HYBRID PROGRAM — in-person at Johnson Chapel AND streaming live for online registrants.
Registration is required.
Part of the 2026 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!
Join us for the 14th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum!
Join us on Emily Dickinson’s lawn or virtually for a celebration of creativity and poetry! Our headlining poets, Victoria Chang and Samyak Shertok will read from their work and discuss their poetic practice and inspiration with moderator January Gill O’Neil. Books will be available for purchase with a signing to following the reading.
About the Poets
Victoria Chang’s most recent book of poetry is Tree of Knowledge, which is long-listed for the National Book Award. Other books are With My Back to the World – which received the Forward Prize in Poetry, OBIT, The Trees Witness Everything – named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New Yorker and The Guardian, and Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief. Her latest children’s book is Eureka. Her poems have been translated into many languages including Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Romanian, Korean, Greek, German, Latvian, Hebrew, and Dutch. She has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Chowdhury Prize in Literature.
Samyak Shertok’s debut collection, No Rhododendron (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2025), was selected by Kimiko Hahn for the 2024 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry and shortlisted for the 2026 PEN Open Book Award and the 2026 Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize. His poems appear in The Cincinnati Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, POETRY, Shenandoah, Waxwing, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. A finalist for the National Poetry Series, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, and the Jake Adam York Prize, he has received fellowships from Aspen Words, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His work has been awarded the Robert and Adele Schiff Award for Poetry, the Gulf CoastPrize in Poetry, and the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize. Originally from Nepal, he is an Assistant Professor of English at Mississippi State University.
January Gill O’Neil is the author of Glitter Road (CavanKerry Press, 2024), winner of the Poetry by the Sea Best Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Prize. She is also the author of Rewilding, Misery Islands, and Underlife. A Massachusetts Book Award honoree, she teaches at Salem State University and serves on the board of AWP.
januarygilloneil.com
Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival
The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival is sustained by the Emily Dickinson Fund, which provides critical, unrestricted support for the Museum’s day-to-day operations. Your generous donation helps us offer immersive poetry programs to a global audience and preserve the historic Dickinson legacy in Amherst. As the Fund supplies 36% of our annual budget, your tax-deductible contribution is essential to our mission. Join us in inspiring learners of all ages by making an immediate impact today.