A Hawk & Whippoorwill roundtable reading featuring Abhay K.

Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Hosted by Cory Willingham, Editor of Hawk & Whippoorwill, a journal of poems of humanity & nature.

About our featured reader: Abhay K. is the author of numerous collections of poetry, and editor of CAPITALS and100 Great Indian Poems.

About our roundtable readers: SARA AFSHAR is an immigration legal services attorney. Her work has appeared in Slice Literary and in Soundings East, and is on display in Boston City Hall as part of the Mayor’s Poetry Program. MARY BUCHINGER is author of einfühlungin feeling (2018), Aerialist (2015), and Roomful of Sparrows (2008); President of the New England Poetry Club founded by Robert Frost, Amy Lowell, Conrad Aiken, and Professor of English and Communication Studies at MCPHS University in Boston. Her work has appeared in AGNI, DIAGRAM, Gargoyle, Nimrod, Salamander, Slice, and elsewhere. BLAKE CAMPBELL lives in Salem, Massachusetts and works as an editor. He is the recipient of the 2015 Academy of American Poets College Poetry Prize at Emerson College, and his poem “Bioluminescence” won the 2015 Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award from the Academy of American Poets. His work has appeared on poets.org, in The Emerson Review, and in The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry. CAT DOSSETT is a visual artist and writer, and Chapbooks Editor for Pen & Anvil Press. ED MEEK is the author of three books of poetry and a collection of short stories. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, The North American Review, Cream City Review, Boston Review, The Sun, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He has taught composition, creative writing and literature at the high school and college level. He lives in Somerville with his wife Elizabeth. PAUL ROWE is Editor of The Charles River Journal, and is at work editing a volume of Selected Poems of Ted Richer. DANIAL SHARIAT is a student of economics at Boston University; his writing has appeared in Hawk & Whippoorwill and The Core Journal. SASSAN TABATABAI is the author of Father of Songs: The Poetry of Rudaki, and the poetry collection Uzunburun. He teaches humanities and Persian at Boston University and Boston College.

Find Hawk & Whippoorwill online at penandanvil.com/hw.

A Night of Poetry at Outpost 186 in Cambridge

Come experience a night of poetry with RYAN ALVANOS, ZACHARY BOS, and THOMAS GRAVES at Outpost 186 in Cambridge.

This event is organized by Ben Mazer, benmazer@yahoo.com

Dire Literary Series Finale with ELIZABETH GRAVER and other writers

Timothy Gager presents the finale of his long running Dire Literary Series. Readers include:

ELIZABETH GRAVER’s fourth novel, The End of the Point, was long-listed for the 2013 National Book Award in Fiction  and selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.  Her other novels  are Awake, The Honey Thief, and Unravelling. Her story collection, Have You Seen Me?, won the 1991 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories (1991, 2001); Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards (1994, 1996, 2001), The Pushcart Prize Anthology (2001), and Best American Essays (1998).  She teaches at Boston College and is at work on a new project that draws on the Sephardic Jewish history of her family.

DOUG HOLDER is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press of Somerville, Mass and is the arts/editor of The Somerville News. He teaches writing at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass and Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. In addition he is the Director of the Newton Free Library Poetry Series, and the co-founder of the Somerville News Writers Festival. He hosts a literary talk show on Somerville Community Acces TV “Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.” Holder’s own work: books, interviews, etc… are archived at Harvard University, Brown University, Yale University, Poets House (NYC) and others. He is the author of a number of poetry collections including: “The Man in the Booth in the Midtown Tunnel” ( Cervena Barva Press), “Wrestling With My Father” ( Yellow Pepper Press), ” No one Dies at the Au Bon Pain” (sunnyoutside), to name a few. In 2007 Holder was a visiting poet for the “Voices Israel” organization and ran workshops and lectured in Jerusalem, Haifa, and elsewhere. Holder’s poetry and prose have appeared in the Endicott Review, Boston Globe Magazine, Rattle, Toronto Quarterly, Quercus Review, Main St. Rag, Caesura, Voices Israel, Sahara, Long Island Quarterly, Poetry Quarterly, etc… Holder holds an M.A. in American Literature and Language from Harvard University. For over 20 years he has run poetry workshops at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. He resides in the Union Square section of Somerville with his wife and cat Menow.

