Visit the Emily Dickinson Museum from the comfort of your home!
You can explore the Homestead and The Evergreens or take a walk around the landscape with these online tools:
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Author Archive: Patrick Fecher
Phosphorescence Poetry Reading: LitFestSaturday, Feb. 25, 12pm ET
Phosphorescence Amherst College LitFest featured poets:
Victoria Chang and Tyehimba Jess
IN-PERSON PROGRAM
This program is free to attend.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25
Hosted by Emily Dickinson Museum Keiter Family Executive Director Jane Wald
Location: Friendly Reading Room, Frost Library
To Emily Dickinson, phosphorescence, was a divine spark and the illuminating light behind learning — it was volatile, but transformative in nature. Produced by the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series celebrates contemporary creativity that echoes Dickinson’s own revolutionary poetic voice. The Series features established and emerging poets whose work and backgrounds represent the diversity of the flourishing contemporary poetry scene. The 2021 Series will be a virtual event to ensure the health and safety of participants. While we are disappointed not to gather together in Amherst, we are excited to connect with a global community of friends and writers. Join us on the last Thursdays of each month to hear from poets around the world as they read their work and discuss what poetry and Dickinson mean to them.
This program is part of Amherst College’s LitFest, an annual literary festival celebrates the College’s literary life by inviting distinguished authors and editors to discuss the pleasures and challenges of verbal expression — from fiction and nonfiction to poetry and spoken-word performance.
To learn more about LitFest:
amherst.edu/about/literary-amherst/litfest
About the poets:
Tyehimba Jess is the author of two books of poetry, Leadbelly and Olio. Olio won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, The Midland Society Author’s Award in Poetry, and received an Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. It was also nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN Jean Stein Book Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Leadbelly was a winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series. The Library Journal and Black Issues Book Review both named it one of the “Best Poetry Books of 2005.”
Jess, a Cave Canem and NYU Alumni, received a 2004 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was a 2004–2005 Winter Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. Jess is also a veteran of the 2000 and 2001 Green Mill Poetry Slam Team, and won a 2000–2001 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Poetry, the 2001 Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award, and a 2006 Whiting Fellowship. He presented his poetry at the 2011 TedX Nashville Conference and won a 2016 Lannan Literary Award in Poetry. He received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2018. Jess is a Professor of English at College of Staten Island.
Jess’ fiction and poetry have appeared in many journals, as well as anthologies such as Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, Beyond The Frontier: African American Poetry for the Twenty-First Century, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Power Lines: Ten Years of Poetry from Chicago’s Guild Complex, and Slam: The Art of Performance Poetry.
tyehimbajess.net
Victoria Chang’s forthcoming book of poems, With My Back to the World will be published in 2024 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Corsair Books in the U.K. Her most recent book of poetry, The Trees Witness Everything was published by Copper Canyon Press and Corsair Books in the U.K. in 2022, and was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New Yorker and The Guardian.
Her nonfiction book, Dear Memory (Milkweed Editions), was published in 2021 and was named a favorite nonfiction book of 2021 by Electric Literature and Kirkus. OBIT (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), her most recent poetry book, was named a New York Times Notable Book, a Time Must-Read Book, and received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry, and the PEN/Voelcker Award. It was also longlisted for a National Book Award and named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Griffin International Poetry Prize. She has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
She lives in Los Angeles and is Acting Program Chair and Faculty at Antioch’s low-residency MFA Program. She is the current poetry editor of the New York Times.
victoriachangpoet.com
Support Phosphorescence and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Phosphorescence events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of our programs. All gifts are tax deductible.
Press Release:Keiter Directorship Endowment
$2.5M ENDOWMENT GIFT FROM JANE AND ROBERT KEITER NAMES EMILY DICKINSON MUSEUM DIRECTORSHIP
Gift made to the Museum’s Twice as Bold campaign will make Jane Wald the first Jane and Robert Keiter Family Executive Director
(January 4, 2023, AMHERST, MA) – The Emily Dickinson Museum today announced a gift of $2.5 million from Jane and Robert Keiter to its Twice as Bold campaign for the endowment of the Museum’s directorship. This is the first endowed position at the Emily Dickinson Museum, which reopened to the public in August after a two-year pandemic closure and completion of a major restoration of the poet’s home.
