The Emily Dickinson Museum’s Poetry Discussion Group meets monthly, September through May, for lively conversation about Emily Dickinson’s poetry and letters.
Join us on Tuesday, May 18 or Friday, May 28 from 1pm to 2:30pm EST on Zoom. Space is limited. To request a space, please fill out this registration form.
This program is free of charge, but we encourage those who are able to do so to make a donation after the program.
“Receiving Emily: Dickinson’s Addressed Poems”
In this session, we will look closely at the social life Emily Dickinson created with her poetry. While certainly not a social butterfly, Dickinson was nevertheless extensive in her social calls via the poetry she sent in, with, or as letters. What was it like to receive a poem from Emily? Through a discussion of poems and their variants, we will consider the ways she addressed her friends and acquaintances, and how we are addressed by her today. Poems for discussion include: variants of “Except the smaller size” (Fr606); variants of “Your – Riches – taught me – poverty!” (F418) and more.
About the Facilitator
Judith Scholes is Assistant Professor of English at St. Mark’s and Corpus Christi Colleges at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. She has a PhD in English from UBC, and specializes in nineteenth-century American print culture, women’s poetry and editing, and Emily Dickinson. She is currently completing a book that examines the rhetoric of women’s poetry as it emerged in mid-nineteenth century American periodicals, and shaped Emily Dickinson’s understanding and representation of herself as a poet. She is also pursuing a new book-length project that investigates the existence and rhetoric of women’s editorial work at U.S. daily newspapers during the first 70 years (~1830-1900) of women’s presence in newsrooms. Her work has appeared in the Emily Dickinson Journal, American Periodicals, and is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Emily Dickinson.
Questions? write edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org
The Massachusetts Poetry Festival, a biennial event based in Boston, MA, returns May 13-16, 2021 for a virtual showcase featuring 50+ readings panels, workshops, performances and more. Find more information or register for other Festival events today at 
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