The 2023 Massachusetts Poetry Festival has ended

Create Your Own Event

The 2023 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

The 2023 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

1:00pm EDT

The Bright Field: Exploring Devotional Poetry PEM Forbes GalleryNate Klug • Regina Walton • Yehoshua November Of Birds and Being: Five Poets from The Word Works PEM Morse AuditoriumNadia Colburn • Carrie Bennett • Jennifer Barber • Kevin McLellan • Meg Kearney I Can Smell It and Taste It: Writing Poems That Engage the Senses PEM Create Space 2Sara Letourneau Reading Your Own Work Aloud PEM Create Space 1Lloyd Schwartz The “House of Hope” Poetry Quilt PEM AtriumL’Merchie Frazier

2:15pm EDT

Ray J, Whittier, Poet at 90 PEM Morse AuditoriumDavid Somerset • Thomas McDonald • Javy Awan • Ray Whittier Memory & Desire: Poetry of Mid-life PEM Groups HubGail Thomas • Rebecca Hart Olander • Jennifer Martelli Turning History into Poetry: Giving Voice to Historic Essex County Women PEM Forbes GalleryGinny Lowe Connors • Carl Carlsen • James R. Scrimgeour It’s Not About You—Writing the Persona Poem PEM Create Space 2Colleen Michaels • Dawn Paul Reveling in Uncertainty: Embodying Negative Capability PEM Create Space 1Joyce Hayden • Beverly Army Williams

3:30pm EDT

Poetry and Pets Charlotte Forten ParkCrystal Valentine Celebrating 25 years of Autumn House Press: Writing the Tough Stuff PEM Forbes GalleryCharles Kell • Michael Walsh • Shayla Lawz Lily Poetry Review Presents Spring 2023 Collections PEM Morse AuditoriumEileen Cleary • Deborah Leipziger • Frances Donovan • Richard Hoffman • Mary Buchinger • Josette Akresh-Gonzales • Kelly DuMar Found Forms: Constructing Hermit Crab Poems PEM Create Space 2Joyce Hayden • Beverly Army Williams Narratives of Transformative Love PEM Create Space 1Prema Bangera SEL, Free Expression, and Creative Writing Making a Difference in a Public School Classroom PEM Groups HubLisa Forte-Doyle

4:45pm EDT

New England Poetry Club: An Introduction PEM Forbes GalleryCarmellite Chamblin • Hilary Sallick • Mary Buchinger • Denise Provost Solo Voice: Poetry and A Capella Music with Charles Coe PEM Morse AuditoriumCharles Coe Bringing Joy Back to Poetry PEM Create Space 1Crystal Condakes Drinking It All In: The Get-Lit Poetry Tavern Gulu-Gulu CaféKurt Klopmeier PREGAME at the BITBAR Bit BarAndrew Innes • Colleen Michaels Your Pictures as Poetry: Writing From Your Photo Stream PEM Create Space 2Kelly DuMar

7:00pm EDT

Headline Reading w/Andrea Cohen & January Gill O'Neil, featuring the Boston Typewriter Orchestra and Susan Michele Coronel, Winner of the First Poem Contest PEM AtriumAndrea Cohen • January Gill O'Neil • Susan Michele Coronel • The Boston Typewriter Orchestra

8:45pm EDT

Poetry Slam (In Partnership with the Boston Poetry Slam) Die With Your Boots OnMyles Taylor • Boston Poetry Slam • Crystal Valentine

9:00am EDT

Poetry & Yoga Salem CommonKirsty Yetter

10:00am EDT

The “House of Hope” Poetry Quilt PEM AtriumL’Merchie Frazier Cool Down Room NAGLY The Add-Some-Art Mural NAGLYNile Hennick

10:15am EDT

Witches All the Way Down': Persona, Archive, Incantation PEM Morse AuditoriumCindy Veach • Carolyn Oliver • Elizabeth Sylvia • Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez • Therese Gleason 25 Years of Shabdaguchha: A Multilingual Poetry Reading PEM Forbes GalleryDaniel Sklar • Hassanal Abdullah • Kristine Doll • Amir Or • Joan Digby • Naznin Seamon • Sultan Catto A Reading by the 'Sum Poets' of Bunker Hill Community College PEM Group HubLuleta Meharenna • Deborah Schwartz • Alexis Ask • Lilo Roque • Maya Blanco Aspanfut: Re-discovering Language through the Ukrainian Avant-Garde PEM Create Space 2Jack Giaour Recycled Words: Found Poetry PEM Create Space 1Yetti Frenkel

