Produced by the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival celebrates the poetic legacy of Emily Dickinson and the contemporary creativity she continues to inspire from the place she called home.

The Festival’s name “Tell It Slant”, was selected in homage to Dickinson’s poem, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” This title underscores the revolutionary power of poetry to shift our perspective and reveal new truths. The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival remains committed to featuring and serving established and emerging poets who represent the diversity of the flourishing contemporary poetry scene, and to fostering community by placing poetry in the public sphere. To see our 2022 Festival schedule click here.

This year’s Festival will be hybrid, with events happening in-person at the Museum as well as online. We invite you to “dwell in possibility” and submit your most inventive proposals for audience-centered workshops. Submissions for virtual programs should be for live, synchronous content only. 

The Steering Committee especially welcomes the following:

• Submissions from groups of 2 – 5 facilitators
• Submissions that engage young attendees and/or those new to poetry
• Submissions that creatively encourage audience participation or that foster a sense of community or space

Honoraria of $250 are provided per event.

Seeking proposals for the following IN-PERSON AND VIRTUAL program slots to be scheduled September 25 – October 1 (Individuals may submit multiple forms if proposing more than one program):

IN-PERSON OR VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS:

• Public poetry workshops are typically 60- to 90-minutes long. Workshops must be interactive and generative.

• Virtual workshops must be adaptable for large virtual audiences of around 200.

EDUCATOR WORKSHOPS:

• Workshops intended for educators teaching grades 6-12, with a focus on reading and/or writing poetry. Presenters should have facilitation experience and include a sample lesson outline. Virtual format preferred, with in-person considered.

Submission Guidelines:

• Only submissions made using the online form will be considered. To complete the online form, click on the “Submit your proposal” button below. There is no fee to submit proposals.
• To complete your submission, please also upload the following to this Dropbox folder
  • The resumes/CVs of all presenters.
  • If appropriate, up to 3 sample poems per group member.
  • Any desired links, audio, or video files of performances or facilitation. 
  • High resolution headshots of all presenters. DPI 300 or minimum 1080 pixels (if you don’t have a professional camera, an unedited selfie on a smart phone will fit those requirements)
• All your materials as listed above should be titled by your PROGRAM TITLE. You may upload materials as one zipped file or individually. We can accept .pdf, .doc, .doc(x) files. If applicable, you may upload images in .png, .jpg, or .gif form and audio files in .mp3, .aac, or .wav form.
• Selected facilitators will be notified Thursday, June 1st and will be asked to sign a letter of agreement confirming their participation in the Festival.
• Submissions Due: Thursday, May 11th at 11:59pm ET.

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 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival? 
• Special consideration will be given to Massachusetts-based facilitators.

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

Questions? Email us at edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Color – Caste – Denomination: Emily Dickinson’s Race and Class Contexts

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

REGISTER

Color – Caste – Denomination –
These – are Time’s Affair –
Death’s diviner Classifying
Does not know they are –
-FR836

Could Emily Dickinson’s striking poetic vision have been realized anywhere but Amherst? Would she have had the time to hone her craft without the domestic labors performed by individuals outside the Dickinsons’ privileged class? What was Amherst like for those who were not members of the provincial elite and how did they shape the poet’s world?

In this program, learn more about the forces of race and class impacting Emily Dickinson’s Amherst life. We’ll discuss the Dickinson family’s settler colonial roots, industry in Amherst, the town’s changing demographics, musical influences on the poet, and more. Along the way meet individuals in the employ of the Dickinson household as house and grounds workers and hear more about their lives and experiences.

Illustrated talks will be followed by a live Q&A session.

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Presentations by Emily Dickinson Museum Tour Guides:
Emily Bernhard
Judith Hudson
Pete Redington
Becky Lockwood

Phosphorescence October 2023 featured poets:
Allison Adair, Krysten Hill, and DeMisty Bellinger

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:

Allison Adair’s ‘The Clearing’, selected by Henri Cole for the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, was named a New York Times “New & Noteworthy” book. Allison’s poems appear in American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, Threepenny, and ZYZZYVA; and her work has been honored with the Pushcart Prize, Florida Review Editors’ Award, Orlando Prize, Mass Cultural Council grant, and first place in the Fineline Competition from Mid-American Review. Originally from central Pennsylvania, Allison teaches at Boston College.

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.
krystenhill.com

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.

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 September 2023 featured poets:
Aldo Amparán, Catherine-Esther Cowie, and Ron Welburn

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

This program is free to attend. Registration is required. 
Part of the 2023 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

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:

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.
aldoamparan.com

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.
esthercowie.wixsite.com/poet

Ron Welburn (Accomac Cherokee) grew up in Philadelphia and is an emeritus English professor at UMass Amherst where he co-started the Native Studies program. His poems have appeared in over 125 literary outlets, and his seventh collection of poetry is Council Decisions: Selected Poems, Revised & Expanded Edition. He is interested in Natives in jazz.

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 August 2023 featured poets:
Yamini Pathak, Ilan Stavans, and Devanshi Khetarpal

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:

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 Restless Books, and a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, his work, adapted into film, theater, TV, and radio, has been translated into two dozen languages. 

Devanshi Khetarpal is a Truman Capote and Sonny Mehta fellow in Fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the editor-in-chief and founder of Inklette Magazine, and holds a Master’s in Comparative Literature from NYU. Her work has received support from the Yale Writers’ Workshop, the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, and the Juniper Writing Institute at UMass Amherst. Her fiction and poetry was long-listed for the 2022 Toto Award for Creative Writing in English. Her work has been published in Public Books, Poetry at Sangam, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Scroll, Redivider and Vayavya, among others. She is from Bhopal, India. 

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 July 2023 featured poets:
Rebecca Pelky, Lisbeth White, and Carolina Hotchandani

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:

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.

Lisbeth White is a writer and ritualist living on S’klallam and Chimacum lands of Port Townsend, WA. As a cross-genre writer of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, her passion and motivation for all creative endeavors is to engage community while centering eco spiritual, ecowomanist, and Black feminist perspectives. She is the author of the poetry collection American Sycamore (Perugia Press) and co-editor of the anthology Poetry as Spellcasting: Poems, Essays, and Prompts for Manifesting Liberation and Reclaiming Power (North Atlantic Books). Her writing explores the sensual and sociopolitical intersections of healing, ancestry, mythopoetics, and connection to the natural world.
lisbethwrites.com

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.
carolinahotchandani.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 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