The Massachusetts Poetry Festival 2015 has ended

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The Massachusetts Poetry Festival 2015

Welcome to the schedule of the 2015 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, happening May 1-3 in the beautiful and historic town of Salem!

Create a profile by signing up below. Doing so will allow you to create a customized schedule so you can keep track of what you want to attend.

To purchase your attendance button, read articles on our headliners, get tips for where to stay in Salem, and more, visit our website at www.masspoetry.org/festival2015.

1:15pm EDT

Because, the Internet: A Workshop in Digital Age Poetics

Limited Capacity seats available

What role does poetry play in a world plagued with techno-babble? Bring your smartphones, laptops, and tablets for an interactive workshop exploring the ways in which the Internet and social media inform our poetic sensibilities. Led by the editors of Window Cat Press, a Boston-based online literary journal inspired by memes, we’ll examine established forms of modern text and multimedia that incorporate the Internet, such as flarf, Google poems, and hyperlink poetry, then explore ways to create our own pieces through gif set ekphrasis and other exercises. Come celebrate the ways our lives intertwine via the Internet, and bring the fun back to creative expression.

Speakers

Kim Dela Cruz

Editor, Window Cat Press

Kim Dela Cruz is a pun-loving Boston-area poet and freelance editor, whose most recent poems can be found in places like Broad! and Every Day Poets. She's co-editor of Window Cat Press, an online lit & art zine for emerging content creators. Her current project is a collection of... Read More →

E. Lev Friedland

Emily Jaeger

Poet, Editor, Window Cat Press

Emily Jaeger is an MFA candidate at UMASS Boston and co-editor/co-founder of Window Cat Press. A Literary Lambda and TENT fellow, her poetry has appeared in Four Way Review, Soundings East, and Rust + Moth among others. Her chapbook The Evolution of Parasites is forthcoming from Sibling... Read More →

Producers

Kim Dela Cruz

Editor, Window Cat Press

Kim Dela Cruz is a pun-loving Boston-area poet and freelance editor, whose most recent poems can be found in places like Broad! and Every Day Poets. She's co-editor of Window Cat Press, an online lit & art zine for emerging content creators. Her current project is a collection of... Read More →

Friday May 1, 2015 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT
Hawthorne Pickman Room

1:15pm EDT

When Imitations Work (and When They Don’t): Five Writing Ideas

Limited Capacity seats available

We’ll look at five on-the-spot writing assignments based on poems by Osip Mandelstam, Gottfried Benn, Mary Szybist, Michael Dickman, and Jane Hirshfield. Participants will pick one assignment to try on the spot. We’ll want to discover how this method of imitating the structure (not necessarily the content) of poems works for us, and when it doesn’t. How can the reader (and, indeed, the poet) know the difference? This method of imitation (like learning a new dance step) can produce many surprises. But on the other hand, when might it progress beyond mere experimentation?

Speakers

Alan Feldman

Friday May 1, 2015 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT
Hawthorne Essex Room

9:30am EDT

Edna St. Vincent Millay's Massachusetts Poetry

Limited Capacity seats available

Edna St. Vincent Millay spent formative years in coastal Massachusetts and her connection to the unique lifestyle of the region influenced her life and her work. As an adult, developing a true social conscience she turned to the political structure of the state, went to jail in Boston for her beliefs and wrote some of her finest pieces to awaken the American audience to the world's darkest affairs. As a Berkshire poet (though living on the western slope of the Taconic range) she sought to influence Massachusetts politics with her words.

Speakers

J. Peter Bergman

Director of Communications, The Berkshire Historical Society at Herman Melville's Arrowhead

J. Peter Bergman was the Executive Director of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society at Steepletop From 2007 through 2013 where he created all programs, exhibits, publications and the actual historic house museum in Austerlitz, NY. A published playwright (Maids in the Mills), novelist... Read More →

Volunteers

Amanda Hope

Poet & librarian

Saturday May 2, 2015 9:30am - 10:30am EDT
Hawthorne Essex Room

9:30am EDT

The Poetry of Work

Limited Capacity seats available

Finding a balance between working life and writing life can be a challenge, especially for writers whose day jobs don't necessarily align with their passions. In the midst of that struggle, it may be easy to forget poetry's role as a powerful conduit for human experience--even when that experience may feel like something to 'get through' before starting in on the real work. In this workshop, we'll look at poems centered on working and the workplace, and try out some writing exercises designed to bring together these often disparate aspects of a writer's life.