10:30am EDT

The Poetry & … Showcase Cinema Salem

11:00am EDT

Small Press Fair & Table Events Essex Street Pedestrian Mall

11:30am EDT

You Own the Mic: The Emergence of Online Poetry Readings PEM Create Space 2Jha D • Toni Bee • Timothy Gager • Chad Parenteau Korean American Women Breaking Silences PEM Forbes GallerySu Cho • Eugenia Leigh • Joan Kwon Glass • Marci Carabretta Cancio-Bello Massachusetts Poets Laureate PEM Morse AuditoriumLloyd Schwartz • Jennifer Barber • Steven Ratiner • Porsha Olayiwola • Ellie O'Leary Now as Mother: In the Presence of Loved Ones with Alzheimer's PEM Groups HubGail Thomas • Eileen Kennedy • Christine Jones • Eric Hyett Dreaming Your Way into a Poem: A Generative Workshop PEM Create Space 1Mary Buchinger • Frances Donovan • Jennifer Badot

12:00pm EDT

Lunch Time Hope Poems PEM Atrium

12:45pm EDT

Words in Space: Four poets share their visions PEM Forbes GalleryMartha Collins • Mary Buchinger • Danielle Legros Georges • Donna David Poems from Ukraine: New Translations PEM Create Space 1John Hennessy • Ostap Kin Poetry and Blessing PEM Groups HubDeborah Leipziger • Eileen Cleary • Preeta Banerjee • Alexander Levering Kern • Usman Hameedi Headline Reading w/ Cameron Awkward-Rich & Franny Choi; Sponsored by The Shipman Agency PEM Morse AuditoriumFranny Choi • Cameron Awkward-Rich

1:00pm EDT

Poetry Comix Workshop: Sketch & Snack NAGLYRyan M. Valentine

2:00pm EDT

Can Serious Poems Be Funny? Can Funny Poems Be Serious? PEM Morse AuditoriumLloyd Schwartz • Denise Provost • Gail Mazur • Robert Pinsky Love Poems in Time of Crisis PEM Create Space 1Deborah Leipziger • Joey Gould • Robbie Gamble • Krysten Hill Pangyrus: Where Poetry Lives PEM Groups HubSerina Gousby • Carrie Bennett • Cheryl Clark Vermeulen • Alexandria Peary • Cynthia Bargar • Jennifer Martelli • Danielle Legros Georges • Victor Hugo Mendevil Poems from Home: A Reading & Discussion with Massachusetts Poets, Sponsored by The Massachusetts Center for the Book PEM Forbes GalleryKarolina Zapal • Nathan McClain • Sara Deniz Akant • Jill McDonough Last Poems, Last Words: What a Poet’s Legacy Can Teach Us A Generative Writing Workshop PEM Create Space 2Margaret Young • Elisabeth Weiss

3:00pm EDT

Surrealist Poetry Salon ChagallPACDiana Norma Szokolyai That’s My Fam! Youth Poetry Slam Cinema SalemKrysten Hill

3:15pm EDT

Poetry and Ice Cream House of the Seven GablesCrystal Valentine Double-Life Poets: Balancing Poetry with a Non-Literary Career PEM Groups HubK. T. Landon • Pamela Taylor • Cynthia Manick • Robert Carr In Praise of Legacy: Writers of Color and the Challenge of the Canon PEM Forbes GalleryMichael Mercurio • Oliver De La Paz • Enzo Silon Surin • Nathan McClain The Power of the Visual in Poetry: Visual Poetry and Asemics PEM Create Space 2Karla Van Vliet • Sue Scavo • Kylie Gellatly Trust The Process PEM Morse AuditoriumTim Hall From Fallen Angels to Fungi: Writing the Next Apocalypse PEM Create Space 1Maria Pinto • Walter Smelt • Christopher Spaide

4:30pm EDT

Collaborating from Within and Without: How Member-run Slate Roof Press Expands Access to Visually Impaired and Underrepresented Writers PEM Create Space 2Anna M. Warrock • Janet MacFadyen • Ed Rayher • Richard Wollman • Susan Glass State of Poetry Panel PEM Morse AuditoriumCristela Guerra • Eileen Cleary • Mckendy Fils-Aime • Jennifer Jean • Kimiko Hahn We Were Never Meant to Survive: Poetry of Witness to Womanhood PEM Forbes GalleryJanine Joseph • Eugenia Leigh • Chase Berggrun • Maya Marshall Instagram Poetry: A Writer Shares Their Experience PEM Groups HubEmily Li

