When the Massachusetts Poetry Festival began to look for a new home, J. D. Scrimgeour, a professor of creative writing at Salem State University, began to investigate Salem as a possible locale. Scrimgeour’s many contacts made him an ideal 
initiator of the project, bringing together the backing of SSU, the city of Salem, and the North Shore writing community.
He has published a collection of poetry, The Last Miles (2005) and two books of creative nonfiction, Spin Moves (2000) and Themes For English B: A Professor’s Education In and Out of Class (2006), which won the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction. He also won awards from the National Society of Arts and Letters and the Academy of American Poets and served as Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State University for several years. Scrimgeour collaborated with musician Philip Swanson to create Confluence, a performance group which blends poetry and music. In 2010, Confluence released its first CD, OGUNQUIT & OTHER WORKS, with MSR Classics.
We asked him to participate in our series of interviews “Welcome to Salem.”
What is your role in planning the poetry festival?
As someone who was a planner and participant of the first two festivals in Lowell, I have an understanding of what the festival is. I can share that experience with the North Shore writing community that is helping to organize the festival. Given my contacts in the arts and education on the North Shore, I’m also active in connecting organizers with important people and organizations in and around Salem. I’m doing a bit of everything, really.
What is your role in the North Shore poetry community?
For the last decade, I was the Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State. I hosted the University’s Writers’ Series and served as Administrative Editor to Soundings East, the national literary magazine that we publish. I am the director of the Salem Poetry Seminar, a weeklong summer program that offers twelve select students from public colleges and universities the opportunity to study poetry intensively with accomplished poets. I also am a founder of the Salem Writers’ Group, which meets twice a month at the Salem Athenaeum, and I manage a listserv and Facebook group for local writers.
I feel like I’ve been around the North Shore long enough that I can help other writers connect with people who have similar interests. I can also help program organizers with suggestions about generating audiences, finding venues, and scheduling events.
How will the North Shore community help facilitate the festival?
It seems like we’ll have our hand in everything, from fundraising to arranging venues to programming to training volunteers. We have a great core of energized, committed writers: Kevin Carey, Jennifer Jean, Colleen Michaels, January O’Neil and Dawn Paul, just to name a few. We all value poetry, and we all value community, and this project allows us to connect the two.
Have you been involved in planning other large scale literary events?
Not this large! But I’ve helped plan several events. While I was in graduate school at Indiana University, I was the Publicity Director and then Assistant Director of the Indiana University Writers’ Conference.
As Creative Writing Coordinator at Salem State, I not only hosted four to six readings every semester, but planned and hosted several special events, such as a symposium on Jazz and the Arts, which featured Yusef Komunyakaa, and interdisciplinary forums on the creative process, in which we had all kinds of artists—painters, choreographers, actors, musicians, and writers—converse about how they made their art. And, of course, there is my work as Director of the Salem Poetry Seminar.
What did you learn from those experiences that will be valuable for this event?
Hmm. I learned not to panic. I learned to answer questions clearly and concisely. And I learned how important good programming is to an event. One of the things that I have appreciated about the first two Mass Poetry Festivals has been the high quality of the programming. It has been great to hear Robert Pinsky, Afaa Michael Weaver, Anne Waldman and the rest.
What value will the festival have for your students?
People might think that college students studying poetry go to poetry readings and events all the time and meet accomplished poets. I don’t think that they do, though. Students today are so busy with work and school (at least my students) that it’s hard for them to find the time to experience a lot of poetry outside of the classroom. It will be exciting for them to connect, in person, with hundreds of other readers and writers of poetry.
How is the English faculty supporting the event?
We have faculty such as Jennifer Jean, Kevin Carey and Vanessa Ramos assisting in the planning of the festival. Some or all of them will be involved with the high school and college programming, and some of our English Education faculty are helping with the professional development workshops for high school teachers. We expect faculty to incorporate the festival into their classes, including developing a poetry slam team to compete in the college poetry slam. Lastly, the English Department and School of Arts and Sciences is helping fund Tom Sexton’s appearance at the festival. Tom’s an alum of Salem State and the former Poet Laureate of Alaska.
Other stories in “Welcome to Salem” series:
- Kate Fox: Salem enthusiastic about playing host to Mass. Poetry Festival
- Jude Nixon: SSU Provides Staff, Space and Money for the Mass Poetry Festival
More information on the city of Salem.
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