The Emily Dickinson Museum Collection

a view of different items in the Emily Dickinson Museum's collections

Press Release 9/13/23
The Emily Dickinson Museum's collection is the largest and most diverse assemblage of objects associated with Emily Dickinson and her family to be found anywhere. It consists of more than 8,000 artifacts, including fine art such as an impressive collection of Hudson River school paintings; cooking, dining, lighting, and heating artifacts; personal items such as children’s toys, handwork, and musical instruments; souvenir objects and art from travels abroad; and a large assortment of clothing and textiles. The collection captures the details of nineteenth-century life in a semi-rural educational and agricultural community and vividly illustrates the daily life and writing habits of one of the world’s greatest poets.

The Museum’s collection had remained largely undocumented and inaccessible until a major grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in 2019 funded the documentation and baseline cataloging of the entire collection for the very first time. Completed in 2023, this project has improved collection care and, through this database, public access has strengthened the museum’s interpretation, and opened promising new research opportunities.

SEARCH THE COLLECTION (external webpage)

FAQS

What is the history of the collections?
The EDM collection comprises the combined personal effects of Dickinson family members from the Dickinson Homestead (built 1813) and The Evergreens (built 1856), left at the latter house after the death of the family’s last heir in 1988. Dickinson’s niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, sold the Homestead in 1916 and moved her aunt’s personal belongings and household furnishings next door to her own home at The Evergreens. Bianchi’s heirs transferred manuscript material, books, and a few dozen objects associated with Emily Dickinson to Harvard University in 1950 and Brown University in 1993. The vast majority of Dickinson family possessions remained at The Evergreens, overseen between 1988 and 2003 by a private testamentary trust established in Bianchi’s name. The Trust transferred the property and collection to Amherst College in 2003 so that the two neighboring Dickinson family houses and collections could be operated as a united Emily Dickinson Museum.

Where can I find Dickinson manuscripts or other material?

To view Dickinson's manuscripts, visit www.edickinson.org

For information on other Dickinson repositories:

Houghton Library, Harvard University

Amherst College Special Collections

Brown University Library

Yale University Library

Boston Public Library

Amherst Historical Society

Jones Library

Who can I contact with questions?
Email collections@emilydickinsonmuseum.org with any questions about the collections or online catalog.

How can I access the collections?
Physical access to the collections is very limited at this time. Email Collections@EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org with questions.

Use of these images must be approved by the Emily Dickinson Museum.
Please contact us at: Info@EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org

The Emily Dickinson Museum has received funding for collection documentation from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. They advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grant making, research, and policy development. Their vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov.

Press Release:
Collections Database

EMILY DICKINSON MUSEUM ANNOUNCES PUBLIC COLLECTION DATABASE AND IMLS GRANT TO CONTINUE DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

The Museum’s collection had remained largely undocumented and inaccessible, but has now been digitized and published for public use for the very first time.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Patrick Fecher
pfecher@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

a view of different items in the Emily Dickinson Museum's collections (Wednesday, September 13, 2023, AMHERST, MA) – Today the Emily Dickinson Museum announces the premiere of its online collection database. The Museum’s collection had remained largely undocumented and inaccessible until a major grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in 2019 funded the documentation and baseline cataloging of the entire collection for the very first time. This project has improved collection care, providedpublic access to the collection, will strengthen the museum’s interpretation, and open promising new research opportunities.

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s collection is the largest and most diverse assemblage of objects associated with Emily Dickinson and her family to be found anywhere. It consists of more than 8,000 artifacts, including fine art such as an impressive collection of Hudson River school paintings; cooking, dining, lighting, and heating artifacts; personal items such as Edward Dickinson’s wallet, Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson’s sewing kit, children’s toys, handwork, and musical instruments; souvenir objects and art from travels abroad; and a large assortment of clothing and textiles. The collection captures the details of nineteenth-century life in a semi-rural educational and agricultural community and vividly illustrates the daily life and writing habits of one of the world’s greatest poets.