AMY DRESNER is a former professional stand-up comic, having appeared at The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and The Improv. Since 2012, she has been a contributing editor of the online addiction and recovery magazine TheFix.com. She’s also written for the Good Men Project, The Frisky, Refinery 29, and has been a regular contributor to Addiction.com and PsychologyToday.com, where she has her own addiction blog entitled “Coming Clean.” “My Fair Junkie” is her debut book.

HANNAH LARRABEE is a poet, science-geek, and former Mainer who grew up on a blueberry farm. Her first full-length collection, Wonder Tissue, won the 2018 Airlie Press Prize. Her chapbook Murmuration (Seven Kitchens Press) is part of the Robin Becker Series for LGBTQ poets. She’s had work appear in: The Adirondack Review, Barren Magazine, Harpoon Review, Lambda Literary Spotlight, Rock & Sling, and elsewhere. Hannah was one of 22 artists selected by NASA to see the James Webb Space Telescope, and her JWST poems were displayed at Goddard Space Center. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Hampshire.

 

BREAK

 

NADINE DARLING is the author of SHE CAME FROM BEYOND!, winner of the McLaughlin Esstman Sterns First Novel Prize. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she lives in the greater Boston area with her husband and fellow writer Kenneth Darling, who, with respect to Aimee Mann, saved her from the ranks of the freaks who suspect that they could never love anyone.

RENUKA RAGHAVEN tends to focus on brief, dramatic prose and poetry. She’s that person in front of you in the check-out line who just dumped a week’s worth of groceries onto the conveyor belt only to realize she left her wallet in the car. Next time, say hi. Renuka would love to meet you! She writes and lives in Massachusetts with her family and beloved beagle.

RUSTY BARNES is a 2018 Derringer finalist and author of the story collections Breaking it Down (Sunnyoutside Press 2007) and Mostly Redneck (Sunnyoutside Press 2011), as well as four novels, Reckoning (Sunnyoutside Press, 2014), Ridgerunner (Shotgun Honey/Down & Out Books, 2017), Knuckledragger (Shotgun Honey/Down & Out Books 2017) and The Last Danger (Shotgun Honey/Down & Out Books 2018), His fiction, poetry and non-fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in over two hundred journals and anthologies, like Dirty Boulevard: Crime Stories Inspired by the Songs of Lou Reed (Down & Out Books 2018), Best Small Fictions 2015, Mystery Tribune, Goliad Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Red Rock Review, Porter Gulch Review and Post Road. His poetry collections include On Broad Sound (Nixes Mates Press, 2016) and Jesus in the Ghost Room, (Nixes Mates Press 2017). He founded and edits Tough, a journal of crime fiction and occasional reviews, with a story by Matthew Lyons appearing in Best American Short Stories 2018, edited by Roxane Gay. He lives in Revere, MA.

 

September U35 Reading Series w/Mass Poetry

U35 is Mass Poetry’s bi-monthly reading series for poets under 35, held once each January, March, May, July, September, and November. The series seeks to promote and bolster Massachusetts poets under 35 while giving them a venue to share their work and connect with other poets under 35. If you are a poet under the age of 35, sign up to read!

September’s U35 will be held at Trident Booksellers & Cafe, and will feature Noah Augustine, Thomas Mixon, and Melissa “Meezy” Saunders.

More information at www.masspoetry.org/u35.

Poetry at the Somerville Community Growing Center

Allison Adair’s work has appeared in the Boston Review, Mid-American Review and other journals; her hypertext projects on The Rumpus and Electric Literature websites. Winner of the 2014 Fineline Competition, she teaches at Boston College and Grub Street.

Suzanne Matson’s fourth novel, Ultraviolet, is forthcoming from Catapult. Her books of poems are Durable Goods and Sea Level. Her essays have appeared in The Boston Globe and elsewhere. She teaches at Boston College.

Wyn Cooper has published five books of poetry, the most recent is Mars Poetica, just out from White Pine Press. His poems, stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Crazyhorse and various other publications.

 

MFA/Mass Poetry: Poets in the Galleries

In fall of 2018 – from September through November – three poets will act as Poets in Residence at the galleries in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The workshops will take place on Wednesday evenings 6:30 – 8:30 pm (Wednesday nights after 4 pm, admission is by voluntary contribution). The workshops are designed to be drop-in (although you can stay for the whole time if you like!) No poetry experience is required.

