BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Worcester County Poetry Association - ECPv6.16.3//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Worcester County Poetry Association
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Worcester County Poetry Association
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250710T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250710T140000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250628T014934Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250707T142722Z
UID:11587-1752152400-1752156000@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Poems on Parts of a Wondrous Whole
DESCRIPTION:Mapping Worcester in Poetry has teamed up with Cantor Art Gallery’s current exhibit\, Room of Wonders: A Worcester Wunderkammer\, to host a poetry reading that explores collective experiences of the city’s public spaces. All the poems were composed for MWiP’s 2023 “Poems in and out of Places” contest\, and like many works in the exhibit\, they explore how parts relate to a whole. Poets will include Joe Fusco Jr.\, Anna Gold\, Kate Gregoire\, Carla Morrissey\, Nancy Baillie Strong\, Paul Szlosek\, Cathy Taylor\, Jerry Waller\, Jill Watts\, Ashley Wonder\, and D Zeutas-Broer. \n\n\n\nAn open book\, or part of the Room of Wonders? Photo: Christina An
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/poems-as-parts-of-a-wondrous-whole/
LOCATION:Cantor Art Gallery\, Prior Performing Arts Center\, College of the Holy Cross\, 1 College St\, Worcester\, Massachusetts\, 01610-2322
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250702T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250702T000000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250602T173215Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250602T173301Z
UID:11437-1751414400-1751414400@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Green Monster Poetry Submissions Deadline!
DESCRIPTION:The Green Monster Poetry Challenge is accepting submissions of poems that can be read/recited out loud in no more than ONE MINUTE.  As a guideline\, if your poem exceeds 20-24 lines and has more than 8-10 beats per line\, it probably won’t cut the contest’s one-minute limitation.  Of course\, prior to submitting\, you should clock the piece (out loud) several times in order to make sure it complies. \n\n\n\nGuidelines: \n\n\n\n·         Must be written in tight meter and rhyme \n\n\n\n·         When read/recited out loud\, must not exceed one minute in length \n\n\n\n·         Must respond to the following prompt: Bring to life the spirit of the Green Monster at Fenway Park\, and communicate what it means to the team\, fans\, and Boston community \n\n\n\n·         Please make your submission by or before Wednesday\, July 2nd at noon ET\, and include your full name\, town/state\, email address\, and phone number \n\n\n\n·         Please submit only a single poem \n\n\n\n·         Please submit your poem in the body of an email\, and not in an attachment (poems submitted in attachments will be deleted) \n\n\n\n·         Please note: if you make a submission\, you agree that NESN TV maintains the right to utilize your poem (or any portion of it) in any way NESN chooses\, including (but not limited to) television\, radio\, print\, outdoor signage\, digital media\, premium items\, etc.; please note that you\, as the poem’s author\, will maintain ownership of the copyright) \n\n\n\nPlease submit your poem to the National Baseball Poetry Festival’s contest email: baseballpoetrycontest@gmail.com; and\, please note\, we are unable to respond to inquiries.  
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/green-monster-poetry-submissions-deadline/
LOCATION:Massachusetts
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250628T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250628T153000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250526T035134Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250602T173743Z
UID:11431-1751115600-1751124600@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Karen Warinsky Book Launch
DESCRIPTION:
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/karen-warinsky-book-launch/
LOCATION:Booklovers’ Gourmet\, 72 E. Main St.\, Webster\, MA\, 01570
ORGANIZER;CN="Karen Warinsky%2C Poets At Large":MAILTO:karen.warinsky@gmail.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250625T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250625T190000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250604T173604Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250604T173607Z
UID:11463-1750870800-1750878000@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Poetorium Too at Tidepool Poetry Reading & Open Mic Featuring Ron McGilvray & Linda Warren
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for another special Worcester Wednesday double feature edition of our monthly open mic and featured poetry reading series The Poetorium (formerly held at the Starlite in Southbridge) at TidePool Bookshop on June 25th from 5 pm to 7 pm hosted by Ron Whittle and Paul Szlosek. It will be a full two hours of poetry and spoken word starting with a brief interview on stage with our two featured poets Ron McGilvray (Author of Empty Chairs) and Linda Warren (Author of They Say) followed by poetry readings by our two features\, a 10-minute dead poet tribute\, a short intermission\, and then an open mic (with 5-minute slots for each reader).  Books by both featured poets will be available for purchase in the store that evening. For more information\, please get in touch with us at poetorium@mail.com or visit our website . \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRonald C. McGilvray\, is a Kathleen Downey Short Fiction First Place Award winner and has been writing poetry and short stories for much of his adult life. His poetry has appeared in online poetry collections and media publications including The Worcester Magazine. He has also self-published twelve volumes of poetry available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. McGilvray has assumed many roles and responsibilities in his life from withstanding the heat of a local foundry to eventually landing in the Editor’s chair at the Auburn News. He now fancies himself a poet. Born and raised in Boston\, Ron has traveled world-wide and lived all over New England and now resides in Spencer\, MA with his wife Sandra. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLinda Warren‘s poems have appeared in such journals as Worcester Review\, Diner\, Whiskey Island Magazine\, Writing the Land\, and others.  She is a past winner of the Frank O’Hara Prize for Poetry\, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.   She has taught writing workshops for adults and young adults\, is a past editor of The Worcester Review\, and serves on the board of the Worcester County Poetry Association.  She has worked as a teacher\, Romance novelist\, and software analyst. Linda fishes the trout and salmon rivers of New England and New Brunswick as often as she can. Her collection of poetry They Say\, which has been described as “a dialogue with the world of untamed rivers\, their creatures\, and their power of redemption” was published by Finishing Line Press\, and just released at the end of March\, 2025.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/poetorium-too-at-tidepool-poetry-reading-open-mic-featuring-ron-mcgilvray-linda-warren/
LOCATION:TidePool Bookshop\, 372 Chandler St. Unit 101\, Worcester\, MA\, 01602
ORGANIZER;CN="Paul Szlosek":MAILTO:poetsparlor@hotmail.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250624T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250624T200000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250604T172955Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250604T173115Z
UID:11459-1750791600-1750795200@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:A Virtual Thirsty Lab with Susan Roney O'Brien
DESCRIPTION:The Thirsty Lab poetry reading\, normally based out of Princeton\, Mass.\, continues to meet virtually. On Tuesday\, June 24th\, 2025 Susan Roney O’Brien will be the featured reader. Please Click Here to register. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSusan Roney-O’Brien earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. She’s published two chapbooks: Earth and Farmwife and three full-length poetry collections: Legacy of the Last World\, Bone Circle and Thira. Her poetry has been published widely\, translated into Braille and Mandarin and nominated for many Pushcart Prizes. She won the 2020 Stanley Kunitz Medal in Poetry. She works with the Worcester County Poetry Association\, runs a monthly on-line poetry reading series\, an annual women’s reading. and facilitates free poetry workshops through area libraries. She\, her husband Philip. and Oliver\, their Chocolate Lab\, live in central Massachusetts. 
