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EVENTS
Jul 06, 2008
Mark Conway and Kimiko Hahn at the Fine Arts Work Center
Provincetown, MA
Jul 12, 2008
Kathleen Aguero
Chestnut Hill, MA
Jul 13, 2008
Carl Phillips and Jean Valentine at the Fine Arts Work Center
Provincetown, MA
Jul 13, 2008
Rafael Campo and Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Cambridge, MA
Jul 15, 2008
Meg Kearney & Ray Gonzalez
Chestnut Hill, MA
See all events from MA.
 



POETRY-FRIENDLY BOOKSTORES


Andover Bookstore
89 Main St.
Andover, MA

Atticus Bookstore
8 Main St.
Amherst, MA

Jeffery Amherst Bookshop & College Store
55 South Pleasant St.
Amherst, MA

Brookline Booksmith
279 Harvard St.
Brookline, MA

The Grolier Poetry Bookshop
2 Plympton Street
Cambridge, MA
1-800-234-POEM
a poetry-only bookshop

Harvard Bookstore
Cambridge

Concord Bookshop Inc.
65 Main St.
Concord, MA

Bickerton & Ripley
5189 Main St.
Edgartown, MA

Book Mill
Greenfield Road
Montague, MA

Newtonville Books Inc.
296 Walnut St.
Newton, MA
(617) 244-6619

Papyri Books
49 Main St.
North Adams, MA

Broadside Bookshop
247 Main St.
Northampton, MA

Toad Hall Bookstore
47 Main St.
Rockport, MA

Odyssey Book Shop
9 College St.
South Hadley, MA

Bunch of Grapes Bookstore Inc.
44 Main St.
Vineyard Haven, MA

LITERARY MAP


Available from the Massachusetts Council of Teachers of English
16 Burncoat Terrace
Worcester, MA 06105
(508) 853-6703
$7.50 for one map
$12.00 for two maps
shipping and handling is included.
Massachusetts Add to Notebook

I love Provincetown; and when I first began reading poems, I’d look on the back of these books by poets I was reading and read about Stanley Kunitz or Mark Doty or Marge Piercy. I would see their names, and they all lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts. This was when I was in Wisconsin, and I thought, 'It must be paradise there; it must be the most amazing place in the world.'
Featured Poets

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Known in the local literary circle as "The Sage of Concord," Emerson became the chief spokesman for Transcendentalism.

E. E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings
Born in Cambridge in 1894, Cummings experimented radically with form, punctuation, spelling and syntax. When he died in 1962, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States.

Stanley Kunitz

Stanley Kunitz
A former United States Poet Laureate, Kunitz was deeply committed to fostering community among artists, and was a founder of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown

Other Massachusetts Poets
Ann Bradstreet
Emily Dickinson
Robert Lowell
Frank Bidart
Mark Doty
David Ferry
Robert Frost
Louise Glück
Lucie Brock-Broido
Susan Howe
Mary Oliver
Charles Olson
Robert Pinsky
Anne Sexton
Lloyd Schwartz
Tom Sleigh
William Jay Smith
Rosanna Warren
Richard Wilbur
Literary Organizations & Centers

The Frost Foundation
The Frost Foundation is dedicated to focusing attention on the work and life of poet Robert Frost and his connection to Lawrence, Massachusetts. The organization has two annual literary festivals that take place in the fall and spring, and monthly poetry events that encourage young people to pursue an interest in the arts. The Frost Foundation also sponsors The Frost Trail, a self-guided walking tour highlighting the places associated with the poet's early years.

Inkberry: Reading and Writing in the Berkshires
Inkberry is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the literary arts in and around Berkshire County. They offer a year-round reading series that features both national and local talent, writing workshops, book discussion groups, and a Writers' Resource Library.

Pen New England
PEN New England is one of five regional branches of PEN American Center, a worldwide organization of writing professionals that exists to advance the cause of literature and reading and to defend free expression everywhere. Its activities include the awarding of two major books prizes, literacy programs, events introducing new writers and celebrating new books, and panels which address a wide range of writing and professional issues.

Worcester County Poetry Association
The WCPA (formed in 1971) is a volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting poetry in all its forms throughout Central New England. It publishes The Worcester Review (literary journal) and The Issue (an occasional publication for local poets). It sponsors readings, an annual contest, poets-in-the-schools, literary tours, lectures, and workshops.

Concord Poetry Center
The Concord Poetry Center was established in 2004 as the only organization in MetroWest and the Greater Boston area with an exclusive emphasis on activities and services for poets and lovers of poetry and is intended to serve a community of poets. Offerings include poetry courses, workshops, seminars, publication consultations, readings and performances as well as a physical center and poetry resources.

Readings Series, Conferences, & Literary Festivals

Many of the bookstores, writing programs, presses and magazines listed in other sections sponsor reading series.

Writing Programs & Colonies

Boston University
BU maintains a small, intensive one-year M.A. program--each entering class has no more than twelve fiction writers, twelve poets, and up to six playwrights. Students have access to an active translation center and a variety of interdisciplinary courses.

Emerson College
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a terminal degree for students who wish to pursue careers as writers in any of the creative media, and/or who want to teach writing and literature at the college level. Courses are offered in the following areas: short fiction, the novel, poetry, nonfiction, screenplays, children's writing, and literary/cultural theory. Emerson's several publications include Ploughshares and the Phone-a-Poem service.

Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center
Sponsors a number of programs, includin a winter fellowship for emerging creative writers and open-enrollment workshops in the summer and fall. Throughout the year, readings are free and open to the public.

University of Massachusetts: Amherst
The program offers three degrees: a Masters of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing, a Masters (MA) or a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in English and American Literature, and a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition, and the department has a long-standing tradition of commitment to public service and outreach, providing community-based internships for our graduate students and founding such programs as the Western Massachusetts Writing Project.

University of Massachusetts: Boston
The M.F.A. program at UMass-Boston admits approximately five applicants in poetry each academic year. It offers an intense and focused opportunity for students to further their commitment to writing as the center of their professional life. Faculty members include Suji Kwock Kim, Joyce Peseroff, Lloyd Schwartz, and various visiting writers.

Massachusetts Poetfans

Jan Freeman
Ashfield, Massachusetts

Beginning in 1993, I started having a celebration every July 4th at 10 a.m.: "Bagels and Walt." Sometimes the gatherings have 3 people, and sometimes there have been more than 40.
View the complete entry >

Jeff Urban
Cambridge, Massachusetts

As a physical chemist, I found Cummings's poems to be precious puzzles, euphonous and layered in complexity. . . I often turned to the playful mind of E. E. Cummings for a rest. Soothing, epigrammatic, quirky, and fun. A wonderful balm for my aching brain.
View the complete entry >

Poetic History

Emily Dickinson's Home: Amherst, MA
The Homestead is believed to be the first brick home built in Amherst and is the place where Dickinson spent the majority of her life.

Grolier Poetry Book Shop: Cambridge, MA
The Grolier is the nation’s oldest all-poetry bookstore offering in-print poetry books and poetry-related merchandise.

George Edward Woodberry Poetry Room: Cambridge, MA
Since 1931, the Woodberry Poetry Room has collected print and multimedia poetry artifacts that rival the poetry holdings of the Library of Congress.

North of Boston
Published in 1914, North of Boston is the volume of poetry that established Robert Frost as a major force in modern poetry.

McLean Hospital: Belmont, MA
McLean Hospital has become an unlikely poetry landmark after providing both recuperation and inspiration to Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton.

The Longfellow House: Cambridge, MA
"The Longfellows and their six children occupied the house for almost forty years and entertained such houseguests as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Charles Dickens."

The Search for Anne Bradstreet: Essex County, MA 
Though there are numerous documents and portraits of her husband and father, Anne Bradstreet left only her poems behind. There is no tattered journal, no marble bust, not even a headstone.

Visitors from Massachusetts Enjoy ...

Most Popular Poems

1. Do not go gentle into that good night
by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night...

2. One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn't hard to master...

3. We Real Cool
by Gwendolyn Brooks
We real cool. We...

4. The Negro Speaks of Rivers
by Langston Hughes
I've known rivers...

5. Sick
by Shel Silverstein
"I cannot go to school today"...

6. Since Hannah Moved Away
by Judith Viorst
The tires on my bike are flat...

7. somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
by E. E. Cummings
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond...

8. The Writer
by Richard Wilbur
In her room at the prow of the house...

9. This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten / the plums...

10. As I Walked Out One Evening
by W. H. Auden
As I walked out one evening...

(Popularity based on Poets.org traffic data.)

Poems about Massachusetts

Concord Hymn
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
By the rude bridge that arched the flood...

For the Union Dead
by Robert Lowell
The old South Boston Aquarium stands...

Boston
by Aaron Smith
I've been meaning to tell...

Literary Journals & Small Presses

Agni
AGNI was founded in 1972 by then-high-school student, now-novelist Askold Melnyczuk. The journal, which has a distinguished history of publishing poetry as well as other genres, is now published at Boston University, where it has resided since 1987. The renowned literary critic and writer Sven Birkerts became editor on July 1, 2002.

jubilat
Based on the premise that, to poetry, everything is relevant, jubilat delivers the best in contemporary poetry along with art, interviews and prose. Part of the unique focus of the journal is to offer a forum for poets to publish prose pieces on a wide variety of subjects that may or may not have anything to do with poetry. In addition, jubilat re-introduces lost or neglected talent.

The Leapfrog Press
The Leapfrog Press searches out and publishes books that tell a strong story. Located in a small fishing village near the tip of Cape Cod, famous for its oysters, art galleries, ocean beaches and the writers who have settled there, the press's list is eclectic and represents quality fiction, poetry and non-fiction.

Paris Press
Paris Press publishes the work of women writers that they see as neglected by the mainstream literary world. Publishing two to three books a year, Paris Press "values work that is daring in style and in its courage to speak truthfully about society, culture, history, and the human heart." In addition to publishing books--and producing CDs--Paris Press conducts outreach programs, which have included readings throughout the country.

Ploughshares
Ploughshares, which was founded in 1971, publishes in April, August, and December and each issue is guest-edited by a prominent writer who explores personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. Over the years, guest editors of Ploughshares have included Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, and Yusef Komunyakaa. Don Lee is the editor. Many of today's most respected writers had their first or early work published in Ploughshares, including Thomas Lux and Robert Pinsky.

Zephyr Press
Zephyr Press, a non-profit arts and education 501(c)(3) organization, publishes literary titles that foster deeper understanding of cultures and languages. Since its first forays into American poetry and prose in 1980, Zephyr has expanded its list to include a series of Russian and Slavic literature, and most recently an East Asian line of books. The press also organizes bilingual readings, translation workshops in schools, and other educational and cultural events.

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