The 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

The 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

6:00pm EDT

Festival Bookseller: JustBookish Old Town Hall

6:30pm EDT

Kickoff Event: Common Threads: A Celebration of Massachusetts Poets Old Town HallElizabeth Bradfield • J.D. Scrimgeour • Regie Gibson

9:00am EDT

Write Around Salem Old Town Hall

10:00am EDT

Festival Bookseller: JustBookish Old Town Hall Revere Beach Stories: Poems and Photographs PEM - Atrium AlcoveKevin Carey • Jennifer Martelli • Stephenie Young

10:15am EDT

Lit Craft is Witchcraft: Writing & Performance as Magical Practice PEM - Groups HubKailey Tedesco • Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez • Jezmina Von Thiele • Shari Caplan Our Hands Upon St. Peter's Church - Large RoomAlexis Fedorjaczenko Sylvia Plath: Radical New Directions National Park Service - AuditoriumIris Jamahl Dunkle • Ash Trebisacci • Kelly McMasters • Emily Van Duyne The Informal Formal: A Craft Reading Cinema Salem - Theater 1Michael Mercurio • Desiree C. Bailey • Molly Akin • Tatiana Johnson-Boria Danielle Legros Georges: A Tribute PEM - Morse AuditoriumMartha Collins • Kevin Gallagher • Patrick Sylvain • Tracy K. Smith Teen Track: Crafting session w/ Amy NAGLYAmy Luo Collage as a Door to the Poetic Surreal: A Generative Workshop St. Peter's Church - ChapelLeticia Priebe Rocha

11:00am EDT

Poetry-Go-Round: Garage Poets TBAJason M. Rubin • Anna Geoffroy • Rusty Barnes • Andrea Donna Small Press Fair, Sponsored by the Creative Collective TBA

11:30am EDT

Understories: Tapping Hidden Networks PEM - Morse AuditoriumAnna Maria Hong • Lesley Wheeler • Oliver de la Paz “We, the poets, grant you refuge:” How Palestinian Poetry Inspires Activism PEM - Groups HubJuPong Lin • Carolyn A. Cushing • Mona Shiber • Rachel Teferet Goin’ Up Yonder: Religion in Black Poetics St. Peter's Church - Large RoomPorsha Olayiwola • Quintin Collins • Matthew E. Henry • Sarah Kersey “On Being Ill:” The Challenges, and Opportunities, of Writing Chronic Illness Cinema Salem - Theater 1Carolyn Oliver • Ann Wallace • Therese Gleason • Maria S. Picone/수영 Filtering White Noise: Using Erasure and Blackout Poetry To Make Sense of It All St. Peter's Church - ChapelChad Parenteau Master Class in Reading Your Work Aloud National Park Service - AuditoriumLloyd Schwartz

12:00pm EDT

Poetry-Go-Round: Virtual Dire Literary Series TBATimothy Gager • Jennifer Martelli • Tom Laughlin • Kimberly Ann Priest

12:45pm EDT

Headline Reading: Featuring Diannely Antigua & Felicia Zamora, Sponsored by Letras Latinas PEM - Morse AuditoriumFelicia Zamora • Diannely Antigua Bad Classicist: Writers Who Push Back Against Myth National Park Service - AuditoriumJen Jabaily-Blackburn • Nina MacLaughlin • Shanta Lee Writing Through Evolving Place PEM - Groups HubLivia Meneghin • Kiran Maharaj • Mary Kovaleski Byrnes • Sonia Aggarwal • Heather Wright Lyricism and Everyday Life St. Peter's Church - ChapelAmanda Gunn • Jess Yuan Poets in Conversation with Gender Cinema Salem - Theater 1Lee Desrosiers • Steven Riel • Jendi Reiter • Subhaga Crystal Bacon Teen Track: Teen Council Workshop NAGLYAmy Luo • Norah Wilson • Veronika Wang

1:00pm EDT

Poetry-Go-Round: Speak Up Open Mic TBADave Somerset • Robert Whelen • Elizabeth Gordon McKim • Jack Giaour

2:00pm EDT

Poetics of Pop Culture and Humor National Park Service - AuditoriumOtto Vock • Alejandro Lucero • Jess Yuan • Yena Sharma Purmasir Maiden, Mother, Crone: A Reading Celebrating 22 Years of MER - Mom Egg Review Cinema Salem - Theater 1Cindy Veach • Kathleen Aguero • Carla Panciera • Jennifer Barber • Joan Glass • Marjorie Tesser • Nadia Arioli Poe(sí)a: Spoken Word in Spanglish St. Peter's Church - Large RoomAlejandra Ramos Gómez Poetry-Go-Round: Pour Me A Poem TBASara Letourneau • Wayne-Daniel Berard • Brian Mosher • Tess Gordon Watershed: Ecopoetry from the Gulf of Maine PEM - Groups HubElizabeth Bradfield • Ian Ramsey • Samaa Abdurraqib We The Gathered Heat: A Reading of Asian American & Pacific Islander Poets PEM - Morse AuditoriumFranny Choi • Usman Hameedi • Joshua Nguyen • Chrysanthemum • Giles Li • Juliana Chang • Matthew Olzmann Mass Poetry Presents: Poets You Ought To Know St. Peter's Church - ChapelJohn Bonanni • Barbara Fant • María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado Teen Track: Coaching the Future: Building Youth Poetry Slam Teams NAGLYAnthony Febo Teen Track: When Bodies Speak in Verse NAGLYMaria Zaki • Voula Flessas

3:00pm EDT

Poetry-Go-Round: Lily Poetry Series TBAAnne Elezabeth Pluto • Eileen Cleary • Gloria Monaghan • Christine Jones