Jane and Robert Keiter Family Executive Director Jane Wald says, “This was, for practical purposes, a hidden collection until a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services allowed us to improve our management of these thousands of Dickinson family objects. It’s a significant accomplishment to celebrate in the Museum’s 20th anniversary year.”

Collections Manager Megan Ramsey says, “Documenting our collection is a huge step in taking better care of our artifacts and providing more access to visitors, researchers, and students. With this new digital resource, the museum is able to share more stories about the lives of the Dickinsons.”

The Institute for Museum and Library Services has awarded the Emily Dickinson Museum additional funding to improve documentation about this collection by digitizing institutional records, including photographs, letters and other information related to the artifacts. These records will help to enhance database entries and provide greater context for the collection. The Emily Dickinson Museum will also survey archival material at other institutions, including Amherst College, Jones Library, Mount Holyoke College, Harvard University, Brown University, and Yale University, in order to gather information on the extent of primary sources related to Museum collections objects. Following an intensive three-year IMLS-funded project to create a foundational and comprehensive catalog database, digitizing collections-related information is the logical next step in documenting the collection and understanding the histories of each object. This project will result in more complete collections information management, enabling the Emily Dickinson Museum to interpret the poet’s life and times more fully, and provide public and scholarly access to an important cultural collection.

To access the Collection database, visit: emilydickinsonmuseum.org/museum-collection

For images, please visit: bit.ly/EDM-Images-Collections-Database

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.

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our diverse natural and cultural heritage. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov

A close-up of about 30 books collected in the Homestead library

No Frigate Like A Book Club 2023

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

This is a paid program with limited seating. See details below!

Registration for this series is now closed.

Save your seat in the Emily Dickinson Museum’s brand new No Frigate Like A Book Club! In this monthly Zoom-based series, you’ll join fellow enthusiastic readers in discussion of novels inspired by the life of Emily Dickinson. Each month we’ll facilitate exciting conversations using discussion frameworks, followed by a meet and greet with the author! The Club is capped at 30 participants, and break-out rooms will be utilized for a portion of each session to hold smaller group conversations.

Participant expectations:

Be prepared to read one book per month in advance of sessions in October, November, and December. Club members should plan to attend all sessions.
Be an active member of the Club, lending your voice to the friendly discussions.
Have access to a computer, tablet, or mobile device that allows for use of audio and video in our web-based conference call. The Book Club experience will be best when all participants keep their videos on.
Computer-generated closed captioning will be available during all sessions.
All formats of the books in the series are fine to use, including library loans, used editions, e-readers, etc.

The 2023 season:

Wednesday, October 18, 12-1PM ET: Optional meet and greet session with fellow Club members
Wednesday, October 25, 4-6PM ET: Emily’s House by Amy Belding Brown
Wednesday, November 29, 4-6PM ET: Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Amanda Flower
Wednesday, December 20, 4-6PM ET: I Heard A Fly Buzz (NEW, forthcoming in November!) by Amanda Flower

About the authors:

Amy Belding Brown is the author of historical novels, including the USA Today bestselling Flight of the Sparrow, Emily’s House and Mr. Emerson’s Wife. A New England history enthusiast, Amy was infused at an early age with the region’s outlook and values. She graduated from Bates College and received her MFA from Vermont College. She now lives in Vermont with her husband, a retired UCC minister and spiritual director. Distantly related to Emily Dickinson, Amy enjoys reading, cooking, painting, and nature photography when she’s not writing.

Amanda Flower is the USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning mystery author of over forty novels, including the nationally bestselling Amish Candy Shop Mystery Series, Magical Bookshop Mysteries, and, written under the name Isabella Alan, the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries. Flower is a former librarian, and she and her husband, a recording engineer, own a habitat farm and recording studio in Northeast Ohio.

