• Poetry workshops for students of high school (grades 9-12). 45-minute classroom session, to be offered up to four times between 7:50am to 3pm. Partner schools will be shared with selected poets and will include schools in Hampshire and Hampden counties.

• Daytime poetry workshops, panels, or participatory programs open to the public to occur at a variety of Festival venues, including on site at the Emily Dickinson Museum, at the Jones Library, Hope and Feathers Art Gallery, etc. (Examples of participatory programs might include mobile activities, resource booths, etc.). Event sessions are typically an hour and a half long. 

• Only submissions made in the online form will be considered. There is no fee to submit proposals.
• Following your submission, please e-mail your resume/cv to edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org. 
  • Include “POETRY FESTIVAL SUBMISSION” in the title of the e-mail. We can accept .pdf, .doc, .docx files.
    If applicable, you may also submit an image in .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, and .png format.
• Selected facilitators will be notified by August 9, and will be asked to sign a letter of agreement confirming their participation in the Festival.
• Submissions Due: Thursday, July 25, 2019, 11:59 pm EST.

Submissions will be judged on the following:

• Originality – Is your idea bold and intriguing? Will it offer something new to our Festival?
• Quality – Does the submission reflect thoughtful preparation? How are you uniquely qualified to facilitate this program?
• Audience – Have you clearly outlined participatory elements? How does your proposal contribute to community-building for the Amherst Poetry Festival? 
• Special consideration will be given to Pioneer Valley and Massachusetts-based facilitators.

Monday to Friday, from 9:30AM – 12:30PM 

In this workshop for ages 9 – 12, led by children’s author and Emily Dickinson Museum tour guide Burleigh Muten, participants will experience Emily Dickinson’s world from a writer’s point of view. 

Read more→

Join us during Amherst Arts Night Plus on August 1, 2019 for our monthly Open Mic. Poets, writers, and performers of any kind are welcome! Come early to view the pop-up, contemporary art exhibition in the Homestead by our featured artist and take in a movement performance in the site-specific art installation in the conservatory. The open mic begins at 6:00 p.m. and will be followed by this month’s featured readers. Those who would like to share their work should arrive between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. to sign up.

The Joke’s on Me by Chris O’Carroll was published in early 2019

Featured poet: Chris O’Carroll, following the open mic

Chris O’Carroll is an actor, comedian, and Light magazine featured poet whose work has appeared in The Great American Wise Ass Poetry Anthology, yet has won British prizes from Flash 500, Literary Review, The new statesman, The Oldie, and The Spectator. A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, he has lived in England, canada, and many parts of the U.S. including new Orleans, New York City, and Emporia, Kansas. He now resides in western Mass. with his wife, historian Karen Manners Smith. His book of poems, The Joke’s on Me was published by White Violet Press earlier this year. 

Featured art: On view from 5pm to 8pm

Madge Evers is fascinated by nature’s ability to repurpose organic matter. Her work originates in the soil of urban and rural landscapes, using materials she grows or forages. The fungi kingdom knows no waste and makes the detritus of the plant and animal kingdoms live again. Mushroom spores’ primary goal is to establish a larger community, but Evers utilizes them to create imagery that shows the inner workings of nature – imagery that belies fungi’s reputation for decay. Her pop-up exhibition will be on display in the Homestead parlor on August’s Arts Night.

Forest, Deep and Mighty, mushroom spores on paper, 11 x 15 inches, 2018

Artist Bio: Madge Evers grew up in Connecticut and lives in western Massachusetts. In her early years, she was a fine arts photographer with an interest in portraiture and the human form. She studied at the Maine Photographic Workshop, has a B.A. in English from Suffolk University, and an M.A. from the University of Rhode Island. Madge’s work originates with her passion for the garden and growing things. She cultivates the variety Stropharia rugosoannulata in her garden and forages for mushrooms in woods and fields. Both provide her with a renewable source of spore “ink.” When not making spore prints, Madge can be found teaching high school English or somewhere in the garden. Find out more about Madge Evers here.

“In Suspension”

Also on view this evening is our Conservatory Art Installation Exhibit, “In Suspension,” by Tereza Swanda, Ingrid Pichler, and Fletcher Boote. As part of Arts Night Plus, the exhibit will be activated by movement performed by Kelly Silliman at 5:30 and 6PM.

Kelly Silliman will be activating the conservatory with movement as part of In Suspension. She has created a site-specific dance piece inspired by the shapes and movements of Tereza Swanda’s installation, and by the variant wordings found in the editing process of Emily Dickinson’s poems. The dance is intended to be viewed from all directions, and from both inside and outside the conservatory, and witnesses are invited to move to a different viewing spot at any point in the piece, if they wish. 

Tereza Swanda, one of three artists who created “In Suspension”, will speak about the work at the start of the open mic.

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→