Join us for a full year’s worth of Emily Dickinson inspired events and programs.

2008 Program Schedule

Sunday, September 14, 2 p.m.
Nathaniel Hawthorne:
The Scarlet Letter
Reading/Discussion group
Leader: Richard Millington
At the Amherst Room, Jones Library
Richard Millington received his B.A. from Harvard College and his Ph.D. from Yale University. In addition to a range of introductory classes, he teaches courses in American literature and American Studies. He is the author of Practicing Romance: Narrative Form and Cultural Engagement in Hawthorne’s Fiction (Princeton, 1992) Hitchcock’s America (Oxford, 1999), which includes his essay on North by Northwest.

Saturday, September 27
Such a Hurrah!The Emily Dickinson Museum’s 5th Anniversary Celebration
In 2003 the poet’s home, The Homestead, and her brother Austin’s house, The Evergreens, were officially joined again to form the Emily Dickinson Museum. Come celebrate with the Emily Dickinson Museum on our 5th Anniversary. Details TBA.

Saturday, September 27, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon
At the Museum and various locations around Amherst
The Museum will host its third marathon reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson. Stay for all 16+ hours or drop in to listen for some of your favorites. The event will take place rain or shine. For information on how you can participate as a reader in the marathon, please visit www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/events or e-mail csdickinson@emilydickinsonmuseum.org.

Thursday, October 16, 7:30 p.m.
Emily Dickinson and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Replenishing the Shelves
Lecture Series
Lecturer: Brenda Wineapple
At the Amherst Woman’s Club
Fee: donations welcome
Biographer Brenda Wineapple will speak about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life and writings. She will draw connections between Hawthorne and Dickinson and comment on Hawthorne’s popularity and significance to his nineteenth-century audience. Ms. Wineapple is the author of Hawthorne: A Life (2003) and the forthcoming White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Knopf, Fall 2008).

Sunday, November 2, 2 p.m.
Kinsmen of the Shelf
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Marble Faun
Reading/Discussion group
Leader: Richard Millington
At Alumni House, Amherst College

Saturday, November 15, 2-4:30 p.m.
“First Do No Harm: Preserving and Organizing Your
Historic Family Photographs”
Leader: Daria D’Arienzo
At Alumni House, Amherst College
Fee: $15 in advance; $18 at the door
Contact: Nan Fischlein, program coordinator, 413-542-2034 or nfischlein@emilydickinsonmuseum.org.
Daria D’Arienzo is an archivist who served as Head of Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College for more than twenty years. An active supporter of the Emily Dickinson Museum, she chaired the Homestead Advisory Committee for several years and now serves on the Museum’s Educational Programming and Policy Committee.

Thursday, December 11, 4 p.m.
“What Did Dickinson Write?”
Annual Emily Dickinson Birthday Lecture
Speaker: Virginia Jackson
At the Alumni House, Amherst College
Virginia Jackson teaches at Tufts University. She is the author of Dickinson’s Misery: A Theory of Lyric Reading (Princeton, 2005), which won the MLA First Book Award in 2005 and the Christian Gauss prize from Phi Beta Kappa in 2006. Co-sponsored with Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

Thursday, December 11, 7 p.m.
Annual Emily Dickinson Fundraiser
Victorian Dinner
Join us for a delightful evening and dine like the Dickinsons at our second annual fundraiser for the museum. Reservations are recommended. Price and location TBA.

Saturday, December 13, 1-4 p.m.
Open House in honor of Emily Dickinson’s Birthday
At the Museum
The Museum’s 13th annual “At Home” celebration of Emily Dickinson’s birthday once again will feature self-guided tours of the Homestead and The Evergreens, Dickinsonian refreshments, crafts, music, and poetry readings. According to tradition and in honor of Dickinson’s 178th birthday, the first 178 visitors will receive a rose, courtesy of an anonymous donor.

“my Verse is alive”
Due to the overwhelming response the Emily Dickinson Museum will be extending this unique exhibit that explores the tangled private and public motives of several figures closely associated with Emily Dickinson as they struggled for control of her poetic legacy. The roles of her siblings Lavinia and Austin, sister-in-law Susan and niece Martha are examined as well as that of Lavinia’s friend and Austin’s mistress Mabel Loomis Todd, a central figure in achieving initial publication of Dickinson’s poetry.

2008 Programming Past

Sunday, March 2, 2 p.m. (snow date: March 16)
Kinsmen of the Shelf
The Brownings: Selected Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Reading / Discussion group
Leader: Cornelia Pearsall
Location: Jones Library, Amherst Room
Free

Cornelia Pearsall, is an Associate Professor of English at Smith College. She teaches a range of courses on Victorian and Modern literature and culture. Her book Tennyson’s Rapture is forthcoming from Oxford University Press, and she is completing another book, titled Imperial Tennyson, on the centrality of the poet laureate to late Victorian imperial expansion. She currently serves on the boards of Women’s Studies and the Poetry Center at Smith College.
Contact Nan Fischlein, Program Coordinator, 413/542-2034 or nfischlein@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Tuesday, March 25, 7 p.m. (snow date: March 27)
“Emily Dickinson and the Brownings: A Triad of Poets”
Replenishing the Shelves Lecture Series
Speaker: Vincent F. Petronella
Location: Amherst Woman’s Club, Triangle Street, Amherst
Fee: No charge, but donation appreciated

Dr. Vincent Petronella is a seminar leader for Beacon Hill Seminars in Boston. He teaches courses in Shakespeare, the poetry of the Brownings and John Keats, the Fiction of Hawthorne, Melville, and the plays of George Bernard Shaw. He has published numerous articles on these topics, lectures frequently, is a board member for the Beacon Hill Seminars, and past president of the Boston Browning Society. His forthcoming essay in the Browning Society Notes (published by the London Browning Society 2008) is entitled: Robert Browning’s Poetry and the Italian Risorgimento.
Contact Nan Fischlein, Program Coordinator, 413/542-2034 or nfischlein@emilydickinsonmuseum.org


Replenishing the Shelves
The Emily Dickinson Museum seeks to recreate the Dickinson family libraries at the Homestead and The Evergreens--those treasures the poet called “The strongest Friends of the Soul.” Click the Replenishing the Shelves link for full information and the current book list.

Friday, March 28, Noon-2 p.m.
Poetry Discussion Group monthly meeting
Bruce Penniman, educator, recently retired from English Department at Amherst High School
Location TBA
Fee ($10/session; advance registration required)
Monthly discussion of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
Contact Cindy Dickinson, Director of Interpretation and Programming, 413/542/8429 or csdickinson@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Sunday, April 6, 4 p.m.
“I told my Soul to sing”: A Reading from Galway Kinnell's Favorite Poems, including Dickinson's and some of his own.
Speaker: Galway Kinnell
Converse Hall, Amherst College Campus
Free

Galway Kinnell will read a selection of his favorite poems, including work by Dickinson, as well as some of his own work. A reception and booksigning will follow. This program celebrates National Poetry Month.
Kinnell counts among his earliest influences the poetry of Emily Dickinson. A He has served as poet-in-residence at numerous colleges and universities and divides his time between Vermont and New York City, where he was the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Creative Writing at New York University. Contact Cindy Dickinson, Director of Interpretation and Programming, 413/542/8429 or csdickinson@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Monday, April 21, 4 p.m.
"A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade"
Speaker:Christopher Benfey
Location: Emily Dickinson Museum
Free

Celebrate the release of Christopher Benfey’s latest book, A Summer of Hummingbirds. Benfey maps the intricate web of friendship, family, and romance that connected Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade, all of whom found themselves caught in the crossfire between the Calvinist world of strict restraint and the new romantic, unconventional world in which nature prevails and freedom is all. Benfey unveils how, through the art of these great thinkers, the hummingbird became the symbol of an era, an image through which they could explore their controversial ideas of nature, religion, sexuality, family, time, exoticism, and beauty, all which would come to shape American thought.
Contact Cindy Dickinson, Director of Interpretation and Programming, 413/542/8429 or csdickinson@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Friday, April 25, Noon-2 p.m.
Poetry Discussion Group monthly meeting
Anne Flick
Location TBA
Fee ($10/session; advance registration required)
Contact Cindy Dickinson, Director of Interpretation and Programming, 413/542/8429 or csdickinson@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Friday, April 25, 4:30-6 p.m. A reading and interview; part of the Juniper Festival (April 25-26)
Location: Emily Dickinson Museum
Free
Contact: Juniper Festival [more information forthcoming from the Juniper Festival]

Sunday, April 27, 2 p.m.
Kinsmen of the Shelf
The Brownings: Selected Poems of Robert Browning
Reading / Discussion group
Leader: Cornelia Pearsall
Location: Amherst College Alumni House
Free


Cornelia Pearsall, is an Associate Professor of English at Smith College. She teaches a range of courses on Victorian and Modern literature and culture. Her book Tennyson’s Rapture is forthcoming from Oxford University Press, and she is completing another book, titled Imperial Tennyson, on the centrality of the poet laureate to late Victorian imperial expansion. She currently serves on the boards of Women’s Studies and the Poetry Center at Smith College.
Contact Nan Fischlein, Program Coordinator, 413/542-2034 or nfischlein@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Thursday, May 1, 5-7 p.m.
Amherst Art Walk
Open House at the Museum
Free
Contact Donna Abelli, Development and Marketing Manager, 413/542/5084 or dmabelli@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Sunday, May 4, 3:00 p.m.
WORLD PREMIERE "The Musical Muse"
Composer, Gweneth Walker
The Holyoke Civic Symphony
The Forum at Holyoke Community College
Admission is $10 adults,$5 children
proceeds benefit Holyoke Civic Symphony
David Kidwell, Music Director and Conductor
Susan Snively, narrator

I This is My Letter
II A Light Exists in Spring
III I'm Nobody!
IV Wild Nights

Thursday, May 8, 7:30 p.m.
“Emily Dickinson & Walt Whitman, The Mother and Father of American Poetry” A Program with Susan Kinsolving and Jack Gilpin

Location: Amherst Woman’s Club
Fee: $15 adults, $5 students/youth in advance; $18 adults, $8 students/youth at door
*Advance reservations recommended

In this lively and entertaining program, poet Susan Kinsolving and actor Jack Gilpin bring the words of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman to life as they explore why both poets rightly deserve their titles as The Mother and Father of American Poetry. Through selected themes, Kinsolving and Gilpin compare and contrast Dickinson and Whitman. Both poets independently broke with the tradition of English poetry to create innovative, provocative, and prolific work. They originated American poetry and still influence it today.
Media Sponsor: Valley Advocate, Reception Sponsor: Whole Foods Market, Hadley, MA
Contact Nan Fischlein, Program Coordinator, 413/542-2034 or nfischlein@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Saturday, May 17, 1 p.m.
Emily Dickinson Poetry Walk (1 p.m.)
Poetry Walk Open House (3-5 p.m.)
Begins at the Museum
Free

The Emily Dickinson Poetry Walk, held each year on the Saturday closest to the poet’s May 15 death, stops at historic spots in Amherst significant to Dickinson and incorporates readings of about thirty of her poems.
The Poetry Walk begins at the Museum (280 Main Street) at 1 p.m. Some of the stops along the route include the Amherst Train Station, the Amherst History Museum and the site of Dickinson’s girlhood home on North Pleasant Street. Readers this year include 24 teachers from Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, and Worcester Counties who have participated in a year-long workshop, sponsored by the Museum, about teaching Emily Dickinson. Walkers are encouraged to join the procession at any point. Everyone will be given an opportunity to read at West Cemetery on Triangle Street, where the Walk concludes at 2:30 p.m.
An Open House follows at the Museum from 3-5 p.m.
Contact Cindy Dickinson, Director of Interpretation and Programming, 413/542/8429 or csdickinson@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Friday, May 23, Noon-2 p.m.
Poetry Discussion Group monthly meeting
Leader: Margaret Freeman, Dickinson scholar
At Chapin 101, Amherst College
Fee: $10/session; advance registration required
Contact Cindy Dickinson, director of interpretation and programming, 413-542-8429 or csdickinson@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

Sunday, June 15, 2 p.m.
Emily Dickinson, the Civil War, and the Assassination of President Lincoln
Writer and lecturer John Shoptaw
On museum grounds. Free and open to the public.
Shoptaw’s program will focus on Dickinson’s interest in the war, especially its final events and Lincoln’s assassination. Earlier this spring the Emily Dickinson Museum began to explore Dickinson’s relationship to the Civil War when lecturer Anne Flick led the Museum’s poetry discussion group through a series of Dickinson poems that relate to the conflict. Shoptaw is the librettist for the new opera “Our American Cousin,” which will have its fully-staged world premiere in Northampton on Friday, June 20. The three-act opera presents the events of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865 from the perspective of the people who were at Ford’s Theatre that night.

Saturday, June 21, 2-4 p.m.
The Art and Practice of Victorian Flower Arranging
Leader: Nan Wolverton
At the Amherst Woman’s Club
Fee: $15 in advance, $18 at the door
Advanced registration recommended
Contact Nan Fischlein, program coordinator, 413-542-2034 or nfischlein@emilydickinsonmuseum.org
Susan Dickinson, Emily Dickinson’s sister-in-law, was an award-winning flower arranger. In honor of her skills, the Emily Dickinson Museum is pleased to offer this workshop. Participants will learn about the art and popularity of flower arranging in nineteenth-century America and will create their own Victorian arrangements to take home. Materials will be provided, but participants are welcome to bring flowers from their own gardens. Refreshments will be served.

Saturday, July 5, 1-4 p.m.
“Creatures of Bliss and Mystery”: A Nineteenth-Century Children’s Circus At the Museum. Free
This annual event recreates a nineteenth-century backyard children’s circus with craft activities, games, and refreshments. A highlight is the Magic Show at 1:30 and 3 p.m. by Historical Conjurer Robert Olson. Circus-goers will also have the opportunity to make “parade hats” and join a parade around the Museum grounds at 2:30 p.m. An old-fashioned Strawberry Social is provided by Whole Foods Market of Hadley, Emily's Gingerbread Cookies and Apple Cider is provided by Atkins Farm with special treats from SUBWAY of Amherst. Open to all ages, the circus is especially suitable for children ages 3-10.
In case of severe weather the circus will be held on Sunday July 6.

Poetry in the Garden
Three July afternoons of poetry in the garden at the Emily Dickinson Museum.
Each speaker reads a selection of Dickinson’s poetry (and sometimes poetry by other writers) and offers reflections on the work.
Refreshments are served.

Sunday, July 13, 2 p.m.
Todd Felton, author,
“A Journey into the Transcendentalists’ New England”
Felton is a photographer and writer who specializes in literary travel guides. He was the founding director of Wilbraham & Monson Academy’s writing center as well as the school’s English Department chair and theater director. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

In case of rain we will meet at the Amherst College Alumni House.

Sunday, July 20, 2 p.m.
Susan Hess, artist, “‘I’m Nobody,’ A Journey of Healing
Hess, a fiber artist based in Georgetown, Maine, has illustrated Emily Dickinson’s words through tapestry art in her book, I’m Nobody, A Journey of Healing. Her work emphasizes the power of Dickinson’s language as the therapeutic process that enabled her to confront personal issues of abuse and suffering.

In case of rain we will meet at the Amherst College Alumni House.

Sunday, July 27, 2 p.m.
Maxine Silverman, poet, “Transport of the Aim”
Silverman’s poetry and essays have been published in many journals and anthologies including Pushcart Prize III: Best of the Small Presses and Voices Within the Ark: the Modern Jewish Poets. Trained as a Master Gardener, she has combined her love for plants and flowers with poetry in “‘Transport of the Aim,’ a fascicle of poems on the lives of Emily Dickinson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Celia Thaxter and others in their circle.”

In case of rain we will meet at the Amherst College Alumni House.


Monday, July 28, 3 p.m.
EXHILARATION A concert of song settings of poems by Emily Dickinson and poets that inspired her.
Ventfort Hall, Lenox, Massachusetts
Adriana Zabala, mezzo-soprano, Gregg Kallor, composer & pianist.
Presented by the Berkshire Opera Company in partnership with the Emily Dickinson Museum and Ventfort Hall.
For ticket and other information: http://berkshireopera.org/calendar/exhilaration/

I'll tell you how the Sun rose-
An exhibition by artist, Alberto Mancini
August 3 - 10
Eli Marsh Gallery
105 Fayerweather Hall
Amherst College
Amherst, MA,
This event is presented by the Emily Dickinson Museum in conjunction with the Emily Dickinson International Society. For viewing hours and additional information, please call 413-542-5084