Otter Creek Books

Otter Creek Books has been a fixture of Middlebury's charming downtown since 1978, its character shaped by the intellectual energy of Middlebury College, one of the nation's premier institutions for language study and literary scholarship. The foreign language literature section is unmatched in Vermont and rare anywhere outside a major city, with titles in French, Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese, many of them sourced through the college's renowned language programs. The poetry selection is similarly distinguished, filling an entire room and encompassing everything from ancient verse to the latest releases from small presses. Translated fiction receives special prominence, with staff-curated displays introducing American readers to voices from around the world. An upstairs reading room with exposed beams and views of the Green Mountains provides an intimate setting for the store's robust events calendar. A cafe on the main floor serves Vermont-roasted coffee and homemade baked goods, fueling long afternoons of multilingual browsing.