10th Annual Women's Reading!
2026-03-11 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom Online Only
On March 11th, 2025, the WCPA is proud to host its annual Women’s Zoom Reading. If you would like to attend, please CLICK HERE.

Here is the reading list & order of readers:

1. Catherine Zebrowski grew up in Worcester County. Worcester has been an inspiration for hertwo novels Sleepwalking Backwards and Through a Bakery Window, along with poetry, songsand most recently a memoir, Me, Fran and the shadow man, due to be published in April.

2. Rhett Watts has poems in The Worcester Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Naugatuck RiverReview, The Ekphrastic Review, One Art, and other journals. She facilitates writing workshops.Her poems are included in the anthologies: The Mud Chronicles: A New England Anthology,Knitting into the Mystery, The Black River: Death Poems, and The Best Spiritual Writing 2000.Rhett’s books are: Willing Suspension, The Braiding, and The Double Nest. She lives with herhusband and Siberian cat twenty-five feet from a brook in MA.

3. Linda Warren has worked as a teacher, Romance novelist and software analyst. She has published a dozen novels and had poems published in in The Worcester Review, Diner, Whiskey Island Magazine, Naugatuck River Review, Writing the Land, and other books and journals. She fishes the trout and salmon rivers of New England and New Brunswick as often as she can, and this collection is inspired by those rivers and the hours she has spent standing in them, casting for fish and for words. Her first chapbook of fishing poems, They Say, has recently been published by Finishing Line Press.

4. Susan Elizabeth (Beth) Sweeney’s poems have appeared in Diner, Worcester Review, Journal of Irish Literature, and elsewhere, and have won an Academy of Poets Prize, a Frank O’Hara Poetry Prize, and other awards. Her chapbook, Hand Me Down, was a semifinalist in the 2012 New Women’s Voices Competition. Close and Apart, a sequence of nine poems, was adapted by composer Matthew Jaskot and performed by a dozen musicians at a world premiere in 2023. A past president of the Worcester County Poetry Association, Beth now directs Mapping Worcester in Poetry, an initiative supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; she guest-curated the exhibit “The Poem Next Door” at the Museum of Worcester in 2024 and recently established the Worcester Poetry Archive there. She holds the postion of Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities at the College of the Holy Cross.

5. NANCY BAILLIE STRONG lives in Manchester, NH. She has workshopped with Jim Beschta at the Worcester Art Museum and participates in Susan Roney-O’Brien’s virtual workshop. Her work has been published in TOUCHSTONE (PSNH) and SMOKY QUARTZ (Monadnock Writers’ Group), and she is featured in OFF THE MARGINS (offthemargins.com).

6. Cindy Snow’s writing has appeared online and in the Massachusetts Review, Peace Review, Worcester Review, Crannóg, and Maria Sibylla Merian: Changing the Nature of Art and Science. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart, and her chapbook, Small Ceremonies, was published by Slate Roof Press. Cindy served as a Platte Clove Artist in Residence and was a writing fellow at Cill Rialaig, Ireland. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Drew University, works at Greenfield Community College, and lives in Shelburne Falls, MA, with her family.

7. Karen Elizabeth Sharpe lives in Rutland, Massachusetts with her partner and two rescue dogs. She is the author of Prayer Can Be Anything and This Late Afternoon. A poetry editor for The Worcester Review and executive committee member of the National Baseball Poetry Festival, her poems appear in SWWIM, Whale Road Review, The MacGuffin, and others.

8. Eve Rifkah: was co-founder of Poetry Oasis, Inc. (1998-2012), a non-profit poetry association dedicated to education and promoting local poets. Founder, and editor DINER, a literary magazine.She is the 2021 recipient of the Stanley Kunitz award. She lives in Worcester, MA. The play, Outcasts the Lepers of Penikese Island, was based on her first book. She has 6 published books, none self-published.

9. Rev. Dr. Catherine Reed is a graduate of Clark University, Kaleo School of Ministry, Hartford Seminary BMCP, Brigham and Women’s Chaplaincy Program, and attended Boston University School of Theology. She served as the associate pastor of John Street Baptist Church, Campus Minister atClark University, and Protestant Chaplain of The College of The Holy Cross. She is a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Rev. Dr. Catherine Reed is the author of the following publications: Crossing Boundaries, Between Midnight and Dawn, Sankofa, and Fire Goes Out Without Wood and the winner of the Barbara Pilon Poetry Contest and the Dark Horse Third World Contest. She hosted WCCA TV’s “A Journey of Words.”

