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POETRY-FRIENDLY BOOKSTORES |
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Amherst Books 8 Main Street Amherst, MA (800) 503-5865
Andover Bookstore 89R Main Street Andover, MA (978) 475-0143
Brewster Book Store 2648 Main Street P.O. Box 1199 Brewster, MA (508) 896-6543
The Book Shop 40 West Street Beverly Farms, MA (978) 927-2122
Broadside Bookshop 247 Main Street Northampton, MA (413) 586-4235
Brookline Booksmith 279 Harvard Street Brookline, MA
Bunch of Grapes Bookstore 44 Main Street Vineyard Haven, MA (508) 693-2291
Calamus Bookstore 92B South Street Boston, MA (617) 338-1931
The Concord Bookshop 65 Main Street Concord, MA
Edgartown Books 44 Main Street Edgartown, MA (508) 627-8463
Flying Object 42 West Street Hadley, MA (413) 387-0333
Food For Thought Books 106 N. Pleasant Street Amherst, MA (413) 253-5432
Harvard Bookstore 1256 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA (617) 661-1515
The Montague Book Mill 440 Greenfield Road Montague, MA (413) 367-9206
Newtonville Books 10 Langley Road Newton Centre Newton, MA (617) 244-6619
Odyssey Book Shop 9 College Street South Hadley, MA
Papyri Books 45 Eagle Street North Adams, MA
Porter Square Books 25 White Street Cambridge, MA (617) 491-2225
Water Street Books 26 Water Street Williamstown, MA (413) 458-8071
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LITERARY MAP |
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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. |
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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.'
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Featured Poets |
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Literary Organizations & Centers |
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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.
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.
Literary Map of Massachusetts A cultural tourism tool that foregrounds the richness and vitality of book culture in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It includes a printed road map to Massachusetts literary heritage sites and an online reference resource, putting those established literary heritage sites in a broader context.
Grub Street, Inc.
Grub Street is a non-profit creative writing center dedicated to nurturing writers and connecting readers with the wealth of writing talent in the Boston area through university-level instruction, seminars and conferences; innovative programs and community events; unique professional development opportunities; and an accessible space where writers can find professional resources and connect with each other in a spirit of mutual support.
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Readings Series, Conferences, & Literary Festivals |
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Many of the bookstores, writing programs, presses and magazines listed in other sections sponsor reading series. |
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Writing Programs & Colonies |
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Boston University
BU maintains a small, intensive one-year M.F.A. program in creative writing—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. Faculty includes poets Robert Pinsky, Rosanna Warren, and Louise Gluck.
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.
The Solstice MFA in Creative Writing offers an annual award for a promising poet, the Sharon Olds Fellowship for Poetry, for students starting the program during the winter residency/spring semester. Fellowship recipients will receive a $1,000 award toward their first semester’s tuition. The deadline for applications falls in mid-October; fellowships are awarded based on the quality of the applicant’s writing sample. For application guidelines, a comprehensive program overview, and faculty bios, go to: www.pmc.edu/mfa.
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. |
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Massachusetts Poetfans |
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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 > |
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Poetic History |
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 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.
 Stanley Kunitz's Home: Worcester, MA The house where Kunitz spent most of his boyhood has been restored to its original interior appearance.
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Poems about Massachusetts |
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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...
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Literary Journals & Small Presses |
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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.
Boston Literary Magazine
Boston Literary Magazine is dedicated to helping writers get published. It offers feedback, and encourages writers to re-submit material if it is not accepted.
Boston Review
Founded in 1975, Boston Review has always been an independent, nonprofit institution with support from individual donors and grants. It is a nonpartisan magazine of ideas: animated by hope, committed to equality and reason, convinced that the imagination eludes political categories.
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.
The Massachusetts Review
An independent quarterly of literature, the arts, and public affairs, The Massachusetts Review has deep local roots but a broad appeal, with subscribers spread across the U.S. and abroad. In addition to poems and stories of the highest literary quality by nationally-known and emerging writers, its pages regularly include literature in translation, personal witness pieces, lively and incisive social and historical commentary.
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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