***POETRY NEWS***
Here is your Poetry News for the week of July 20, 2015
Scroll down to see or link to more poetry in Worcester, the Berkshires, Boston, Vermont and other areas. To receive Poetry News in your email or to request posting of events write to lori@thepoetrynews.com.
Some Highlights of This Week in Western MA (more below):
Through Aug. 19: Sunken Garden Poetry Festival Hillstead Museum, Farmington, CT info http://www.hillstead.org/calendar/category/poetry-festival/
Tue. July 21 – Greenfield Word Open Mic, 9 Mill St. Greenfield, 7pm
Thu. July 23 – Eileen Kennedy & Cheryl Fish book release rdg at Amherst Room, Jones Library, Amherst, 6:30pm
Thu. July 23 – Billie Chernicoff & Michael Boughn at Writers Read, Good Purpose Gallery, Lee, 5:30pm
Thu. July 23 – Irene Willis Reads at The Bookstore/Get Lit Winebar, 11 Housatonic St. , Lenox, 7pm
Fri. July 24 – Diversity Open Mic, White Rose Bookstore, 284 High St. Holyoke, 8pm
Tue. Aug. 4 – Lori Desrosiers at Straw Dog Writers Night Out, The Basement, Northampton, 7pm
Fri. Aug. 7 – 4 Poets and a Photographer, A.P.E. Gallery, Northampton, 7pm
POETRY IN THE VALLEY AND BEYOND
Calling all Poets and Storytellers!
Sam’s Pizza and Cafe is now hosting an open reading night
Wednesdays, 7pm Sam’s Pizza, Northampton
Weekly Poetry Open Mic at The Deuce
Every Tuesday Night 8pm – 10pm
Open Mic Signup starts at 7pm.
World War II Club, Conz St. Northampton,MA
Please bring a 3-5 minute selection of your work to share
Fabulous website with featured poets http://www.northamptonpoetry.com/
Irene Willis Reading
Thursday, July 23, 7pm
at The Bookstore/GetLit Wine Bar
11 Housatonic Street
Lenox, MA
Eileen P. Kennedy and Cheryl J. Fish
Local Amherst poet Eileen P. Kennedy and former Five Colleges Women’s Studies Research Center fellow and Mt. Holyoke visiting professor Cheryl J. Fish, colleagues at the City University of New York, discuss and read poetry from their new collections, Banshees (Flutter Press) and Make It Funny, Make It Last (Belladonna) on Thursday July 23 at 6:30 pm in the Amherst Room, Jones Library, Amherst. Themes include aging, death, activism, and love. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Free and open to the public.
Writers Read Monthly Reading Series presents:
Billie Chernicoff & Michael Boughn
Thursday, July 23, 5:30pm
Good Purpose Gallery, 40 Main St. Lee
Two poets: one is coming from Manhattan, the other is visiting from Canada!
Billie Chernicoff was conceived in the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg by a soldier and a ballerina, born left handed in Detroit, and educated at Bard College. She raised a daughter in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts where she lives with her husband and writes, and has worked as a printer, editor, teacher and gardener. She has published poems and articles in Sulfur, Galatea Resurrects and other online and paper magazines. Her book The Red Dress was published by Dr. Cicero Books in 2015, Another book, called The Pleasures, was published in 2014 by Metambesen, at http://www.metambesen.org/books/. A book called A Drop is forthcoming from Lines Chapbooks.
Michael Boughn is the author of numerous books of poetry including Iterations of the Diagonal, Dislocations in Crystal, One’s own Mind, 22 Skidoo / SubTractions, Cosmographia—a post-Lucretian faux micro-epic (short listed for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 2011), Great Canadian Poems for the Aged Vol. 1 Illus. Ed., and most recently, City Book 1, Singular Assumptions. City Book 2, Other Climates is due out in October. With Victor Coleman, he edited Robert Duncan’s The H.D. Book for the University of California Press. He lives in Toronto.
$4 Suggested Donation: to benefit the Poets and the Gallery.
Readings begin at 5:30pm in the Good Purpose Gallery, 40 Main Street, Lee -right next to the Starving Artist Cafe. If you have questions and/or are interested in reading in the series, though we can make no promises initially, please email David Giannini, coordinator of the WRITERS READ series, at davidgpoet@gmail.com
Diversity Open Mic in Holyoke
Fri. July 24 and Thu. July 30
White Rose Book Store
284 High St. Holyoke, MA, 8pm
The White Rose book store will be sponsoring the event Diversity, which is a Community Against Hate presentation.
Diversity is an open mic featuring socially conscious artists from diverse lifestyles to show people that together we make the world a beautiful and better place. This event encourages people to get out of their social boxes and get to know people from diverse life styles. This Diversity event is a step in the healing process desperately needed in the United States.
Crystal Senter-Brown, Wes Parker, Be’Kah, Maurice “Soulfighter” Taylor, Ali Haqq, Manuel Silva
When: Friday July 24th and Thursday July 30th
Where: The White Rose book store 284 High St Holyoke, Ma
Time: 8pm
by Straw Dog Writers Guild.
Every first Tuesday of the month, 7-9 pm
The Basement, 21 Center St., Northampton.
Five minute open mike slots, then featured reader.
August 4 – Lori Desrosiers
Doors open at 7 If you want to read, put your name in the hat up until 7:10. The reading starts at 7:15, and each reader will have five minutes.
Admission is free; participants are encouraged to buy a drink in support of the venue.
Friday, August 7, 7:30pm
A.P.E. Gallery, Northampton
Join us for a mid-summer delight:
Four valley poets reading their work while surrounded by superb photographs.
The poets:
AMY DRYANSKY’s second book, Grass Whistle (Salmon, 2013) received the Massachusetts Book Award for poetry. She’s the assistant director of the Culture, Brain & Development Program at Hampshire College, and blogs about motherhood and writing. Amy loves summer because she can choose kayaking, gardening, and driving her kids around over revising and sending out poems. Also, she enjoys cold wine.
https://amydryansky.wordpress.com/CAROL EDELSTEIN organizes the Gallery of Readers’ Series, soon entering its 24th season. Essayist, fiction writer, and author of two books of poems, The Disappearing Letters (Perugia Press) and The World Is Round (Amherst Writers and Artists Press), she is also a social worker and freelance editor. All of Carol’s favorite summer activities begin with the letter “s,” including scribbling, sculling, Scrabble, and swimming.
www.galleryofreaders.org/SARAH SOUSA has a poem, “Learning my Name,” affixed to a stone pillar in Edmands Park in Newton, MA. She is the author of Split the Crow (Parlor Press, 2015) and Church of Needles (Red Mountain Press, 2014), and she edited The Diary of Esther Small, 1886 (Small Batch Books). Sarah is a native New Englander, but loves heat and humidity. She currently lives in a house Edna St Vincent Millay slept in. Millay famously declared when asked what she wanted for breakfast: “Champagne on the lawn at dawn.” http://sarahasousa.com/MICHELLE VALOIS’s first book, My Found Vocabulary (Aldrich), came out in the spring. She teaches writing and humanities at Mount Wachusett Community College and lives with her partner Katharine; their three children, Noah, Ari, and Esther; and a cat named Moxie. Although not her favorite season, she loves the edible part of summer: corn on the cob, anything on the grill, berries. http://www.readmelikeabook.net/The photographer:KATE WAY was a writing, literature, and arts educator for twenty years, before devoting her full-time energy to photography and film. She holds a M.F.A. in Photography and an Ed.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture, and has exhibited her work in New England and New York City. Kate is now making her first documentary film, Good Guy with a Gun: The Arming of Teachers in America.
http://www.katewayphotography.com/ and http://www.goodguywithagunthefilm.com/
The August 7th reading, book signing, photo show, and reception is free, open to the public, and accessible. It is co-sponsored by Perugia Press, a nonprofit literary press publishing the best new women poets in the country, and A.P.E. Gallery, our favorite downtown art gallery supporting contemporary artists working in all disciplines.
Hedgerow Books Open Reading Period
Publishing poetry of distinction from Western Massachusetts, including books honored as finalists for The Massachusetts Book Award, The Eric Hoffer Award, The Montaigne Medal, and The International Book Award, Hedgerow Books is pleased to announce our Open Reading Period — June 15 to September 15, 2015. Poets who have full-length manuscripts from Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin or Berkshire counties are invited to submit. The first round will be read blind by non-local readers, a different mix from our last reading period. Please see Submissions at our website for further information. www.hedgerowbooks.net
In August, Susan Middleton is leading a day-long writer’s retreat at her home.
Write to Susan for more information at smiddle@crocker.com
Fiction Writing Group at East Forest Park Library
122 Island Pond Road (Next to Rite Aid in the plaza) Springfield
First Wednesday of Each Month Time: 6:00 pm
Contact: Theresa Boulrice (413) 263-6836)
Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS) presents:
“Poetry Conversation” Jones Library,
43 Amity Street, Amherst, MA; in the Amherst Room,
2nd floor 1st Friday of each month — 2pm – 3:30pm
2nd Thursday of each month — 5:45pm – 7:15pm
All who are interested in sharing thoughts and ideas in a group discussion
based on selected poems/letters by Emily Dickinson are welcome.
FLORENCE POETS SOCIETY
The next business/sharing meeting is Thursday, August 13, 2015 at 6:30pm.
Please consider joining the Florence Poets Society. Your $20 membership dues (Sept. – Aug.) support our annual journal, Silkworm, as well as public readings and events. We meet monthly at the Lilly Library in Florence on the 2nd Thurs. of each month, and all are welcome. Please visit our web site for more information: http://www.florencepoets.com or contact us at info@florencepoets.com.
POETRY A LA CARTE RADIO SHOW on WMUA-Amherst 91.1 FM
Wednesdays at 5:00pm
WMUA-Amherst (the student and community radio station of UMass-Amherst) can be listened to at 91.1 FM within range of the transmitter. WMUA is also streamed live at http://www.wmua.org/. The program, produced by Daisy Mathias, includes reading aloud from past and contemporary poets, and occasionally features live interview and poetry-reading with a local poet.
GREENFIELD, SHELBURNE FALLS AND NORTH
paul@humanerrorpublishing.com
WORD IN THE BERKSHIRES
Rambling Poets Presents Poetry Slam @ Parlor Cafe
Every third Thursday of the month
The Parlor Cafe 303 Ashland St North Adams, MA
$2-5 Suggested Donation – Bartering Welcomed.
We are a 14 poet, 3 round slam, with cash and prizes awarded
to all poets who sign up. Sign ups start at 7pm
Poets meeting at 7:45
Event starts promptly at 8pm
http://www.facebook.com/RAMBLINGPOETS http://www.theparlorcafe.com
OUTSPOKEN!
Pittsfield’s Monthly Performance Series and Open Mic – Outspoken!
hosted by Matt Mcfadden, is held the 3rd Thursday of every month. –
Micro Theater (311 North St. in Pittsfield, Greylock Bldg. upstairs among the ArtOnNo studios –
Up the block from Jae’s Spice – Entrance to theater is around the corner on Union St. thru Orange door, right next door to Mary’s Carrot Cake. – 8 pm ($5 suggested donation) – Interested open mic performers can sign up for 5 minute slot by e-mailing matt at mcfaddensrus@yahoo.com – Those needing more information can e-mail the same address.
Power of Words, Open Mic
Third Tuesdays 7pm to 8:30 pm Hosted by Garfield Reed. This is an open opportunity to share poetry, readings, music and other spoken word. Free and open to the public at Berkshire South Regional Community Center Crissey Rd.,Great Barrington, MA Every third Tuesday of the month. Please call Garfield at 528 4127 for more information.
In Words, Out Words in Housatonic
In Housatonic, MA there is an open mic for poets and performers of all styles and ages. 1st Tuesday of each month at the Deb Koffman Gallery 137 Front Street, Housatonic, MA 01236. “In Words, Out Words.” is hosted by Francine Ciccarelli and there is usually a $1-6 suggested donation for heat and electricity. There are snacks there provided by whoever wants to bring them. The open mic begins at 7 and the featured performer goes on for about 20 minutes. It usually lasts until between 9 and 9:30.
Zeitgeist Gallery Pittsfield Monday Poetry Nights
6 to10pm 648 North Street in Pittsfield call Alan Nidle, the Director at (857) 991-8448 for details
ALBANY, NY POETRY
There’s a vibrant and active poetry community in the Albany area. Go to http://www.albanypoets.com/ for schedules and events!
WORD IN WORCESTER
Poetry, People!
Every Thursday 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm (sometimes later) @ The Coffee Loft 406 Lincoln Street Marlborough, MA 508.251.1431 Poetry, verse, and short stories are are welcome at this very friendly, informal open reading. Now booking for features to start in March. Please contact Jarad at CoffeeLoftBooking@gmail.com for more info or to become a featured poet.
The Little “a” Poetry Series
Every Thursday night at 7pm, with an open mic preceding the feature. It is free and all ages, and will be held at The Strange Attractor, 97D Webster St, Worcester MA. Hosted by “Cowboy” Matt Hopewell, who also does the booking and can be reached at themadcowboy@gmail.com or by phone at (508) 479 8311 .
The d’Alzon Arts Series: Poetry Reading
takes place at Assumption College (500 Salisbury Street, Worcester) in the Emmanuel d’Alzon Library on the third Friday of each month during the academic year. The format is an open mic for the first half-hour or so, a short break with refreshments and then 2 featured poets.. The reading starts at 7:00 p.m. and typically runs for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Readings run throughout the school year.
The Dirty Gerund
The Dirty Gerund Poetry Show will be held every Monday night starting at 8:30 p.m. The reading is being held at Ralph’s Chadwick Square Diner (148 Grove Street, Worcester) and is hosted by Rushelle Frazier. There will be an open mic every week with a mix of poetry slams and featured poets. No cover; donations accepted. 21+ Please join us at our new home.
CONNECTICUT POETRY
Since CT has a wonderful and comprehensive newsletter online, I have decided to cut the CT Poetry section from Poetry News and only post special events that might be of interest to MA poets. Write to Terri Klein at ctpoetnews@yahoo.com to get the CT Poet newsletter in your email, or the CT Poetry Calendar is online at http://www.ctpoetrycalendar.com
BOSTON/CAPE COD POETRY
We are reprinting Dan Bouchard’s Boston Poetry Page here on Poetry News. Check it out! If you want more events in the Boston area (and there are many more!) write to Dan Bouchard to get his poetry calendar in your email at bouchard@MIT.EDU
VERMONT POETRY Poetry Slam
Every first and third Wednesday of the month. First, Poetry Slam, then is an open mic Equilibrium 14 Elm Street sign-up at 7:30 event is 8-10pm http://www.facebook.com/BrattleboroPoetry For a VT poetry events calendar go to: http://www.phayvanh.com/ For info on Brattleboro poetry and Write Action visit their website – http://www.writeaction.org Poetry readings at the Putney Library 55 Main Street, Putney VT (802) 387-4407
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News for Poetry News should be sent to lori@thepoetrynews.com. Please send your announcements in text only – do not format (no special fonts, left-align, no colors, etc.) and check it for errors. Send by Wednesday for Thursday publication. Thank you, Lori Desrosiers – Publisher, Editor, wearer of all hats.
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