10. Jina Ortiz holds an MFA from The Solstice MFA Program at Pine Manor College. Her first poetry collection, Miss Universe (Broadstone Press, 2025) is a series of persona poems in the voices of the African descendant Miss Universe contestants who have won their country’s crown. Her poetry has been published in Sahara, Afro-Hispanic Review, Calabash, Poui, New Millennium Writings, The Caribbean Writer and New Works Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Worcester Review.

11. Muriel Nelson’s publications include Part Song, winner of the Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize (Bear Star Press), and Most Wanted, winner of the ByLine Chapbook Award (ByLine Press). Nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize, her poems have appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Four Way Review, Front Porch Journal, Hunger Mountain, National Poetry Review, The New Republic, Northwest Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, and Superstition Review, and on Verse Daily and Poetry Daily. Italian Culture published her critical essay on Eugenio Montale. She holds master’s degrees from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and the University of Illinois School of Music.

12. Diane V. Mulligan is a teacher, writer, and artist from Worcester. Her most recent novel is What She Inherits. She has published poems, essays, and short stories in many literary magazines over the years including Cognoscenti, The Ocean State Review, and Glassworks.Publications: Watch Me Disappear (2012), The Latecomers Fan Club (2013), and What She Inherits (2017).

The poet Jennifer Militello (USA), New York, New York, June 6, 2024. Photograph © Beowulf Sheehan

13. Jennifer Militello is the Poet Laureate of New Hampshire. She is the author of the hybrid collection Identifying the Pathogen (Tupelo Press, 2026), named a finalist for the FC2 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize, the memoir Knock Wood, winner of the Dzanc Nonfiction Prize, and five collections of poetry, including, most recently, The Pact (Tupelo Press/Shearsman Books, 2021. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, American Poetry Review, The Nation, The New Republic, The Paris Review, and Poetry. She teaches in the MFA program at New England College. (photo credit: Beowulf Sheehan)

14. Carolyn Howe writes poetry to help make sense of the inner and outer worlds that shape our experience of being human. She has published in The Worcester Review and the anthology The Senior Class: 100 Poets on Aging (ed. Laurence Musgrove). She has a chapbook, Across the Street, and is working on a collection of poems that speak to challenges facing our nation and world, tentatively titled Looking Out, Looking In. Carolyn is Associate Professor, Emerita at College of the Holy Cross, end enjoys her retirement with painting and writing poetry at her home on Patch Reservoir in Worcester.

15. Kathleen Granchelli spent her career in communications and community relations at a not-for-profit R&D organization following four years teaching English on the high school and freshmancollege levels. Upon retirement, she reignited her passion for poetry with a focus on writing. Herchapbook, “For the World, She Said,” scheduled to be published later this year, is drawn fromexperiences living in Australia and Greece and other travels. She lives with her husband, DavidGranchelli, in Massachusetts.

16. Claire Golding is a freelance writer and editor. She was the 2003 recipient of the Worcester County Poetry Association’s Frank O’Hara Prize, and has self-published a chapbook, Poems and Other Offerings (Lulu Press, 2009). She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poetry has been published in The Worcester Review, New Millennium Writings, Contour (as part of the 2017 Tale of Two Cities International Poetry Project with Worcester, Massachusetts and Worcester, England), The Scenes and Seasons of a Small New England Village, Penning the Pandemic, and Last Stanza Poetry Journal. She lives in Princeton, Massachusetts.

17. Polly Brown has happily resettled a family place in western Maine, where she is growing poems and a few green beans. Her new book, Stitching, follows Pebble Leaf Feather Knife, Each Thing Torn From Any of Us, and Blue Heron Stone. A new website, with blog posts, can be found at pollybrownpoet.com.

18. Robin Boucher: She has taken classes at the Worcester Art Museum, Grub Street, Stanford University and attended workshops like those held at the Stanley Kunitz home, the Frost Place, and Mount Monadnock Pastoral Retreats. In 2023, she was the inaugural poet for the Shawna Shea Foundation’s Library Poetry Tour. Her work has appeared in the Tale of Two Cities Projects, in a collection of poems from the Slightly Off Beat Poets series, Worcester Magazine and the Shivering Mouse Art & Poetry Review Vol. One 2025.

