The 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

"...a dictated thought with the absence of any control exercised by reason” André Breton (1896–1966) first manifesto of the Surrealist movement

While André Breton (1896–1966) initiated the Surrealist movement with his first Manifesto of Surrealism, surreal elements in poetry and writing techniques associated with this art movement have always been integral to poetry. Breton, as a writer, was influenced by Freud, with whom he worked briefly, and Freud’s theories of the unconscious. The movement ignited within the context of the aftermath of World War I, in response to the unprecedented scale of killing achieved through mechanized violence. The Surrealist plan and hope were radical: in a society that glorified reason, surrealist art would defamiliarize the status quo and thereby prompt people to question their values and incite social change. How does a poet break from the status quo they’ve inherited through their poetic tradition, let loose from self-censorship, and still write meaningfully from the cusp between wakefulness and sleep?

In our present moment of global climate change and violence, the poets on this panel share the Surrealists’ goals to contribute to a more in touch and sustainable humanity. Surrealist techniques include automatic writing, writing from constraints, trance poetics, synesthesia, collage, dream writing, and free association, and each of the panelists forefronts one or more these elements in their poetry. This event will consist of three components: a poetry reading by the panelists, an interactive discussion with the audience about Surrealist writing techniques, and a mini-workshop in which audience members will have the opportunity to experiment with surreal writing via prompts offered by the panelists.