IN-PERSON PAID WORKSHOP
This is a paid Festival program with limited capacity. Registration is required.
Part of the 2026 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!
Join us for the 14th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum!
In this poetry workshop, we shall visit a colorful mystery: a ten-foot shawl which belonged to a wren-size poet. Did Emily Dickinson wear this? Sitting at her window desk, looking out toward The Evergreens? Suddenly thrown about her as she wandered into the garden, visiting a robin? In bed, contemplating a wild night? After exploring some Dickinson poems which use patterns analogous to the shawl’s, participants will be invited to write lines which are inspired by the shawl’s patterns, inspired by imaginings of Dickinson wearing the shawl, or by both aspects. “Artists wrestled here!/Lo, a tint Cashmere!/Lo, a Rose!”—F11AAbout the presenter
Deborah Bernhardt’s Echolalia was published by Four Way Books as winner of the Intro Prize. Driftology won the New Michigan Press/DIAGRAM Chapbook Prize. She received two fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown and fellowships/grants from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing (Halls Fellowship), Wisconsin Arts Board, the Oscar Williams and Gene Derwood Fund, Penn State Altoona (Writer-in-Residence), the Tennessee Arts Commission, Writers@Work, Summer Literary Seminars, Russia and the Hessen Literary Society, Germany.
Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival
The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival is sustained by the Emily Dickinson Fund, which provides critical, unrestricted support for the Museum’s day-to-day operations. Your generous donation helps us offer immersive poetry programs to a global audience and preserve the historic Dickinson legacy in Amherst. As the Fund supplies 36% of our annual budget, your tax-deductible contribution is essential to our mission. Join us in inspiring learners of all ages by making an immediate impact today.