Monthly Amherst Arts Night Plus at the Emily Dickinson Museum celebrates contemporary art and poetry in our historic setting. From 5:00 – 8:00 p.m., view the pop-up, contemporary art exhibition in the Homestead by our monthly featured artist. Poets, writers, and performers of any kind are welcome to share work at our open mic, which begins at 6:00 p.m. Stay after the open mic for the featured reader of the month. Open mic sign-ups are between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. This program is free and open to the public.

Featured Poets: Terry Johnson and Rebecca Hart Olander

Terry S. Johnson, a forty year resident of Amherst, began her career as a concert harpsichordist before finding her true calling as a sixth grade public school teacher. In the last two decades, she also discovered the challenges and joys of writing poetry. She received a Master of Fine Arts from Vermont College and has published extensively in many journals and anthologies. Coalescence, her first poetry collection, won an honorable mention award in the New England Book Festival. In Terry’s second book entitled Plunge (Off the Common Books, 2019) , she explores her father’s war time experiences as a pilot shot down over northern Italy as well as her journeys to meet his saviors and her namesakes, gradually becoming a member of village life.  Gracefully weaving memory, research and first-hand experience, Terry creates an Italian cultural feast employing both lyric and narrative poetry. 

Rebecca Hart Olander is a poet, teacher, and editor based in Western Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and her poetry has appeared recently in Crab Creek Review, llanot Review, Plath Poetry Project, Solstice, SWWIM Every Day, and Yemassee Journal, among others. Rebecca won the 2013 Women’s National Book Association poetry contest.  In 2019 her poem “Wellfleet,” published in Parks & Points, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the editor/director of Perugia Press, a small press publishing first and second books of poetry by women. Her chapbook, Dressing the Wounds, was published in 2019 by Dancing Girl Press and her full-length poetry collection Uncertain Acrobats is forthcoming from Cavan Kerry Press in 2021.

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able.

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s Poetry Discussion Group meets monthly, September through May, for lively conversation about Emily Dickinson’s poetry and letters. The Poetry Discussion Group meets at the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, on the second floor of Amherst College’s Frost Library. Participants should proceed directly to the Library and do not need to stop at the Museum. While no RSVP is required, participants are invited to email edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org to receive a list of poems for discussion. Attendees are welcome to bring a bag lunch. Beverages and a sweet snack are provided.

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able. 

Monthly Amherst Arts Night Plus at the Emily Dickinson Museum celebrates contemporary art and poetry in our historic setting. From 5:00 – 8:00 p.m., view the pop-up, contemporary art exhibition in the Homestead by our monthly featured artist. Poets, writers, and performers of any kind are welcome to share work at our open mic, which begins at 6:00 p.m. Stay after the open mic for the featured reader of the month. Open mic sign-ups are between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m.. This program is free and open to the public.

Featured Poet: Karen Skolfield

Karen Skolfield’s book Battle Dress (W. W. Norton, 2019) won the Barnard Women Poets Prize. Her book Frost in the Low Areas (Zone 3 Press) won the 2014 PEN New England Award in poetry and the First Book Award from Zone 3 Press, and is a Massachusetts “Must Read” selection. She is the poet laureate for Northampton, Massachusetts, for 2019-2021.

Skolfield is the winner of the 2016 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize in poetry from The Missouri Review, the 2015 Robert H. Winner award from the Poetry Society of America, and the 2015 Arts & Humanities Award from New England Public Radio. She’s received fellowships and awards  from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Split This Rock, Ucross Foundation, Hedgebrook, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. Skolfield is a U.S. Army veteran and teaches writing to engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts.

Featured Artist: Mary Ellen Kelly

Mary Ellen Kelly is a western Massachusetts photographer and former professor of literature at Greenfield Community College. This body of work captures three years of the Women’s March in three different cities: Boston, New York, and Washington DC. Kelly says, “A feminist, writer, and amateur photographer, I continue to research, photograph, and write about this protest that demands inclusion and safety for all and celebrates the voices of women and our allies. While much work still needs to be done to keep the dialogue open and ongoing, I have hope that this Women’s March movement can produce dramatic and positive change.”

From February 27 through March 1, LitFest returns to Amherst College. Celebrate the extraordinary literary life at the college with distinguished authors and editors who will discuss the pleasures and challenges of verbal expression. This year’s festival features Jesmyn Ward, winner of a 2017 National Book Award (NBA) for fiction, 2019 NBA Fiction Winner Susan Choi and finalist Laila Lalami, and memoirist Ben Rhodes, former speechwriter and deputy national security advisor to President Barack Obama.

For more information, please visit the Amherst College LitFest webpage.