7:00pm EDT

Headline Reading w/ Kimiko Hahn & Matthew Olzmann, Sponsored by The Fine Arts Work Center Tabernacle Congregation ChurchJennifer Jean • Kimiko Hahn • Matthew Olzmann

8:45pm EDT

The Poetry Brothel Gulu-Gulu CaféJezmina von Thiele • Egbert J Poindexter • Madam Betty BOOM • Izzie Hexxam • Livia Dove • Shego • Holy Crow • Sirena • Lillian Queen • Priscilla Parsley • Kitty Levesque • Temptress of Light

9:00am EDT

All Aboard The Poetry Trolley! Armory ParkDanielle Jones

10:00am EDT

The “House of Hope” Poetry Quilt PEM AtriumL’Merchie Frazier

10:15am EDT

Navigating the Italian Diaspora: Three Bordighera Press Poets Read and Discuss Their Work PEM Forbes GalleryJulia Lisella • Carla Panciera • Jennifer Martelli Translation Today: an Interview with Danielle Legros Georges and Dzvinia Orlowsky by Jennifer Jean PEM Morse AuditoriumJennifer Jean • Danielle Legros Georges • Dzvinia Orlowsky Chaotic? Good: Harnessing the Power of the Happy Accident in Your Poetry PEM Groups HubEmily Franklin • Maria Pinto • Walter Smelt • Joan Kwon Glass Mapping the Lit Mag Landscape: Advice on Publishing More in Less Time PEM Create Space 2Elizabeth Sylvia • Shana Hill Poetry Games PEM Create Space 1Ryan Clinesmith

11:00am EDT

Adobo-Fish-Sauce, Sponsored by The Massachusetts Center for the Book ChagallPACAnthony Febo • Ricky Orng

11:15am EDT

Poetry in Motion PEM East India Marine HallK. T. Landon • Dawn Paul • Richard Hoffman • Michelle Garcia Fresco • Rhina Espaillat • Jack Giaour • Kristin Wagner • Angelina Benitez • Lindsey McGovern • Theophile Victoria • Katie Pustizzi

11:30am EDT

LOS LORCAS: Poetry in Concert PEM Morse AuditoriumPartridge Boswell • Nat Williams • Peter Money Body States: A Poetry Reading & Conversation with Kevin McLellan, Enzo Silon Surin & Cheryl Clark Vermeulen PEM Forbes GalleryEnzo Silon Surin • Kevin McLellan • Cheryl Clark Vermeulen Jewish Poets of Western Massachusetts PEM Groups HubJoy Ladin • Jena Schwartz • Richard Michelson Self-publishing via Zines, Chapbooks & Broadsides PEM Create Space 2Catherine Fahey • Dawn Stahura Writing from Your Life without Being Self-Centered. The “I” poem. PEM Create Space 1K. T. Landon • Kevin Carey

12:45pm EDT

Headliner Reading w/ Mosab Abu Toha PEM Morse AuditoriumRobbie Gamble • Mosab Abu Toha You Attended a Fantastic Poetry Conference, Now What? On Creating and Sustaining a Writing Community PEM Groups HubAnn Wallace • Christina Kelly • Michael Foran • Thomas Edward Frank • Jennifer R. Edwards Sex as Offering, Liberation, and Honey: a Poetry Reading PEM Forbes GalleryChen Chen • Sam Herschel Wein Family Constellations: How to Generate Speculative Poems about Our Ancestors PEM Create Space 1María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado Weekly Poems: Using Poetry to Practice Analytical Writing PEM Create Space 2Elizabeth Sylvia

1:00pm EDT

DENCITY Open Mic ChagallPACMichelle Richardson

1:30pm EDT

You Are Here: Workshop & Open Mic PEM Garden

2:00pm EDT

Heart, Hope, & Honesty: Addressing challenging topics in verse novels PEM Forbes GalleryKip Wilson • Padma Venkatraman • Rebecca Caprara • Rebekah Lowell Poets on Parenting PEM Groups HubBen Berman • Regie Gibson • Allison Adair • Anna V. Q. Ross The Favorite Poem Project 25th Anniversary Reading PEM Morse AuditoriumAnnette S. Frost • Robert Pinsky • January Gill O'Neil • Ilya Kaminsky • Katie Farris Edible Poetry PEM Create Space 2Louisa Clerici Hope Story Scrolls PEM Create Space 1L’Merchie Frazier

3:15pm EDT

Headline Reading w/ Mahogany L. Browne, Katie Farris & Ilya Kaminsky PEM East India Marine HallMahogany L. Browne • Katie Farris • Ilya Kaminsky