Mass Poetry, a founding member of the Poetry Coalition, is accepting applications for a paid
Poetry Coalition Fellowship position. This position is 20 hours per week from September 9, 2024
to June 30, 2025. The total stipend is $20,000 plus $1,100 toward health care.
The Poetry Coalition is a national alliance of more than 25 organizations dedicated to working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. Members are nonprofit organizations whose primary mission is to promote poets and poetry, and/or multi-genre literary organizations that serve disabled poets and poets of specific racial, ethnic, or gender identities, backgrounds, or communities. All members present poets at live events. All members present poets at live events. Each March, members present programming across the country on a theme of social importance. The Poetry Coalition is coordinated by the Academy of American Poets and we are grateful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its support of this work.
The Poetry Coalition Fellowship Program is a three-year pilot program. The goals of this are to help:
- diversify the leadership of the nonprofit literary field by encouraging more inclusion of individuals from under-represented communities;
- develop future literary leaders regardless of educational background;
- introduce the individuals who are interested to nonprofit literary arts management, fundraising, programming, and editorial work, providing experiences that will be useful as they seek jobs and inspiring them to consider working in the literary field; and
- increase the capacity of our individual organizations by having additional assistance.
Paid fellowships will not “level the playing field.” Opportunity in our country is not equally distributed across ability, class, ethnic, gender, and racial lines. And we alone cannot erase and undo the biases, barriers, discrimination, and prejudice that exist in our country. But we hope poetry organizations can be out front in building equity and inclusivity in literary arts organizations and spaces.
POSITION DESCRIPTION:
Mass Poetry’s Poetry Coalition Fellow will offer program support on the 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, a biennial festival held in Salem, Massachusetts. Our Fellow will work closely with the Festival Director to coordinate the community proposal process, support programming and marketing, coordinate with festival venues and partners, and more. In addition, our Fellow will support Mass Poetry’s community programming and events at GrubStreet’s Center for Creative Writing in Boston’s Seaport, where Mass Poetry serves as an arts-partner-in-residence.
FELLOW RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Committing to 20 hours per week for the entire ten-month fellowship
- Adhering to rules and policies of the Mass Poetry as appropriate
- Assisting with any of the following:
- Community outreach
- Marketing and promotion, including materials development
- Grant writing and/or fundraising
- Content production for websites or social media
- Programming and curating live events, such as poetry readings and workshops, and/or retreats
- General administration
- Attending and participating in meetings, including ad-hoc meetings with other Poetry Coalition fellows and with leaders to foster community, professional development, and create a peer learning group
- Participating in the Poetry Coalition’s professional development sessions
- Completing evaluations at the end of the fellowship year
FELLOW QUALIFICATIONS:
- Passion for poetry and familiarity with and/or knowledge of contemporary poets
- Interest in literary arts programming, administration, and management
- Demonstrated experience in the areas listed above
Note: We welcome all applicants, including those who are enrolled in or have recently graduated from MFA programs in creative writing.
TO APPLY: Please submit a cover letter, resume, and 2-3 references via the form linked below. No calls please. Mass Poetry is an equal opportunity employer committed to being an inclusive, multicultural organization. We encourage those who belong to communities that are underrepresented in arts administration such as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color), LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, and more to apply.