RESERVE YOUR SPOT

Both ticket options include all three discussion sessions.

Adult Ticket: $75
Student ticket (College and younger): $60 (current students only, please provide name of institution and graduation year)

Graphic for Late Night Garden Party - Tell It Slant 2023 - Saturday, September 30, 7pm ET

Late Night Garden Party
Saturday, Sept. 30, 7pm ET

with Headliners Marilyn Nelson and Abigail Chabitnoy

HYBRID PROGRAM — In-person at the Emily Dickinson Museum and streaming live for online registrants

This program is FREE to attend. Registration is required.
Part of the 2023 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

Join us for the 11th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum! Register here to access the Festival schedule. Your registration for an October 1 ticket, gains you access to the whole Festival:

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL (October 1 ticket is for whole Festival)

Join us in Emily Dickinson’s garden or virtually for a celebration of creativity and poetry! Our headlining poets, Marilyn Nelson and Abigail Chabitnoy, read from their work and discuss their poetic practice and inspiration with Terry Blackhawk. Stay for music by Daphne Parker Powell, refreshments, and book signing under our heated Festival tent.

About the Poets
Marilyn Nelson is the author or translator of some twenty poetry books and chapbooks for adults, young adults, and children. Many of her collections have won awards, and her poems have been widely anthologized. Nelson’s honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship (in the South of France!), a fellowship from the J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Ruth Lilly Award, the Robert Frost Medal, and the Wallace Stevens Award. She has served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, as Poet-in-Residence of the Poets Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and as the Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut. The mother of two and grandmother of two, she lives quietly, retired from a long career in academia, with her daughter and three cats.
Marilyn Nelson will be honored at the Tell It Slant Awards Night.

Abigail Chabitnoy is the author of In the Current Where Drowning Is Beautiful (Wesleyan 2022), How to Dress a Fish (Wesleyan 2019), winner of the 2020 Colorado Book Award for Poetry and shortlisted in the international category of the 2020 Griffin Prize for Poetry, and the lino-cut illustrated chapbook Converging Lines of Light (Flower Press 2020). Abigail is a mentor for the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA in Creative Writing and an assistant professor at UMass Amherst. She is a Koniag descendant and member of the Tangirnaq Native Village in Kodiak.

Graphic for Dickinson Creator's Screening with Special Guests on Saturday, September 30 1pm ET

Dickinson Screening
Saturday, Sept. 30, 1pm ET

HYBRID PROGRAM — In-person at the Emily Dickinson Museum and streaming live for online registrants

This program is FREE to attend. Registration is required.
Part of the 2023 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL(October 1 ticket is for whole Festival)

A screening of Apple TV+’s hit series Dickinson with some of the favorite episodes from the three-season hit show with special guests.

Surprise!: We’ll be joined by cast members Anna Baryshnikov (Lavinia Dickinson) and Adrian Blake Enscoe (Austin Dickinson), as well as costume designer Jennifer Moeller. Together, with Museum staff, we’ll watch and discuss our some of our favorite moments from the series.

Please note: due to a scheduling conflict Alena Smith will no longer be attendance. Alena will still be honored by the Museum at the Tell It Slant Awards Night. and will tune in virtually.

About the special guests

Anna Baryshnikov is an actor and writer who lives in New York City. Select TV roles: Lavinia Dickinson on “Dickinson” (Apple), “Superior Donuts” (CBS), “Prodigal Son” (FOX), “Good Girls Revolt” (Amazon), and “Doll & Em” (HBO). Theater: Sam Hunter’s A Bright New Boise (Signature Theatre), Time and The Conways (Broadway/Roundabout Theater Company) Film: Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea,” “The Kindergarten Teacher,” “Josie & Jack,” and the upcoming A24 film “Love Lies Bleeding” where she’ll appear opposite Kristen Stewart. Training: Northwestern University.