19. Cheryl L. Bonin is a bourbon sipping, baseball watching, pirate loving, Neil Diamond singing, cancerous wench of the breast variety who writes snark filled stories and poetry because it’s cheaper than therapy. Her rantings have been encouraged, tolerated, published and/or acknowledged by: her Good Sport Hubby, random unsuspecting open mic attendees, The Worcester Review, Worcester Magazine, Three Decker, The National Baseball Poetry Festival, The Eastport (Maine) Library Review and the 2022 Frank O’Hara Poetry Contest.

20. Kathleen Aguero’s most recent book of poetry is World Happiness Index from Tiger Bark Books.Her other poetry collections include After That, Investigations: The Mystery of the Girl Sleuth, Daughter Of, The Real Weather, and Thirsty Day.She has co-edited three volumes of multi- cultural literature for the University of Georgia Press (A Gift of Tongues, An Ear to the Ground, and Daily Fare). A former contributing edior at Kenyon Review, she is poetry Faculty-at-Large in the Solstice low-residency M.F.A. program at Lasell University and also teaches in Changing Lives through Literature, an alternative sentencing program. Kathleen has been awarded a 2026 Creative Individuals Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

21. Eleanor Wilner has nine books of poetry, most recently Before Our Eyes; New and Selected Poems 1975-2017( Princeton University Press); her awards include the 2019 Frost Medal of the Poetry Society of America for lifelong achievement, fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation and the NEA, the Juniper Prize, and three Pushcart prizes. She is currently a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and is a lifelong activist for civil rights and peace.

22. Susan Roney O’Brien earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. Publications include Earth and Farmwife, Legacy of the Last World, Bone Circle and Thira. Her work has been translated into Mandarin and Braille, Susan has been nominated for many Pushcart Prizes and published widely. She was the 2020 recipient of the Stanley Kunitz Medal for Poetry She teaches, organizes monthly poetry readings and facilitates free poetry workshops.

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Parent Writer Social Hour #2
2026-03-13 10:00 - 11:30 | Zoom Online Meeting, United States

Sunrise/Sunset Reading
2026-03-15 08:00 - 09:30 | Zoom Online Only
Sunrise/Sunset Reading: Poetry Bridging Continents.

Poets from USA, China and Ireland read in three languages. March 15 8:00 AM:

The Zoom link is below:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81561710109?pwd=[REDACTED]

Curtin Youth Poetry Workshop #2
2026-03-15 08:00 - 17:00 | Zoom Online Only
Zoom Online Link

Poetry Writing with Catherine Martin
2026-03-16 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-03-23 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-03-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Hopkinton Arts Center, 98 Hayden Rowe St., Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 01748, United States
Spend five weeks writing and reading in the dreamy, sharp, upside-down, carefully organized world of poetry! Whether you’re fine tuning your latest epic poem or wrestling with the blank page, this class is an encouraging and open environment for poets of all levels and backgrounds. Each week you’ll receive a prompt, two fascinating poems to read, and thoughtful, constructive feedback on the poem you’ve brought to share with the class. You’ll have the opportunity to be workshopped by your peers at least twice, and you’ll receive written feedback from the class every week.

We’ll dive into imagery, form, repetition, sound, and poetic voice. By the end of this session, you’ll have five poems, either new or more polished; writing prompts to carry you forward; and a deeper understanding of the building blocks of poetry.

Instructor: Catherine Martin is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet with work published in Pleiades, Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry, Superstition Review, and others. She loves writing, reading, and workshopping with fellow writers and artists. Catherine is currently writing her first manuscript of poetry. She lives in Hopkinton with her family.

Age: AdultDates: 5 Mondays, March 2 to 30, 2026Time: 7 to 9 p.m.

HCA Policies: Please review our website’s HCA Student Policies and Procedures here.

Injury Waiver: You must agree to the HCA injury waiver to register for classes.

Photo Release Agreement: You can agree to the HCA’s Photo Release Agreement during registration.

Waiting List: If this class is sold out, it will say so below and will not allow you to register. If so, please add your name to our waitlist here.

Scholarships: The HCA believes the arts are for everyone. Thanks to the generosity of the Dora Kishibay Garabedian Scholarship Fund and individual donations to our scholarship fund, we can assist children, teens, and adults who might not otherwise be able to afford classes. Assistance is awarded based on demonstrated need, motivation, and potential benefit to the student. Apply for a scholarship here.

MEMBERS SAVE ON CLASSES: Your membership helps the HCA change the lives of artists and art lovers through its nurturing faculty, state-of-the-art facility, and need-based scholarship program. We are pleased to offer 5% off class costs to HCA Members from the Insider–Plus LEVEL and up.

The 2026 Michael True Memorial Reading
2026-03-17 19:30 - 21:00 | Curtiss Performance Hall, Tsotsis Family Academic Center, Assumption College, 500 Salisbury St, Worcester, MA, 01609
The 2026 Michael True Memorial Reading

with novelist Lauren Grodstein

Tuesday, March 17, 7:30 PM

Curtis Performance Hall

Tsotsis Family Academic Center

Assumption University

Free and open to the public.

Lauren Grodstein is the author of 6 novels, including We Must Not Think of Ourselves, The New York Times bestseller A Friend of the Family, and, the Washington Post Book of the Year The Explanation for Everything. Her most recent novel is A Dog in Georgia.

Poetry Extravaganza with Art DuBois
2026-03-18 18:30 - 20:30 | The Mill, 185 W. Boylston Street, West Boylston, Massachusetts, 01583, United States
Join us at The Mill in West Boylston on March 18th.

The Mill is right off Rt 190, has a spacious parking lot, serves delectable apps, entrees, and desserts with a full bar. We have a separate room for our monthly shenanigans. Admission is still free. All of the Tip Jar proceeds go to the Feature.

The Poetry Extravaganza (PE) is the 3rd Wednesday of the month, except for July ,from 6:30-8;30 pm. Sign up for the open mic at jfjr6969@gmail.com.

Five minute maximum, Please!

There are no language restrictions. We are not kid-friendly!Our Feature Poet on March 18th is the iconic Art DuBoisMark Lewandowski of Lewandowski Painters sponsors our event. That’s how we pay the poets!Join the Fun on March 18th!

Art DuBois is a 69-year-old career clinical social worker who has worked as a psychotherapist, in the Public Defender’s Office, and in management positions in the human services field. He is an amateur nature photographer and intermittent poet. Clearly, these two interests overlap for him. He counts Mary Oliver as his main inspiration, and his own poetry is heavily influenced by his mindfulness practices and his work with helping others.

Art is married to Susan, and they have three adult children. Art resides in Uxbridge. He has written poetry throughout his life. Over the last several years his poems have become increasingly impacted by the work he has done helping others, and then, even more so, by his own efforts to find the balance between his own natural inclination to joy and the emotional baggage he himself carries. He shares his poetry articulating common life struggles to maintain peace with the ethos that we are all in this together.Art is an active participant in a plethora of poetry open mike events throughout Worcester County and Northern Rhode Island. He credits this activity as making him feel young again in a truly delightful way.

Meet the Editors
2026-03-21 10:00 - 11:00 | Massachusetts

Booklover's Gourmet
2026-03-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Booklovers’ Gourmet, 72 E. Main St., Webster, MA, 01570
Happy Spring Equinox

Open Mic Poetry

Saturday, March 21st

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Join us for a monthly round robin style, open poetry reading hosted by Robert Eugene Perry.

Space for the open mic is limited to 14 and usually fills up quickly. Please email deb@bookloversgourmet.com to register.

All are welcome to come listen!

Poets @ Large
2026-03-21 19:00 - 21:30 | Massachusetts
Poets at Large Presents Schwartz and Reilley March 21st

Poets at Large will continue its seventh year on Saturday night, March 21st at 7 p.m. at The Vanilla Bean Café, 450 Deerfield Road, in Pomfret, CT. Featured poets that evening will be Christopher Reilley and Carla Schwartz.

Worcester poet Christopher Reilley is a two-time Pushcart nominee and former poet laureate of Dedham, MA. He is also a contributing editor at Acoustic Ink and was involved in print and book production for over thirty years, working for such companies as Xerox, EFI, Ricoh USA and Online Print Solutions and is a copywriter for the Bytesized Studios. His books are Grief Tattoos, Breathing for Clouds, One Night Stanzas, and his latest release, Pour Decisions, was inspired by his work as a bartender. All are available from Big Table Publishing. Reilley’s poems have appeared in a wide number of publications, including the Boston Literary Journal, Word Salad Poetry, Wild Winds, Coldnoon Travel Poetics and many others, as well as anthologies including Sanctuary, Hot Summer Nights and Silent Consciousness from Acoustic Ink. He also had a poem selected to be in the Lunar Codex, mankind’s first interplanetary library,thanks to NASA and lunarcodex.org.

Carla Schwartz is a poet, filmmaker, photographer, and blogger. She lives half the year on an unbridged island in Lake Winnipesaukee, and the other half in the Boston area. Schwartz holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University. Her poems have appeared in Rattle and other journals and in her collections Signs of Marriage, Mother, One More Thing, and Intimacy with the Wind. Learn more at https://carlapoet.com, or on all social media @cb99videos. Carla Schwartz received the New England Poetry Club E.E. Cummings Prize. Poets at Large has brought over 120 published and awarded poets to the area since 2020 and dozens of people have participated in the open mic portions during that time.

Poets at Large is a project of Windham Arts. All events are ADA compliant and are recommended for ages 16 and up. Readings for the rest of the season are sponsored in part by donations from bankHometown, Charter Oak FCU, WHZ Financial and The Putnam Area Foundation. Contact karen.warinsky@gmail.com to sign up for the open mic; 5-minute max as time allows.

Slightly Off-Beat Poets
2026-03-22 13:00 - 16:00 | WCPA Office @ Salisbury House, 61 Harvard St., Worcester MA, MA, 01605, United States
WHAT: Slightly Off-beat Poets Presents: Oliver de la Paz & David P. Miller

WHERE: WCPA Ballroom at 61 Harvard Street, Worcester (parking right next to Salisbury House)

WHEN: Sunday March 22nd @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

WHAT HAPPENS: Our feature poets of the month will each read for 20 minutes. Then we will take a quick break for book sales, snacks, and the raffle before starting the open mic. Open mic will be round robin, one poem at a time until 4 PM.

COST: There will be a 50/50 raffle, split between the feature and the winner. 5$ to enter.

SIGN-UPS: There is room for 25 POETS. To reserve a spot please email: roberteugeneperry@gmail.com

Oliver de la Paz is the author and editor of several books. His latest collection of poetry, The Diaspora Sonnets, was published by Liveright Press (2023). It was a winner of the 2023 New England Book Award and was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award. A founding member of Kundiman, he is the James N. and Sarah L. O’Reilly Barrett Professor of Creative Writing at the College of the Holy Cross. He also teaches in the Low-Residency MFA Program at PLU and is the former Poet Laureate of Worcester, MA.

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David P. Miller’s collection, Bend in the Stair, was published by Lily Poetry Review Books in 2021. Nixes Mate Books published his Sprawled Asleep in 2019. His poems have appeared in Meat for Tea, Reed Magazine, Jerry Jazz Musician, Tar River Poetry, Gramercy Review, Second Coming, The Ekphrastic Review, The Disappointed Housewife, and Cherry Tree, among other journals. David is a member of Boston’s Jamaica Pond Poets and co-directs their Chapter and Verse literary reading series. He is a member of the New England Poetry Club’s Board of Directors, and is the recipient of a 2025 Tanne Foundation award.

Fireside Creative Expo
2026-03-22 17:00 - 19:00 | Massachusetts

A Virtual Thirsty Lab with C. I. Marshall
2026-03-24 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom Online Meeting, United States
The Thirsty Lab poetry reading, normally based out of Princeton, MA, continues to meet virtually. Join us on Tuesday March 24th virtually on Zoom with none other than C. I. Marshall, our featured reader!

C. I. Marshall’s debut chapbook, The Locksmith Journeys Into The Afterlife won the 2022 Frosted Fire First Pamphlet Award. Credits include: Steam Ticket, Birmingham Poetry Review, 2025 National Baseball Poetry Festival, 2025 Write Out Loud, “Echoes” Anthology judged by Neil Astley. Marshall’s poems were shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, UK and commended for the 2025 Stanza Competition, The Poetry Society, UK. For more about C.I.’s writing. C.I. Marshall’s chapbook, The Locksmith Journeys Into The Afterlife may be purchased for $10.00 from Frosted Fire Press. C. I.’s poem on the Poetry Society Webpage.

Poetorium at TidePool
2026-03-25 17:00 - 19:00 | TidePool Bookshop, 372 Chandler St. Unit 101, Worcester, MA, 01602
Please join us for a very special double feature edition of our monthly open mic and featured poetry reading series The Poetorium Too at TidePool Bookshop at 372 Chandler Street in Worcester, MA on March 25th from 5 pm to 7 pm hosted by Paul Szlosek & (hopefully) Ron Whittle. It will be a full two hours of poetry and spoken word starting with a brief interview on stage with our two featured poets Yvonne Beaudry (author of Juniper) and Eve Rifkah (author of Lost in Sight) followed by poetry readings by our two features, a short intermission, and then an open mic (with 5-minute slots for each reader if time permits). Books by both poets will be available for purchase at TidePool Bookshop that night. For more information, please get in touch with us at poetorium@mail.com or visit our website https//poetorium.home.blog/2019/04/29/the-poetorium-at-starlite-2/

Curtin Youth Poetry Workshop- #1
2026-03-26 16:00 - 17:00 | Zoom Online Only
Zoom Link

Three Decker Meet the Editors virtual event (via Zoom)
2026-03-30 16:30 - 17:30 | Massachusetts
Meet the editors of the WCPA’s publication, Three Decker! We’re available to talk through our current submission period, what we’re looking for in poetry and short stories, and any other questions you have about the journal or the WCPA.

Worcester County Poetry Association is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Three Decker Meet the Editors MeetingTime: Mar 25, 2026 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/88285834683

Meeting ID: 882 8583 4683

One tap mobile+13126266799,,88285834683# US (Chicago)+16468769923,,88285834683# US (New York)

Join instructionshttps://us02web.zoom.us/meetings/88285834683/invitations?signature=5HncI22E6WgmXDPqRIcQ1WIHdLeabsb_xQziPa5BTe0

A Virtual Thirsty Lab with Eve Rifkah
2026-03-31 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom Online Meeting, United States
The Thirsty Lab poetry reading, normally based out of Princeton, MA, continues to meet virtually. Join us on Tuesday March 31st virtually on Zoom with none other than Eve Rifkah, our featured reader!

Eve Rifkah is a poet of history and myth. She earned her MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was co-founder of Poetry Oasis, Inc. (1998-2012), Founder and editor of DINER, a literary journal. She is the 2021 recipient of the Stanley Kunitz award. She is author of 6 books. The play Outcasts the Lepers of Penikese Island, was based on her first book, Outcasts the Penikese Island Leper Hospital 1905-1921. More information is available on her webpage, eve-rifkah.com. Books can be purchased on the webpage.

The Return of the Fox Poetry Readings with Joe Fusco Jr.
2026-04-07 18:00 - 20:00 | The Broadway Diner, 100 Water Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, 01604, United States
We’re back with an exciting new location! It’s the Broadway Restaurant at 100 Water Street, Worcester.

Owners Tony and Nequel Germano have a plethora of delightful entrees, apps, desserts, and their famous, homemade ice cream. The Broadway also serves beer and wine and breakfast until closing (with mimosas!). We’ll have a separate room for our shenanigans. Parking is metered with a lot across the street but Tony and Nequel will take one-hour ($2.00) off every check. Free admission.

I asked myself to be the 1st Feature since my closing feature at Root and Press was cancelled because of foul weather. I’ll have a new book ‘Here We Go Again’ available for purchase. It would be awesome to see some past featured performers at our inaugural event at The Broadway. Sign up for the open mic at joesyellowpad@gmail.com. Five minute maximum and limited spots. The Fox Poetry Series, in honor of the iconic poet Richard Fox, is sponsored by the Worcester County Poetry Association through a generous donation from the Fox family.

I’m pleased as punch to continue this exciting open mic/feature every 1st Tuesday of the month from 6 8pm at our new and welcoming venue.

Join the Fun on April 7th!

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Solo/Duet
2026-04-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Merriam Gilbert Library, 3 West Main St., West Brookfield, MA, 01585, United States
A poetry and music series at the Merriam-Gilbert Public LibraryFree and open to all!

Please stop by or call the Library at508-867-1410 to reserve your seat.

Each evening will feature poetry readings that will book-end a set of chamber jazz music. This program is made possible by the West Brookfield Cultural Council as supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, In celebration of National Poetry and National Jazz Month.

It is difficultTo get the news from poems,Yet men die miserably every day

For the lack

Of what is found there

~William Carlos Williams~

Join us on Tuesday evening at 6:00 PM …April 7th : bassist Jerry Wilfong and percussionist-trumpeter Dick HummelGlenn D’Alessio and Susan Roney-O’Brien read

Jerry Wilfong is an active freelance bassist in the Boston area. He has performed with such distinguished jazz artists as Leni Stern, John Stowell, and Richie Cole, appears on several recordings and can be heard live anchoring two working trios – “Bring Back Pluto” and “The Conversation.” More can be learned about Jerry at jazzfong.com.

Dick Hummel is a psychologist who works with children in Worcester. Drummer, trumpeter, and composer, Dick has performed in an around the central Massachusetts area both as a solo trumpet and with varied ensembles, and occasionally with poets; he has led drumming groups with at risk children for over 25 years instilling techniques of ensemble work that insist on listening and complementary interaction.

Susan Roney-O’Brien earned an MA in Education in 1989 from Anna Maria College in Paxton, Mass., and an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoah, N.C. She attended The Frost Place on four occasions and was a resident at Dorset House in Vermont.. She curates a Princeton, Mass., reading series at The Thirsty Lab, and has received MCC grants to bring poets to her community.. She is a member of 4X4, a group of poets and visual artists who respond to each other’s art through their specific disciplines.. Her book, Farmwife, won the William and Kingman Poetry Book Award in 2000. Earth, a joint venture with photographer Bruce Dean, was published in 2011. Legacy of the Last World was published in March 2016.

Glenn D’Alessio’s Finishing Line Press chapbooks (FLP) of poems are: In My Sea Cliff Years of Innocence; A Carpenter’s Building, Homes for His Poems; and, Some Tanka in Thanks to

O'Connell Hoyer Poetry Reading
2026-04-08 15:00 - 17:00 | Sheehan Building Worcester State University, 486 Chandler St., Worcester, MA, 01602, United States

Regie Gibson, Massachusetts Poet Laureate - Poetry Reading
2026-04-09 18:30 - 20:00 | Rubin Campus Center, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, Massachusetts, 01609, United States
Rubin Campus Center

Hagglund Conference Room / CC 301

Regie Gibson,Inaugural Massachusetts Poet Laureate, will be our featured poet on April 9 at 6:30 pm, for our second annual Olive Higgins Prouty Poetry Celebration. This year’s program is hosted in partnership with WPI faculty Jim Cocola and Kris Boudreau, the Worcester County Poetry Association and the Clemente Course in the Humanities. A detailed event announcement is forthcoming.

Voices & Visions: Poetry Reading
2026-04-09 19:30 - 21:00 | Kennedy Hall, Assumption University, 500 Salisbury Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, 01609, United States

Poetry and Writers' Workshop
2026-04-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Phoenix Building, 781 Main Street, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 01420, United States

Curtin Youth Poetry- #3
2026-04-14 16:00 - 17:00 | Zoom Online Only

Solo/Duet
2026-04-14 18:00 - 19:30 | Merriam Gilbert Library, 3 West Main St., West Brookfield, MA, 01585, United States
A poetry and music series at the Merriam-Gilbert Public LibraryFree and open to all!

Please stop by or call the Library at508-867-1410 to reserve your seat.

Each evening will feature poetry readings that will book-end a set of chamber jazz music. This program is made possible by the West Brookfield Cultural Council as supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, In celebration of National Poetry and National Jazz Month.

It is difficultTo get the news from poems,Yet men die miserably every day

For the lack

Of what is found there

~William Carlos Williams~

Join us on Tuesday evening at 6:00 PM April 14th…

bassist: Jerry Wilfong guitar: Mitch Seidman harmonica: Chet WillamsonRead: Clair Degutis and Jim Beschta

Jerry Wilfong is an active freelance bassist in the Boston area. He has performed with suchdistinguished jazz artists as Leni Stern, John Stowell, and Richie Cole, appears on severalrecordings and can be heard live anchoring two working trios – “Bring Back Pluto” and “TheConversation.” More can be learned about Jerry at jazzfong.com.

Mitch Seidman was initially inspired by a Kenny Burrell record to pursue jazz guitar, and then by the late Attila Zoller through study and a close friendship that began in 1974. A professional musician and music educator for well over forty years, he has performed at festivals, nightclubs, adjudicated, and presented clinics throughout the U.S., as well in France, Germany, and Costa Rica. He has earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition degree from Berklee College of Music, and a Master of Music in Music Education degree from Boston University. More can be learned about Mitch @ mitchseidman.com

Chet Williamson’s 40-plus-year career as a harmonica player has taken him from the streets of the Great Brook Valley Housing Projects of Worcester, MA to memorable performances around the world. Reflecting his ability to play a wide variety of musical styles, Williamson has shared stages with many of the world’s most popular and finest musicians, including Sleepy LaBeef, Joan Osborne and Duke Levine.

