Sweet hours have perished here;

This is a mighty room;

Within its precincts hopes have played, —

Now shadows in the tomb.  

-J1767 

Spend a “sweet hour” in Emily Dickinson’s creative space where she penned her startling poetry. Whether you are a writer, an artist, a composer, or a poet, you’ll find solace and inspiration for your artistic output 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.  Read more→

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s Poetry Discussion Group meets monthly, September through May, for lively conversation about Emily Dickinson’s poetry and letters. The Poetry Discussion Group meets at the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, on the second floor of Amherst College’s Frost Library. Participants should proceed directly to the Library and do not need to stop at the Museum. While no RSVP is required, participants are invited to email edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org to receive a list of poems for discussion. Attendees are welcome to bring a bag lunch. Beverages and a sweet snack are provided.

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able. 

“Radiant prose, palpable descriptions, and deep empathy for the poet’s sensibility make this biography extraordinary.”

– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Join us for a reading and book signing by Martha Ackmann, author of the recently released These Fevered Days!

In These Fevered Days, Ackmann unravels the mysteries of Dickinson’s life through ten days that distill her evolution as a poet. Following Dickinson through her religious crisis while a student at Mount Holyoke, her exhilarating frenzy of composition, her startling decision to ask a famous editor for advice, her anguished letters to an unidentified “Master,” her lifelong friendship with writer Helen Hunt Jackson, and her despair in confronting possible blindness, These Fevered Days utilizes thousands of archival letters and poems as well as never-before-seen photos to construct a remarkable map of Emily Dickinson’s inner life. The book provides new insights into Dickinson’s wildly original poetry and draws a vivid portrait of American literature’s most enigmatic figure.

This program is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase on site, and light refreshments will be served following the reading.

4:30 – 6:00 p.m. at the Amherst Woman’s Club. 

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able.

Monthly Amherst Arts Night Plus at the Emily Dickinson Museum celebrates contemporary art and poetry in our historic setting. From 5:00 – 8:00 p.m., view the pop-up, contemporary art exhibition in the Homestead by our monthly featured artist. Poets, writers, and performers of any kind are welcome to share work at our open mic, which begins at 6:00 p.m. Stay after the open mic for the featured reader of the month. Open mic sign-ups are between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. This program is free and open to the public.

Featured Poets: Terry Johnson and Rebecca Hart Olander

Terry S. Johnson, a forty year resident of Amherst, began her career as a concert harpsichordist before finding her true calling as a sixth grade public school teacher. In the last two decades, she also discovered the challenges and joys of writing poetry. She received a Master of Fine Arts from Vermont College and has published extensively in many journals and anthologies. Coalescence, her first poetry collection, won an honorable mention award in the New England Book Festival. In Terry’s second book entitled Plunge (Off the Common Books, 2019) , she explores her father’s war time experiences as a pilot shot down over northern Italy as well as her journeys to meet his saviors and her namesakes, gradually becoming a member of village life.  Gracefully weaving memory, research and first-hand experience, Terry creates an Italian cultural feast employing both lyric and narrative poetry. 

Rebecca Hart Olander is a poet, teacher, and editor based in Western Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and her poetry has appeared recently in Crab Creek Review, llanot Review, Plath Poetry Project, Solstice, SWWIM Every Day, and Yemassee Journal, among others. Rebecca won the 2013 Women’s National Book Association poetry contest.  In 2019 her poem “Wellfleet,” published in Parks & Points, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the editor/director of Perugia Press, a small press publishing first and second books of poetry by women. Her chapbook, Dressing the Wounds, was published in 2019 by Dancing Girl Press and her full-length poetry collection Uncertain Acrobats is forthcoming from Cavan Kerry Press in 2021.

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able.

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s Poetry Discussion Group meets monthly, September through May, for lively conversation about Emily Dickinson’s poetry and letters. The Poetry Discussion Group meets at the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, on the second floor of Amherst College’s Frost Library. Participants should proceed directly to the Library and do not need to stop at the Museum. While no RSVP is required, participants are invited to email edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org to receive a list of poems for discussion. Attendees are welcome to bring a bag lunch. Beverages and a sweet snack are provided.

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able.

Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Emily Dickinson Museum on Poem In Your Pocket Day. Enjoy poetry-themed crafts in our tour center, book readings and signings, and interactive poetry during your tour of the Museum. If you can recite a Dickinson poem from memory, your tour is free!

Poem in Your Pocket Day takes place every year during National Poetry Month. On this day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #pocketpoem.

Check back soon for a full schedule of the day’s events!

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling our public programs through April 30, 2020. 

We understand this schedule change may affect previous plans. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you to the Emily Dickinson Museum as soon as we are able.

Monthly Amherst Arts Night Plus at the Emily Dickinson Museum celebrates contemporary art and poetry in our historic setting. From 5:00 – 8:00 p.m., view the pop-up, contemporary art exhibition in the Homestead by our monthly featured artist. Poets, writers, and performers of any kind are welcome to share work at our open mic, which begins at 6:00 p.m. Stay after the open mic for the featured reader of the month. Open mic sign-ups are between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m.. This program is free and open to the public.

Featured artist: Tasha Robbins

Now settled in Amherst MA, Tasha Robbins is a painter who has lived and worked in New York, Provincetown, Boston, Boulder, Santa Fe, San Francisco and New Orleans. Her Portrait of George Scrivani with a Photo of Vali Myers and Gregory Corso by Ira Cohen (2001) appeared in the exhibition “Poetry and Its Arts” at the California Historical Society in San Francisco in 2005. Portions of An Angel Alphabet/Malachim: Coming Out of Darkness (1988-98) have been shown
at Berkeley’s Judah Magnes Museum (“Personal Landscapes/Universal Visions”, 1990) and in Philadelphia at the Borowsky Gallery @ the Gershman Y/University of the Arts (“The Hidden Garden: Three Artists Explore Kabbalah”, 2005). The series was shown in its entirety for the first time at the Hampden Gallery at UMass Amherst in 2019. From the Aspect of Mercy (2000-03), a triptych regarding the Quan Yin, has hung in the Florence Biennale (2003); at the Aurora Gallery in the artist’s native Worcester, MA (“Psyche”, 2004); and at the Goldmine Saloon, home of New Orleans’ 17 Poets! and Festivals for the
Imagination (2004).
Her work has been reproduced in small press books and magazines (including Jeanne Lance’s
Loose Arrangements [Smithereens Press, 1984], Aaron Shurin’s Elsewhere [Acts Books, 1988]
and Codex [Meow Press, 1997]; FRAMMIS: A Tribute to Wallace Berman, MAG CITY, Gallery
Works, tripwire, YAWP, and others), and can be seen on the web at www.salonfoxy.com .
A 2014 Acker Award recipient, she appears in The Outlaw Bible of American Art (Last Gasp
Press, 2016). For more information visit www.salonfoxy.com/artists/tasha-robbins  

Celebrate ArtWeek at the second annual Florence Poetry Carnival! Join the Emily Dickinson Museum and other area organizations on the grounds of the Florence Civic building for this inclusive community event. Through activities and talks, participants will engage in writing, reading, and listening to poetry. Community participants include Forbes Library, the Emily Dickinson Museum, Perugia and Hedgerow Presses, and Northampton Poet Laureate Karen Schofield. Individual writers, artists, and performers will lead interactive crafts and writing projects such as poetry themed mad libs. Visit the Florence Poetry Carnival Facebook page for more information. 

There is a $5.00 suggested donation for the Florence Poetry Carnival.

All ages are welcome, rain or shine!

Join us for the annual Emily Dickinson Poetry Walk!

This event honors the anniversary of the poet’s death with readings of her poetry at historic sites around Amherst. To pay homage to Dickinson’s role in inspiring a new generation of writers, we will also read contemporary poems that have been influenced by her life and work.

The Walk begins at 10:30 a.m. on the Homestead lawn and proceeds on foot through Amherst, stopping at sites significant in Dickinson’s life, and concluding at the poet’s grave in West Cemetery. At the cemetery, participants are invited to read a favorite Dickinson poem or original work in memory of the poet.

Please arrive promptly at 10:15 a.m. to be assigned a poem to read. Latecomers are welcome to join the tour at any stop! 

Wheelchair accessible parking is available at the Homestead; all other vehicles are asked to park on the street or use town parking, a short walk from the Museum. For more information about accessibility on the Walk, please call 413-542-2034.

The Poetry Walk takes place rain or shine!