Adrian Blake Enscoe (He/They) is an actor and musician from Brooklyn, NY. Originally growing up in the woody outlands of Upstate New York, he earned a BFA in Theater at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh before landing in NYC, meeting his now-wife Sydney Shepherd on a subway, and founding the folk band Bandits on the Run with Shepherd and their close friend Regina Strayhorn. In between writing and touring with the Bandits — whose past few years have included recording their EP Now Is The Time with grammy-winning producer Ryan Hadlock, writing and recording songs for the Netflix series StoryBots, and playing a string of dates at the Singapore F1 Grand Prix — Adrian has been a long time musical collaborator of actor/writer/musician Christopher Sears and developed the role of The Fool in Sears’ Moonchildren Opera. Adrian is also a stage and film actor; in addition to starring as Austin Dickinson opposite Hailee Steinfeld in the Apple TV+ breakout series Dickinson, he originated the role of Little Brother in the world premier of Swept Away (based on the music of the Avett Brothers) and will be reprising the role this coming December at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Adrian has been developing a musical adaptation of the book What’s Eating Gilbert Grape with writer/director Peter Hedges (Pieces of April) and longtime collaborators Sears, Shepherd, and Strayhorn.

@adrian.blake.enscoe @banditsontherun

Jennifer Moeller is a Tony Award nominated costume designer for theater, opera and TV. Recent credits include Dickinson for AppleTV+, the revival of Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot at Lincoln Center Theater, and Brandon Jacob Jenkin’s new play Comeuppance at Signature Theater. Jennifer is a frequent collaborator of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage and designed the Broadway productions of Sweat and Clyde’s for which she received a Drama Desk Award. Jennifer is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

About Dickinson
Dickinson is a half-hour comedy series that audaciously explores the constraints of society, gender and family from the perspective of the rebellious young poet, Emily Dickinson. Set in the 19th century, the series is a coming-of-age story that has helped the poet gain hero status among millennials. The series stars Hailee Steinfeld, Toby Huss, Ella Hunt, and Jane Krakowski, and has included guest appearances from Wiz Khalifa, John Mulaney, Zosia Mamet, and Nick Kroll. The third and final season began streaming on Apple+ on November 5, 2021.

Creator and showrunner Alena Smith will be honored at the Tell It Slant Awards Night.

Graphic for the Emily DIckinson Poetry Marathon - September 25 through October 1

Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon
September 25 – October 1

Hybrid Program

Part of the 2023 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival

Come read with us and join in 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 Hopin. To access the platform, register for the Festival and look for your e-mail confirmation containing the link to Hopin.

Join us for the 11th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum! Register here to access the Festival schedule and sign up to watch or read in Marathon sessions. Your registration for an October 1 ticket, gains you access to the whole Festival:

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

Schedule:
Monday, September 25:
6pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 1, co-hosted by Amherst College’s Frost Library

Tuesday, September 26:
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 2, co-hosted by Folger Shakespeare Library.

Wednesday, September 27:
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 3, co-hosted by Harvard University’s Houghton Library

Thursday, September 28:
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 4, co-hosted by the Emily Dickinson International Society

Friday, September 29:
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 5

Saturday, September 30:
9:30am [Hybrid] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 6

Sunday, October 1:
3pm [Hybrid] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Grand Finale

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.

2023 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival Schedule

Tell It Slant Awards Night
Friday, September 29, 6:30pm ET

Honoring Marilyn Nelson, Alena Smith, and the Founders of the Emily Dickinson Museum

HYBRID PROGRAM — In-person at Amherst College’s Johnson Chapel and streaming live for online registrants

This program is FREE to attend. Registration is required.
A celebratory dinner to follow the Awards. Please read below to learn more.
Part of the 2023 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL (October 1 ticket is for whole Festival)

Join us for an inspiring evening at the Tell It Slant Awards honoring individuals whose work is imbued with the creative spirit of Emily Dickinson.

