Author Archive: Patrick Fecher

archival lithograph showing the carriage house next to The Evergreens

Carriages – Be sure – and Guests – True:
A Dickinson Birthday Celebration
Tuesday, Dec. 10, 6pm ET

VIRTUAL PROGRAM
This free event has limited capacity, we encourage you to register in advance.

REGISTER

archival lithograph showing the carriage house next to The Evergreens

Reconstruction of The Evergreens Carriage House has begun at the Museum! In this virtual celebration of Emily Dickinson’s 194th birthday, we explore what it takes to re-create a historic structure, from conducting archaeology to designing an environmentally passive building within a historically-sensitive shell. Join Jane and Robert Keiter Family Executive Director Jane Wald and special guests as we go behind the scenes of this exciting moment in the Museum’s history. Along the way we’ll hear special birthday messages to the poet from fans around the world. 

All are welcome to this free VIRTUAL program. Space is limited, register in advance.

Give a Birthday Gift
It’s not a birthday party without gifts! If you’re looking to honor Emily Dickinson with a birthday present, please consider a donation to the Museum to support our free virtual programs which are made possible with your support. Gifts of all sizes are deeply appreciated.

DONATE

About Dickinson’s Birthday

Emily Dickinson, the middle child of Edward Dickinson and Emily Norcross Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830, in the family Homestead on Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts, now the home of the Emily Dickinson Museum. She celebrated 55 birthdays before her death in 1886. Some of the poet’s most favored themes were time and immortality; she wrote, “We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” (Johnson L379)

emily dickinson graphic standing in front of numbers 194! and balloons

[SOLD OUT] Emily Dickinson 194th Birthday Open House
Sat., Dec. 7, 1-4:30pm ET

IN-PERSON PROGRAM at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA

emily dickinson graphic standing in front of numbers 194! and balloonsThis program is now SOLD OUT — please join us for the virtual birthday celebration. 

You are cordially invited to the Emily Dickinson Museum’s celebration of the poet’s 194th birthday! On Saturday, December 7, join us in person at the Homestead for a free open house with tours, crafts, music, cider and gingerbread cookies! All are welcome to this free program. 

Can’t make it to Amherst? Join us for our virtual birthday celebration.

Give a Birthday Gift
It’s not a birthday party without gifts! If you’d like to honor Emily Dickinson on her birthday, please consider a donation to the Museum to support our free programs which are made possible with your support. Gifts of all sizes are deeply appreciated.

DONATE

About Dickinson’s Birthday

Emily Dickinson, the middle child of Edward Dickinson and Emily Norcross Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830, in the family Homestead on Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts, now the site of the Emily Dickinson Museum. She celebrated 55 birthdays before her death in 1886. Some of the poet’s most favored themes were time and im/mortality; she wrote, “We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” (Johnson L379)

Dickinson's writing desk with pens, scraps of paper and her lamp

Mild Nights!
At the Emily Dickinson Museum

Dickinson's writing desk with pens, scraps of paper and her lampIN-PERSON PROGRAM

‘Mild Nights!’ at the Emily Dickinson Museum

Spend an evening in Emily Dickinson’s home, in quiet community with fellow creatives! For Dickinson, everyday life was a wellspring of poetic imagination, and evidence suggests she put pen to paper whenever and wherever that inspiration struck. Reserve a desk in one of the Homestead’s restored 19th-century spaces where the poet spent her own ‘Wild Nights!’.

On this decidedly mild night, participants can write letters, compose poetry or prose, draw, read, or contemplate for two uninterrupted hours. A tour guide welcomes the group with a brief orientation to the house, and each participant is provided with a chair and a small writing table with a desk light in their designated space. 

2025 Sessions
Thursday, January 23, 5-7pm
Thursday, February 13, 5-7pm

Pricing: $65 per person

RESERVE YOUR SEAT

Rooms

 

The parlor of the Homestead

The Parlors (4 seats): A double room on the first floor with spaces for family time and entertaining. Find yourself seated near the portrait of the Dickinson children, an original Italianate marble fireplace mantel, or an 1852 square piano amid plush fabrics and cool tones once enjoyed by Amherst’s elite. 

