JAMES KAELAN
WRITER // INNKEEPER
JAMES KAELAN is primarily an innkeeper at the Harvest Barn Inn in Vermont. He is also a novelist and filmmaker. Excerpts from his most recent book, 999 Years of Peace, have somehow appeared in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.
FILMS + PERFORMANCES + BOOKS
999 Years of Peace // Author //
Novel // 2024
​
America the Beautiful // Writer + Director // Immersive Feature // Slamdance Film Festival 2019
The Visitor // Writer + Director // VR Short // AFI FEST, Cucalorus, SFIFF, Slamdance Film Festival 2016
​
Hard World for Small Things // Producer // VR Short // Sundance, Tribeca, AFI FEST 2016
​
EEL // Writer + Director // Art Film //
(This film is secret; contact for more info)
​
We're Getting On // Writer // Novel //
Poets & Writers Debut Fiction Selection
// Re-released in 2021
His films, performances, and VR experiences have shown at Sundance, Slamdance, Tribeca, Cannes, and AFI FEST—along with scores of other festivals around the world—and have been featured in publications from VICE to The New Yorker.
Kaelan's first novel, We're Getting On, was featured on the cover of Poets & Writers Magazine. The book tells the story of a group of twenty-somethings who leave the city and move into the desert—where they intend to abandon technology completely. The first edition of the novel was printed on seed paper; if planted in the ground, it grew into a birch tree. And in keeping with the novel's theme, Kaelan toured the book by bicycle, staying at organic farms between Los Angeles and Seattle. In January 2021, Alephactory released a 10-year anniversary edition of the book.