Hinesburg Record Editor Receives Award
Geoffrey Gevalt honored for his creation of Young Writers Project and for his long career as a writer and editor and supporter of other writers.
Special to The Hinesburg Record
Burlington City Arts announced Saturday, June 13, that Geoffrey Gevalt is this year’s recipient of the Herb Lockwood Prize for lifetime achievement in the arts.
The prize honors arts leadership in Vermont, recognizing artists producing significant work ranging from the visual arts to writing, drama, dance, film and fine woodworking and those who are active in encouraging other artists.
Gevalt, a resident of Hinesburg since 1998, is a veteran journalist, writer and photographer. He is currently the volunteer editor of The Record and his recently completed novel, Hiram Falls, an outgrowth of stories he has written for Vermont Stage, is in his agent’s hands.
Gevalt received the award – along with a generous check – at a reception at Burlington City Arts. He was cited in particular for his work founding and running Young Writers Project, a nonprofit dedicated to helping young people write better. His writing has appeared in numerous publications and has been presented on stage; many of his stories can be found here.
This marks the thirteenth time the Herb Lockwood Prize has been awarded since its founding in 2014. Past winners have included the late author Howard Frank Mosher and Claire Van Vliet, an illustrator and 1989 recipient of a MacArthur genius grant.
“I am humbled,” Gevalt said. “I was, frankly, shocked to receive the award given that my projects have always involved so many, many people who have helped me, taught me, encouraged me. Without them, much of what I’ve done would not have happened.
”This prize is for them as much as me and for the countless young (and not-so-young) writers I’ve had the privilege to work with over the years.”
Leading this year’s ceremony were Vermont author Stephen Kiernan and media producer Fran Stoddard. Present also were 2025 Herb Lockwood awardee Will Kasso Condry and many others from the Vermont arts community.
In introducing Gevalt, Kiernan recounted some of the varied contributions Gevalt has made to the Vermont community. Acknowledging that Gevalt had been, for a time, his editor at the Burlington Free Press, he also noted how, to the amusement of the newsroom, the pair would engage in a sometimes heated discussion.
“Everyone could hear us bellowing,” he said. “We differed at top volume about whatever project was in the works, while pacing and making dramatic arm motions. This had the newsroom ringing with the laughter of reporters, photographers and city editors.”
The struggles, though, were always over producing the best story possible. But after a while, both left the newspaper.
“I think Geoff and I were both frustrated by the newspaper industry’s decay, and especially its loss of nerve. We needed to find some other occupation that had meaning for us.
“Geoff went on to create something entirely new – the Young Writers Project – which over the past 20 years has enriched the lives of more than 100,000 children and teachers, benefitting the minds of uncountable adults, too.
“His radical idea was that young people possess vast resources of creativity that are interesting, insightful and instructive. He believed that young writers would learn more about self-expression and mutual support if they were writing for an audience of peers, rather than merely to satisfy a teacher’s red pen.
“The Vermont Business Roundtable, led back then by Lisa Ventriss, believed in the idea enough to fully fund the project for two years. That meant Geoff needed to leave his long career in news – illustrious and award-bedecked as it had been – in Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio and Vermont. And he had to create a new business, and find a path to financial stability inside of 24 months.”
“Financial strength came via foundations, parents and donors, in part because of the real genius of this editor in gathering community support.
“The Young Writers Project bloomed. Teachers learned that students were skipping homework … to write. The editor built a program for classrooms to have their own private online writers’ project. Working with St. Michael’s College, he created a graduate school level class that taught teachers how to teach writing online, using the workshop model. The numbers of writers soared. So did Vermont kids’ performance on standardized tests.
“In all venues, his ethics were the same: mutual respect, gentle criticism, strong support. In his conduct, he exemplified how young writers might behave, too.
“He is still at it. … It appears the man is not capable of stopping.
“The Herb Lockwood Prize has two fundamental measurements: performing an art form at a higher level and building a community in that art form. With the Young Writers Project, Geoff created a new art form. The foundation he built continues to teach kids a way to express themselves, to find their voice and discover how empowering it is to have an interested and respectful audience.”
For thirty-three years, Geoffrey Gevalt was an award-winning journalist for the Associated Press, The Akron Beacon Journal, the Boston Business Journal, the Burlington Free Press, Institutional Investor Magazine, and the Quincy Patriot Ledger. He founded Young Writers Project in 2006 and left it in 2018, passing the reins to Susan Reid, the current executive director. His writing can be found at https://geoffreygevalt.org.
The purpose of the Herb Lockwood Prize is fourfold: to validate the work of the recipient, to energize that artist’s future, to encourage other artists to work ambitiously, and to honor Herb Lockwood’s memory by continuing his inspirational influence.
Gevalt said he will use the proceeds from the proceeds to further his writing of fiction and to help other arts and news organizations.
Prior recipients include: (2014) actor and theater director Steve Small; (2015) Van Vliet; (2016); filmmaker Nora Jacobson; (2017) Mosher; (2018); puppeteer and artist Peter Schumann; (2019) musician and public radio host Robert Resnik; (2020) dancer and choreographer Hannah Dennison; (2021) Latin Jazz musician and teacher Ray Vega; (2022) poet Kerrin McCadden; (2023) film director Jay Craven; (2024) musician Michael Chorney; and (2025) Condry.
Herb Lockwood was an inspirational musician and woodworker in the Burlington arts and music scene in the 1980s. His impact on the region’s arts and artists has proved to be enduring and profound. Lockwood died in a Burlington workplace accident in 1987 at age 27. For more: www.HerbLockwoodPrize.org. The Herb Lockwood Prize is an important part of Burlington City Arts, celebrating more than 40 years of supporting the arts.
Geoff’s acceptance speech:
