When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? I guess I first encountered poetry in high school, and I mostly did not like it. Maybe that was because we read the driest corners of the canon, or maybe it was that poems had...
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Getting to Know Candace Curran
When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? It all began with The Real Mother Goose beautifully illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright. Word and image spun a powerful connection and to this day I sing its melodic poetry,...
Getting to Know Vijaya Sundaram
When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? When I was ten years old in Chennai (then known as Madras), India, I found a copy of Palgrave’s Golden Treasury in my local lending library, and later bought it. I fell in love...
Getting to Know M.P. Carver
When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? I fell in love with poetry through an elective workshop in college. That’s where I first read a full collection by a contemporary American poet (Jerome Rothenberg), and...
Getting to Know Amy Gordon
When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? My earliest encounters with poetry were poems by A.A.Milne and Robert Louis Stevenson. As a teenager and young adult I spent time in the New Hampshire and the Maine woods and I...
Getting to Know Katie Mihalek
When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? Poetry was the first form of creative expression that I can remember being truly irresistible. The idea of writing being something that could move down the page without being...
Getting to Know Linda Flaherty Haltmaier
When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? My first encounter was listening to my father recite poetry on long car rides. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was a favorite: All in a hot and copper sky/the bloody sun at...
Tamar Dor-Ner
Partner, Boston Office Head, Bain & Company Tamar Dane Dor-Ner is a partner in Bain & Company’s Boston office and a member of the Private Equity, Retail and Brand Strategy Practices. She joined the firm in 1999 and, in addition to Boston, has worked in...
April English
Chief Secretary to Governor Maura T. Healey April English serves as the Chief Secretary to Governor Maura T. Healey. As Chief Secretary, she oversees the administration's efforts to fill appointments on boards and commissions and throughout the administration. Prior...
Jill Medvedow
Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art Jill Medvedow is the Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and is recognized as a national leader in the field of contemporary art and civic life. She dramatically...
Imari Paris Jeffries
Executive Director of EMBRACE Boston Imari K. Paris Jeffries is CEO and President of Embrace Boston where he is leading a citywide racial equity movement through The Embrace memorial, the National Embrace Center, and arts and culture centered community organizing...
Jeneé Osterheldt
Deputy managing editor of talent, culture and development at The Boston Globe/founder of A Beautiful Resistance she/her/hers Jeneé Osterheldt is a culture columnist who covers identity and social justice through the lens of culture and the arts. Her work centers Black...
Annual Report 2021
Poetry Coalition 2020 In This Place : Poetry & Protest
poetry coalition 2020in this place : Poetry & Protest “In This Place (An American Lyric)” features a stirring choral recitation of a protest-themed poem of the same name by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. This short film, released in conjunction with...
Announcing the July 2019 Mastheads Writers’ Residency
announcing the 2019 mastheads writers’ residency Applications for the July 2019 Mastheads writers’ residency are now open! Five writers across disciplines are awarded residencies that include a $900 stipend, travel reimbursement, housing, and exclusive use of one of...
National Poetry Month 2019
April is National Poetry Month! Here Are a few Ways to Celebrate. Read a poem every day! You can find daily poems via Poetry Daily, the Poem-a-Day on poets.org, and by listening to U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith’s podcast, The Slowdown.Mass Poetry is part of...
10 Tip for Starting a Poetry Discussion Group at Your Library, by Alice Kociemba
Ten Tips For starting a Poetry Discussion Group in your Libraryby Alice Kociemba Recently, Mass Poetry’s website shared exciting news from the National Endowment for the Arts: Nearly 29 million adults in the United States read poetry not required for work or school....
Public Art Recognizes Poets
public art recognizes poetsby Ken Bresler Cummings typically used lower-case letters in his poems and sometimes spelled his name all in the lower case – but not always. His lower-case initials in The Massachusetts Artifact reflect the spelling “e.e. cummings” that...
MFA/Mass Poetry — Poets in the Galleries
MFA/Mass Poetry - Poets in the galleries In fall of 2018 - from September through November - three poets were Poets in Residence at the galleries in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The workshops took place on Wednesday evenings 6:30 - 8:30 pm (Wednesday nights after...
2018 Boston Poetry Marathon
Boston Poetry Marathon Set for August 10-12 in CambridgeA much-loved writing community tradition is returning to the Hub again in 2018. The Boston Poetry Marathon will be held August 10th - 12th, at Outpost 186 in Cambridge’s Inman Square. Over three days, nearly 100...
On Coming Home
On Coming Home: A Note from Executive Director Daniel JohnsonDaniel Johnson | July 2018 Joining Mass Poetry recently as its newest executive director feels like a homecoming to me. I mean this in the deepest sense. Poetry, for many winters and springs, has given me...