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/a-virtual-thirsty-lab-with-susan-roney-obrien-4/
LOCATION:Zoom Online Meeting\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250624T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250624T200000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250611T173433Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250611T173436Z
UID:11495-1750788000-1750795200@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Sara Letourneau reading and open mic at New Dawn
DESCRIPTION:The New Dawn Writers’ Group is proud to present Sara Letourneau in our Authors’ Voices speaker series this month. She will be reading and doing Q&A from 6:00 p.m. to 6:45. Afterward\, stay for our open mic at 7:00 p.m.  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSara Letourneau is the author of Wild Gardens (Kelsay Books\, 2024); a book editor and writing coach at Heart of the Story Editorial & Coaching Services; the cofounder and cohost of the Pour Me a Poem open mic in Mansfield\, Massachusetts; and the co-editor of the Pour Me a Poem anthology. Her poetry has won the 2023 Beals Prize for Poetry and the Blue Institute’s 2020 Words on Water contest. Her latest work can be found in The Arts Fuse\, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily\, Gyroscope Review\, Nixes Mate Review\, Silver Birch Press\, and Third Wednesday Magazine. Sara lives in Foxboro\, Massachusetts. \n\n\n\nLink for more information.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/sara-letourneau-reading-and-open-mic-at-new-dawn/
LOCATION:New Dawn Center\, 84 Main St.\, Ashburnham\, MA\, 01607\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250621T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250621T160000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250603T173550Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250603T173554Z
UID:11455-1750514400-1750521600@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Booklover's Gourmet: Summer Solstice
DESCRIPTION:Open Mic Poetry \n\n\n\nSaturday\, June 21st\n\n\n\n2:00 pm – 4:00 pm\n\n\n\nJoin us for our monthly round robin open poetry share\, moderated by Robert Eugene Perry. Bring original pieces to share in a friendly\, supportive environment. \n\n\n\nSpace is limited to 14 participants and usually fills up quickly. \n\n\n\nSign up to reserve your spot by calling 508-949-6232 or emailing deb@bookloversgourmet.com
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/booklovers-gourmet-summer-solstice/
LOCATION:Booklovers’ Gourmet\, 72 E. Main St.\, Webster\, MA\, 01570
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250618T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250618T203000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250523T223341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250523T223344Z
UID:11423-1750271400-1750278600@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Poetry Extravaganza with NEPC!
DESCRIPTION:We’re back on June 18th at The Mill in West Boylston! \n\n\n\nThe Mill is right off Rt 190\, has a spacious parking lot\, serves delectable apps\, entrees\, and desserts with a full bar. We have a seperate room for our monthly shenanigans. Admission is still free. All of the Tip Jar proceeds go to the Feature. \n\n\n\nThe 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! \n\n\n\nOur featured writers on June 18th will be Pamela Gemme and David Miller from the New England Poetry Club. \n\n\n\nLewandowski Painters still sponsors our event. That’s how we pay the poets! \n\n\n\nJoin the Fun on June 18th! \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPamela Gemme is an internationally published poet. She co-edited Essential Voices: A Covid-19 Anthology from WVU Press\, released in May 2023.Her publications include The American Journal of Poetry\, The Chicago Quarterly Review\, J Journal\, SoFloPoJo\, Ibbetson Street Magazine\, and many others. Pamela runs workshops locally and works privately with poets who are working to write trauma. Pamela is on the National Baseball Poetry Festival’s Executive Committee. \n\n\n\nDavid P. Miller’s collection\, Bend in the Stair\, was published by Lily Poetry Review Books in 2021. Sprawled Asleep was published by Nixes Mate Books in 2019. His poems have appeared in Meat for Tea\, Reed Magazine\, The Arts Fuse\, Solstice\, Salamander\, Tar River Poetry\, Second Coming\, Lily Poetry Review\, and Nixes Mate Review\, among other journals. His poems “Interview” and “And You” were included in an issue of Magma (UK) focused on teaching poetry to secondary school students. He is a member of Boston’s Jamaica Pond Poets\, and is on the New England Poetry Club Board of Directors.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/poetry-extravaganza-with-nepc/
LOCATION:The Mill\, 185 W. Boylston Street\, West Boylston\, Massachusetts\, 01583\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250617T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250617T213000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250611T173125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250611T173130Z
UID:11492-1750186800-1750195800@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:New Dawn Writers’ Group’s Poetry Workshop
DESCRIPTION:Come out to the New Dawn Writers’ Group’s Poetry Workshop. Every third Tuesday from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. We will discuss poems and writing\, write to prompts\, give feedback\, encourage one another\, and discuss upcoming projects. It’s a friendly\, pressure-free atmosphere at the New Dawn Arts Center in Ashburnham. Many of our poets have had books come out in the past year. Join in the fun! The address is 84 Main Street\, Ashburnham\, MA. The workshop is being led by Fred Gerhard. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFred Gerhard leads the Poetry Workshop\, and is one of the open mic hosts\, for the New Dawn Writers’ Group. His books include Drifting to “Hello” (Khotso Publishing\, 2023) and Lilacs Still Bloom in Ashburnham: Songs of Spring (Local Gems Poetry Press\, 2023). A 2023 winner of Poetry in the Pines\, and 2024 winner of Art on the Trails\, he is also an editor at Quabbin Quills and Smoky Quartz. \n\n\n\nTo learn more click here.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/new-dawn-writers-groups-poetry-workshop-2/
LOCATION:New Dawn Center\, 84 Main St.\, Ashburnham\, MA\, 01607\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250617T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250617T203000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250612T212519Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250612T212523Z
