Phosphorescence June 2023 featured poets:
Ocean Vuong, Joseph Fritsch, and Yanyi

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

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

REGISTER

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. 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.

Phosphorescence Lineup 2023

About this month’s poets:

Ocean Vuong is the author of The New York Times bestselling poetry collection, Time is a Mother (Penguin Press 2022), and The New York Times bestselling novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin Press 2019), which has been translated into 37 languages. A recipient of a 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grant, he is also the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2016, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. A Ruth Lilly fellow from the Poetry Foundation, his honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, and the Pushcart Prize.
oceanvuong.com

Joseph Fritsch is a poet and critic. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Brooklyn Rail, Public Books, and Post45. He received his doctorate from Emory University and is pursuing an MFA in Poetry at UMass, Amherst.

Yanyi is the author of Dream of the Divided Field (One World 2022) andThe Year of Blue Water (Yale 2019), winner of the 2018 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize. His work has been featured in or at NPR’s All Things Considered, New York Public Library, New England Review, Granta, and A Public Space. Most recently, he is the recipient of a 2023 Vermont Arts Council Grant and a 2022 Tanne Foundation Award. He teaches creative writing at large.
yanyiii.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.

Phosphorescence May 2023 featured poets:
Eleni Sikelianos, Gillian Conoley, and Dara Barrois/Dixon (née Dara Wier)

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

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

REGISTER

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. 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.

Phosphorescence Lineup 2023

About this month’s poets:

Born in California on Walt Whitman’s birthday, Eleni Sikelianos is a poet, writer, and “a master of mixing genres.” Your Kingdom (2023) is her tenth book of poetry, riding alongside two memoir-verse-image-novels. Sikelianos’s writing, frequently saturated with delight in the natural world and a layperson’s study of biology, is dedicated to an ecopoetic turning of the kaleidoscope for more angles on what being alive looks and feels like. Edge-play manifests in many ways, including in her collaborative work with musicians, filmmakers, and visual artists.
elenisikelianos.com

Gillian Conoley is a poet, editor, and translator. Her new collection, Notes from the Passenger, is just out with Nightboat Books. The author of ten collections of poetry, Conoley received the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and was awarded the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a Fund for Poetry Award. A Little More Red Sun on the Human, also with Nightboat, won the 39th annual Northern California Book Award in 2020. Conoley’s translations of three books by Henri Michaux, Thousand Times Broken, is with City Lights. Conoley has taught at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the University of Denver, Vermont College, and Tulane University. A long-time resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, Conoley is currently Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence at Sonoma State University. Founder and editor of VOLT magazine, Conoley has collaborated with installation artist Jenny Holzer, composer Jamie Leigh Sampson, and Butoh dancer Judith Kajuwara. 
gillianconoley.com

Dara Barrois/Dixon, previously publishing as Dara Wier, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, lives and works in western Massachusetts.  Her books include TOLSTOY KILLED ANNA KARENINA (Wave 2022), in the still of the night (Wave 2017), YOU GOOD THING (Wave 2013) REVERSE RAPTURE (Verse 2005) and chapbooks THRU (Scram 2020), NINE (Incessant Pipe 2023), TWO POEMS (Scram 2022). She edits for factory hollow press; Lannan, Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council have generously supported her writing. She’s offered poetry writing and form & theory seminars for Hollins University, University of Alabama, University of Montana, University of Texas, Emory University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst, among other art organizations and locations and readings across the U.S.
Use promo code EMILY_DICKINSON for 20% off Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina

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.

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 2023 Series is a virtual program. Join us on a Thursday Zoom for 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.

Phosphorescence 2023 Schedule:

Thursday, May 18, 6pm ET

Thursday, June 22, 6pm ET

Thursday, July 20, 6pm ET

Thursday, August 17, 6pm ET

Thursday, September 28, 6pm ET

Thursday, October 19, 6pm ET

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.

IN-PERSON PROGRAM

This in-person program is free to attend. Registration is required. 

REGISTER

Days before her death in 1886, Emily Dickinson wrote her final letter, “Little Cousins, / Called Back. / Emily”. On May 13, in honor of the 137th anniversary of the poet’s death, join the Emily Dickinson Museum for an engaging poetry walk through Amherst, the town she called “paradise.”  At each stop we will infuse place with poetry and discuss sites of meaning for Dickinson including her garden at the Homestead, The Evergreens — home to the poet’s brother and sister-in-law, the town common, and more.  This year, take the Walk at your own pace but be sure to head to Dickinson’s grave in West Cemetery at 12PM where we will all gather to share final poems and a light-hearted toast! 

The Walk takes approximately 40 minutes to complete. Participants begin at the Homestead at any time between 10AM and 11:15AM to pick up their Poetry Walk map and daisies to lay at the grave. The final toast at West Cemetery is at noon, which includes a live performance by the Amherst College Glee Club, led by Dr. Arianne Abela, of “I Sing to Use the Waiting”– a Dickinson choral setting by composer Paul Salerni.

The Amherst College Glee Club consists of students and alum from Amherst College, Smith College, and Hampshire College.

Registration for this program is free or by donation, but it is required in advance. Registration for the Walk does not include admission to the Museum. For Museum tour tickets click here.

Accessibility Information
The full walk is about 1 mile and is largely accessed by paved sidewalks, though some uneven terrain is possible. Participants who would prefer to meet us for the final toast are welcome to check in at the Homestead before 11:15AM and then drive to West Cemetery. Cemetery parking is available behind Zanna’s clothing store.

A Daisy for Dickinson: Be a part of a beloved tradition of outfitting Emily Dickinson’s final resting place at Amherst’s West Cemetery with fresh daisies on the anniversary of her death.  Make a supporting donation to the Museum in honor of Emily or in memory of a loved one and we’ll place a daisy in their name at the poet’s grave as part of this year’s Poetry Walk (May 13).

We hope you enjoyed this beloved tradition of honoring Emily Dickinson on the anniversary of her death. If you would like to make a supporting gift to the Museum in honor of Emily or in memory of someone you’ve loved and lost, you may do so below.

DONATE

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

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

REGISTER

Join us for the first 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.

Parts 2 + 3 are TBA. Sign-up for our e-newsletter to be the first to know!