Once you write a poem based on the exhibit, you can submit it here. It might be featured online (on the Mass Poetry or MFA website), chosen as a Poem of the Moment by Mass Poetry, or excerpted for a Raining Poetry installation!

Regie Gibson will lead a workshop at the French Pastels exhibit September 5, 12, 19 and 26.

Kathi Aguero will lead a workshop at the Shelf Life exhibit October 3, 10, 17, 24.

Krysten Hill will lead a workshop at the Nutshells exhibit October 31, November 7, 14, 28. The workshop is called “Cecilia Vicuña: Disappeared Quipu.”

More info at www.masspoetry.org/mfa.

Dire Literary Series presents Sonya Larson, Michael Keith and Marguerite Bourvard

The Dire Literary Series is back with SONYA LARSON, MICHAEL KEITH and MARGUERITE GUZMAN BOUVARD.

About the readers:

Sonya Larson’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Best American Short Stories
2017, American Short Fiction, American Literary Review, Poets & Writers, Writer’s Chronicle, Audible.com, West Branch, Salamander, Memorious, Solstice Magazine, Del Sol Review, Red Mountain Review, The Hub, and more. She has received honors and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, St. Botolph Club Foundation, and more.

She currently works as Director of the Muse and the Marketplace literary conference, hosted by GrubStreet in Boston, as well as Director of GrubStreet’s race and advocacy work. She received her MFA in fiction in the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

Sonya lives in Somerville, MA, and is currently writing a novel.

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Michael Keith is the author of over 20 books on electronic media, as well as a memoir and ten books of fiction. In 2009, he coedited a found manuscript by legendary writer/director Norman Corwin. What he refers to as his “fringe” group series consists of a monograph that examines the use of broadcast media by Native Americans—Signals in the Air (Praeger, 1995), a book that explores the nature and role of counterculture radio in the sixties—Voices in the Purple Haze (Praeger, 1997), a book that probes the extreme right-wing’s exploitation of the airwaves—Waves of Rancor (M.E. Sharpe, 1999, with Robert Hilliard), a book that examines the role of gays and lesbians in broadcasting—Queer Airwaves (M.E. Sharpe, 2001, with Phylis Johnson), a book about broadcasting and the First Amendment—Dirty Discourse (Blackwell, 2003, with Robert Hilliard), and a volume that evaluates the loss of localism in American radio—The Quieted Voice (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005, with Robert Hilliard).
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Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard latest book “Social Justice: The Power of Compassion,” addresses some of the most pressing problems facing our country today: the environment, immigration, racism and criminal justice. As a writer, she has published several books of poetry and numerous non-fiction books in a variety of fields. She has received grants for her poetry from the Puffin Foundation and the Danforth Foundation and has won awards for two of her poetry books. She has been a writer in residence at the University of Maryland and has had residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Yaddo Foundation, the Djerassi Foundation, the Leighton Artists’ colony at the Banff Centre and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her poetry has been widely anthologized and published in literary magazines around the world for she considers herself a world poet.

Her non-fiction books are concerned with women and human rights. Her books and research about women working for human rights reveal that mothering is very often a part of feminism. She has also written about social justice, illness, and grief. Her concern for the human condition is a common theme that runs throughout her publications.

Marguerite was a professor of Political Science and a Director of Poetry Workshops at Regis College, and a writer in residence at the University of Maryland. She is currently a Resident Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. She has received fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women.

Phillis Wheatley Day

Travel back in time to the 1770s with African-American poet Phillis Wheatley to explore the Meeting House as it was when she attended church here! Phillis Wheatley, portrayed by a Freedom Trail Foundation Player® dressed in full 18th-century costume, will share her experiences as a writer, churchgoer, and enslaved woman in colonial Boston.  FREE WITH MUSEUM ADMISSION.

U35 Poetry Reading Series

U35 is Mass Poetry’s bi-monthly reading series for poets under 35, held once each January, March, May, July, September, and November. The series seeks to promote and bolster Massachusetts poets under 35 while giving them a venue to share their work and connect with other young poets. This July come hear Sam DeFlitch, Rodney Dominique, and Jaime Zuckerman perform their work at Remnant Brewing. Sign up at masspoetry.org/u35 to read your own work!