This year the Museum honors poet and author Marilyn Nelson, Apple TV+ Dickinson creator Alena Smith, and, in honor of our 20th Anniversary, the Museum’s core founders. The evening includes recognition of the 2023 awardees, followed by a facilitated conversation with Amherst College President Michael Elliott on the power that Emily Dickinson’s revolutionary poetic voice holds for the past, present, and future.

Stay with us for a celebratory dinner immediately following the Tell It Slant Awards program. Share the company of Tell It Slant award winners, fellow Emily Dickinson enthusiasts, and devoted supporters as we commemorate the Museum’s 20th anniversary and celebrate the honorees. Your dinner ticket purchase directly supports the free Tell It Slant Poetry Festival, including the Awards program.

For questions about the dinner, please contact Mardi at mbuell@EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org.

The Museum’s core founders are Polly Longsworth, Charles R. Longsworth, Elizabeth S. Armstrong, John A. Armstrong, Cynthia S. Dickinson, Kent W. Faerber, Thomas R. Gerety, Julie Harris (d), George Monteiro (d), Leslie A. Morris, Barton St. Armand, Karen Sanchez-Eppler, William McC. Vickery (d), Jane H. Wald, and Philip S. Winterer.

Past award winners include Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Kay Ryan, former Poet Laureate Richard Wilbur, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and artist Lesley Dill.

Dickinson's shawl laid across her bed in the Homestead

Behind the Scenes with Collections (Part 3)
Wed., September 13, 6pm ET

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

This virtual program is free to attend. Registration is required.

REGISTER

Join us for the last program of our three-part series exploring the collection of the Emily Dickinson Museum. The Museum’s collection is the largest assemblage in the world of objects representing the Dickinson family’s material legacy. Progress continues on the three-year collections documentation project funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. In this series, Museum staff converse with specialists and conservators about the unique qualities, challenges and opportunities of this singular collection. In this final presentation, we’ll hear from Professor Lise Sanders about her research in the Museum’s textile collection and we will also be making a BIG announcement about the Museum’s collections database.

Special Guest: Lise Sanders

Lise Shapiro Sanders is Professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies at Hampshire College. Her books include Consuming Fantasies: Labor, Leisure, and the London Shopgirl, 1880-1920 (Ohio State University Press, 2006); Bodies and Lives in Victorian England: Science, Sexuality, and the Affliction of Being Female, co-authored with Pamela K. Stone (Routledge, 2020); Embodied Utopias: Gender, Social Change, and the Modern Metropolis, co-edited with Amy Bingaman and Rebecca Zorach (Routledge, 2002); and a critical edition of Millicent Garrett Fawcett’s 1875 novel Janet Doncaster (Victorian Secrets, 2017). Her most recent book project is Temples of Luxury, a primary source collection co-edited with Susanne Schmid (Routledge, forthcoming in 2023). Her articles have appeared in journals including Early Popular Visual Culture, English Language Notes, The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies, Modern Fiction Studies, and Women’s History Review, as well as in several edited collections. With Ilya Parkins, she has co-edited two special journal issues on fashion: “Fashion in the Magazines” (The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies, 2020), and “Theorizing Fashion Media” (Feminist Theory, 2022), and with Carey Snyder, she recently co-edited a forthcoming special issue of Women: A Cultural Review on women writers, generic form, and social and political activism. She is a member of the Feminist Theory editorial collective, and is currently at work on a new book on women, modernity, and the romance in the 1920s.

Tell It Slant Poetry Festival 2023 Schedule
September 25 – October 1

Thank you for joining us for the 2023 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival! For information about the 2024 Festival, sign-up for our e-newsletter for the latest updates:
emilydickinsonmuseum.org/newsletter-signup

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.

This year’s FREE and hybrid Festival includes events happening online, as well as in-person at the Museum under our heated tent. The 2023 Festival platform is called Hopin (a part of RingCentral). Upon registering for the Festival you will receive an email link to access the event schedule, speaker information, and program sign-ups in the platform. All Festival attendees (online and in-person) must sign up for programs in Hopin/RingCentral.