Clair Degutis of Princeton writes poems drawn on her close observations, experiences, and relationships to the natural world. She is an avid hiker and woods-walker along New England’s forested paths. As a Field Teacher Princeton’s Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary, she introduces both the young and young-at-heart to the wonders of our local natural environment. Her poems are published in “Echo & Spark: Work from the 4×4 Poet and Artist Collaborative”.

Jim Beschta: Wisconsin bred, born and raised, Beschta moved to Massachusetts in 1970 to earn a Master’s degree in English from Assumption College after graduate study in several University of Wisconsin branch institutions. A long-time board member of the Worcester County Poetry Association, his published books include Cutting the Cemetery Lawn (Haley’s, 2002), North From Yaoundé (Adastra Press, 2010) and Bone Cages (Haley’s, 1996), a collaboration of five New England poets. He currently teaches writing and poetry at the Worcester Art Museum and lives in Barre, Ma.

The Poetry Extravaganza with Sandy Edwards
2026-04-15 18:30 - 21:00 | The Mill, 185 W. Boylston Street, West Boylston, Massachusetts, 01583, United States
Join us at The Mill in West Boylston on April 15th.

The Mill is right off Rt 190, has a spacious parking lot, serves delectable apps, entrees, and desserts with a full bar. We have a separate room for our monthly shenanigans. Admission is still free. All of the Tip Jar proceeds go to the Feature.

The Poetry Extravaganza (PE) is the 3rd Wednesday of the month, except for July ,from 6:30-8;45 pm. Sign up for the open mic at jfjr6969@gmail.com. Five minute maximum, Please! There are no language restrictions. We are not kid-friendly!

Our Feature Poet on April 15th is the multi-talented Sandy Edwards Mark Lewandowski of Lewandowski Painters sponsors our event. That’s how we pay the poets! Join the Fun on April 15th. The Poetry Extravaganza is never taxing!

Sandy Edwards is an active member of the Worcester Writers Collective and the Worcester County Poetry Association. Her personal art includes writing, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and performance art. Sandy has publicly shared her work at the WWC’s annual Summer Showcases, as well as at other area venues like the John Henry Hammer coffeehouse, the Poet’s Cauldron, and the Poetry Extravaganza. Her paintings and sculptures have been shown at local galleries. With a background in education, Sandy also facilitates creativity workshops, such as “ZINEMAKING: the history of ZINES and how to make them.” Sandy uses ART as activism and is especially passionate about teaching personal empowerment through creative exploration. As an experienced crisis counselor, she teaches how to connect creativity to personal growth and healing. Sandy believes that art can be an antidote to angst and anger, and if everyone understood how to channel intense emotions into artistic expression, we could cure many social ills and all enjoy more life fulfillment. When she’s not creating or sharing her artistry, Sandy serves as the owner and managing broker of Edwards Real Estate Investments, which she founded in 2000.

Parent-Writer Social Hour
2026-04-17 10:00 - 12:00 | Zoom Online Only

Love and Spirituality
2026-04-17 18:30 - 20:30 | Rubin Campus Center, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, Massachusetts, 01609, United States
The evening features world-class reciters sharing centuries-old Arabic and Urdu poetry on love and spirituality, accompanied by traditional percussion and live English translation. The performance opens with a brief talk on Western and Islamic spirituality, setting the stage for the 45-minute journey that follows.

The poetry progresses through four carefully curated sets exploring secular, theistic, and religious themes of love and spirituality – each delving deeper into the dimensions of the human heart and spiritual journey. After each set, renowned reciter and scholar Shaykh Idris Nawaz will provide context and explain the themes, metaphors, and historical significance of the verses.

In keeping with classical tradition, tea will be served during the performance, creating the atmosphere of the centuries-old gatherings this event honors.

The evening concludes with dinner and dessert – a space to continue conversations and connect.

Registration

Parking:Street parking around WPI is free to all. Registration

Directions to the Venue:

Once you have parked, input Rubin Campus Center (Worcester, Massachusetts) on Google Maps and you will be directed towards the building. Once inside, walk up one flight of stairs and the venue (Odeum) will be on your left.
