Philip Baruth

Philip E. Baruth (born February 10, 1962) is an American politician, novelist, biographer, professor, and former radio commentator from Vermont.

A Democrat and member of the Vermont Progressive Party, he represents Chittenden County in the Vermont Senate.

Baruth earned a B.A. in English from Brown University in 1984 and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, in 1993.

He is Professor of English at the University of Vermont, where he has served on the faculty since 1993.

His teaching is primarily in the areas of creative writing, postmodern American literature and culture, eighteenth-century British literature, and the literature of Vermont.

He is married to Annika Ljung-Baruth, a senior lecturer in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program, and in the Department of English, at the University of Vermont.

In 1994 he won the Black Warrior Review Annual Fiction Prize for his short story "Peaheart."

Other stories have appeared in New England Review, Denver Quarterly, Carolina Quarterly, and TriQuarterly.

For a number of summers Baruth has led intensive writing workshops in his role as Visiting Writer at the Bread Loaf New England Young Writers' Conference (1995–1997, 2000–2001, 2005–2006, 2010).

He has also led workshops as a Visiting Writer at the Champlain College Vermont Young Writers' Conference since 2001.

First elected in 2003, he served two non-consecutive two-year terms in Ward 4.

Baruth's novel The X President was a New York Times Notable Book of 2003.

It is a time-travel narrative focused on the presidency of Bill Clinton (although the novel refers to the character always as BC).

Baruth is also a notable writer of short fiction.

In the fall of 2005, Baruth launched a political blog, "The Vermont Daily Briefing."

The blog was voted "Best Vermont Blog of 2006" for its first year of political coverage in the Seven Days "Best of Vermont" poll.

It won "Best Political Blog" again in 2007, 2008, and 2010.

The blog included daily political posts, in-depth interviews, humor, and satire.

His most recent novel, The Brothers Boswell, was included on the Washington Post list of "Best Books of 2009."

It was also an Indie Next List Notable Book.

The novel, a historical thriller, tells the story of the relationship between James Boswell (famous biographer of Samuel Johnson) and Boswell's younger brother John.

In this fictionalized account, the envious younger brother pursues Boswell and Johnson with malicious intent.

First elected to the Vermont Senate in 2010, Baruth was re-elected in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022.

The blog continued until 2012.

Baruth's career in the State Senate is most noted for his advocacy of gun control.

He served as Majority Leader from 2013 to 2017, when he endorsed his successor, Becca Balint.

He now serves as the senate president pro tempore.

He was elected Majority Leader of the Vermont Senate in 2013, and served until 2017.

In January 2023, he was elected Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore.

He first proposed an assault weapons ban in 2013 as Majority Leader and later supported a comprehensive background check bill in 2015.

"Peaheart" and other stories are now collected in American Zombie Beauty (Wolfson Press 2015).

He was the driving force in the Senate behind the passage of the 2016 Paid Sick Leave bill, in recognition of which he was named Legislator of the Year by the Main Street Alliance of Vermont.

On Education, he was one of the drafters of Act 77, which created Vermont's dual enrollment, early college, and personalized learning plan programs.

Baruth is the author of four novels and more than a dozen published short stories, as well as screenplays, radio commentaries, and works of scholarship.

From 2017 to 2020, Baruth served as Chair of the Senate Education Committee.

He has previously served on the Judiciary, Appropriations, Education, Economic Development, and Agriculture Committees.

He has also served on the PreKindergarten-16 Council and the Vermont Child Poverty Council.

Baruth began his public service career as a member of the Burlington Board of School Commissioners.

Baruth's book-length biography of long-serving U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy was published in 2017 by University Press of New England.

In 2018, following the Parkland mass shooting and a foiled plot at Fair Haven Union High School in Vermont, Baruth's Universal Background Checks language became the nucleus of a comprehensive gun safety bill S55, a bill then signed by Republican Governor Phil Scott on the steps of the Vermont statehouse.