VIRTUAL PROGRAM

This virtual program is free to attend. Registration is required. 

REGISTER

Join us for the last program of our three-part series exploring the collection of the Emily Dickinson Museum. The Museum’s collection is the largest assemblage in the world of objects representing the Dickinson family’s material legacy. Progress continues on the three-year collections documentation project funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. In this series, Museum staff converse with specialists and conservators about the unique qualities, challenges and opportunities of this singular collection. In this final presentation, we’ll hear from Professor Lise Sanders about her research in the Museum’s textile collection and we will also be making a BIG announcement about the Museum’s collections database.

 

Thank you for joining us for the 2023 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival! For information about the 2024 Festival, sign-up for our e-newsletter for the latest updates:
emilydickinsonmuseum.org/newsletter-signup

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s annual Tell It Slant Poetry Festival is an event with international reach that celebrates Emily Dickinson’s poetic legacy and the contemporary creativity she and her work continues to inspire from the place she called home.

This year’s FREE and hybrid Festival includes events happening online, as well as in-person at the Museum under our heated tent. The 2023 Festival platform is called Hopin (a part of RingCentral). Upon registering for the Festival you will receive an email link to access the event schedule, speaker information, and program sign-ups in the platform. All Festival attendees (online and in-person) must sign up for programs in Hopin/RingCentral.

The Tell It

Slant Poetry Festival returns September 25 – October 1, 2023!

Join us for the 11th 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. Your registration for an October 1 ticket, gains you access to the whole Festival:

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL (October 1 ticket is for whole Festival)

Learn more about the 2023 lineup below. Full program descriptions are located on the Festival platform Hopin/RingCentral.

THE SCHEDULE:

Monday, September 25:
6pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 1, co-hosted by Amherst College’s Frost Library
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.

Tuesday, September 26:
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 2, co-hosted by Folger Shakespeare Library 
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.
6:30pm [Virtual] — “Surpassing Material Place”: Digital Dickinson Resources for Educators and Readers
In this workshop, join Elizabeth Bradley, Education Programs Manager at the Emily Dickinson Museum, for an exploration of digital tools available for teaching and reading Dickinson.

Wednesday, September 27:
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 3, co-hosted by Harvard University’s Houghton Library
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.
6:30pm [Virtual] — “The Angle of a Landscape”: An Indigenous Poetics Panel
In this pane,l we explore how our Indigenous poetics connect with Emily Dickinson’s world—particularly the influence of the Northeast land and its flora and fauna.

Thursday, September 28:
9am [In-Person / High School Partner Program] — Creating A Collaborative Poem
In this workshop participants develop individual poems in response to shared prompts, and use those individual poems to create communal poems. *Please note this program is only open to high school students at Festival partner schools.
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 4, Co-hosted by the Emily Dickinson International Society
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.
6pm [Virtual] — Phosphorescence Poetry Reading: Festival Edition with The Common
Festival edition of the Museum’s monthly poetry reading series. Hear from poets around the world as they read their work and discuss what poetry and Dickinson mean to them.

Friday, September 29:
9am [In-person / High School Partner Program] — Creating A Collaborative Poem
In this workshop participants develop individual poems in response to shared prompts, and use those individual poems to create communal poems. *Please note this program is only open to high school students at Festival partner schools.
12pm [Virtual] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 5
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. This session takes place entirely virtually and is open to both readers and listeners. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival.
6:30pm [Hybrid] — Tell It Slant Awards Night: Honoring Marilyn Nelson, Alena Smith, Founders of the Emily Dickinson Museum
Join us for an inspiring evening at the Tell It Slant Awards honoring individuals whose work is imbued with the creative spirit of Emily Dickinson. This year the Museum honors poet and author Marilyn Nelson, Apple TV+ Dickinson creator and showrunner Alena Smith, and, in honor of our 20th Anniversary, the Museum’s core founders.

Saturday, September 30:
9am [In-person] — Spectacular Translation Machine
An invitation to turn one language into another. Come spend a few minutes lending your ear to the translation of poems and letters by Emily Dickinson under the Festival tent
9:30am [Hybrid] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Part 6
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. For this session, readers must be present on-site, but listeners are welcome both in-person and online. We will be reading from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival. At this session we’ll enjoy gingerbread cookies, and one lucky reader will win a Museum tote bag!
1pm [Hybrid] — Dickinson Screening with special guests!
Surprise!: We’ll be joined by cast members Anna Baryshnikov (Lavinia Dickinson) and Adrian Blake Enscoe (Austin Dickinson), as well as costume designer Jennifer Moeller. Together, with Museum staff, we’ll watch and discuss some of our favorite moments from the series. Please note, Alena Smith will no longer be onsite for this program, but Smith will be joining us virtually at the Tell It Slant Awards.
3:30pm [Hybrid] — Displaced: A Poetry Reading and Conversation with Faraday Publishing and UMass Museum of Contemporary Art
In collaboration with the exhibition ‘Displaced: Raida Adon’s Strangeness‘, this reading and conversation considers the struggle of navigating between multiple, often contentious, identities.
7pm [Hybrid] — Late Night Garden Party with Headliners Marilyn Nelson and Abigail Chabitnoy 
Join us in Emily Dickinson’s garden or virtually for a celebration of creativity and poetry! Our headlining poets, Marilyn Nelson and Abigail Chabitnoy, read from their work and discuss their poetic practice and inspiration with Terry Blackhawk. A wine and cheese book signing follows with live music by Daphne Parker Powell.

Sunday, October 1:
10am [Hybrid] — Poetry Masterclass with Abigail Chabitnoy at the Mead Art Museum
Explore the exhibition, “Boundless”, which features work by Native American writers and artists from the late 18th century to the present. Festival headliner Abigail Chabitnoy employs these themes to inspire generative writing prompts for participants.
11am [In-person] — Spectacular Translation Machine
An invitation to turn one language into another. Come spend a few minutes lending your ear to the translation of poems and letters by Emily Dickinson under the Festival tent
12:30pm [Hybrid] — Writing Poetry for Children, Teens, and Adults: Commonalities and Differences
This workshop will be geared to those writers hoping to spread their wings and broaden their audience. Great poetry is great poetry, whether aimed at children, teens, or adults.
3pm [Hybrid] — Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon: Grand Finale
A group reading of all 1,789 poems by Emily Dickinson over the course of 7 sessions. For this session, readers must be present on-site, but listeners are welcome both in-person and online. We will read from Ralph Franklin’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Sign up as a listener or reader by registering for the Festival. For the grand final,e we will celebrate with Emily Dickinson’s coconut cake, and one lucky reader will win a free Museum tote bag!

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

About the Festival:

The Emily Dickinson Museum’s Annual Tell It Slant Poetry Festival is an event with international reach that celebrates Emily Dickinson’s poetic legacy and the contemporary creativity she and her work continues to inspire from the place she called home.

The Festival is named for Dickinson’s poem, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant,” underscoring the revolutionary power of poetry to shift our perspective and reveal new truths. Festival organizers are committed to featuring established and emerging poets who represent the diversity of the contemporary poetry landscape and to fostering community by placing poetry in the public sphere. 

This year’s line-up features workshops, panels, and readings, by a diverse and talented group of poets from around the world including Marilyn Nelson and Abigail Chabitnoy. The cornerstone of the Festival, the Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon, is an epic reading of all 1,789 of Emily Dickinson’s poems.

To follow along with the Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon, get your copy of the Franklin edition from the Emily Dickinson Museum Shop.

The annual event attracts a diverse audience of Dickinson fans and poetry lovers, including students, educators, aspiring writers, and those who are new to poetry and literary events. Past Festival headliners have included Tracy K. Smith, Tiana Clark, Tess Taylor, Ada Limón, Jericho Brown, Franny Choi, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Paisley Rekdal, Adrian Matejka, Kaveh Akbar, and Ocean Vuong. 

Support The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival:
Admission to all Poetry Festival events is free–made possible by contributions from Museum supporters.
Please consider making a donation of any size during the registration process or anytime on the Museum’s website.

The Tell it Slant Poetry Festival is made possible with the generous support of PeoplesBank, Mass Cultural Council, Curran and Keegan Financial, Teagno Construction Inc., Trippers & Askers, Amherst College’s LitFest, and by gifts from Museum donors and Tell It Slant program supporters

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VIRTUAL PROGRAM

This virtual program is free to attend. Registration is required. 

REGISTER

Join us for the second in a three-part series exploring the collection of the Emily Dickinson Museum. The Museum’s collection is the largest assemblage in the world of objects representing the Dickinson family’s material legacy. Progress continues on the three-year collections documentation project funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. In this series, Museum staff converse with specialists and conservators about the unique qualities, challenges and opportunities of this singular collection.

View Part 1

Part 3 is TBA. Sign-up for our e-newsletter to be the first to know!

IN-PERSON PROGRAM

FULL PROGRAM OF EVENTS

This program is jointly presented by the Emily Dickinson International Society. Registration is required. 
Please address any questions about the Annual Meeting to edismeeting@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

REGISTER

The Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS) is returning to Amherst! For the last three summers, while EDIS has gathered online and in Seville, the Emily Dickinson Museum was closed. The Museum used the time to undertake a major, impeccably researched and executed restoration of the Dickinson Homestead; they also launched the first comprehensive cataloging of the Museum’s collection of over 10,000 objects. The EDIS Annual Meeting will feature this work. Participants will be able to tour the magnificently restored Homestead, learn about the restoration from museum staff, and view objects relating to Dickinson’s home from the Museum’s collection that have never been exhibited. 

The conference theme, “Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes,” comes from Dickinson’s poem “The Sunrise runs for Both – ” (M 355, Fr765, J710). In congruence with Dickinson’s “Both” 16 panels with nearly 50 presentations will delve into the relation between Dickinson’s mental and material interiors and her expansive embrace of wider, external spheres. Special events will include the screening of two recent Dickinson Opera films: Lesley Dill’s capacious  Divide Light (2020) and Dana Kaufman’s intimate Emily & Sue (2022). In addition to performances and panel presentations, the meeting will include special interest circles on research, pedagogy, translation, and the arts. Join the Emily Dickinson International Society in Amherst to celebrate Dickinson’s work and the vibrant community she inspires.

All attendees of the annual meeting must be members of the Emily Dickinson International Society. The Annual Meeting regular registration fee of $175 and student/financial need registration fee of $125 includes tours of the Dickinson Homestead, Opera film screenings, refreshments, two lunches, and the Saturday Meeting Picnic-Banquet. There are no additional costs for these Annual Meeting events. A $50 late charge will be added starting July 2, so register now.

FULL PROGRAM OF EVENTS

Address any questions about the Critical Institute and Annual Meeting to edismeeting@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

IN-PERSON PROGRAM

This in-person program is free to attend. Registration is required. 

REGISTER

Produced by the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival celebrates the poetic legacy of Emily Dickinson and the contemporary creativity she continues to inspire from the place she called home.

The Festival’s name “Tell It Slant”, was selected in homage to Dickinson’s poem, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” This title underscores the revolutionary power of poetry to shift our perspective and reveal new truths. The Tell It Slant Poetry Festival remains committed to featuring and serving established and emerging poets who represent the diversity of the flourishing contemporary poetry scene, and to fostering community by placing poetry in the public sphere. To see our 2022 Festival schedule click here.

This year’s Festival will be hybrid, with events happening in-person at the Museum as well as online. We invite you to “dwell in possibility” and submit your most inventive proposals for audience-centered workshops. Submissions for virtual programs should be for live, synchronous content only. 

The Steering Committee especially welcomes the following:

• Submissions from groups of 2 – 5 facilitators
• Submissions that engage young attendees and/or those new to poetry
• Submissions that creatively encourage audience participation or that foster a sense of community or space

Honoraria of $250 are provided per event.

Seeking proposals for the following IN-PERSON AND VIRTUAL program slots to be scheduled September 25 – October 1 (Individuals may submit multiple forms if proposing more than one program):

IN-PERSON OR VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS:

• Public poetry workshops are typically 60- to 90-minutes long. Workshops must be interactive and generative.

• Virtual workshops must be adaptable for large virtual audiences of around 200.

EDUCATOR WORKSHOPS:

• Workshops intended for educators teaching grades 6-12, with a focus on reading and/or writing poetry. Presenters should have facilitation experience and include a sample lesson outline. Virtual format preferred, with in-person considered.

Submission Guidelines:

• Only submissions made using the online form will be considered. To complete the online form, click on the “Submit your proposal” button below. There is no fee to submit proposals.
• To complete your submission, please also upload the following to this Dropbox folder
  • The resumes/CVs of all presenters.
  • If appropriate, up to 3 sample poems per group member.
  • Any desired links, audio, or video files of performances or facilitation. 
  • High resolution headshots of all presenters. DPI 300 or minimum 1080 pixels (if you don’t have a professional camera, an unedited selfie on a smart phone will fit those requirements)
• All your materials as listed above should be titled by your PROGRAM TITLE. You may upload materials as one zipped file or individually. We can accept .pdf, .doc, .doc(x) files. If applicable, you may upload images in .png, .jpg, or .gif form and audio files in .mp3, .aac, or .wav form.
• Selected facilitators will be notified Thursday, June 1st and will be asked to sign a letter of agreement confirming their participation in the Festival.
• Submissions Due: Thursday, May 11th at 11:59pm ET.

Submissions will be judged on the following:

• Originality – Is your idea bold and intriguing? Will it offer something new to our Festival?
• Quality – Does the submission reflect thoughtful preparation? How are you uniquely qualified to facilitate this program?
• Audience – Have you clearly outlined participatory elements? How does your proposal contribute to community-building for the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival? 
• Special consideration will be given to Massachusetts-based facilitators.

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

Questions? Email us at edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Color – Caste – Denomination: Emily Dickinson’s Race and Class Contexts

This virtual program is free to attend. Registration is required. 

REGISTER

Color – Caste – Denomination –
These – are Time’s Affair –
Death’s diviner Classifying
Does not know they are –
-FR836

Could Emily Dickinson’s striking poetic vision have been realized anywhere but Amherst? Would she have had the time to hone her craft without the domestic labors performed by individuals outside the Dickinsons’ privileged class? What was Amherst like for those who were not members of the provincial elite and how did they shape the poet’s world?

In this program, learn more about the forces of race and class impacting Emily Dickinson’s Amherst life. We’ll discuss the Dickinson family’s settler colonial roots, industry in Amherst, the town’s changing demographics, musical influences on the poet, and more. Along the way meet individuals in the employ of the Dickinson household as house and grounds workers and hear more about their lives and experiences.

Illustrated talks will be followed by a live Q&A session.

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Presentations by Emily Dickinson Museum Tour Guides:
Emily Bernhard
Judith Hudson
Pete Redington
Becky Lockwood

Phosphorescence October 2023 featured poets:
Allison Adair, Krysten Hill, and DeMisty Bellinger

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

This virtual program is free to attend. Registration is required. 

REGISTER

To Emily Dickinson, phosphorescence, was a divine spark and the illuminating light behind learning — it was volatile, but transformative in nature. Produced by the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series celebrates contemporary creativity that echoes Dickinson’s own revolutionary poetic voice. The Series features established and emerging poets whose work and backgrounds represent the diversity of the flourishing contemporary poetry scene. Join us on the last Thursdays of each month to hear from poets around the world as they read their work and discuss what poetry and Dickinson mean to them.

Phosphorescence Lineup 2023

About this month’s poets:

Allison Adair’s ‘The Clearing’, selected by Henri Cole for the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, was named a New York Times “New & Noteworthy” book. Allison’s poems appear in American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, Threepenny, and ZYZZYVA; and her work has been honored with the Pushcart Prize, Florida Review Editors’ Award, Orlando Prize, Mass Cultural Council grant, and first place in the Fineline Competition from Mid-American Review. Originally from central Pennsylvania, Allison teaches at Boston College.

Krysten Hill is the author of ‘How Her Spirit Got Out’, which received the 2017 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. Her work has been featured in POETRY, The Academy of American Poets, apt, BODY, Boiler Magazine, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Muzzle, PANK,Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. The recipient of the 2016 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award and a 2020 Mass Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship, she currently teaches at UMass Boston.
krystenhill.com

DeMisty Bellinger‘s debut novel is New to Liberty. She has also written two volumes of poetry, Peculiar Heritage and Rubbing Elbows, as well as appearing in anthologies and publishing pedagogy and nonfiction. DeMisty is a poetry editor at Malarkey Books, an alumni reader at Prairie Schooner, and a professor at Fitchburg State University.

Support Phosphorescence and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Phosphorescence 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 our programs. All gifts are tax deductible.

