The 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

The 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

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

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

12:45pm EDT

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

2:00pm EDT

Poetics of Pop Culture and Humor National Park Service - AuditoriumOtto Vock • Alejandro Lucero • Jess Yuan • Yena Sharma Purmasir

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

4:30pm EDT

The Night Office: Embracing the Creative Power of Darkness National Park Service - AuditoriumCarolyn Oliver • Hannah Larrabee • Matthew E. Henry • Nina MacLaughlin

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

11:30am EDT

Finding the Lyric in Shame Cinema Salem - Theater 1Shira Dentz • Krysten Hill • Jennifer Martelli • Jessica Cuello • Joan Glass

12:45pm EDT

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

2:00pm EDT

Re-Inventing the Love Poem: Queer Writers on Embodiment PEM - Morse AuditoriumJill McDonough • Keetje Kuipers • Chen Chen • Joshua Nguyen • Amanda Gunn