the Homestead lights are on at night time

Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series 2023

Phosphorescence event graphic picturing the Homestead at night, with lights glowing

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.

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.
 
For more information on our upcoming Phosphorescence Readings, sign up for our e-newsletter.
 

Phosphorescence 2023 Schedule:

Graphic for phosphorescence poetry reading series May 2023Thursday, May 18, 6pm ET

Featuring poets: Eleni Sikelianos, Gillian Conoley, and Dara Barrois/Dixon (née Dara Wier)

 

 

 

 

graphic for Phosphorescence June 2023Thursday, June 22, 6pm ET

Featuring poets: Ocean Vuong, Joseph Fritsch, and Yanyi

 

 

 

 

 

graphic for Phosphorescence July 2023Thursday, July 20, 6pm ET

Featuring poets: Rebecca Pelky, Lisbeth White, and Carolina Hotchandani

 

 

 

 

 

graphic for Phosphorescence August 2023Thursday, August 17, 6pm ET

Featuring poets: Yamini Pathak, Ilan Stavans, and Devanshi Khetarpal

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, September 28, 6pm ET

Featuring poets: Aldo Amparán, Catherine-Esther Cowie, and Ron Welburn

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, October 19, 6pm ET

Featuring poets: Allison Adair, Krysten Hill, and DeMisty Bellinger

 

 

 

 
 
 

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.

 

graphic for Phosphorescence June 2023

Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series
Thursday, June 22, 6pm ET

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:

headshot of poet Ocean Vuong

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

 


headshot of poet 
Joseph Fritsch

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.

 

 

 

 

 


headshot of poet Yanyi

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.

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. 

REGISTER

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

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.

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

 

 

 

 

 

Tell-It-Slant-2022-Square-Web-Graphics

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.

Save the date!: Join the Facebook event

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.

 

Circular image of the Earth with Emily's handwriting overlaid atop

Emily Dickinson International Society
Annual Meeting
July 21-23, 2023

IN-PERSON PROGRAM

This program is jointly presented by the Emily Dickinson International Society. Registration is required. 
Please address any questions about the Annual Meeting to edismeeting@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

REGISTER

Poster for Emily Dickinson International Society theme "Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes"The Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS) is returning to Amherst! For the last three summers, while EDIS has gathered online and in Seville, the Emily Dickinson Museum was closed. The Museum used the time to undertake a major, impeccably researched and executed restoration of the Dickinson Homestead; they also launched the first comprehensive cataloging of the Museum’s collection of over 10,000 objects. The EDIS Annual Meeting will feature this work. Participants will be able to tour the magnificently restored Homestead, learn about the restoration from museum staff, and view objects relating to Dickinson’s home from the Museum’s collection that have never been exhibited. 

The conference theme, “Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes,” comes from Dickinson’s poem “The Sunrise runs for Both – ” (M 355, Fr765, J710). In congruence with Dickinson’s “Both” 16 panels with nearly 50 presentations will delve into the relation between Dickinson’s mental and material interiors and her expansive embrace of wider, external spheres. Special events will include the screening of two recent Dickinson Opera films: Lesley Dill’s capacious  Divide Light (2020) and Dana Kaufman’s intimate Emily & Sue (2022). In addition to performances and panel presentations, the meeting will include special interest circles on research, pedagogy, translation, and the arts. Join the Emily Dickinson International Society in Amherst to celebrate Dickinson’s work and the vibrant community she inspires.

All attendees of the annual meeting must be members of the Emily Dickinson International Society. The Annual Meeting regular registration fee of $175 and student/financial need registration fee of $125 includes tours of the Dickinson Homestead, Opera film screenings, refreshments, two lunches, and the Saturday Meeting Picnic-Banquet. There are no additional costs for these Annual Meeting events.

FULL PROGRAM OF EVENTS

A block of rooms has been reserved for the Annual Meeting at The Inn on Boltwood (an elegant inn walking distance from campus). Call 413-256-8200 and mention code EDIS 2023 to reserve your room at the EDIS discounted rate, the block is being held until June 2nd.

The Annual Meeting is being held at Amherst College and the college website provides a large list of local Hotels and of Bed & Breakfasts as well as Travel Information and Driving Directions.

Address any questions about the Critical Institute and Annual Meeting to edismeeting@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

 

Image of Dickinson's room featuring her writing desk and white dress

Studio Sessions

Image of Dickinson's room featuring her writing desk and white dress

“Sweet hours have perished here;
This is a mighty room;
Within its precincts hopes have played, –
Now shadows in the tomb.”
-Fr1785

Spend a “sweet hour” in Emily Dickinson’s creative space where she penned her startling poetry and honed her revolutionary voice. Whether you are a writer, an artist, a composer, a poet, or a lover of poetry, you’ll find inspiration in Emily Dickinson’s bedroom. Let this quiet experience jumpstart your next creative journey.

Participants may spend up to two hours in the bedroom. A small table and chair will be provided.  Participants will experience the atmosphere of Dickinson’s corner bedroom, and enjoy the view from the Poet’s windows. 

Program Guidelines:

  • Photo ID must be presented upon arrival for your studio session and a photocopy will be made, which will be destroyed after your session.
  • The door to the bedroom will remain open, and staff will be present outside the room at all times. Participants must remain in the designated area of the historic room. Participants may not touch the historic furnishings in the bedroom.
  • Bags, food, and beverages must be left outside the room.
  • No pens, inks, or paints permitted. Pencil and paper or laptop only. Other materials must be approved by special request in advance.
  • Photography for non-commercial, personal use is permitted.
  • Sessions will not be rescheduled or refunded after booking except in the case of an emergency. Refunding and rescheduling are at the discretion of the Emily Dickinson Museum.

Registration is currently available for sessions June through August, 2023. Sessions are offered on Thursdays at 8:30am and Fridays at 5:15pm. Limited availability.

RESERVE YOUR SESSION

 

Pricing: 
1 person for one hour: $300
1 person for 2 hours: $500
2 people for 1 hour: $400
2 people for 2 hours: $600

Please direct questions to EDMPrograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org.

Purchase of a studio session grants one free Museum admission per studio participant, to be booked during your visit to Amherst. To reserve your timed entry in advance, email hgarcia@emilydickinsonmuseum.org.