southern Vermont Arts & Living, the Brattleboro Reformer, The Commons, and other regional, and national magazines and newspapers.

She has edited or co-edited collections of writing from southern Vermont and vicinity: Best of Write Action, #1 and 2, and Poems In The Time of Covid.

Arlene Distler has received grants from the Vermont Arts Council, Vermont Studio Center, and PEN America.

She was honored to be a featured reader at the 2022 Brattleboro Literary Festival, a gathering of writers from around the country.