Massachusetts Statewide Poetry Calendar

This virtual poetry workshop is a vehicle for critique, a time of close reading and thoughtful responses that help craft the written word so that it says exactly what the author intends. The focus is the work itself. Poets are respectful of each other, value the craft, understand the courage it takes to have work critiqued, and make the final decisions about their own writing. Please join us. Writing prompts will be shared with registrants one week before the workshop, and we request you submit your work at least three days before the workshop to give attendees time to read your poem.

Susan Roney-O’Brien earned her MFA at Warren Wilson College and is the author of five poetry collections. She hosts monthly poetry readings, teaches workshops and coordinates the Stanley Kunitz summer writing series.

Join us for a virtual poetry reading from three published poets: Jeffrey Harrison, Joyce Peseroff, and Steven Cramer. Please register to get the Zoom link and password; they will be sent in a confirmation email when you register and a reminder message the day before the event - please check your spam folder for the emails and scroll to the bottom for the link. Email caryprograms@minlib.net with any questions.

Steven Cramer is the author of five previous collections, most recently Clangings (2012) and Goodbye to the Orchard (2004), which won the Sheila Motton Prize from the New England Poetry Club and was named an Honor Book in Poetry by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Recipient of two grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, he founded and teaches in the Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Lesley University.

Petition is Joyce Peseroff’s sixth book of poems. She is the editor of Robert Bly: When Sleepers Awake, The Ploughshares Poetry Reader, and Simply Lasting: Writers on Jane Kenyon. Her fifth collection, Know Thyself, was designated a 'must read' by the 2016 Massachusetts Book Award. Recent poems and reviews appear in Consequence, On the Seawall, Massachusetts Review, and Plume. She directed and taught in UMass Boston's MFA Program in its first four years. Currently she blogs for her website, joycepeseroff.com, and writes the poetry column for Arrowsmith Press.

Jeffrey Harrison is the author of six full-length books of poetry, most recently Between Lakes, published by Four Way Books in September 2020. His previous book, Into Daylight, won the Dorset Prize and was published by Tupelo Press in 2014. His first book, The Singing Underneath, was selected by James Merrill for the National Poetry Series in 1987. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Bogliasco Foundation, among other honors. His poems have appeared widely in magazines and journals, as well as in Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize volumes, and other anthologies, and been featured regularly on The Writer’s Almanac, American Life in Poetry, Poetry Daily, and other online or media venues.