“This gift is another example of the Keiters’ tremendous support of the Emily Dickinson Museum,” said Executive Director Jane Wald, who will be the first to hold the Keiter title. “Jane and Bob have been leaders in several outstanding initiatives at the Museum over the last decade and we are thrilled to be able to honor their ongoing commitment in such a permanent and public way. Their generosity and understanding of the importance of such gifts for the growth and future sustainability of the Museum is tremendous in and of itself and as an example to others.”
The Keiters were introduced to the Emily Dickinson Museum by way of Robert’s alma mater, Amherst College, which owns the Museum, and in particular by his connection to fellow ’57 classmate William Vickery, who was a founding member of the Museum’s Board of Governors and was instrumental in encouraging Robert to serve on the Board as well.
“As the home and creative source of one of this country’s greatest poetic voices, the Emily Dickinson Museum is a national treasure for which we all have a shared responsibility,” said Robert from his home in Lakeville, Connecticut. “Jane and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the Museum grow and change over the years to better serve and inspire new generations. We are honored to support its bright future.” Flowing from a strategic plan completed in 2019 and taking its name from one of Emily Dickinson’s poems, the Museum’s Twice as Bold campaign prioritizes an expanded, fully restored, and accessible campus; leading-edge educational programs and resources; a singular visitor experience both onsite and online; and increased operational capacity for the Museum’s long-term sustainability. A first step in achieving this bold vision is a goal to raise $8 million for programmatic support and capital projects by 2026.
For more information about the Museum’s plans and fundraising effort, visit:
EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org/TwiceAsBold/
For images, please visit: bit.ly/KeiterGiftEDM
HOW DO ENDOWMENT GIFTS WORK?
Endowment gifts differ from other types of contributions in that the full amount is ‘tucked away’ and permanently invested by the recipient organization, rather than being available to spend outright. Each year, a portion of the investment’s earned interest is released for the gift’s intended purpose. In our case, annual earned interest from the Keiters’ generous gift will help defray the costs and directly support the position and work of the Museum’s Executive Director in perpetuity. In that sense, this and other endowment contributions are truly gifts that keep on giving.
ABOUT THE EMILY DICKINSON MUSEUM
The Emily Dickinson Museum is dedicated to sparking the imagination by amplifying Emily Dickinson’s revolutionary poetic voice from the place she called home.
The Museum comprises two historic houses—the Dickinson Homestead and The Evergreens in the center of Amherst, Mass.—that were home to the poet (1830-1886) and members of her immediate family during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Museum was created in 2003 when the two houses merged under the ownership of the Trustees of Amherst College. The Museum is overseen by a separate Board of Governors and is responsible for raising its own operating, program, and capital funds.
Emily and SueWed., November 30, 5:30pm ET
IN-PERSON PROGRAM
Location: Cole Assembly Hall in Converse at Amherst College
Composer Dana Kaufman screens Emily and Sue, her a cappella pop opera, in a film version shot on location at the Emily Dickinson Museum, and directed by Ron Bashford in collaboration with Four/Ten Media. The opera, which premiered in June 2022 at Amherst College, features soprano Jasmine Muhammad and spotlights the relationship between Emily Dickinson and her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, exploring themes of isolation, queerness, and forbidden love. Stay for a Q&A after the screening!
Folger Shakespeare Library Birthday TributeMon., December 12, 7:30pm ET
VIRTUAL PROGRAM
TICKETS:
$15/$10 for Folger Shakespeare Library Members
Making Black Cake in Combustible Spaces with M. NourbeSe Philip
With her essay “Making Black Cake in Combustible Spaces” Canadian poet and writer M. NourbeSe Philip dives into the history of Emily Dickinson’s famous Black Cake, exploring the African American/Caribbean and Irish influences on America’s beloved poet.
Philip will read from their work at The Homestead, Dickinson’s home in Amherst, Massacusetts. The reading will be followed by a moderated conversation with Christine Jacobson, Assistant Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts, Houghton Library.
