Literature in the leaves

Arts life: Vermont The legendary Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is the oldest and one of the most revered writers' gatherings in America.

While New York's social scene migrates to the Hamptons for the summer, writers from all over the world head for Vermont to hibernate, recharge their batteries and soak in inspiration from one of America's most unsullied, majestic and green states. There, the blissfully reclusive figures take temporary residence in streamlined country homes, hermitic cabins and the rare organic cafes offering Wi-Fi. In August, an elite subset coalesce for the legendary Bread Loaf Writers' Conference to workshop, network and contribute to the oldest and one of the most revered writers' gatherings in America.

Founded in 1926 by Vermont's prestigious Middlebury College at a time when "creative writing" was not yet included in serious academic curriculums at American universities, the conference is held at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Vermont's Bread Loaf Mountain. The Victorian-style Inn and the land where the conference is held were willed to Middlebury College as the site for a graduate school in English and American literature by their 19th century owner, Joseph Battell, who bred Vermont's beloved Morgan horses and acted as proprietor of the local newspaper.

During its early days, the conference was most imbued with the ethos and spirit of its founder, the great poet and nature-lover Robert Frost, who presided over 29 sessions. Inspired by Bread Loaf's natural splendour, Frost gathered many of Middlebury's esteemed professors, including Willa Cather, Katherine Lee Bates and Louise Untermeyer, to convene in the inspiring setting when the campus was vacated for the late summer.

Following in Frost's footsteps, the Vermont-born editor, publisher and write John Chipman Farrar attracted a wider range of authors to the site during its fledging years. Gradually, Bread Loaf grew in size and, more significantly, in stature. But it still remains highly selective and intimate. In most years, only 230 writers are invited to attend. Past years have hosted such literary luminaries as Ann Sexton, Toni Morrison, Eudora Welty, May Sarton and John Gardner. During the 10-day sessions, participants attend 10-person workshops and conduct public readings in small groupings which are held at 9.00am, 4.00pm and then at 8.00pm. This year, massive flooding throughout Vermont has caused serious road damage to the routes leading to Bread Loaf, but the conference was still bountiful, with top fiction writers reading from their most recent or upcoming work.

The roster of writers who emerged from the conference's cluster of white-painted cottages to read to an audience of magazine editors, publishers, grant specialists and voraciously literate locals have included poets, novelists and an expanding list of non-fiction writers. Broad topics open to the public include a talk titled A Traitor in the House: Autobiography and Fiction, organised by the South African novelist Lynn Freed, who has published in magazines ranging from The New Yorker, Harper's and the Atlantic Monthly to Vogue, Elle and House & Garden. As one former Middlebury student living in a nearby town proclaimed, "Vermont can seem very still and chilled-out, but people take life of the mind very seriously here. It is always great when the writers come riding into town."

Among the most high-profile participants this year is the renowned journalist, memoirist and author, Susan Orlean. As a regular writer for The New Yorker, Orlean has written about politics, fashion and her dog for the iconic publication's urbane and intellectual readership. But she is best known as the inspiration for Adaptation, Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's 2002 surreal romp through the clichés of Hollywood and literary theory, in which her character was played by Meryl Streep.

At Bread Loaf, Orlean was very much herself while serving as a faculty adviser during the conference's workshop sessions. On her blog, she enthused, "The conference is pretty wonderful - first of all, it's in a gorgeous spot in Vermont; secondly, there are lots of interesting people, and every day there are readings and book signings and what-have-you; thirdly, lots of agents and editors come through there to meet with writers, which makes it a valuable experience all around."

And once it is over, with polished prose and recharged batteries, the summer scholars can go back to their city schedules until they return next year for another retreat in Vermont's intellectual hideaway.