3:15pm EDT

"Mining America's Slave Archives: The Intentional Work of Transhistorical Black Poetry" Cinema Salem - Theater 1nicole terez dutton • Artress Bethany White • Lauren Russell Love is the Measure of Loss: Poetry of Grief PEM - Morse AuditoriumCindy Veach • Quintin Collins • Jennifer Martelli • Subhaga Crystal Bacon • Susan Rich Surrealist Poetry in the 21st Century St. Peter's Church - Large RoomShira Dentz • Anne Elezabeth Pluto • Joanna Fuhrman • Jessica Cuello • Kevin McLellan • KPrevallet Grief and Resilience: Poetry Navigating Loss PEM - Groups HubWendy Drexler • Ann Bookman • Oliver de la Paz • Susan Donnelly • Steven Ratiner Science in Poetry | Poetry in Science National Park Service - AuditoriumJackie Craven • Maggie Greaves • Barbara Ungar • Sarah Giragosian Teen Track: Verses in the Air Open Mic NAGLY Revision Roulette St. Peter's Church - ChapelCarla Panciera • K. T. Landon

4:00pm EDT

Poetry-Go-Round: Stone Soup TBAChad Parenteau • Toni Bee • Dexter Roberts • James Van Looy

4:30pm EDT

The Night Office: Embracing the Creative Power of Darkness National Park Service - AuditoriumCarolyn Oliver • Hannah Larrabee • Matthew E. Henry • Nina MacLaughlin American Tyrant: Poetry in the Age of Democratic Fragility St. Peter's Church - Large RoomEnzo Silon Surin • Cortney Lamar Charleston • Suzanne Frischkorn Ways of Be(long)ing Cinema Salem - Theater 1Carrie Bennett • Kevin McLellan • Pui Ying Wong • Ruben Quesada • Timothy Liu Teen Track: Teen Festival Showcase NAGLYAnthony Febo Small but Mighty - Creating & Submitting Chapbooks St. Peter's Church - ChapelAdrie Rose

7:00pm EDT

Headline Reading: Featuring Danez Smith sponsored by Gray Wolf Press Tabernacle ChurchDanez Smith

9:00pm EDT

Poetry Slam (In partnership with the Boston Poetry Slam) Die With Your Boots OnMyles Taylor

9:00am EDT

Poetry & Yoga The Salem CommonKirsty Yetter

10:00am EDT

Festival Bookseller: JustBookish Old Town Hall

10:15am EDT

Consequential Gems: The Art of Sequence Poems PEM - Groups HubSara Deniz Akant • Ashna Ali • Diannely Antigua • Adrienne Raphel • Anna V. Q. Ross From the Editors’ Desk: Demystifying the Submission Process National Park Service - AuditoriumRita Mookerjee • Robin Van Impe • Michael Todd Cohen • Adrian Dallas Frandle The Poetics of Caregiving: Witness, Community, and Healing through Poetry Cinema Salem - Theater 1Jennifer R. Edwards • Ann Wallace • Lynne Shapiro Celebrating 25 Years of the Massachusetts Book Awards in Poetry, Sponsored by The Massachusetts Center for the Book PEM - Morse AuditoriumJanuary Gill O'Neil • Daniel Tobin • Amy Dryansky • Sara Deniz Akant • Ilan Stavans • Enzo Silon Surin And yet… There’s still Joy: Joy as a tool for Healing in Poetry St. Peter's Church - ChapelBarbara Fant

11:30am EDT

Finding the Lyric in Shame Cinema Salem - Theater 1Shira Dentz • Krysten Hill • Jennifer Martelli • Jessica Cuello • Joan Glass A Conversation Among Poets National Park Service - AuditoriumRichard Hoffman • Robbie Gamble • Dzvinia Orlowsky • Tatiana Johnson-Boria State of Poetry Panel PEM - Morse Auditorium Cut, Paste, Create: A Workshop in Found Poetry and Art St. Peter's Church - Chapel How to Make Dandelion Wine: Poems of Instruction PEM - Groups HubJulia Thacker

12:45pm EDT

Headline Reading: Featuring Saeed Jones & Keetje Kuipers PEM - Morse AuditoriumKeetje Kuipers • Saeed Jones The Climate for Publishing Poetry in Massachusetts Cinema Salem - Theater 1Anna M. Warrock • Gloria Mindock • Robbie Gamble • Cheryl Clark Vermeulen • Eileen Cleary Why & How to Read Poetry in Translation PEM - Groups HubJennifer Jean • J.D. Scrimgeour • Jonathan Bennett Bonilla Writing Your Weird: On Hyperfixations, Specializations, and Prosody National Park Service - AuditoriumDeMisty D. Bellinger • Catherine Rockwood • Emily Kramer • Han VanderHart • Rachel Trousdale Protest Poetry Workshop St. Peter's Church - ChapelChrista Lamb • Jason M. O'Toole

2:00pm EDT

Re-Inventing the Love Poem: Queer Writers on Embodiment PEM - Morse AuditoriumJill McDonough • Keetje Kuipers • Chen Chen • Joshua Nguyen • Amanda Gunn After Etel Adnan PEM - Groups HubSummer Farah • Jess Rizkallah • Leena Aboutaleb Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora Anthology Reading Cinema Salem - Theater 1Tobi Kassim • Leticia Priebe Rocha • Wangeci Gitau Where Do You Live? in Arabic & English National Park Service - AuditoriumAmy Merrill • Jennifer Jean • Alma Richeh Mass Poetry Presents: Poets You Ought To Know St. Peter's Church - ChapelSusan Rich • Amy Alvarez • Noah Davis Poetry & Ice Cream Open Mic The House of the Seven GablesAnthony Febo

3:15pm EDT

Headline Reading: Featuring Marilyn Chin & Ross Gay PEM - East India Marine HallRoss Gay • Marilyn Chin