The Tell It

Slant Poetry Festival returns September 25 – October 1, 2023!

Join us for the 11th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum! Register here to access the Festival schedule. Your registration for an October 1 ticket, gains you access to the whole Festival:

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL (October 1 ticket is for whole Festival)

Learn more about the 2023 lineup below. Full program descriptions are located on the Festival platform Hopin/RingCentral.

THE SCHEDULE:

Monday, September 25:
6pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 1, co-hosted by Amherst College’s Frost Library
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.

Tuesday, September 26:
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 2, co-hosted by Folger Shakespeare Library
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.
6:30pm [Virtual] — “Surpassing Material Place”: Digital Dickinson Resources for Educators and Readers
In this workshop, join Elizabeth Bradley, Education Programs Manager at the Emily Dickinson Museum, for an exploration of digital tools available for teaching and reading Dickinson.

Wednesday, September 27:
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 3, co-hosted by Harvard University’s Houghton Library
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.
6:30pm [Virtual] — “The Angle of a Landscape”: An Indigenous Poetics Panel
In this pane,l we explore how our Indigenous poetics connect with Emily Dickinson’s world—particularly the influence of the Northeast land and its flora and fauna.

Thursday, September 28:
9am [In-Person / High School Partner Program] — Creating A Collaborative Poem
In this workshop participants develop individual poems in response to shared prompts, and use those individual poems to create communal poems. *Please note this program is only open to high school students at Festival partner schools.
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 4, Co-hosted by the Emily Dickinson International Society
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.
6pm [Virtual] — Phosphorescence Poetry Reading: Festival Edition with The Common
Festival edition of the Museum’s monthly poetry reading series. Hear from poets around the world as they read their work and discuss what poetry and Dickinson mean to them.

Friday, September 29:
9am [In-person / High School Partner Program] — Creating A Collaborative Poem
In this workshop participants develop individual poems in response to shared prompts, and use those individual poems to create communal poems. *Please note this program is only open to high school students at Festival partner schools.
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 5
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.
6:30pm [Hybrid] — Tell It Slant Awards Night: Honoring Marilyn Nelson, Alena Smith, Founders of the Emily Dickinson Museum
Join us for an inspiring evening at the Tell It Slant Awards honoring individuals whose work is imbued with the creative spirit of Emily Dickinson. This year the Museum honors poet and author Marilyn Nelson, Apple TV+ Dickinson creator and showrunner Alena Smith, and, in honor of our 20th Anniversary, the Museum’s core founders.

Saturday, September 30:
9am [In-person] — Spectacular Translation Machine
An invitation to turn one language into another. Come spend a few minutes lending your ear to the translation of poems and letters by Emily Dickinson under the Festival tent
9:30am [Hybrid] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 6
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. For this session, readers must be present on-site, but listeners are welcome both in-person and online. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival. At this session we’ll enjoy gingerbread cookies, and one lucky reader will win a Museum tote bag!
1pm [Hybrid] — Dickinson Screening with special guests!
Surprise!: We’ll be joined by cast members Anna Baryshnikov (Lavinia Dickinson) and Adrian Blake Enscoe (Austin Dickinson), as well as costume designer Jennifer Moeller. Together, with Museum staff, we’ll watch and discuss some of our favorite moments from the series. Please note, Alena Smith will no longer be onsite for this program, but Smith will be joining us virtually at the Tell It Slant Awards.
3:30pm [Hybrid] — Displaced: A Poetry Reading and Conversation with Faraday Publishing and UMass Museum of Contemporary Art
In collaboration with the exhibition ‘Displaced: Raida Adon’s Strangeness‘, this reading and conversation considers the struggle of navigating between multiple, often contentious, identities.
7pm [Hybrid] — Late Night Garden Party with Headliners Marilyn Nelson and Abigail Chabitnoy
Join us in Emily Dickinson’s garden or virtually for a celebration of creativity and poetry! Our headlining poets, Marilyn Nelson and Abigail Chabitnoy, read from their work and discuss their poetic practice and inspiration with Terry Blackhawk. A wine and cheese book signing follows with live music by Daphne Parker Powell.