A former lawyer, M. NourbeSe Philip is the author of works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her collections of poetry include Thorns; Salmon Courage; She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks, which won a Casa de las Américas Prize for Literature; and Zong!, a polyvocal, book-length poem concerning slavery and the legal system. Philip’s numerous honors and awards include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and MacDowell Colony. She is the recipient of awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council. In 2001, she was recognized by the Elizabeth Fry Society with its Rebels for a Cause Award, and the YWCA awarded her its Women of Distinction in the Arts Award. Philip has received a Chalmers Fellowship in Poetry and has been writer-in-residence at Toronto Women’s Bookstore and McMaster University.
Each patron will also receive an electronic broadside, a handwritten poem, by M. NourbeSe Philip.
This reading is co-sponsored with The Emily Dickinson Museum.
Want to celebrate Dickinson’s birthday in-person too?
Join us for a free Open House on the poet’s birthday (December 10!):
Emily Dickinson Birthday Open House
Give a Birthday Gift
It’s not a birthday party without gifts! If you’re looking to honor Emily Dickinson with a birthday present, please consider a donation to the Museum to support our free virtual programs which are made possible with your support. Gifts of all sizes are deeply appreciated.
About Dickinson’s Birthday
Emily Dickinson, the middle child of Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830, in the family Homestead on Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts. She celebrated 55 birthdays before her death in 1886. As an adult she wrote, “We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” (Johnson L379)
Tell It Slant Poetry Festival 2023
The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival returns September 25 – October 1, 2023!
The year’s Festival will be hybrid with events happening online, as well as in-person at the Museum in Amherst, MA.
Lineup and schedule TBA.
The Emily Dickinson Museum’s annual Tell It Slant Poetry Festival is an event with international reach that celebrates Emily Dickinson’s poetic legacy and the contemporary creativity she and her work continues to inspire from the place she called home.
About the Festival:
The Emily Dickinson Museum’s Annual Tell It Slant Poetry Festival is an event with international reach that celebrates Emily Dickinson’s poetic legacy and the contemporary creativity she and her work continues to inspire from the place she called home.
The Festival, which runs each September, is named for Dickinson’s poem, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant,” underscoring the revolutionary power of poetry to shift our perspective and reveal new truths. Festival organizers are committed to featuring established and emerging poets who represent the diversity of the contemporary poetry landscape and to fostering community by placing poetry in the public sphere.
The annual event attracts a diverse audience of Dickinson fans and poetry-lovers, including students, educators, aspiring writers, and those who are new to poetry and literary events. Past Festival headliners have included Tracy K. Smith, Tiana Clark, Tess Taylor, Ada Limón, Jericho Brown, Franny Choi, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Paisley Rekdal, Adrian Matejka, Kaveh Akbar, and Ocean Vuong.
For information on last year’s Festival: 2022 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival
Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival.
Emily Dickinson Virtual Birthday CelebrationWed., December 7, 6pm ET
VIRTUAL PROGRAM
You are cordially invited to the Emily Dickinson Museum’s virtual celebration of the poet’s 192nd birthday! On Wednesday, December 7, join us for a behind-the-scenes exploration of the Emily Dickinson Museum’s collections, which contains more than 12,000 artifacts, including family objects such as oil paintings, textiles, furniture, servingware, and other household items.
All are welcome to this free VIRTUAL program. Space is limited, register in advance.
Give a Birthday Gift
It’s not a birthday party without gifts! If you’re looking to honor Emily Dickinson with a birthday present, please consider a donation to the Museum to support our free virtual programs which are made possible with your support. Gifts of all sizes are deeply appreciated.
About Dickinson’s Birthday
Emily Dickinson, the middle child of Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830, in the family Homestead on Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts. She celebrated 55 birthdays before her death in 1886. As an adult she wrote, “We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” (Johnson L379)
Emily Dickinson Birthday Open HouseSat., December 10, 1-4pm ET
IN-PERSON PROGRAM
This free event is generously supported by the Amherst Cultural Council.