UID:11516-1750186800-1750192200@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:The Sleeping Dogs of Lubec
DESCRIPTION:Linda Warren & Rodger Martin’s Book Reading and Signing\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThey Say by Linda Warren \n\n\n\nIn They Say\, Linda Warren does not flatten the emotional barb\, but hooks the reader through her words. Her poetry is not only fly fishing for “the graceful shapes of silver trout”\, but lands the reader hard and fast. Her lines connect the natural world to past and present circumstances\, catch and release not only salmon and trout\, but also anger\, regret\, and joy. Warren’s language reveals a deep understanding of the arts of poetry\, fly fishing\, and living in this world. The book itself is\, like the first trout of April\, “…not a miracle / but oh\, sweet universe\, it’s close enough.” \n\n\n\n–Susan Roney O’Brien\, winner of the Kingsman Poetry Prize and author of Thira \n\n\n\nThere’s a voice here\, mercurial\, alive\, filled with a wisdom running steady and true. If you seek her in these poems\, you may find Thoreau’s “Gone Fishing” sign posted on her door\, but she’s fishing for something else\, some evanescent beauty and whatever’s left in this old world that still just might be true. She’s looking for that perfect place to stand with all this swirling\, mysterious\, elusive\, and yet ever-present life roaring by\, like some river\, as she says\, that “ravels” all around us. She wants to hold this hard-won place where she can see clearly\, and reel in the light. She is searching for you. \n\n\n\n–John Hodgen\, winner of the AWP Prize in Poetry \n\n\n\nLinda Warren knows how to cast a line. With the flick of a wrist\, she lays it out\, fresh and inviting\, upon the page.  While many of her poems are about fly fishing\, they only begin there. Like a true poet\, she sees-observes connections between casting for a trout and…\, well\, other matters in her life\, in lives. Her personal effort never bars us from observing too\, with a pleasurable invitation to see more\, for enrichment. Her mastery of craft is apparent in the variety of distinct poems she creates: a long-line meditation; curt\, anxious lines; prose-verse; lyrical evocations; ingenious rhymes; painful admissions.  Far from being left out\, we are encouraged to see more\, to be blessed by the ghosts out there\, by the light\, the grace of absorption in the natural which leads us to\, perhaps\, a miracle. \n\n\n\n–Eugene McCarthy\, professor Emeritus of Holy Cross College and author of Sound Ideas \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Sleeping Dogs of Lubec \n\n\n\nThe Sleeping Dogs of Lubec is a collection of poetry and short prose pieces built around the sometimes subtle at other times quite public influence dogs generate as they integrate themselves into our culture. \n\n\n\n“Rodger’s sleeping dogs don’t lie. They know their canine ancestors\, their legends in ancient caves\, and we learn of ourselves in our relation to them. Rodger deftly moves across history\, at each stop showing where we fit\, an existence we neglect at peril.  This volume\, a kind of “collected” through his career\,  engages at every turn\, with sensuous\, heartfelt lines\, perfectly executed (some prose\, a few cats\, and several silly pups!). Open wherever you wish and be rewarded.”— B. Eugene McCarthy \n\n\n\nPraise for The Sleeping Dogs of Lubec \n\n\n\nRodger Martin’s poems romp\, roll\, and\, sometimes\, howl. They are heart-aching\, heart-breaking\, and—at heart—joyous. Seals glide in from the sea at night. Kin to the sleeping dogs of Lubec\, they whisper in the ears of dreamers. The myths and bloody history of many cultures intertwine with bone-deep concern for our precious Earth. I will share these poems and (needs be) return to them again and again.—Rebecca Rule\, author of Live Free and Eat Pie!: A Storyteller’s Guide to New Hampshire \n\n\n\nMartin is building a mountain here\, each poem a solid rock\, each a world captured with amazing clarity\, vision and artistry.  —John Hodgen\, winner of the 2005 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) 2005 Donald Hall Prize for Poetry \n\n\n\nHere are animals of many kinds\, roaming now as in their ancient past. Here too are ourselves\, our capacity for respect and care\, but also for disregard and conflict\, wars over the centuries. All these Rodger draws for us\, for we are mutual voyagers with these canine and fellow creatures (a few cats…and some mutts). Read\, listen\, and see anew. —B. Eugene McCarthy is the author of Thomas Gray: The Progress of a Poet\, co-author of Sound Ideas and co-editor of From Bondage to Belonging. He taught at Holy Cross for thirty-five years.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/the-sleeping-dogs-of-lubec/
LOCATION:TidePool Bookshop\, 372 Chandler St. Unit 101\, Worcester\, MA\, 01602
ORGANIZER;CN="Rodger Martin":MAILTO:rmartin1@keene.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250617T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250617T180000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250608T151616Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250612T020757Z
UID:11473-1750183200-1750183200@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:"Poems in and out of Places" Winners' Reading!
DESCRIPTION:In 2023\, nearly 100 Worcester County residents created poems about the city’s public spaces for a one-time contest sponsored by Mapping Worcester in Poetry and judged by poet laureate Oliver de la Paz. Join MWiP and WCPA at the Museum of Worcester to hear some of the winning poems and meet the poets behind them. You can find a list of winners and honorable mentions here.  \n\n\n\nThe new exhibit “The Poem Next Door” will also be open for viewing at 5:30 pm before the program begins at 6 pm. This event is FREE as part of the Museum of Worcester’s 150th anniversary celebration. To attend\, please register here. \n\n\n\nPerseus with Hermes Winged Sandals by PichiAvo\,1 Sever Street\, photo courtesy Halopigg
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/winners-reading/
LOCATION:Museum of Worcester\, 30 Elm Street\, Worcester\, Massachusetts\, 01609\, United States
ORGANIZER;CN="Susan Elizabeth Sweeney":MAILTO:ssweeney@holycross.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250616T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250616T203000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250518T024650Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250611T231032Z
UID:11390-1750060800-1750105800@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Bloomsday 2025!