Speakers

Maggie Cleveland

Curriculum Development & Credentialing Manager, National Elevator Industry Educational Program

Maggie Cleveland hails from the seacoast town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and develops training and certifications for Union Elevator Mechanics through the National Elevator Industry Educational Program. Her poems have been published in journals including The Offending Adam, qarrtsiluni... Read More →

Susan Eisenberg

Susan Eisenberg is a poet, visual artist and licensed electrician, who plays with scale and juxtaposition to investigate issues of power and social policy. A Resident Artist/Scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center, she is author of the poetry collections... Read More →

Producers

Maggie Cleveland

Curriculum Development & Credentialing Manager, National Elevator Industry Educational Program

Maggie Cleveland hails from the seacoast town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and develops training and certifications for Union Elevator Mechanics through the National Elevator Industry Educational Program. Her poems have been published in journals including The Offending Adam, qarrtsiluni... Read More →

Volunteers

Cindy Herrick

Abigail Warren

Associate Professor, Cambridge College

writingteaching

Saturday May 2, 2015 9:30am - 10:30am EDT
Hawthorne Sophia Room

11:00am EDT

Master Class in Reading Your Work Aloud

Limited Capacity seats available

In the literary world today, writers often reach a wider audience through readings than through publication. Yet most writers are not trained to read their works aloud. Even well-known writers may read with too little—or too much—expression. In this master class/workshop, participants discuss what makes a good reading and explore the wide range of successful reading styles. As many participants as we have time for present a poem or short passage of prose for feedback from the group, under the guidance of the instructor, and then works toward a livelier, more effective presentation, which often includes a deeper understanding of the work being read.

Speakers

Lloyd Schwartz

Frederick S. Troy Professor of English, University of Massachusetts Boston

Lloyd Schwartz is Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston and teaches in the MFA program. He is a commentator on music and the arts for National Public Radio's Fresh Air, Senior Editor of Classical Music for New York Arts, and Contributing... Read More →

Saturday May 2, 2015 11:00am - 12:00pm EDT
PEM Bartlett Gallery

11:00am EDT

Our Mothers' Stories

Limited Capacity seats available

“(B)ehind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begin.” ― Mitch Albom, For One More Day  

Telling our mothers’ stories helps us to appreciate the bases for our own motivations, biases, and actions. In this workshop, we’ll explore our mothers' stories, from their perspectives and also from ours as children and as adults. We will examine the influences on them and their influences on us, to understand, and celebrate or transcend their legacies. We’ll read and discuss poems about mothers and participate in writing exercises geared toward mining this fertile ground for poetry.

Speakers

Marjorie Tesser

Editor in Chief, Mom Egg Review

Marjorie Tesser is the editor in chief of Mom Egg Review, author of poetry chapbooks THE IMPORTANT THING IS (Firewheel Chapbook Award), and The Magic Feather (Finishing Line), and co-editor of the anthologies Bowery Women and Estamos Aquí: Poems by Migrant Farmworkers (Bowery Books... Read More →

Volunteers

Amanda Hope

Poet & librarian

Saturday May 2, 2015 11:00am - 12:00pm EDT
Hawthorne Essex Room

11:00am EDT

Writing Sound to Sound

Limited Capacity seats available

B.H. Fairchild’s speaker in “The Blue Buick: A Narrative” says

… an able catcher sets his feet
to avoid the extra step that makes him miss
the steal at second, a poet hears the syllable
before the word, a good machinist “feels” the cut
before he measures it.

The leaders will offer a series of prompts that position a poet to hear the next “syllable before the word.” During the workshop itself participants will begin responding to four of these prompts together so that they leave with four new poems started, each employing a different strategy for writing sound to sound. B.H. Fairchild’s speaker in “The Blue Buick: A Narrative” says

… an able catcher sets his feet
to avoid the extra step that makes him miss
the steal at second, a poet hears the syllable
before the word, a good machinist “feels” the cut
before he measures it.

