Massachusetts Statewide Poetry Calendar

Please join us at our online bookclub, part of our Bridging the Gap series leading up the 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Each session we will discuss the most recent book of poetry by one of our headliners. We will discuss the poetry, the poet, and spend some time doing a writing prompt inspired by the poet's work. Though you may prefer to buy and read the book first (we hope you do!) anyone who would like to discuss or learn more about the poet's work is welcome.

This event will focus on Sage, by Marilyn Chin.

We will meet on zoom. A copy of the zoom link will be sent to all registered attendees the afternoon of the event by email. We will have zoom auto-captions turned on during our meeting.

Join us for our second annual Write Here | Write Now | Speak Loud! – Mass Poetry’s Teen Spoken Word Festival. This two-day, statewide event will take place on March 15th – 16th, 2025, at Emerson College in downtown Boston. The Festival has three tracks of events and activities for teens to participate: our non competitive events, Team Slam, and Individual Slam!

The Teen Spoken Word Festival is all about creating space for teens to let their voices be heard—whether you’re competing or soaking in the excitement! In addition to our Team and Individual Slams, this year’s festival offers a dynamic lineup of non-competitive events crafted to inspire, empower, and connect young voices from all backgrounds.

The Festival will feature workshops covering a wide range of topics, headliners to light up our stage, a last chance slam, open mics, and more. Our Artists’ Resource Fair is also returning, offering attendees the chance to engage with community organizers and a diverse range of artists who launched their creative journeys through poetry. There’s something at the festival for everyone to enjoy and explore! Register now! Check out our schedule for a full list of events!

All Festival attendees must first check in at the Bordy Theater in the Union Bank Building before attending any Festival events. Entry to all buildings and events requires a badge and you will not be allowed entrance without it. Tickets to the Team Slam Finals and/or Individual Slam Finals will be included with your badge.

The only exception to this requirement is if you are solely attending the Team Slam Finals or Individual Slam Finals; you may proceed directly to the Semel Theater in the Tufte Building.

Every year, Mass Poetry brings together professor-nominated undergraduate poets from over 15 colleges in the Greater Boston area. With a professor or faculty’s guidance in practicing and revising a poem, one young artist from each institution will perform an original set at our intercollegiate showcase. The event, taking place at the Harvard Art Museums, will also include a keynote address from a local poet.

Mass Poetry will publish an accumulative anthology featuring pieces written by every student participant, which will be released at the post-show reception. The reception will be catered and include photo ops. This is a wonderful chance for college poets to build connections with peers, learn more about the post-grad artist life, gain performance experience, and have an original work published! We look forward to coming together with our university partners to celebrate, and we offer our thanks to Boston College, the former home of this program.

Join us on April 17th to celebrate the voices of our future!

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival will be back in Salem, MA on May 31st and June 1st, 2025! The Festival features over 100 poets and performers from across Massachusetts and beyond. There are headline readings, workshops, panels, a small press fair, multimedia events, open mics, and more.

A reading with authors Linda Dini Jenkins and Barbara Worton. Lifelong friends and professional writers for five decades, Linda and Barbara each grew up in New York with one Italian parent and one non-Italian parent, a situation which shapes their writing to this day. Linda — a Salem resident for more than 20 years — is the author, most recently, of Becoming Italian: Chapter & Verse from an Italian American Girl; Barbara's most recent book is Chatterbox: Stories from a Noisy Life. Together, they create an evening of humor, nostalgia and insights. And the first person to buy both their books goes home with an Italian gift basket!

Linda Dini Jenkins is the author of Becoming Italian: Chapter and Verse from an Italian American girl, Up at the Villa: Travels with my Husband, and Journey of a Returning Christian: Writing into God. Her poetry has been published in Voices in Italian Americana, Ovunque Siamo, Touchstone, Tampa Review, South Florida Poetry Review, Vermont Voices I and II, and Poeti italo-americani e italo-canadesi, among others. She is the author of the one-act play, Things I Never Told My Mother and, with lifelong friend Barbara Worton, she coauthored the choreopoem, If I’m Talking, Why Aren’t You Listening? She is a contributing writer and Copy Editor for Abruzzissimo Magazine and writes occasionally for The Adventures of The Baker’s Daughter. She lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire and Sulmona (Abruzzo), Italy.

Barbara Worton is an author, poet, playwright, blogger and songwriter. Her books include Chatterbox: Stories from a Noisy Life, Bedtime Stores: The Short, Long and Tall Tales of a Sleepwriter, and the award-winning children's book Too Tall Alice. She coauthored the choreopoem If I'm Talking, Why Aren't You Listening with Linda Dini Jenkins and the web memoir and blog The Adventures of the Baker's Daughter with Rochelle Udell. Her writing has appeared in The Haight-Ashbury Literary Review, VIA: Voices in Italian Americana, Platform Review, Ovunque Siamo,. and The Paterson Literary Review.