DESCRIPTION:Come celebrate Bloomsday in Worcester Massachusetts\, Monday June 16th 2025\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe book Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus as they wander through Dublin on June 16\, 1904\, the date James Joyce had his first encounter with his wife to-be Nora Barnacle. You can join us to listen or read a part of his story. \n\n\n\nSiteTimeChapterBancroft Tower Farnum St.8-9:30Telemachus: STATELY\, PLUMP BUCK MULLIGAN ….Rural Cemetery 180 Grove St. Hapgood gravesite10-11:30Hades: MARTIN CUNNINGHAM\, FIRST\, POKED HIS SILKHATTED HEAD INTO….Lunch break11:30-12:30Coney Island (?)Union Music 142 Southbridge St.12:30- 2 pmLystregonians – PINEAPPLE ROCK\, LEMON PLAT\, BUTTER SCOTCH. A SUGARSTICKYLibrary 3 Salem Street2-4 PMScylla and Charybdis URBANE\, TO COMFORT THEM\, THE QUAKER LIBRARIAN PURRED:St. John – St. Francis Xavier Center 44 Temple St4-6 pmNausicaa THE SUMMER EVENING HAD BEGUN TO FOLD THE WORLD IN ITSOak Barrel Restaurant 229 Grove Street6-8 pmPenelope: YES BECAUSE HE NEVER DID A THING LIKE THAT BEFORE….\n\n\n\nGraphic courtesy of K-Fai Steele \n\n\n\nWCPA_Bloomsday_2025Download
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/save-the-date-bloomsday-2025/
LOCATION:Worcester County!\, main street\, Worcester\, Massachusetts\, 01610\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250615T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250615T160000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250522T213848Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250522T213851Z
UID:11414-1749996000-1750003200@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Poets @ Large
DESCRIPTION:Poets at Large is happy to announce their first free poetry/spoken word event of the season willbe on June 15th\, 2-4 p.m. in the barn at Roseland Park\, 205 Roseland Park Road\, Woodstock\, CT. \n\n\n\nThis is the sixth year for the regional group to bring poets to the park. Featured will be theemerging voices of younger poets Eric Petersen\, Sarah St. George and Kashawn Taylor. \n\n\n\nFeatured Open Mic reader will be Atom Cyrus Rush. Sign up for open mic at karen.warinsky@gmail.com. 5- minute limit as time allows. \n\n\n\nEric Petersen is a social worker and resident of Gardner\, MA and the author of Brutal Rhymes for Brutal Times. Petersen’s work covers struggles with depression\, substance abuse\, parental alienation and divorce\, and he has published in several anthologies and publications including Silkworm 17 and Many Voices -One Stage. \n\n\n\nSarah St. George works in education and is the host of the Rose City Poetry Series in Norwich\, CT. Her poetry has been featured in several journals and anthologies including Vext Magazine and Alabaster and Mercury. She explores complex themes such as loss and trauma with a hint of absurdist humor. \n\n\n\nKashawn Taylor is a formerly incarcerated writer based in CT.  He holds a BA in English and Psychology and an MA in English and Creative Writing\, and is currently pursuing an MFA.  His poetry\, fiction\, and essays have been or will be published by such journals and magazines as The Meadow\, Lucky Jefferson\, Oyster River Pages\, The Shore Poetry\, and Poetry Magazine\, among others. His full-length collection of “prison” poetry\, subhuman.\, was released by Wayfarer Books in March 2025.  \n\n\n\nPoets at Large is a project of Windham Arts. Roseland Park’s barn is ADA compliant. This series is sponsored in part by bankHometown\, Charter Oak Federal Credit Union\, Linemaster Switch\, Weiss\, Hale & Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors and The Putnam Area Foundation.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/poets-large-6/
LOCATION:Roseland Park\, 205 Roseland Park Rd.\, Woodstock\, CT\, 06281\, United States
ORGANIZER;CN="Karen Warinsky%2C Poets At Large":MAILTO:karen.warinsky@gmail.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250611T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250611T203000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250524T032034Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250524T032037Z
UID:11426-1749661200-1749673800@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:June's Member Mingle & Board Meeting
DESCRIPTION:
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/junes-member-mingle-board-meeting/
LOCATION:WCPA Office @ Salisbury House\, 61 Harvard St.\, Worcester MA\, MA\, 01605\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250608T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250608T160000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250520T165420Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250520T165424Z
UID:11397-1749387600-1749398400@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Slightly Off-Beat Poets: Linda Wlodyka & Cheryl Bonin
DESCRIPTION:IMPORTANT: PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN CHAIR FOR THIS OUTDOOR EVENT \n\n\n\nWHAT: Slightly Off-beat Poets Presents: Linda Wlodyka & Cheryl Bonin  \n\n\n\nWHERE: Deb Horan’s Backyard 15 Eddy St Webster\, MA \n\n\n\n              RAIN LOCATION: Steve Veilleux’s house 112 Fabyan-Woodstock Road N Grosvenordale\, CT \n\n\n\nWHEN: Sunday JUNE 8th\, 2025 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm \n\n\n\nWHAT 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. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCOST: There will be a 50/50 raffle\, split between the feature and the winner. 5$ to enter. \n\n\n\nSIGN-UPS: There is room for 25 POETS. To reserve a spot please email: roberteugeneperry@gmail.com
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/slightly-off-beat-poets-linda-wlodyka-cheryl-bonin/
LOCATION:Deb’s House\, 15 Eddy St.\, Webster\, MA\, 01570\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250604T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250604T193000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250602T175109Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250602T175113Z
UID:11450-1749060000-1749065400@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:JOHN HODGEN Reads at Boylston Public Library
DESCRIPTION:Weltschmerz: Poem for the Great Divide \n\n\n\nTonight\, with all that’s happening outside\, all that’s being broken\, denied\, \n\n\n\nall that’s slithering\, roiling on the underside\, all that must be decried\,  \n\n\n\nI’m remembering a young black man who allowed himself to be tied  \n\n\n\nto a cross\, to be hoisted up at a protest rally in 1970 in Washington  \n\n\n\nagainst the killings at Jacksonville\, Kent State\, with Nixon’s incursion  \n\n\n\ninto Cambodia\, a young black man allowing himself to be crucified\, \n\n\n\nallowing his pride and the pride of all other black men to be amplified\, \n\n\n\nholding his holy rage deep inside being perfectly fit and unfit to be tied.  \n\n\n\nAnguish he was after\, performance art\, like Jesus on the stark hillside \n\n\n\nof Calvary\, anguish on that blazing hot day when graves opened wide \n\n\n\nand Judas\, poor saint that he was\, hanged himself for allowing deicide. \n\n\n\nHow are you still in my heart all these years\, you who well may have died \n\n\n\nby now? How to hold your wild courage\, how to carry you down from that hill?  \n\n\n\nI am ill at these numbers\, Hamlet sighed. I’m beaten\, dry-eyed. I can feel the chill. 
