I’m coming back from a couple months of silence (hello back to school and renewed focus!) to share a number of poetry events that are coming up soon.
First, next week (September 23-29, 2024) is the 12th annual Emily Dickinson Museum’s Tell It Slant Festival, which has an abundance of virtual events and is entirely free. (Glancing at the schedule, I see notes about gingerbread cookies and coconut cake, if you’re close enough to attend in person.) The workweek events are during the Amherst, MA (Eastern time) lunchtime/afternoon/evening, but there are some morning events during the weekend finale (for those in distant time zones). From their description: “This year’s line-up features a talented group of poets from around the country including readings by Pulitzer Prize winners Carl Phillips (2023) and Diane Seuss (2022), generative writing workshops, poetry panels, a masterclass with celebrated poet Oliver de la Paz, a musical theater performance by the Wilde Irish Women exploring Dickinson’s relationship to her Irish maid Margaret Maher, and more. The cornerstone of the Festival, the Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon, is an epic reading of all 1,789 of Emily Dickinson’s poems across the Festival week.” Registration is required, so I recommend going to the website now and signing up for what you want to attend as there may be space restrictions, even virtually.
If you’re a Dickinson fan and haven’t yet voted for the Emily Dickinson offering on Ah – the Sea’s potential classes list, you can learn more and note your support here. This is one of the potential classes with the most votes, so there’s a good chance this will happen in some form in the not-too-distant future.
An ad popped up in my Facebook feed for an intriguing writing contest: NYC Midnight’s Rhyming Story Challenge, open to writers worldwide. Beginning on September 20th (this Friday!), writers will be placed in eight groups that will each receive a unique genre/theme/emotion assignment. The writers will then have eight days to write an original rhyming story of 750 words or fewer, and one writer from each group will be chosen to advance to subsequent rounds of the contest. Judges will provide feedback on every submission, and participation includes a forum where you can get additional feedback. In case you’re wondering (like I did), yes by “rhyming story” they simply mean a narrative poem in rhyme. There is a $49 entry fee. This is NYC Midnight’s only poetry contest, but if you’re also interested in short fiction (especially microfiction) and screenwriting, they have some other challenges throughout the year that you might want to check out.
Another Facebook find fast approaching is a virtual book launch for Erín Moure’s translation of Andrés Ajens’ So-Lair Storm, which will include readings by the two poets as well as a conversation moderated by poet-translators Michelle Gil-Montero and Sonja Greckol. The word is “Erínajens is a force, and their long-awaited book is launching, and they might reweave all your thinking about language/s and poetry…you’ll see.” If the thought of seeing a translator approach a poem that may be untranslatable and watching the subsequent dance and syllables unfold/flower makes your heart beat faster, this may be the event for you. Ajens coined the word “translucinación” which highlights translation as an act of reading and writing that creates something new — as explained in this link to the tenth issue of the literary magazine Chain, which was helpful for some context. Black Sun Lit has some additional links on the page for the book.
With much sadness, I tend to categorically say no to evening readings and other events since that’s small child bedtime rodeo, but I’ve signed up anyway in the hope that I’ll be able to at least make some of it.
And finally, while it’s not a virtual event, I’d feel a little remiss in not mentioning that the biennial Dodge Poetry Festival is coming up in mid-October in Newark, NJ. There’s a lively, diverse group of poets for this one, and one of the headline events is a conversation with Joan Baez (who has recently published a book of poems). Personally, Aracelis Girmay, Claudia Rankine, Carolyn Forché, Jericho Brown, Marcus Wicker, and torrin a greathouse are tempting me to renounce the height of Trunk or Treat/fall festival season and make the drive with four-year-old in tow.
Wishing you your own poetry finds this September!
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