Baron Wormser

Baron Wormser moved in 1974 to an off-the-grid house he and his wife helped to build on forty wooded acres in rural Maine. He and his wife and their two children lived in that house for over twenty-three years and practiced simple living—wood heat, kerosene lights, outhouse, pitcher pump while growing much of their own food. During that time, he worked as a librarian for a local school district and also taught creative writing there and at the University of Maine at Farmington. Eventually he started teaching at the Frost Place in Franconia, New Hampshire, and started a program there for teachers and an advanced workshop. He taught in three MFA programs. As the coauthor of two books about teaching poetry, he worked in many schools. From 2000 to 2005 he was poet laureate of the State of Maine. He was the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Wormser wrote eleven books of poetry, a book of short stories, four novels, a memoir that went into a new edition in 2023, a book of biographical essays, and many topical essays that have appeared in recent years on the Internet site Vox Populi. Two of his biographical essays were chosen for Best American Essays. In addition, he maintained a Substack site entitled “The Exciting Nightmare” where he posted essays of around one thousand words about different aspects of modern times.

An avid gardener, Buddhist practitioner, dog lover, devotee of classic movies, and fan of his hometown baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, he lived in Vermont from 2007 until his death in October 2025.