 

 

 

 

The library of the Homestead

The Library (2 seats): A cozy room on the first floor where Emily Dickinson accessed the literary world through the family’s vast collection of verse and prose, news subscriptions, and academic texts. The poet’s conservatory opens into this room.

 

 

 

 

 

Dickinson's bedroom with the bed, desk and white dress

Emily Dickinson’s Bedroom (2 seats): The southwest room on the second floor where the poet spent her most private writing time. Find yourself surrounded by the rose-patterned wallpaper and personal effects, including her sleigh bed.

 

 

 

 

 

The northwest chamber of the Homestead

Northwest Bedchamber (1 seat): This second floor bedroom was a refuge for Emily Dickinson’s mother in her final years. The poet spent significant time caring for her mother in this space, which features an original wallpaper pattern and family art and furniture. 

 

 

 

 

 

Learn more about these spaces through the Virtual Exploration.
Find out about accessibility at the Museum.

‘Mild Nights!’ are intended to be quiet experiences, but you will likely be sharing a space with other participants. Looking for a solo experience? Check out private Studio Sessions in Emily Dickinson’s bedroom.

Program Guidelines:

  • Registration closes two weeks prior to the event date. Each session requires a minimum of six participants to run. In the case of cancelation, ticket purchasers will be notified two weeks before their session and their ticket will be refunded or rescheduled. 
  • Photo ID must be presented upon arrival for your session and a photocopy will be made which will be destroyed after your session.
  • The door to rooms in use will remain open, and staff will be present nearby at all times. Participants must remain in the designated area of the room and may not touch the historic furnishings.
  • Bags, food, and beverages other than bottled water must be left in the designated area of the tour center.
  • No pens, inks, or paints permitted. Pencil and paper or electronic device only. Other materials must be approved by special request in advance. Outlets may not be available; please arrive with your device fully charged.
  • Participants agree to help maintain a quiet environment for all.
  • Photography for non-commercial, personal use is permitted.
  • Refunding and rescheduling are at the discretion of the Emily Dickinson Museum. Unless a session is canceled by the Museum, ticket refunds or rescheduling are not permitted except in the case of emergency. 


RESERVE YOUR SEAT

Please direct questions to EDMPrograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org.

Sweet Countrymen — Judge Tenderly of Me
A Community Poetry Hour
Tuesday, Nov. 5, 3pm ET

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

For any questions, please e-mail connect@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me –
The simple News that Nature told –
With tender Majesty
Her Message is committed
To Hands I cannot see –
For love of Her – Sweet – countrymen –
Judge tenderly – of Me

Take a mid-day break from the uncertainties of election day for an hour of poetry.  “Sweet Countrymen — Judge tenderly of me” offers an opportunity to consider, through the poetry of Emily Dickinson and others, themes of discord and unity, the known and unknown, places of refuge and moments of hope for the future. All are welcome to join the Zoom webinar to hear the poetry reading, and to sign up to read a poem of their choice. If you wish to read a poem, please register for the program AND complete the reader request form.

REGISTER FOR THE PROGRAM

 

Reconstruction of The Evergreens Carriage House

On Tuesday, August 27, 2024 the Emily Dickinson Museum began the reconstruction of the Dickinson family Carriage House that once stood east of The Evergreens, the home of Emily Dickinson’s brother Austin and his wife Susan. The project flows from a recently-completed long range plan, which maps programmatic and capital enhancements over the next decade at the Museum’s historic downtown Amherst location. 

Digital rendering of completed Evergreens Carriage

Digital rendering of completed Evergreens Carriage House (edmsSTUDIO)

The John and Elizabeth Armstrong Carriage House–scheduled for completion in 2025–will initially serve as a much-needed site for visitor welcome, orientation and services to enable a third and final phase of Dickinson Homestead restoration. In the longer term, the reconstructed carriage house will be dedicated to student and visitor learning and engagement. By expanding access to the Museum and its programs for both onsite and online visitors, the changes firmly establish the Museum as the premier center for the study and celebration of Dickinson’s life and work, and as a source and site of inspiration for new generations of poets, artists, writers, and thinkers.

The carriage house reconstruction project is supported by a major pledge of $750,000 from former Board members and long-time friends John and Elizabeth Armstrong. “We’ve always been proud of our association with the Museum, recognizing its importance to our regional community and now–through the wonders of technology–to the world.” stated Elizabeth, adding “We’ve been drawn over the years to supporting singular projects that open multiple possibilities for the Museum. The Carriage House is just such a project.”

The Museum continues to raise funds for the project. “We were incredibly fortunate to have wonderful support from John and Lise Armstrong, which enabled us to put shovels in the ground today,” says Erin Martin, Senior Director of Development. “Because this project is a very visible demonstration of the Museum’s ambitions for the future, we are asking our loyal donors and friends to support the project – as a community.” Martin says the Museum is seeking additional funding to help fit out the interior spaces of the new Carriage House to optimize its flexibility and energy efficiency.

ABOUT THE PROJECT
The design calls for reconstructing the exterior historic appearance of the carriage house as faithfully as possible while optimizing interior functions and flow. At the outset of the design phase, museum staff worked with architects at edmSTUDIO to track down details of the original structure in historic maps, deeds, insurance documents, photographs, and archaeological reports. The original structure may have been built as early as the 1840s as an outbuilding associated with the modest cottage owned by the poet’s father, which was incorporated into The Evergreens dwelling, built for Austin and Susan Dickinson in 1856. In a photograph taken in about 1870, the carriage house appears as a prominent yet simple vernacular structure with window and door openings barely visible. Insurance maps from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revealed that it was a wood frame structure with two levels and a metal roof. Details such as these gave the design team guidance about the exterior appearance and finishes.

Archival photograph of The Evergreens and Carriage House (in middle ground of photo)

Archival photograph of The Evergreens and Carriage House (in middle ground of photo)

As new construction, the carriage house gives the Emily Dickinson Museum an opportunity to combine its sustainability and historical priorities. Since 2006, the museum has recognized that full interpretation of the historic Dickinson site and the poet’s life cannot be completely understood from a functional and aesthetic perspective without reconstruction of the outbuildings. While the current project is being carried out as a “historic reconstruction,” it also gives the museum the opportunity to advance its sustainability goals. Working with Monica Del Rio Perez and Tim Widman of edmSTUDIO, the design calls for construction techniques and materials selections that will produce significant energy savings and carbon reduction for heating and cooling. The museum has engaged Teagno Construction, Inc., as general contractor for the project.

Jane and Robert Keiter Family Executive Director Jane Wald says, “Reconstruction of the Evergreens carriage house is a true milestone for the Emily Dickinson Museum. It’s the linchpin of our future plans to complete the Homestead restoration – an effort that’s already transformed our sense of who Emily Dickinson was and how she lived. Not only does the carriage house begin to fill out the Dickinson landscape, but its flexible interior also offers greater comfort, better service, and much-needed space for public and educational programming that’s already on the drawing board.”

Margaret Maher and The Celtification of Emily Dickinson
Sunday, Sept. 29, 11:30am ET

HYBRID PROGRAM — in-person at the Emily Dickinson Museum AND streaming live for online registrants

This program is FREE to attend. Registration is required. 
Part of the 2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

Join us for the 12th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum! Register here to access the Festival schedule:

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

Musical performance featuring the poems of Emily Dickinson with music and lyrics by Rosemary Caine!
If the Irish can claim they saved civilization, then the Wilde Irish Women dare to claim that Margaret Maher saved Emily Dickinson’s poems. Experience the lauded musical play that reveals the unlikely story of a humble Irish maid’s influence on her reclusive mistress, Emily Dickinson.
Margaret Maher defied Emily’s deathbed decree to burn her poems. Her brave, independent thinking and courageous action came from being born in Ireland, a country where poems are respected, not burned. But there is so much more to the story…
Rosie Caine and the Wilde Irish Women explore this fascinating aspect of Emily’s life in “The Celtification of Emily Dickinson.”

Learn more about the show on Ireland’s national broadcast program Nationwide.

About the Performers

Founded by Rosemary Caine of Ardee, County Louth, Ireland, Wilde Irish Women is a collaborative performance group based in Western Massachusetts. The ensemble comprises musicians, actors and singers who have been together since the early 2000’s. Its mission is to illuminate through original music and story the lives of Irish geniuses of literature and legend — saints and sinners included! The focus is on Irish culture, as well as the forgotten women of Irish history and always delivered with Caine’s signature good humor.

The cast is a constellation of musical and acting talent from the Pioneer Valley and beyond. Wilde Irish Women is proud to be a community centric arts group and is host to some of the Pioneer Valleys great talents including famed Hollywood director Michael Haley, astronaut Cady Coleman, UMass professor Michael Morgan, gifted multi-instrumentalist and fiddle phenom Chris Devine, and a constellation of musical, theatrical and artistic stars from all walks of life. 
wildeirishwomen.com/the-celtification-of-emily-dickinson


Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival.

2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival Schedule

 

“Picnic, Lightning”:
Brevity in the Very Short Poem
Sunday, Sept. 29, 10am ET

VIRTUAL PROGRAM — streaming live for online registrants

This program is FREE to attend. Registration is required. 
Part of the 2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

Join us for the 12th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum! Register here to access the Festival schedule:

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

SOLD OUT! — This program has reached maximum registrant capacity. We hope you’ll register for other Festival programs!
Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest masters of the short poem. In this workshop for writers at all stages in their practice, we’ll focus on the Very Short Poem, the highly pressurized lyric that casts off a resonance far bigger than its real estate.
 
Looking at poems by Dickinson, Ross Gay, Jane Kenyon, Bill Knott, Lorine Niedecker, and Martha Rhodes, we’ll explore how a poem can become more focused and intense with strategies of inference, implication, subordination, and exclusion. Our time together will include a generative exercise— please join us to add the VSP to your poetic toolbox!

About the Poet
PATRICK DONNELLY is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Willow Hammer (Four Way Books, 2025), and Little-Known Operas (Four Way Books, 2019). Nocturnes of the Brothel of Ruin (Four Way Books, 2012), was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Donnelly is Program Director of The Frost Place, Robert Frost’s old homestead in Franconia, NH, now a center for poetry and the arts. Donnelly’s translations with Stephen D. Miller of classical Japanese poetry were awarded the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature by Columbia University. A former Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, Donnelly’s poems explore topics like same-sex love and desire and the AIDS epidemic with lyric strategies.

patrickdonnellypoetry.com


Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival.

2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival Schedule

 
graphic for Late Night Garden Party - Tell It Slant 2024

Headliner Night and Garden Party
with Carl Phillips and Sebastian Merrill
Saturday, Sept. 28, 7pm ET

HYBRID PROGRAM — in-person at the Emily Dickinson Museum AND streaming live for online registrants

This program is FREE to attend. Registration is required. 
Part of the 2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

Join us for the 12th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum! Register here to access the Festival schedule:

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

graphic for Late Night Garden Party - Tell It Slant 2024Join us in Emily Dickinson’s garden or virtually for a celebration of creativity and poetry! Our headlining poets, 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Phillips and Sebastian Merrill, read from their work and discuss their poetic practice and inspiration with moderator Kirun Kapur.

About the Poets

Carl Phillips is the author of 17 books of poetry, most recently Scattered Snows, to the North (2024) and Then the War: And Selected Poems 2007-2020, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. His other honors include the 2021 Jackson Prize, the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, the Kingsley Tufts Award, a Lambda Literary Award, the PEN/USA Award for Poetry, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Library of Congress, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Academy of American Poets.
carlphillipspoet.com

Sebastian Merrill is an award winning poet and a yoga instructor. His debut collection GHOST :: SEEDS was selected by Kimiko Hahn as the winner of the 2022 X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize from Texas Review Press and was named a 2024 Stonewall Honor Book – Barbara Gittings Literature Award by the American Library Association.
sebastianmerrill.com

In Kirun Kapur's headshot a woman with dark hair smiles at the camera.
Kirun Kapur serves as the editor of the Beloit Poetry Journal, one of nation’s oldest poetry publications and teaches at Amherst College where she is the director of the Creative Writing Program. Her newest book, Women in the Waiting Room, was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and is out now from Black Lawrence Press(2020). kirunkapur.com
 
 


Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival.

2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival Schedule

 

“I am afraid to own a Body”:
Braving the Body
Saturday, Sept. 28, 3:30pm ET

HYBRID PROGRAM — in-person at the Emily Dickinson Museum AND streaming live for online registrants

This program is FREE to attend. Registration is required. 
Part of the 2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

Join us for the 12th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum! Register here to access the Festival schedule:

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

Nicole Callihan, Pichchenda Bao, and Jennifer Franklin, the editors of Braving the Body (Harbor Editions, 2024) will discuss a group of Dickinson’s poems about the body and embodied experience, particularly her exploration into the often-contradictory needs between body and mind. We will also read a selection of contemporary poems by women and non-binary poets from Braving the Body who have been inspired by Dickinson’s work. We will provide prompts for a generative writing exercise inspired by Dickinson and/or the poems from the anthology. There will be time for interested participants to share their drafts and to receive feedback from the editors.

About the Poets

Jennifer Franklin published three poetry collections including If Some God Shakes Your House (Four Way 2023). In 2021, Franklin received grants from NYFA/City Artist Corps and Café Royal Cultural Foundation. Her work has been published widely including in APR, Bennington Review, The Nation, and The Paris Review. Diane Seuss chose one of Franklin’s poems for The Academy of American Poets “poem-a-day.” She teaches in Manhattanville’s MFA program and HVWC, where she serves as Program Director.
jenniferfranklinpoet.com

Pichchenda Bao is a Cambodian American writer, infant survivor of the Khmer Rouge, daughter of refugees, and feminist stay-at-home mother. Her work speaks to the interwoven nature of grief, resilience, historical and generational trauma, and the everyday. Her work has been published widely and nominated for a Pushcart and Best of the Net. Her honors include a fellowship from Kundiman, a residency from Bethany Arts, a New Works grant from Queens Council on the Arts.
pichchendabao.com

Nicole Callihan’s most recent book, This Strange Garment (Terrapin, 2023) navigates her stage II bilateral breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Her work has been published in APR, Tin House, Kenyon Review, and a Poem-a-Day feature from the Academy of American Poets. Her work has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. Chigger Ridge will be published by The Word Works in 2024 and SLIP will be published by Saturnalia in 2025.
https://www.nicolecallihan.com/


Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival.

2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival Schedule

 

Poets of the Public:
New England Poet Laureates
Saturday, Sept. 28, 1pm ET

HYBRID PROGRAM — in-person at the Emily Dickinson Museum AND streaming live for online registrants

This program is FREE to attend. Registration is required. 
Part of the 2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

Join us for the 12th annual Tell it Slant Poetry Festival, a week of events happening both online and in-person at the Museum! Register here to access the Festival schedule:

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

Just what does a Poet Laureate do? You have questions and we have answers! Two poets from New England will share their poetic work as well as discuss the programs they implemented for their own communities. They will also discuss how they became Poet Laureates, what kinds of opportunities are available through their positions, as well as what sort of pitfalls are present in navigating the role of public poet.

About the Poets
OLIVER DE LA PAZ is the author and editor of several books and serves as the Poet Laureate of Worcester, MA. 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 teaches at the College of the Holy Cross and in the Low-Residency MFA Program at PLU.
oliverdelapaz.com

 
DIANNELY ANTIGUA is a Dominican American poet and educator, born and raised in Massachusetts. Her debut collection Ugly Music (YesYes Books, 2019) was the winner of the Pamet River Prize and a 2020 Whiting Award. Her second poetry collection Good Monster is forthcoming with Copper Canyon Press in 2024. She received her BA in English from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she won the Jack Kerouac Creative Writing Scholarship, and received her MFA at NYU, where she was awarded a Global Research Initiative Fellowship to Florence, Italy. She is the recipient of additional fellowships from CantoMundo, Community of Writers, Fine Arts Work Center Summer Program, and was a finalist for the 2021 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and chosen for The Best of the Net Anthology. Her poems can be found in Poem-a-Day, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Washington Square Review, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. She currently teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the University of New Hampshire as the inaugural Nossrat Yassini Poet in Residence. She hosts the podcast Bread & Poetry and is currently the Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the youngest and first person of color to receive the title. In 2023, she was awarded an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship to launch The Bread & Poetry Project.
diannelyantigua.com


Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Festival events is free, but online donations, especially those made in honor or memory of family, friends, or colleagues are heartily encouraged and vital to the future of this beloved annual event. All gifts are tax deductible and will be recognized as part of the Festival.

2024 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival Schedule