Phosphorescence September 2023 featured poets:
Aldo Amparán, Catherine-Esther Cowie, and Ron Welburn

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

This program is free to attend. Registration is required. 
Part of the 2023 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival!

REGISTER FOR THE FESTIVAL

To Emily Dickinson, phosphorescence, was a divine spark and the illuminating light behind learning — it was volatile, but transformative in nature. Produced by the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series celebrates contemporary creativity that echoes Dickinson’s own revolutionary poetic voice. The Series features established and emerging poets whose work and backgrounds represent the diversity of the flourishing contemporary poetry scene. Join us on the last Thursdays of each month to hear from poets around the world as they read their work and discuss what poetry and Dickinson mean to them.

Phosphorescence Lineup 2023

About this month’s poets:

Aldo Amparán is the author of Brother Sleep (Alice James Books, 2022), winner of the 2020 Alice James Award. They have received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts & CantoMundo. Their work has most recently appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Georgia Review, New England Review, Poetry Magazine, & elsewhere.
aldoamparan.com

Catherine-Esther Cowie is a poet and visual artist from St. Lucia who has lived in Canada and now resides in the US. She is a graduate of the Pacific University low-residency MFA program. Her writing has appeared in a number of journals including The Common, Prairie Schooner, RHINO Poetry, West Branch Journal and the PN Review. Her work has been nominated for AWP Intro Journal, a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets 2018 and 2019 and Best of the Net 2021.
esthercowie.wixsite.com/poet

Ron Welburn (Accomac Cherokee) grew up in Philadelphia and is an emeritus English professor at UMass Amherst where he co-started the Native Studies program. His poems have appeared in over 125 literary outlets, and his seventh collection of poetry is Council Decisions: Selected Poems, Revised & Expanded Edition. He is interested in Natives in jazz.

Support Phosphorescence and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Phosphorescence 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 our programs. All gifts are tax deductible.

Phosphorescence August 2023 featured poets:
Yamini Pathak, Ilan Stavans, and Devanshi Khetarpal

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

This virtual program is free to attend. Registration is required. 

REGISTER

To Emily Dickinson, phosphorescence, was a divine spark and the illuminating light behind learning — it was volatile, but transformative in nature. Produced by the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Phosphorescence Poetry Reading Series celebrates contemporary creativity that echoes Dickinson’s own revolutionary poetic voice. The Series features established and emerging poets whose work and backgrounds represent the diversity of the flourishing contemporary poetry scene. Join us on the last Thursdays of each month to hear from poets around the world as they read their work and discuss what poetry and Dickinson mean to them.

Phosphorescence Lineup 2023

About this month’s poets:

Yamini Pathak is the author of the chapbooks, Atlas of Lost Places (Milk and Cake Press, 2020) and Breath Fire Water Song (Ghost City Press, 2021). Her words are forthcoming or have appeared in Poetry Northwest, About Place Journal, Tupelo Quarterly, Vida Review, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She is a Poet in Schools for the Geraldine Dodge Foundation, serves as poetry editor for Inch micro-chapbooks (Bull City Press), and is a production assistant for Tupelo Quarterly journal. Yamini received her MFA in poetry from Antioch University, Los Angeles and has received support from VONA/Voices and Community of Writers. It brings her much joy to belong to the Duniya Collective, an inter-disciplinary group of BIPOC artists. Born in India, she lives with her family in New Jersey. https://milkandcakepress.com/product/coming-soon-atlas-of-lost-places/

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, the publisher of Restless Books, and a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, his work, adapted into film, theater, TV, and radio, has been translated into two dozen languages. 

Devanshi Khetarpal is a Truman Capote and Sonny Mehta fellow in Fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the editor-in-chief and founder of Inklette Magazine, and holds a Master’s in Comparative Literature from NYU. Her work has received support from the Yale Writers’ Workshop, the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, and the Juniper Writing Institute at UMass Amherst. Her fiction and poetry was long-listed for the 2022 Toto Award for Creative Writing in English. Her work has been published in Public Books, Poetry at Sangam, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Scroll, Redivider and Vayavya, among others. She is from Bhopal, India. 

Support Phosphorescence and Honor Someone Special:
Admission to all Phosphorescence 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 our programs. All gifts are tax deductible.