Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, for The Bridge
BURLINGTON — At the dinner table on his first night in Mexico, then-17-year-old Peter Gould watched as members of his host family spoke with arched eyebrows, toothy grins and wide eyes. Their bodies moved with them, hands flew through the air, each finger articulating a syllable. Conversation became a dance.
For Gould, who had a stutter, to see speech tethered to something more than the voice was revelatory.
“I started to talk that way too,” Gould said.
This experience was one of many that helped Gould feel more confident in his speech and showed him the value of using the body to share a message.
Over the course of his “magical life,” Gould has relied on artistic expression to tackle both internal and external struggles. He’s channeled this creative approach in his activism, writing and many kinds of performance, from miming to community theater to hosting a Shakespeare camp.
Most recently, Gould’s creative sensibilities have manifested in his latest book, “Red Nose Girl,” (Whetstone Books, 2026), which follows two high school students as they discover Vermont’s for-profit prison systems. Another book, “Part for the Hole,” (Whetstone Books) about the importance of art in education, is due out soon.
“It’s always been important for me to speak my truth,” Gould said. “Everyone has an issue that’s really, really important to them, and that’s what they write about.”
During the height of the Vietnam War, 24-year-old Gould moved to Vermont. Finding his footing at the Packer Corners Commune in Guilford, he learned how to milk a cow, use an outhouse, make cheese and cut firewood.
“We were just leaving our old lives behind,” he said. “My second growing up was definitely in Vermont.”
As a child, Gould stuttered a lot and had a hard time participating in traditional school activities. His challenges propelled him towards writing and art.
“I knew I had a lot of important things inside of me, but it wasn’t going to come out through the regular channel of ordinary speech,” Gould said.
He was encouraged by his family from a young age to pursue a creative and artistic life, leading him to work as a clown, mime and physical comic. This experience as a non-verbal performer built a strong foundation for when Gould eventually turned to speaking-based performances.
As an adult, Gould worked and studied with a silent performing troupe in Mexico. He performed in a style that involved sound effects and the occasional line of speech. As time went on and his confidence grew, he began telling stories in Spanish on stage, becoming the only vocal story teller in the group. When Gould actually began to speak on stage, he found it wasn’t so hard.
“I sorta owe all of my work to the fact that I was a stutterer as a kid,” Gould said.
Nowadays, Gould is based in Brattleboro with his wife, Mollie Burke, who has served as a state representative in the legislature since 2008. Gould has been a part-time Montpelier resident over the years and continues to split his time between both places. During the summers, Gould runs a Shakespeare camp, Get Thee to the Funnery, in Greensboro. The camp’s website boasts “theater education as the antidote to everything.”
With so much negativity hurled at kids in school, at home or in their individual psyches, camp is a reprieve from their daily lives. After two weeks at camp, “they come out full of hope and optimism,” Gould said. “They can interact with other kids and come back to school with the ability to meet the intellectual challenge that awaits them.”
For 16-year-old Rue Spates, camp has been a place of healing for the last four years.
“I see him like a grandfather; he is such a kind, grounded person,” they said.
Over the course of the two-week camp, campers and Gould weave current events — and humor — into pre-17th century plays.
“I love that he’s not afraid to be very clear about what the text means, especially the raunchy Shakespeare jokes,” Spates said.
This year, Spates will be working with Gould again as the author takes his love of Shakespeare to U-32 High School in Montpelier. There, he’ll direct the spring production of “Juliet and Romeo,” a reworked version of the tragic love story that foregrounds Juliet’s perspective. It uses all the original Shakespearean language but has been reworked to fit Gould’s expansive vision. Spates will be playing the role of the prince.
“He is such an amazing Shakespeare scholar, and to be able to see him bring that passion and knowledge to the students and see how excited it makes them is great,” said Erin Galligan-Baldwin, the director of theater at U-32.
All of this time spent with young people is the reason behind Gould’s focus for his new novels. “Their voices are in my ear and brain,” he said, adding, “I know it’s odd, but I consider them my peer group.”
“Red Nose Girl” is a young adult novel following white student Lettie and Black student Trevor as they confront privatized incarceration systems in Vermont while working on a project for their AP U.S. History class.
Despite being in the works for more than 10 years, the novel is timely. In 2023, Vermont renewed its contract with CoreCivic, a private prison company with a location in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, which houses more than 100 Vermont inmates. CoreCivic also partners with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency’s tactics in Vermont and across the country have come under scrutiny.
Gould’s novel seeks to educate young people on these issues.
“It’s just really sad,” he said, noting that private prisons are profiting from immigration raids. “It has implications for everybody in society, from manufacturers to construction crews losing their workers, to students that look up and see the desk next to them empty.”
While doing research for the novel, Gould spent time in a young men’s maximum security prison in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the prison, he experienced firsthand the process of entering a secure cubicle, emptying his pockets, being searched, interrogated and then cleared to leave. He also visited the Vermont Department of Corrections in Waterbury, a trip that left him with more questions than answers. The workers were kind and told him the conditions in Mississippi prisons were better than Vermont’s, Gould said.
“They made me feel awful, because I went in with such prejudices about them,” he said, noting he hopes the cognitive dissonance he experienced comes through in his book.
Gould’s second new novel, “Part for the Hole,” isn’t for a young adult audience but still focuses on young people. It is centered on an AP English teacher’s revelations about how artistic inspiration can kidnap the artist, a theme inspired by a true story about an artist being kidnapped in Mexico. The book calls for supporting artists on the personal, community and federal level.
Gould said he didn’t expect advocating for artistic expression would be as important today as it was when he first began writing more than 20 years ago. He hopes the book will push people to understand the importance of artists.
“I guess they are long-standing issues; they’re not going to go away,” he said. “No one expected that Donald Trump would come along and lead a crusade to defund the arts.”
Gould credited local organizations like Vermont Humanities, which manage to raise funds despite budget cuts.
Gould says his work with theater has helped him maintain a positive outlook despite the fraught political climate. During rehearsal, he sports a large grin while doing breathing exercises. He hopes to pass these tools on to his students.
“Encouraging people to smile is really important these days,” Gould said. “People in charge in Washington have the worst expressions on their faces, and there’s not a single one of them who has a sense of humor.”