Dan Chiasson is the author of Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People’s Politician, five books of poetry, and a book of literary criticism. A longtime contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, Chiasson is the Lorraine Chao Wang professor of English and chair of the English department at Wellesley College.

May 21, 2026

• Dan Chiasson

Bernie’s Burlington Was an Experiment in Practical Socialism

When Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington, the spirit of socialism showed up in everything from snowplows to poetry. Writer Dan Chiasson tells the story of these years from the unique vantage point of his own experience growing up in Bernie’s Burlington.