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!
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
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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. 
Seeking proposals for the following IN-PERSON AND VIRTUAL program slots to be scheduled September 25 – October 1 
Krysten Hill is the author of ‘How Her Spirit Got Out’, which received the 2017 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. Her work has been featured in POETRY, The Academy of American Poets, apt, BODY, Boiler Magazine, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Muzzle, PANK,Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. The recipient of the 2016 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award and a 2020 Mass Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship, she currently teaches at UMass Boston.
DeMisty Bellinger‘s debut novel is New to Liberty. She has also written two volumes of poetry, Peculiar Heritage and Rubbing Elbows, as well as appearing in anthologies and publishing pedagogy and nonfiction. DeMisty is a poetry editor at Malarkey Books, an alumni reader at Prairie Schooner, and a professor at Fitchburg State University.
Aldo Amparán is the author of Brother Sleep (Alice James Books, 2022), winner of the 2020 Alice James Award. They have received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts & CantoMundo. Their work has most recently appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Georgia Review, New England Review, Poetry Magazine, & elsewhere.
Catherine-Esther Cowie is a poet and visual artist from St. Lucia who has lived in Canada and now resides in the US. She is a graduate of the Pacific University low-residency MFA program. Her writing has appeared in a number of journals including The Common, Prairie Schooner, RHINO Poetry, West Branch Journal and the PN Review. Her work has been nominated for AWP Intro Journal, a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets 2018 and 2019 and Best of the Net 2021.
Yamini Pathak is the author of the chapbooks, Atlas of Lost Places (Milk and Cake Press, 2020) and Breath Fire Water Song (Ghost City Press, 2021). Her words are forthcoming or have appeared in Poetry Northwest, About Place Journal, Tupelo Quarterly, Vida Review, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She is a Poet in Schools for the Geraldine Dodge Foundation, serves as poetry editor for Inch micro-chapbooks (Bull City Press), and is a production assistant for Tupelo Quarterly journal. Yamini received her MFA in poetry from Antioch University, Los Angeles and has received support from VONA/Voices and Community of Writers. It brings her much joy to belong to the Duniya Collective, an inter-disciplinary group of BIPOC artists. Born in India, she lives with her family in New Jersey. https://milkandcakepress.com/product/coming-soon-atlas-of-lost-places/
Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, the publisher of 
Rebecca Pelky is a member of the Brothertown Indian Nation of Wisconsin and a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow. Through a Red Place, her second poetry collection and winner of the Perugia Press Prize, was released in 2021. Her first book, Horizon of the Dog Woman, was published by Saint Julian Press in 2020. A translation of Matilde Ladron de Guevara’s poetry collection Desnuda, co-translated with Jake Young, was published in 2022. 
Carolina Hotchandani is a Latinx/South Asian poet born in Brazil and raised in various parts of the United States. She holds degrees from Brown, Texas State, and Northwestern universities. Her honors include fellowships from Tin House Writers’ Workshop, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. Her poetry has appeared in AGNI, Alaska Quarterly Review, Beloit Poetry Journal,Blackbird, Cincinnati Review, Prairie Schooner, and other journals. She is a Goodrich Assistant Professor of English in Omaha, Nebraska, where she lives with her husband and daughter.