The leaders will offer a series of prompts that position a poet to hear the next “syllable before the word.” During the workshop itself participants will begin responding to four of these prompts together so that they leave with four new poems started, each employing a different strategy for writing sound to sound. The workshop is limited to 15 participants.

Speakers

Moira Linehan

Producers

Mary Pinard

Saturday May 2, 2015 11:00am - 12:00pm EDT
Charter School Room 1

11:00am EDT

Writing Truth & Beauty: Using Your Photos for Poetic Inspiration

Limited Capacity seats available

We’ve all had the experience of hearing the whispers of photographs that seem to have a deeper story to tell. Whether they’re treasured family snapshots, polished studio portraits or spontaneous cell phone images, certain pictures arrest our attention and prompt an emotional response we cannot immediately express – but we hope we’ll find a way. Writing poetry from photos allows us to express the truth of what we feel and haven’t said, and capture the beauty and deeper meaning of an image in words. We’ll let the images “speak” - writing poems that capture the feelings, personalities, relationships, rites of passage, cultural identity and family history evoked by photographs. When personally chosen photos are brought into a writing circle, powerful writing about family, community, and cross-cultural identity emerges. We’ll explore the photos as a warm-up to generating first drafts. Poets of any experience are welcome. Please bring photos to work from!

Speakers

Kelly DuMar

Kelly DuMar is a poet, playwright, and workshop facilitator from Boston. She’s the author of three poetry chapbooks, and her poems and photos are published in many literary journals. She serves on the Board of the International Women’s Writing Guild and produces the Bi-Monthly... Read More →

Saturday May 2, 2015 11:00am - 12:00pm EDT
Charter School Room 3

12:15pm EDT

Metaphor and the Art of the Fine Poetic Line

Limited Capacity seats available

Metaphor is most familiar as the literary device through which we describe one thing in terms of another, as when Shakespeare has Romeo say: "Juliet is the sun." But metaphor is much more than a literary device employed by love-struck poets when they refer to their girlfriends as interstellar masses of incandescent gas. Metaphor is intensely yet inconspicuously present in everything from economics and advertising to politics and business to science and psychology. Fresh metaphors are essential to writing fine lines, the rich, robust sentences that characterize the most compelling poetry. In this lively, interactive workshop, we will work with metaphor to create the kind of concise, vivid sentences that linger in readers' minds.

Speakers

James Geary

deputy curator, Nieman Foundation for Journalism

James Geary is the Deputy Curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He is the author of two books about aphorisms, The New York Times bestseller The World in A Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism and Geary's Guide to The World's Great Aphorists. His... Read More →

Saturday May 2, 2015 12:15pm - 1:15pm EDT
Charter School Room 2

12:15pm EDT

PoGens: Moving Poetry From the Margins to the Center

Limited Capacity seats available

Five professionals who are also poets will illustrate how their self-created poetry generation (PoGens) sessions have moved poetry from the margins of their busy lives to the center. A psychiatrist, nonprofit leader, development director, restaurant owner, and prep school teacher meet regularly to create poems, using a poetry generation process that strengthens writing skills and promotes the practice of craft. Panelists will briefly discuss how their commitment to PoGens has helped them keep poetry as a focus in the midst of demanding careers and contributed to traditional measures of success (publication and completion of an MFA), while strengthening each member’s awareness of the value of creation as a daring and life-affirming act. The workshop will move into a poetry generation session, including participants, providing practical advice for recreating the PoGens model.