Thank you for your interest. We will do our best to move visitors through in a timely fashion to ensure maximum participation during the open house. Entry will occur on a first-arrived, first-served basis with priority given to ticket holders.
You are cordially invited to the Emily Dickinson Museum’s in-person celebration of the poet’s 192nd birthday! On Saturday, December 10, join us at the Homestead for an Open House. For the first time in 3 years, we’ll be celebrating Dickinson’s birthday from the place she called home. Join us for a free open house at the Homestead with activities, music, and treats!
All are welcome to this free program
Can’t attend in-person? Join us for our virtual celebration!:
Emily Dickinson Virtual Birthday Celebration
Give a Birthday Gift
It’s not a birthday party without gifts! If you’re looking to honor Emily Dickinson with a birthday present, please consider a donation to the Museum to support our free virtual programs which are made possible with your support. Gifts of all sizes are deeply appreciated.
About Dickinson’s Birthday
Emily Dickinson, the middle child of Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830, in the family Homestead on Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts. She celebrated 55 birthdays before her death in 1886. As an adult she wrote, “We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” (Johnson L379)
Emily Dickinson Poetry MarathonSeptember 19-25
Hybrid Program
Part of the 2022 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival
Join us for the week-long Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon! An Emily Dickinson Museum tradition, the Marathon is a group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. For this year’s hybrid Festival, some sessions will take place in-person and others online. For the Marathon, we will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition.
Marathon session times and reader sign-ups are located in the Festival platform on Sched. To access the platform, register for the Festival and look for your e-mail confirmation containing the link to Sched.
To attend any Marathon session online as a listener, please register for the Festival using the link above, and add the session to your schedule. To reserve a spot as a reader, please use the forms linked below.
Reader sign-up forms for in-person sessions:
Reader sign-up forms for virtual sessions:
Thursday, Sept. 22 7:30-9:30pm
Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival.
Does Translation ‘Tell It Slant’?Translators on ProcessSunday, Sept. 25, 11am ET
In-Person Program
Part of the 2022 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival
Does the translation of a poem “tell it slant”? Do translators aim to tell the truth, but not the whole truth? What truths are uncovered when poems are given a new language? Do translators who are fluent in the language “uncover,” while those who may be just learning “discover”? In this session, panelists speak about their process of translating poetry and their relationship with truth-making, as well as read from their recently published translations. This program is brought to you by Festival partner, Massachusetts Center for the Book.
About the poets:
Danielle Legros Georges is a creative and critical writer, translator, and academic whose work sits in the fields of contemporary U.S. poetry, Black and African-diasporic poetry and literature, Caribbean/Latin American and Haitian studies, and literary translation. She is the author of several books of poetry including Maroon (2001), The Dear Remote Nearness of You (2016), and Island Heart (2021) translations of the poems of 20th-century Haitian-French poet Ida Faubert. Her poems have been widely published, anthologized, and contained in artistic commissions and collaborations. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Boston in 2014 and served in the role from 2015 through 2019. She is a professor of creative writing at Lesley University.
Ilan Stavans‘ book Selected Translations: Poems 2000-2020 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021) features about 100 translations he did over two decades from about 20 different languages, including languages he doesn’t know. Emily Dickinson’s line “Tell it slant” serves as the volume’s epigraph; there are also poems by her included that he translated into Spanish. His conviction is that translation is a process whereby a poem is “reborn” in a new habitat and that such rebirth forces us to recalibrate the way we read the original poem as well.
Dr. Regina Galasso is a writer, translator, and educator. Her award-winning scholarly work highlights the role of translation in literary histories and contemporary culture. Her forthcoming publications include This Is a Classic: Translators on Making Writers Global. She creates and supports ways to promote translation education to encourage greater understanding of this needed service and intellectual activity. With her students, she curated the 2022 exhibition “Read the World: Picture Books and Translation” for the Reading Library at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. She works with school districts to improve their language access services and initiatives. She is Director of the Translation Center and Associate Professor in the Spanish and Portuguese Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and can be reached at rgalasso@umass.edu.
Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival.