Amy is president of The League of Vermont Writers and a “Grubbie” for Grub Street in Boston. Amy also volunteers regularly at the front desk of her local public library and runs a virtual writing group once a month. Amy served as a (GA) graduate assistant for Vermont College of Fine Art in their on-line residencies in June 2020 and January 2022 and has hosted a few of the college’s virtual reading series, which feature alumnx readers such as Sarah McCraw Crow and Alex Myers.
Amy holds a BA in English/Writing from Wilkes University, an MA in Elementary Education from Northern Arizona University and an MFA in fiction writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her MFA graduate lecture Revision is Like a Haircut in January 2017 concluded with a live haircut.
One poem and two of Amy’s short stories were featured in “The Manuscript,” Wilkes University’s Magazine. Her chapter introduction “Why I Love Working in the Little Red Schoolhouse” was used in an college textbook for education majors. Her essay “A Passing Glimpse” was published in “The Heart of New England” magazine and her essay “Solstice Saturday” was published on ESSAYDAILY.org. She won the Holiday Story contest twice in the Herald of Randolph for her stories “Rare Coins in a Red Bucket.” and ”Hospice Holiday.” Her self-published non-fiction children’s book called “I am Not a Cow” about a local steer that survived a flood. Amy also read her essay “The Vermont Wave” for the Vermont Series on VPR and was featured on NPR Dick Gordon’s “The Story” with a program entitled “Working Through It,” a 1/2 hour story on the closing of Hancock Vermont’s 209 year-old school where she worked at the time. Amy was a special guest on Middlebury Public Television’s “Our Vermont Neighbors” show and was married to her husband Nick Piccicuto on TLC channel’s “The Wedding Story.” Her short flash fiction piece “Vanilla” was published on Brilliant Flash Fiction’s website.
In December 2018 and 2019, Amy performed two of her short stories, “Clean up On Aisle Five,” and “Supmarks” live for Bald Mountain Theater’s Krampusnacht productions. Her story “The Plastic,” published by Apple in the Dark, can be seen and heard here:
For five years while her children were young, Amy produced a children’s theater camp for the White River Valley Players (WRVP.) Amy wrote and directed two plays for the WRVP: “Hurricane Helpers” and “I’m Telling.” She has enjoyed and performed in theater since childhood. Over her many years on the stage and she has played various parts ranging from Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird to Lubov in Cherry Orchard.
Her awards include Master Teacher in Mesa Public Schools in Arizona, winning a contest featured in “This Place Matters” on the National Register of Historic Places, winning honorable mention in a “Ten Ten Fiction Contest” (a story in 1,010 words) and Who’s Who in American Women. She was nominated by a colleague at Rochester School for National Life’s 2020-2021 “Life Changer of the Year.