Moderators

Grace Mattern

Author and Nonprofit Advisor

Grace Mattern’s has been published widely in journals and anthologies, including The Sun, Calyx, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore and Yankee. She has received fellowships from the NH State Arts Council and Vermont Studio Center and has published two books of poetry. The Truth About Death... Read More →

Speakers

David Coursin

David Coursin worked for thirty-eight years as a physician, fitting in a range of creative interests around the edges of a full family and professional life. In 2011 he decided it was time for those interests to occupy the center of his day and retired from clinical practice. He has... Read More →

Anny Jones

Anny Jones teaches Creative Writing at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, though she grew up in Great Expectations territory in Kent. She is a poetry graduate of the MFA program at Pacific University where she was taught by Sandra Alcosser, David St. John and Kwame Dawes... Read More →

Hope Jordan

Director of Advancement, Manchester Community Health Center

Hope Jordan’s poems have appeared in such journals as Many Mountains Moving, Green Mountains Review and The 2010 Poets’ Guide to New Hampshire. She was the first official poetry slam master in New Hampshire, and coached the inaugural NH Poetry Slam Team in 2007. She has a dual... Read More →

Nancy Stewart

Nancy grew up in Concord, NH, lived in San Francisco for 6 years, and has spent the last 25 years running a sandwich shop in Concord, with her husband. Her poems have appeared in the literary journal, Bone and Flesh, and in the Seacoast Writers Association anthology, Currents V. She... Read More →

Saturday May 2, 2015 12:15pm - 1:15pm EDT
Charter School Room 4

12:15pm EDT

Urban Nature Ecopoetry Workshop

Limited Capacity seats available

Based on an “Urban Nature Ecopoetry Workshop” series I created in Philadelphia, this workshop will bring participants outdoors, onto the streets, notebook in hand. In this generative, interactive workshop, we will explore and experiment with ecopoetry. We will discuss what it means to write nature poetry in our historical moment, in the midst of the climate crisis. We will look at poems from a variety of periods, ranging from the Romantic tradition to contemporary experimental poetry. Sources will include Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, The Ecopoetry Anthology, and Earth Shattering: Ecopoems (among others). We will discuss how contemporary poets write from the environment, negotiate a sense of self in relation to the non-human world, and where the boundaries between “urban” and “nature” blur. Participants will be led on a poetry walking tour, with guided writing exercises, where we will use the local environment to spark poems.

Speakers

Hila Ratzabi

Director of Content and Programs, Ritualwell

Hila Ratzabi holds an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. She is director of content and programs at Ritualwell.org and lives in Oak Park, Illinois, with her partner and two children.

Saturday May 2, 2015 12:15pm - 1:15pm EDT
Old Town Hall, 1st floor

2:00pm EDT

Naugatuck River Review presents a workshop on Narrative Poetry

Limited Capacity seats available

Storytelling is the way humans impart their traditions and feelings through the generations. Poets and editors from Naugatuck River Review (a journal of narrative poetry) will present a workshop on writing our stories in compressed narrative, concentrating on the inclusion of a strong emotional core and the elements of story such as plot, setting and lyrical language.

Moderators

Lori Desrosiers

Publisher, Naugatuck River Review

Lori Desrosiers is a poet and the publisher of Naugatuck River Review, a journal of narrative poetry, and WORDPEACE.CO an online journal of social justice. She is the author of two books of poetry, "The Philosopher's Daughter" and "Sometimes I Hear the Clock Speak" both from Salmon... Read More →

Speakers

Oonagh Doherty

Oonagh Doherty was born in Scotland, and grew up in both the United Kingdom and the United States. She is seriously interested in poetry about cultural clashes, connections between people who seem very different, globalization, desire, misunderstanding, love, and loss. She has published... Read More →

Howie Faerstein

Westfield State University

Howie Faerstein is the author of two chapbooks: Play a Song on the Drums, he said and Out of Order (Main Street Rag) and two full-length collections: Dreaming of the Rain in Brooklyn and Googootz and Other Poems, both published by Press 53. His poetry and reviews can be found in Great... Read More →

Em Jollie

Poet. Artist. Lover of the Living Earth. em jollie celebrates all genres of creative expression. In addition to writing poetry she is developing several prose pieces. Many of her hours are dedicated to gardening, crafting, making visual art, and playing traditional wood flutes. She... Read More →

Ellen LaFleche

Ellen LaFleche has published three chapbooks of poetry: Workers Rites (Providence Athenaeum); Ovarian (Dallas Poets Community Press); and Beatrice (Tiger's Eye Press.) She is a winner of the Philbrick Poetry Prize, the Ruth Stone Poetry Prize, New Millennium Writings Poetry Prize... Read More →

Saturday May 2, 2015 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Charter School Room 1

2:00pm EDT

Rhythm and Rhyme and a Jumpin' Good Time

Limited Capacity seats available

In this interactive workshop, families will sing, bop, drum, and collage to rhythm and rhyme, inspired by picture books written by husband and wife writing team Paul DuBois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender. Featured titles include: My Subway Ride, Fire Drill, and NASCAR 1, 2, 3's among others. Kids of all ages will have the chance to feel the beat, finish the rhyme, write their own poems, and make their own books using an assortment of materials. Book projects may include: accordion books, wish scrolls; necklace books, mini-books, etc.

Speakers

Paul DuBois Jacobs

Paul is a poet and writer of books for young readers. He has co-authored several pictures books with wife, Jennifer Swender, as well as four works with legendary folk musician and activist, Pete Seeger. Paul is also a long-time member of the Pioneer Valley's Group 18.

Jennifer Swender

A former elementary school teacher, Jennifer now writes books for young readers in addition to other curriculum-related projects. She has co-written seven pictures books with husband Paul DuBois Jacobs. Her first middle grade novel will be published with Crown Books in Fall 2016... Read More →

Producers

Jennifer Swender

A former elementary school teacher, Jennifer now writes books for young readers in addition to other curriculum-related projects. She has co-written seven pictures books with husband Paul DuBois Jacobs. Her first middle grade novel will be published with Crown Books in Fall 2016... Read More →

Saturday May 2, 2015 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Universalist Church

2:00pm EDT

Wild/Nature: Writing in the Natural World

Limited Capacity seats available

This is a generative writing workshop in which our reading and discussion of several so-called "nature" poems will provide examples and strategies that we can follow in our own creative writing. Come ready to experiment as we deepen our sensitivity toward the other-than-human-world by writing vivid, ecologically engaged texts that preserve some portion of the wild through their making, but also in the way this kind of writing invites attention and even advocacy, when read by others. (Bring your notebook.)

Speakers

Holly Wren Spaulding

Founder / Teacher, Poetry Forge

I'm a writer, reader, editor and teacher of poetry. I hosts writing workshops online and in person through Poetry Forge and Interlochen College of Creative Arts. At the heart of this work is my commitment to sharing useful practices and ideas that empower each one of us to thrive... Read More →

Saturday May 2, 2015 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
PEM Studio 2

2:00pm EDT

Working Hard or Hardly Working: Poetry of Work

Limited Capacity seats available

The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. –Robert Frost

Honest labor or soul-sucking drudgery? A way to nirvana, or something to plod through on one’s way to leisure? Office work, housework, school work, physical labor. Work that’s respected and work that’s denigrated. Day jobs or not. And of course, creative work. We will read poems and explore the world of work, from philosophy and attitudes to the observed particulars—the environment, language, ideas, hierarchies, and emotional tone of the worksite. Then, our work will begin—writing our own work poems.

Speakers

Marjorie Tesser

Editor in Chief, Mom Egg Review

Marjorie Tesser is the editor in chief of Mom Egg Review, author of poetry chapbooks THE IMPORTANT THING IS (Firewheel Chapbook Award), and The Magic Feather (Finishing Line), and co-editor of the anthologies Bowery Women and Estamos Aquí: Poems by Migrant Farmworkers (Bowery Books... Read More →

Saturday May 2, 2015 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
PEM Studio 1

10:15am EDT

Naming Your Roots: Seeds for Multi-Lingual, Multicultural Narrative Poems

Limited Capacity seats available

From the photographs we carry to the stories of our names, participants in this engaging workshop will be guided to write down and to share aloud "socs" (streams-of-consciousness), seeds for new poems, which share the presence or erasure of their own cultural, racial, ethnic and linguistic heritages.Participants will also further develop their own appreciation of the power of code-switching, namely, incorporating other languages or dialects into their poems. Limited to 15 workshop members (18+), from emerging to experienced.

Speakers

María Luisa Arroyo

multilingual Boricua poet & educator

Multilingual Boricua poet and educator María Luisa Arroyo was educated at Colby (BA), Tufts (MA) and Harvard (ABD) in German, her third language. Her poetry collections include Gathering Words: Recogiendo Palabras (2008) and Destierro Means More than Exile (2018). For 20+ years... Read More →

Sunday May 3, 2015 10:15am - 11:15am EDT
PEM Studio 2

11:30am EDT

Endings: When is Enough?

Limited Capacity seats available

Endings: When is Enough?
That’s all, folks! If only it were that easy. But the end of a poem needs to resonate with the entire poem, not just wrap it up. It can comment on the poem or lift it to a new meaning. It can leave the reader or listener laughing or suddenly somber. How do you write an ending that peels out of the driveway like a doomed lover? That drifts down like fog or gives a final firecracker pop? In this workshop we will look at different kinds of endings and how they make the meaning and mood of the poem. You will learn prompts that will help you revise endings. Bring one of your poems to read and we will workshop it just for the ending. The End.

Speakers

Dawn Paul

Writing/Interdisciplinary Faculty, Montserrat College of Art

Dawn Paul is the author of the novel The Country of Loneliness and What We Still Don’t Know, poems on the life and work of scientist Carl Linnaeus. She has also published poetry, fiction and science/nature articles in a variety of journals and magazines, including Orion, Comstock... Read More →

Cindy Veach

Cindy Veach is the author of Her Kind (CavanKerry Press) a finalist for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal and Gloved Against Blood (CavanKerry Press), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and a Massachusetts Center for the Book ‘Must Read,’ Her poems have appeared in the... Read More →

Producers

Dawn Paul

Writing/Interdisciplinary Faculty, Montserrat College of Art

Dawn Paul is the author of the novel The Country of Loneliness and What We Still Don’t Know, poems on the life and work of scientist Carl Linnaeus. She has also published poetry, fiction and science/nature articles in a variety of journals and magazines, including Orion, Comstock... Read More →

Sunday May 3, 2015 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
PEM Studio 2

11:30am EDT

Found Narratives: Poetry from Art Pairings

Limited Capacity seats available

Artworks speak to poets--but do these works speak to each other as well? How does the proximity of one work to another inspire new ideas and connections that one piece alone does not? In this workshop, we will explore unusual pairings in current exhibitions at the Peabody Essex Museum and discuss the ways curators, like poets, use juxtaposition to evoke surprise and curiosity. We will also practice close-looking strategies which then inform our poetry writing practice. Writers and art-lovers of all levels of experience welcome: just bring your eyes and your imagination, (and possibly your favorite writing implement), we'll provide the rest!

Speakers

Margaret (Meg) Winikates

Director of Engagement, New England Museum Association

Margaret Winikates is a writer and museum professional from Boston and Sharon, MA. She writes poetry and fiction, as well as being the co-editor of New England Museums Now. Meg is thrilled and honored to be one of the poets selected for the Ekphrastic Poetry Gallery at this year's... Read More →

Sunday May 3, 2015 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
PEM Studio 1

1:00pm EDT

Yes You Can: The Business of Writing

Limited Capacity seats available

You hone your poem into a masterpiece, and now it’s ready to send out to the world.

• Where will you send it? How do you select the best places to present your work from thousands of literary markets?
• What do you need to know about copyright?
• How do you write a bio? A cover letter?
• What are the best tools to manage submissions?
• What about literary contests?
• How do you market yourself as a writer?

Through discussion, examples, and handouts to take home, participants in this workshop will gain necessary knowledge and skills to manage their written work and more effectively navigate the publishing world. Time will also be spent on the value of marketing your work, not by hiring a publicist, but by being an engaged member of the writing community and using standard publicity tools like print and social media.

Speakers

Valerie Lawson

Editor/Publisher, Resolute Bear Press

Valerie Lawson’s work has been published in Main Street Rag, BigCityLit, About Place Journal, The Catch, and Ibbetson Street. Lawson’s first book, Dog Watch, was released in 2007. Her work has won awards for Best Narrative Poem and Spoken Word at the Cambridge Poetry Awards and... Read More →

Sunday May 3, 2015 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Hawthorne Pickman Room