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/john-hodgen-reads-at-boylston-public-library-2/
LOCATION:Boylston Public Library\, 695 Main Street\, Boylston\, Massachusetts\, 01505\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250603T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250603T200000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250508T180437Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250508T180440Z
UID:11355-1748973600-1748980800@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Richard Fox Poetry Series: David Thoreen
DESCRIPTION:Now\, the 1st Tuesday of every month\, The Richard Fox Poetry Series is an open- mic with a featured reader. It honors the memory of the iconic Worcester poet and human-being extraordinaire Richard Fox. \n\n\n\nOur next Featured Poet will be the very talented David Thoreen on June 3rd. Free admission. On-the-street parking. Root and Press Books and Cafe has an awesome array of food and beverages and an expanded book selection at their new location. Sign up for the open mic at joesyellowpad@gmail.com. Limited spots available. Sponsored by the ‘Fox Fund’ (Worcester County Poetry Association). \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDavid Thoreen’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Verse Daily\, Flint Hills Review\, The Greensboro Review\, New Ohio Review\, The Paterson Review\, and elsewhere. He won The Worcester Review’s Frank O’Hara Prize and has been a finalist in The Comstock Review’s Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Poetry Contest. He teaches writing and literature at Assumption University. When it comes to sounds at four o’clock in the morning\, he prefers the reassuring bang of a cast iron radiator or the haunting call of a barred owl to the breaking of glass or the high-rev whine of hot rods racing up and down Park Avenue
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/richard-fox-poetry-series-david-thoreen/
LOCATION:Root and Press\, 156 Shrewsbury St.\, Worcester\, MA\, 01604\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250531T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250531T210000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250506T174209Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250506T174213Z
UID:11336-1748718000-1748725200@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Poets At Large: May
DESCRIPTION:Poets at Large will welcome poet Margaret (Meg) Smith to The Vanilla Bean Café\, 450 Deerfield Road\, Pomfret\, CT on May 31 as part of its 2025 season. Smith is a writer\, journalist\, dancer and events producer living in Lowell\, Mass. She currently serves as content editor of Worcester Magazine\, and her journalism has been honored with several awards\, including first place\, from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. \n\n\n\nSmith’s poetry and fiction have appeared in The Horror Zine\, Raven Cage\, Strange Horizons\, Silver Blade\, The Cafe Review\, Muddy River Poetry Review\, Sirens Call\, Dark Dossier\, Dark Moon Digest\, and many more.  She is the creator of Poe in Lowell\, a festival honoring Edgar Allan Poe’s three visits to Lowell\, and is a member of the board of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! among her many volunteer activities in Lowell. Smith is author of six poetry books and a short fiction collection\, The Plague Confessor. Find out more at megsmithwriter.com.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nPoets at Large\, presents spoken word readings of regional poets\, and is now in its sixth year. PAL and is a part of Windham Arts. All events are ADA compliant. Admission to all Vanilla Bean events is $15.00 which includes a raffle. All Poets at Large events are sponsored in part by Linemaster Switch\, BankHometown\, WHZ Financial Advisors\, the Putnam Area Foundation and Charter Oak FCU. Contact karen.warinsky@gmail.com to sign up for the open mic. 5-minute max as time allows.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/poets-at-large-may/
LOCATION:Vanilla Bean Cafe\, 450 Deerfield Road\, Pomfret\, CT\, 06259\, United States
ORGANIZER;CN="Karen Warinsky%2C Poets At Large":MAILTO:karen.warinsky@gmail.com
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250527T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250527T200000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250505T180328Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250508T175412Z
UID:11329-1748372400-1748376000@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:A Virtual Thirsty Lab with Terry Farish
DESCRIPTION:The Thirsty Lab poetry reading\, normally based out of Princeton\, Mass.\, continues to meet virtually. On Tuesday\, May 27th\, 2025 Terry Farish will be the featured reader. Please Click Here to register. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTerry Farish is the author of books for children\, young adults\, and adults. A reviewer called her stories full of synergy and it’s true that she loves to create unlikely meetings or even more unlikely friendships from which something brand new and unplanned might arise.  Her books include The Good Braider\, a novel in verse\, and Go Home written with Lochan Sharma. She’s at work on a novel called “Somebody to Love” named for that old Jefferson Airplane song sung by Grace Slick. Please meet Terry at  her website.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/a-virtual-thirsty-lab-with-terry-farish/
LOCATION:Zoom Online Only
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250522T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250522T210000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250505T170843Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250520T165917Z
UID:11327-1747940400-1747947600@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:9th Annual Women's Reading
DESCRIPTION:On May 22nd\, 2025\, the WCPA is proud to host its annual Women’s Zoom Reading. If you would like to attend\, please CLICK HERE. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHere is the reading list & order of readers: \n\n\n\n\nLex Thomas: Aided and abetted by careers in federal politics\, symphony musicianship\, public relations\, a history of family mental health issues\, and several decades of life lived across several borders\, Lex continues to sort out the whole mess through words. Her favorites are “jumbo” and “expunge.”\n\n\n\nCheryl Bonin is a bourbon sipping\, baseball watching\, pirate loving\, Neil Diamon 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\, The National Baseball Poetry Festival\, The Eastport (Maine) Library Review and the 2022 Frank O’Hara Poetry Contest. Cheryl is currently doing her damndest to outrun the devil and get her debut book of poetry and personal essays entitled: “Impressive\, but not in a good way.” out into the world while she’s still vertical.\n\n\n\nPolly Brown: spent the first two years of her retirement writing a blog about what she’d learned from teaching young adolescents\,at ayeartothinkitover.com. Now she’s resettled an old family place in western Maine\, where she’s happily raising poems. Pebble Leaf Feather Knife\, from Cherry Grove Collections\, followed two chapbooks\, Blue Heron Stone\, from Every Other Thursday Poetry\, and Each Thing Torn from Any of Us\, from Finishing Line. Recent poems have appeared in Appalachia\, Canary\, Hole in the Head Review\, and Quartet Journal\, among others\n\n\n\nGer Duffy: lives in Southeast Ireland.  Her poetry has been published by PNR(UK)\,\, Poetry Ireland Review\, Under the Radar (UK)\, The Ekphrastic Review\, (US)\,  Southword\, Wild Greens (US) and other literary magazines. She is a Pushcart nominee. She has been awarded two poetry mentoring awards.  Her poems have been anthologized in Local Wonders\, Washing Windows 111\, In the Gold of the Flesh\, The Stony Thursday Book. Her poems have been placed or commended in the following competitions: Goldsmiths International\, Travels with Joyce\, Write by the Sea\, The Francis Ledwidge Awards\, The Allingham.  She was a selected poet to read at the launch of On Being with Padraig O Tuama at the Southbank.  She was a featured reader at the Verve Poetry Festival\, UK.\n\n\n\nClaire 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.\n\n\n\nSharon Harmon: has chapbook Wishbone in a Lighting Jar (Flutter Press). She has been published in Compass Roads\, The Aurorean Silkworm\, Green Living\, The Patterson Literary Review and many other publications. She is also a freelance writer and is the author of two new children’s books. She lives in the woods of Royalston.\n\n\n\nCarolyn Howe lives in Worcester\, MA\, where she has been writing poetry and painting in watercolor since her retirement from College of the Holy Cross.  She is a member of the Worcester County Poetry Association and the Rosemont Poetry Workshop.  She has published in The Worcester Review\, the poetry anthology The Senior Class\, and has a chapbook called Across the Street.\n\n\n\nEm Judkins:  is a queer poet based in central and Western Massachusetts. The assistant head of poetry at Emulate Magazine\, they are the recipient of the Ethel Olin Corbin Prize and Ruth Forbes Eliot Prize\, and their work has appeared in Emulate\, Voices and Visions\, and the Worcester Art Museum. They currently study English and Film and Media Studies at Smith College with a concentration in poetry\, and are at work on their first chapbook.\n\n\n\nIrena Kaçi: is a poet and writer living in Worcester\, MA with her spouse and two children. She moved to Worcester in 2015\, almost a decade after graduating from Clark University. She writes for Pulse Magazine\, and is a Poetry Editor In Residence for the Worcester Writers’ Collective. Her creative work has appeared in the Worcester Review\, Atticus Review\, Blue Mountain Review and others.\n\n\n\nElizabeth Lund: is the award-winning host of Poetic Lines at NewTV. The show features in-depth interviews with emerging and established poets about their work and creative process. She also interviews poets and reviews major collections of poetry for The Christian Science Monitor\, where she served as poetry editor for 10 years. From 2015 to 2020\, Elizabeth wrote a monthly column about poetry for The Washington Post. Elizabeth co-directs Haiku Newton\, which began in 2022 and brings haiku on lawn-style signs to venues around Newton. Her own poems have appeared in various publications including The Dalhousie Review\, Connecticut Review\, The Christian Century\, and the Patterson Literary Review. “Un-Silenced” is her debut collection. Elizabeth has read or spoken at festivals and venues along the East Coast including the Dodge Poetry Festival\, the largest poetry festival in the US\, and the Gaithersburg Book Festival. With all of her projects and endeavors\, Elizabeth aims to help people discover how poetry can enhance their daily lives.\n\n\n\nMaura MacNeil: is a writer\, editor\, and professor of creative writing. She is the author of the poetry collections: A History of Water (Finishing Line Press)\, Lost Houses (Aldrich Press) and This Last Place (Dancing Girl Press). She is the founder and editor of the literary website Off the Margins (www.offthemargins.com) featuring women writers who fearlessly tell the truth and risk vulnerability to give voice to their experience.”\n\n\n\nAndrea MacRichie has lived\, worked and traveled to many places. Art historian (docent at MMA)\, WW1 buff\, Queen fan\, YNWA\, Scentwork with Field Spaniels\, Canadian-American\, gardener\, underwriter at heart\, later a library dean. younger than I look. Hope I have more furloughs in my race\, so much still to  learn\, so much still to write.\n\n\n\nSandy Monfredo\n\n\n\nCarolyn Oliver is the author of The Alcestis Machine (Acre\, 2024)\, Inside the Storm I Want to Touch the Tremble (University of Utah Press\, 2022; selected for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize)\, and three chapbooks\, including\, most recently\, Night Ocean (Seven Kitchens Press\, 2023).\n\n\n\nCatherine Reed: is an ordained minister and poet.. She is the author of four books of poetry. Crossing Boundaries\, Between Midnight and Dawn\, Sankofa and Fire Goes Out Without Wood.\n\n\n\nEve 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.\n\n\n\nSeher Sayed\n\n\n\nNancy Baillie Strong  lives in Manchester\, NH. When cleaning out her parents home in 2019\, she discovered that her mother had kept a not-very-good poem written by Nancy when she was 10 years old. She began writing poetry more seriously in the early-1990’s\, and workshopped with Jim Beschta at the Worcester (MA) Art Museum from 2012-2018. She has participated in the Monadnock Poets annual retreat\, and workshops with several other fine poets in Susan Roney O’Brien’s virtual workshop. Her poetry has been published in The Poets’ Touchstone\, Smoky Quartz\, and was included in the anthology Women’s Uncommon Prayers (2002). Her poem “Four Corners\, Cambridge and Southbridge Streets” was selected by Worcester’s Poet Laureate Oliver de la Paz as one of two dozen winners in the “Poems in and out of Places” contest of the “Mapping Worcester in Poetry” project of the Worcester County Poetry Association..\n\n\n\nHeather Treseler:is also the author of Parturition\, which won the Munster Literature Centre’s international chapbook prize. Her poems appear in The American Scholar\, Harvard Review\, The Irish Times\, The Kenyon Review\, and PN Review. Her essays appear in Boston Review and the Los Angeles Review of Books\, and in eight books about American poetry. Recipient of the W. B. Yeats Prize\, Frontier Poetry’s prize\, and the Editors’ Prize at The Missouri Review\, she is professor of English at Worcester State University and a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center.\n\n\n\nRhett Watts: has lived in Beirut\, San Francisco\, New York and Connecticut. She now lives beside a brook south of Worcester with her husband and Siberian cat. Some of her poems have appeared in Sojourners Magazine\, The Worcester Review\, Spoon River Poetry Review\, Naugatuck River Review\, Canary\, San Pedro River Review and in the books The Best Spiritual Writing 2000\, and The Mud Chronicles: A New England Anthology. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Rhett’s chapbook No Innocent Eye was co-winner of the Rane Arroyo Award from Seven Kitchens Press. Her books are Willing Suspension\, The Braiding\, and coming in 2025 The Double Nest. Rhett facilitates AWA (Amherst Writers & Artists) writing workshops well as SoulCollage workshops in Connecticut and Massachusetts.\n\n\n\nEleanor Wilner: is the 2019 Frost Medal recipient of the Poetry Society of America for lifetime achievement\, is the author of nine books of poetry\, most recently Before Our Eyes; New and Selected Poems\, 1975-2017  and Gone to Earth: Early & Uncollected Poems 1964-1975. \n\n\n\nSusan Roney O’Brien:  earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. She’s published two chapbooks: Earth and Farmwifeand three full-length poetry collections: Legacy of the Last World\, Bone Circle and Thira. Nominated for numerous Pushcart Prizes and published widely\, she works with the Worcester County Poetry Association\, runs a monthly on-line poetry reading series and facilitates free poetry workshops through area libraries. She\, her husband Philip. and Oliver\, their Chocolate Lab\, live in central Massachusetts.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/9th-annual-womens-reading/
LOCATION:Zoom Online Only
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250521T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250521T203000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250421T171224Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250421T171228Z
UID:11300-1747852200-1747859400@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Poetry Extravaganza featuring Irena Kaçi
DESCRIPTION:We’re back on May 21st at our awesome new location! \n\n\n\nThe Mill is right off Rt 190\, has a spacious parking lot\, serves delectable apps\, entrees\, and desserts with a full bar. We’ll have a seperate room for our monthly shenanigans. Admission will still be free. All of the Tip Jar proceeds go to the Feature. \n\n\n\nThe Poetry Extravaganza (PE) is the 3rd Wednesday of the month from 6:30-8;30 pm. Sign up for the open mic at jfjr6969@gmail.com\, Five minute maximum\,There are no language restrictions. We are not kid-friendly! \n\n\n\nOur featured writer on May 21st will be the very talented Irena Kaçi.Lewandowski Painters still sponsors our event. That’s how we pay the poets!  Join the Fun on May 21st! \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIrena Kaçi is a poet and writer living in Worcester\, MA with her spouse and two children. She moved to Worcester in 2015\, almost a decade after graduating from Clark University. She writes for Pulse Magazine\, and is a Poetry Editor In Residence for the Worcester Writers’ Collective. Her creative work has appeared in the Worcester Review\, Atticus Review\, Blue Mountain Review and others.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/poetry-extravaganza-featuring-irena-kaci-2/
LOCATION:The Mill\, 185 W. Boylston Street\, West Boylston\, Massachusetts\, 01583\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250517T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250517T160000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250508T175636Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250508T175721Z
UID:11352-1747490400-1747497600@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Booklover's Gourmet
DESCRIPTION:Join us for our monthly round robin open poetry share\, moderated by Robert Eugene Perry. Bring original pieces to share in a friendly\, supportive environment. \n\n\n\nSpace is limited to 14 participants and usually fills up quickly. \n\n\n\nSign up to reserve your spot by calling 508-949-6232 or emailing deb@bookloversgourmet.com
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/booklovers-gourmet-10/
LOCATION:Booklovers’ Gourmet\, 72 E. Main St.\, Webster\, MA\, 01570
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250516T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250516T160000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250502T163335Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250506T174903Z
UID:11320-1747389600-1747411200@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:The Poem Next Door
DESCRIPTION:DO YOU KNOW A PLACE THAT IS WORTHY OF A POEM? \n\n\n\nJoin us on Friday\, May 16th as we open “The Poem Next Door” in the Museum’s Booth Gallery\, 10AM – 4PM. \n\n\n\nThis newest exhibit In partnership with Mapping Worcester in Poetry\, this exhibit traces how poems can grow from memories of places\, including the city itself. Join us to learn about six nationally known poets who found inspiration in Worcester’s streets\, buildings\, parks\, or neighborhoods. Discover how the city nurtures new poems today. \n\n\n\nThe Poem Next Door is sponsored in part by College of the Holy Cross\, and a grant from Mass Cultural Council.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/the-poem-next-door/
LOCATION:Museum of Worcester\, 30 Elm Street\, Worcester\, Massachusetts\, 01609\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250515T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250515T193000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250514T030753Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250514T030757Z
UID:11384-1747333800-1747337400@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Poetry Reading featuring Katie Fuller and Fred Gerhard
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a Poetry Reading with two local poets! \n\n\n\nKATIE FULLER is a poet from Maine and teaches writing at Mount Wachusett Community College. She is also the author of the chapbooks Valve (DoubleCross Press) and The Greenwood Cemetery (Dancing Girl Press). Her first book\, Careful\, won the 2022 Anhinga Poetry Prize. Recent work can be found online at Prelude and The City of Boise’s Cultural Commission Archive Project. \n\n\n\nFRED GERHARD’s poems have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies including Entropy Magazine\, Friends Journal\, Pif Magazine\, and POETiCA REViEW. He is the author of Drifting to “Hello” (available through CW MARS) and the chapbook\, Lilacs Still Bloom in Ashburnham: Songs of Spring. He is one of the 2023 winners of the Poetry in the Pines contest for which his work is installed on the trails at the Cathedral in the Pines in Rindge\, NH\, and winner of Art on the Trails\, 2024 in Southborough\, MA. He is an editor for Quabbin Quills anthologies\, and Smoky Quartz – An Online Journal of Literature and Art. As one of the founders of the New Dawn Writers’ Group he leads monthly poetry workshops and hosts open mics in Ashburnham\, MA. Conversations with family and friends\, and a tortoise named Twyla\, are some of his favorite pastimes. Visit his virtual reading room at FredGerhard.com
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/poetry-reading-featuring-katie-fuller-and-fred-gerhard/
LOCATION:Stevens Memorial Library\, 20 Memorial Drive\, Ashburnham\, Massachusetts\, 01430\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250514T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250514T200000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250507T210744Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250507T210747Z
UID:11346-1747242000-1747252800@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Monthly Board Meeting: May Edition
DESCRIPTION:Monthly Board Meeting \n\n\n\nJoin us for our monthly discussion and planning. Come see what what we have been up to and will be up to. 😉 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nBut first…. \n\n\n\nPlease join us for a screening of the award-winning Dirty Gerund Documentary\, which captures two unforgettable nights at one of America’s best open mics. \n\n\n\nIt will be followed by a live arts event host training. If you’ve ever wanted to run your own writer’s group or open mic\, we can show you how to get started! \n\n\n\nwww.hellomalt.net
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/monthly-board-meeting-may-edition/
LOCATION:Preservation Worcester Board Room\, 61 Harvard St.\, Worcester\, MA\, 01609\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250507T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250507T193000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250425T183400Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250425T183403Z
UID:11315-1746640800-1746646200@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:The Many Lives of Cathouse Farm: Tales of a Rural Brothel
DESCRIPTION:Boylston Public Library is pleased to announce bg Thurston\, who will be reading from The Many Lives of Cathouse Farm Tales of a Rural Brothel her upcoming book\, on Wednesday May 7 at 6:00 P.M.  The reading is also available on Zoom. Please call the library at 508-869-2371 to register. The reading has been made possible through a grant from the Boylston Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBG Thurston is a former systems analyst and a graduate of Vermont College’s MFA in Writing Program. Most of her poetry focuses on nature as an illumination of human thought and emotion. Her work has appeared in Tar River Poetry\, The Comstock Review\, The Worcester Review\, and The Christian Science Monitor. Her chapbook\, Saving the Lamb\, was released by Finishing Line Press and her first full-length collection\, Nightwalking\, was published in 2008. The Many Lives of Cathouse Farm Tales of a Rural Brothel will be out in 2025. She lives with her family\, including sheep and chickens\, on a farm in central Massachusetts.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/the-many-lives-of-cathouse-farm-tales-of-a-rural-brothel/
LOCATION:Boylston Public Library\, 695 Main Street\, Boylston\, Massachusetts\, 01505\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250506T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250506T183000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250506T173356Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250506T173400Z
UID:11331-1746552600-1746556200@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Henry's Classroom Book Launch
DESCRIPTION:The book is Henry’s Classroom: A Special Education in American Motherhood. TidePool Bookshop in Worcester is hosting my launch event on Tuesday\, May 6\, at 5:30pm. The book explores complex parenting and the challenges of navigating the American special education system while neurodivergent. I’ll be doing a short overview of and reading from the book\, followed by a Q&A discussion (with snacks!). I would love to meet some of my fellow Massachusetts writers there!  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n“Henry’s Classroom follows one mother’s tenacious commitment to ensure the best outcome for her child while revealing a larger story of outdated and ineffective systems that are failing millions of families across America. This book seeks to encourage broader conversations on how parents\, public schools\, and community organizations can work in collaboration with one another\, rather than in conflict\, toward serving the needs of all students\, particularly those with disabilities.”
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/henrys-classroom-book-launch/
LOCATION:TidePool Bookshop\, 372 Chandler St. Unit 101\, Worcester\, MA\, 01602
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250504T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250504T160000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250421T172916Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250421T175813Z
UID:11302-1746363600-1746374400@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Slightly Off-Beat Poets
DESCRIPTION:WHAT: Slightly Off-beat Poets Presents: KAREN DURLACH & KATE GREGOIRE \n\n\n\nWHERE:                    Deb Horan’s Backyard 15 Eddy St Webster\, MA \n\n\n\nRAIN LOCATION:     Steve Veilleux’s house112 Fabyan-Woodstock Road N Grosvenordale\, CT \n\n\n\nWHEN: Sunday May 4th\, 2025 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWHAT 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. \n\n\n\nCOST: There will be a 50/50 raffle\, split between the feature and the winner. 5$ to enter. \n\n\n\nSIGN-UPS: There is room for 25 POETS. To reserve a spot please email: roberteugeneperry@gmail.com \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nKAREN DURLACH is a visual artist/craftsperson\, both by vocation and avocation\, having made a career in the graphic arts\, photography\, ceramics\, and various media. She writes off and on when the muse strikes\, most often when the early dawn insists. Most of her poems strive to paint a picture of a precious moment\, place or experience—something odd\, exciting or wondrous—that begs to be remembered and shared. She only started sharing her poems aloud at open mics after discovering the encouraging local poetry communities in Putnam\, Southbridge and Webster. Her poems have appeared in the online Virtual Poetorium and in Nancy Weiss’s column in the Thompson Villager newspaper during April poetry month. Three of her poems appear in the anthology Many Voices-One Stage by Slightly Off-beat Poets. Brooklyn born\, schooled in New York\, then Michigan\, she’s straddled the border between Massachusetts and Connecticut for decades\, living in the woods of Northeast Connecticut for close to four decades\, where she still struggles to grow unusual vegetables and entertains pollinators. \n\n\n\nKATE GREGOIRE is a poet and mother. It feels like a lifetime ago when she was teaching German language and literature full-time at university. Now she is raising her little girl\, supporting her husband’s ministry\, and volunteering for the Worcester County Poetry Association. She attended some 30+ weddings in this post-covid era with her husband and wrote a collection of poems about this experience called “Plus One”. Another volume on motherhood grew with her daughter in her first year of life. What feels most pressing now\, however\, is her work towards a collection of alchemical incantations in poetic form that will contribute to healing the relationship between man and nature.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/slightly-off-beat-poets-9/
LOCATION:Steve Veilleux’s Home\, 112 Fabyan-Woodstock North Road\, Grosvenordale\, CT\, 06255\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250501T183000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250501T193000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250402T212817Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250402T212821Z
UID:11177-1746124200-1746127800@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:Book Club: A Feast of Losses by Judith Ferrara
DESCRIPTION:Join us on Thursday\, May 1\, at 6:30 pm\, with the author Judith Ferrara to discuss her book A Feast of Losses: Yetta Dine and Her Son\, the Poet Stanley Kunitz. \n\n\n\nJoin Virtually \n\n\n\nAbout the Book \n\n\n\nPerhaps the most enduring poet of his generation\, Stanley Kunitz\, once observed that “poetry is for the sake of the life.” Based on his mother’s recently recovered memoir\, diary\, and letters\, Judith Ferrara’s A Feast of Losses offers fresh and intimate insights into both her own and her son’s lives. Yetta Dine emigrated from Lithuania to New York’s Lower East Side in 1890 and learned the garment trade before moving to Worcester\, Massachusetts\, in 1893 to marry Solomon Kunitz. Readers will have an unprecedented opportunity to hear Yetta’s own voice\, understand her story\, and explore the influence she had on Stanley Kunitz as a poet and a person. In the foreground is her complex relationship with her brilliant son. As her experiences unfold in her writing\, they become touchstones to current debates about immigration and death with dignity. A central question is: What happened in Worcester\, Massachusetts\, to transform a hopeful\, independent woman into a bereft\, even tragic woman of reduced circumstances? Yetta’s voice is an astonishing discovery; she lacked fame or formal education but was a skilled and lively storyteller. Who was this woman\, immortalized as the mother in “The Portrait\,” who “slapped me hard” when Stanley found his dead father’s portrait in the attic? Yetta’s original papers and the striking details of her life have emerged against all odds―a story within a story.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/book-club-a-feast-of-losses-by-judith-ferrara-2/
LOCATION:Zoom Online Only
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250429T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250429T200000
DTSTAMP:20260611T152053
CREATED:20250421T170338Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250422T181802Z
UID:11293-1745953200-1745956800@worcestercountypoetry.org
SUMMARY:A Virtual Thirsty Lab with James Nicola
DESCRIPTION:The Thirsty Lab poetry reading\, normally based out of Princeton\, Mass.\, continues to meet virtually. On Tuesday\, April 29th\, 2025 James B. Nicola will be the featured reader. Please Click Here to register. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJames B. Nicola was born in Worcester\, raised in Holden\, and lives in New York City. He is the author of eight collections of poetry\, the latest three being Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense\, Turns & Twists\, and Natural Tendencies. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Actor’s Guide to Live Performance won a Choice magazine award. A graduate of Yale\, he has received a Dana Literary Award\, two Willow Review awards\, Storyteller’s People’s Choice award\, one Best of Net\, one Rhysling\, and eleven Pushcart nominations—for which he feels stunned and grateful. James also hosts an International Writers’ Round Table at his library branch in Hell’s Kitchen\, Manhattan (usually second and fourth Saturdays of the month\, 1-3 pm): walk-ins are always welcome.
URL:https://worcestercountypoetry.org/event/a-virtual-thirsty-lab-with-james-nicola-2/
LOCATION:Zoom Online Meeting\, United States
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR