If you ever doubted that Boston’s literary scene is closely attuned to the cycles of the academic year, just look at the massive number of readings this month. My personal recommendations are highlighted in bold. Feel free to call out your own in the comments.
Thursday, October 2, 6 pm
Christopher Ricks: “T.S. Eliot and the Second World War”
Katzenberg Center, 3rd floor, CGS
871 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston University
Boston
Thursday, October 2, 7 pm
Mr. Hip Presents: Youth Reads
w/ Guest Poet Harris Gardner
Youth Poets & Q&A
Trident Booksellers & Cafe
Newbury Street
Boston
Thursday, October 2, 7 pm
David Gullette, Carla Schwartz and Frannie Lindsay
Cervena Barva Press
Arts at the Armory (downstairs, basement, in Studio B8)
191 Highland Ave.
Somerville
$3
Friday, October 3, 8 pm
John Nardizzi, Angela Narciso Torres, and Kevin Daley
Dire Literary Series
Out of the Blue Gallery
541 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge
Saturday, October 4, 1 – 4 pm
at the graves of Agha Shahid Ali, Robert Francis, Deborah Digges, and Emily Dickinson
Dead Poets Remembrance Day 2014 in Massachusetts
Rhina Espaillat, Henry Lyman, Toni Treadway, Walter Skold, & Jane Wald (Director of the Dickinson Museum).
Northampton and Amherst
Full details and directions by searching “deadpoets typepad 2014”
Saturday, October 4, 1:30 pm
Heather Dobbins, Gilmore Tamny, and Elizabeth Witte
Arts at the Armory Café
191 Highland Ave
Somerville
Saturday, October 4, 2 pm
David P. Miller, Lee Varon and M.p. Carver
chapbook launch
Cervena Barva Press Stuido
At The Arts for the Armory
Basement, Room B8
191 Highland Avenue
Somerville
Saturday, October 4, 5:30 pm
Launch party for spoKe magazine
with Ben Mazer, Ruth Lepson, Len Krisak, Patrick Pritchett, and Margo Lockwood
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton Street
Cambridge
Sunday, October 5, 1 pm
Catherine Sasanov, Jacqueline M. Loring, Lisa C. Taylor, David Connolly, Melida Arredondo, Elizabeth Quinlan, Preston H. Hood, and Gloria Mindock
James’s Gate Restaurant and Pub
5 McBride Street (Corner South St. between Lee Street & Metcalf Ct.)
Jamaica Plain
Monday, October 6, 7 pm
Miles Coon, Alan Albert, and Ken Lee
Newtonville Books
10 Langley Road
Newton
Monday, October 6, 7 pm
Denise Bergman, Len Krisak, Steven Riel
Harvard-Yenching Common Room 136
2 Divinity Ave,
Cambridge
Monday, October 6, 8 pm
Nick Flynn
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge
$3
Tuesday, October 7, 2:30 pm
Edward Pavlic
McCormack Family Theater
70 Brown St.
Providence
Tuesday, October 7, 5:30 pm
Dead Poets Remembrance Day 2014 in Medford
at the grave of John Holmes
The public is invited to come read one favorite poem of either John Holmes, Anne Sexton, Deborah Digges, or John Ciardi at this free community celebration, which will take place at the grave of John Holmes. The event blog has directions to his gravesite: http://deadpoets.typepad.com/dead_poets_remembrance_da/
Full details and directions by searching “deadpoets typepad 2014”
Tuesday, October 7, 6 pm
Susan Howe
Spontaneous Particulars: The Telepathy of Archives
Introduction by Kristen Case
Thompson Room, Barker Center
12 Quincy Street
Harvard University
Cambridge
Tuesday, October 7, 6:30 pm
Tino Villanueva
Cambridge Public Library
449 Broadway
Cambridge
Tuesday, October 7, 8-11:30 pm
Jack Scully and Nancy Cunningham
Music: Ron Cummings, Andy and Judy Daigle
The Blackthorne Publick House
402 Turnpike St. (Rt. 138)
South Easton, MA
Wednesday, October 8, 7 pm
Cindy Hochman and Karen Neuberg
Cervena Barva Press Reading Series
At The Arts for the Armory
Basement, Room B8
191 Highland Avenue
Somerville
$3
Thursday, October 9, 4 pm
Joan Houlihan
University of Rhode Island
Kingston Campus, Hoffman Lounge
60 Upper College Road
Kingston, RI
Thursday, October 9, 5pm
Sandra Lim
West Tisbury Library
1042 State Road
Martha’s Vineyard
Thursday, October 9, 7 pm
Frannie Lindsay
Dudley House
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Harvard Yard
Thursday, October 9, 7 pm
Irene Koronas, Dennis Daly and Michael Todd Steffen
Somerville Library East Branch
115 Broadway
Somerville
Friday, October 10, 7:30 pm
Susan Eisenberg, Joan Houlihan and Martha Collins
Chapter and Verse Reading Series
Loring-Greenough House
12 South St.
Jamaica Plain
Friday, October 10, 7 pm
Denise Bergman
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton Street, Cambridge
(Harvard Square)
Friday, October 10, 7 pm
Ayshia Stephenson and Alexandria Peary
Cervena Barva Press Reading Series
At The Arts for the Armory
Basement, Room B8
191 Highland Avenue
Somerville
$3
Friday, October 10, 7 pm
Andrea Werblin
Book launch for Sunday With the Sound Turned Off
Porter Square Books
25 White St.
Cambridge
Saturday, October 11, 6 pm
Nicole Terez Dutton, David Miller, Carla Schwartz, Kelin Loe, Zeke Russel, Lily Duffy, and more
Musical Guest: Sterling Rhyne
Mr. Hip Presents: Reading Series
UFORGE Gallery
Jamaica Plain
Sunday, October 12, 12 pm
Louise Dery-Wells and January Gill O’Neil
Poetry: The Art of Words/Mike Amado Memorial Series
The Plymouth Center for the Arts
11 North St
Plymouth
Tuesday, October 14, 7 pm
Melissa Buckheit and Amy King
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton Street
Cambridge
Wednesday, October 15, 7 pm
Slavic Voices: An Evening of Poetry and Music with Sylva Fischerova, Dzvinia Orlowsky, and Vera Pavlova
Boston University Castle
225 Bay State Road
Boston
Wednesday, October 15, 7 pm
Michael Daley, Tomas O’Leary
Cervena Barva Press Reading Series
At The Arts for the Armory
Basement, Room B8
191 Highland Avenue
Somerville
$3
Thursday, October 16, 6 pm
Joshua Beckman
Books and Poets: On the Porous Experience of the Book in Physical and Imagined Space
Edison Newman Room, Houghton Library
Harvard University
Cambridge
Thursday, October 16, 7 pm
Diane Lockward, Jennifer Markell, and Tam Lin Neville
Cervena Barva Press Studio
At The Arts for the Armory
Basement, Room B8
191 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA
$3
Thursday, October 16, 7 pm
Molly Lynn Watt and Vincent Dorio
Rozzie Reads in the Roslindale House
120 Polar Street
Roslindale, MA
Friday, October 17, 7 pm
Kimiko Hahn
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton Street
Cambridge
Sunday, October 19, 1 pm
In Memorium: Allen Grossman
Mandel Humanities Center Atrium
Brandeis University
415 South St.
Waltham
A tribute with speakers, music, refreshment, recordings of the poet
Sunday, October 19, 2 – 4 pm
5th Annual Charles Olson Lecture w/ Ralph Maud
Cape Ann Museum
27 Pleasant Street
Gloucester
Sunday, October 19, 3 pm
Daniel Tobin
Concord Poetry Center
Upstairs at the Emerson Umbrella
40 Stow Street
Concord
Sunday, October 19, 2 – 4 pm
Cleopatra Mathis with Betty Buchsbaum
Brookline Public Library, Main Branch
361 Washington St.
Brookline Village
Sunday, October 19, 3 – 4 pm
In His Ecstasy: The Passion of Gerard Manley Hopkins
A One Person Play performed by Poet Tom Daley
Lexington Community Education
Follen Church Society
755 Massachusetts Avenue
Lexington
$10
Sunday, October 19, 3 – 5 pm
Nancy Esposito, Kim Triedman and David Surette
Calliope: Poetry Readings at West Falmouth Library
575 West Falmouth Highway
Falmouth, MA
Donation: $5. Refreshments provided
Monday, October 20, 8 pm
Peter Cole and Karina Borowicz
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge
$3
Tuesday, October 21, 6 pm
Premiere of Heretofore Unheard Recordings of Wallace Stevens
Opening Remarks by Professor Helen Vendler
Thompson Room, Barker Center
12 Quincy Street
Harvard University
Cambridge
Tuesday, October 21, 7 pm
Sandra Lim
Trident Bookstore and Cafe
338 Newbury Street
Boston
Tuesday, October 21, 7:30 pm
Alison Hawthorne Deming
Stoddard Hall Auditorium
Smith College, Northampton
Wednesday, October 22, 5 pm
Valzhyna Mort
Introduction by Professor Stephanie Sandler
Woodberry Poetry Room, Lamont Library, Room 330
Harvard University
Cambridge
Wednesday, October 22, 6:30 pm-7:30 pm
Nick Montfort
Atrium of MIT’s Building E15 (“Old Media Lab”/Wiesner Building)
List Visual Arts Center
MIT
Cambridge
Thursday, October 23, 6:30 pm
Carla Schwartz, Featured Artist
Tatnuck Booksellers
Route 9 and Lyman Street in the Westboro Shopping Center
Westborough, MA
Thursday, October 23, 7 pm
Susan Bernhard, William Giraldi, Tanya Larkin, Danielle Legros Georges, Thomas McNeely, and Karen Skolfield
Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Commonwealth Reading Series
Cambridge Public Library
449 Broadway
Cambridge
Thursday, October 23, 7:30 pm
Bradford Morrow and Fanny Howe
McCormack Family Theater
70 Brown St.
Providence
Friday, October 24, 7 pm
Grey Gowrie
introduced by Christopher Ricks
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
6 Plympton Street
Cambridge
Saturday, October 25,
Joseph Massey and Laurie Duggan
Cambridge
Details to come
Monday, October 27, 8 pm
Cammy Thomas and Mary Pinard
Blacksmith House Poetry Series
56 Brattle Street
Cambridge
$3
Tuesday, October 28, 2:30 pm
Lisa Robertson
McCormack Family Theater
70 Brown St.
Providence
Tuesday, October 28, 6 pm
Grey Gowrie: “Heaney’s Great Contemporaries” (lecture and reading)
Katzenberg Center, 3rd floor, CGS
871 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston University
Boston
Tuesday, October 28, 6:30 pm
Mikhail Yeryomin and Jim Kates
Cambridge Public Library
449 Broadway
Cambridge
Tuesday, October 28, 7 pm
Sari Boren, Steven Cramer, Joseph Spece, and Sabina Murray
Jones Library
43 Amity St.
Amherst
Tuesday, October 28, 8 pm
Elyse Fenton, Sandra Lim, and Lesley Yalen
Small Animal Project
Outpost 186
186 1/2 Hampshire St
Cambridge
Wednesday, October 29, 7 pm
Anna Ross, Jon Lee, and Greg Lawless,
introduced by Wes Rothman
Suffolk University Poetry Center
Mildred F. Sawyer Library
73 Tremont Street
Boston
Wednesday, October 29, 7:30 pm
Jennifer Bartlett lectures on Larry Eigner
Gloucester Writers Center
126 East Main Street
Gloucester
Thursday, October 30, 7 pm
Rosanna Warren
Katzenberg Center, 3rd floor, CGS
871 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston University
Boston
Thursday, October 30, 7 pm
Carol Berg, Steven Edwards, Anna Ross, Stephen Tapscott, Linda Wertheimer
Back Pages Books
289 Moody Street
Waltham
Garden of Words 