Massachusetts Statewide Poetry Calendar 2

The third annual Authors and Artists Festival: Writing the Land is a celebration of the intersection of poetry with social- and ecological-justice, online February 26-27, 2022. All-BIPOC headline speakers include Saturday: Jillian Hishaw, Dina Gilio-Whitaker, John Francis; Sunday: Ross Gay, Rahawa Haile, and Latria Graham. Poets from the Writing the Land project www.writingtheland.org will read including Cheryl Savageau, JuPong Lin, David Crews, Angie Vasquez, Alice B. Fogel, Paul Richmond and many others. Please also see our online poet retreat Healing Ourselves, Healing the Planet Feb 25-27, 2022; and our free reading group meeting monthly. Entrance to the festival is free.

Details at: https://www.nature-culture.net/authors-artists-festival

Join Mass Poetry in welcoming Enzo Surin for a poetry reading and workshop.
Mr. Surin, a Haitian-born poet, educator, speaker, publisher and social
advocate, is the author of two chapbooks, A Letter of Resignation: An American
Libretto (2017) and Higher Ground. He is the recipient of a Brother Thomas
Fellowship from The Boston Foundation and is a PEN New England
Celebrated New Voice in Poetry. Surin’s work gives voice to experiences that
take place in what he calls “broken spaces”. Visit enzosurinink.org to learn
more.

To register, visit http://tiny.cc/5271iz or call the branch at 617-298-9218

Presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco will visit the Institute for a Getting to the Point discussion on the themes he explores in his recent poetry collection, How to Love a Country, and how Americans can find common ground through shared experiences and ideals.

Richard Blanco was the fifth presidential inaugural poet, serving as poet for President Obama’s second inauguration in 2013. He stands as the youngest, first Latino, immigrant, and gay person to serve in such a role. He is the author of four collections of poetry and three memoirs.

Mr. Blanco will perform a poetry reading as part of the program and will also participate in a book signing.

The event is free and attendees can register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/getting-to-the-point-with-richard-blanco-tickets-90788164845

Come enjoy Tapas appetizers, drinks, and conversation in an intimate setting with novelist and short story writer Andre Dubus III.

Andre’s seven books include the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie. His most recent novel, Gone So Long, has received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal and has been named on many “Best Books” lists, including selection for The Boston Globe’s “Twenty Best Books of 2018” and “The Best Books of 2018”, “Top 100”, Amazon.

Mr. Dubus has been a finalist for the National Book Award, and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, two Pushcart Prizes, and is a recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. His books are published in over twenty-five languages, and he teaches full-time at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Fontaine, a modern dancer, and their three children.

Tickets are $50, and all proceeds benefit the Gloucester Writers Center.
See website for details:
https://gloucesterwriters.org/event/an-evening-with-andre-dubus-iii/

Shayla Lawson will read as part of the UMass Visiting Writers Series.   Lawson is the poet in residence at Amherst College.   She is author of the poetry collection, I Think I’m Ready to See Frank Ocean & the forthcoming collection of essays, This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, & Being Dope.

Shayla Lawson is the author of A Speed Education in Human Being, the chapbook PANTONE and I Think I’m Ready to see Frank Ocean—and the forthcoming essay collection THIS IS MAJOR (Harper Perennial, 2020). She is also co-curator of The Tenderness Project with Ross Gay. A MacDowell and Yaddo Artist Colony Fellow, Shayla Lawson is a member of The Affrilachian Poets & currently serves as Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College.