Sunday, October 1:
10am [Hybrid] — Poetry Masterclass with Abigail Chabitnoy at the Mead Art Museum
Explore the exhibition, “Boundless”, which features work by Native American writers and artists from the late 18th century to the present. Festival headliner Abigail Chabitnoy employs these themes to inspire generative writing prompts for participants.
11am [In-person] — Spectacular Translation Machine
An invitation to turn one language into another. Come spend a few minutes lending your ear to the translation of poems and letters by Emily Dickinson under the Festival tent
12:30pm [Hybrid] — Writing Poetry for Children, Teens, and Adults: Commonalities and Differences
This workshop will be geared to those writers hoping to spread their wings and broaden their audience. Great poetry is great poetry, whether aimed at children, teens, or adults.
3pm [Hybrid] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Grand Finale
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. For this session, readers must be present on-site, but listeners are welcome both in-person and online. We will read from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival. For the grand final,e we will celebrate with Emily Dickinson’s coconut cake, and one lucky reader will win a free Museum tote bag!

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

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 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.

This year’s line-up features workshops, panels, and readings, by a diverse and talented group of poets from around the world including Marilyn Nelson and Abigail Chabitnoy. The cornerstone of the Festival, the Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon, is an epic reading of all 1,789 of Emily Dickinson’s poems.

To follow along with the Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon, get your copy of the Franklin edition from the Emily Dickinson Museum Shop.

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.

Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival:
Admission to all Poetry Festival events is free–made possible by contributions from Museum supporters.
Please consider making a donation of any size during the registration process or anytime on the Museum’s website.

The Tell it Slant Poetry Festival is made possible with the generous support of PeoplesBank, Mass Cultural Council, Curran and Keegan Financial, Teagno Construction Inc., Trippers & Askers, Amherst College’s LitFest, and by gifts from Museum donors and Tell It Slant program supporters

Wallpaper conservationist Carolyn Frisa carefully peels wallpaper from the wall of the Evergreens

Behind the Scenes with Collections (Part 2)
Thursday, July 6, 6:30pm ET

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

This virtual program is free to attend. Registration is required.

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Join us for the second in a three-part series exploring the collection of the Emily Dickinson Museum. The Museum’s collection is the largest assemblage in the world of objects representing the Dickinson family’s material legacy. Progress continues on the three-year collections documentation project funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. In this series, Museum staff converse with specialists and conservators about the unique qualities, challenges and opportunities of this singular collection.

View Part 1

Part 3 is TBA. Sign-up for our e-newsletter to be the first to know!

Featured guest: Carolyn Frisa

Carolyn Frisa is head conservator and owner of Works on Paper conservation studio, established in Vermont in 2008. She has spent the last twenty years of her professional career conserving a wide range of artistic and historic works on paper. Recent projects include the conservation of prints and drawings by Pablo Picasso, watercolor portraits by early American artists including Rufus Porter and Joseph Davis, and the stabilization and treatment of historic wallpapers at The Evergreens and the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Site. Carolyn received an undergraduate degree in the history of art from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She completed her master’s degree in paper conservation at Camberwell College of Arts in London, England in 2000. Carolyn is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and a member of the AIC Book & Paper Group and the AIC Conservators in Private Practice Group. She is a founding board member of the Collections Care and Conservation Alliance and serves on the boards of The New England Conservation Association (NECA), the AIC CIPP Specialty Group, and The Vermont Arts & Culture Disaster & Resiliency Network (VACDaRN). works-on-paper.net