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“I was doing nine years in prison, and poems became my way to see the world.” In this Common Read event hosted by the Sims Memorial Library at Southeastern Louisiana University, Reginald Dwayne Betts, author of Felon (Norton, 2020), answers questions from the audience and presents a lecture and reading introduced by Louisiana poet laureate Alison Pelegrin.
In this Villanova University Literary Festival event, Victoria Chang reads from her poetry collections Obit (Copper Canyon Press, 2020) and With My Back to the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), and speaks about her ekphrastic poems and the power of writing in conversation with other artists and people in her life.
From the wildflowers of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the white lilies of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, flowers have played a significant role in literature and are symbolic in many cultures. Floriography is known as the “language of flowers” and is a means of expressing emotion through the use of flowers—a method of discreet communication that has existed for millennia and saw heightened popularity during the Victorian era. Whether depicted in a painting, presented as a gift, used as commemorative decor, or worn as an accessory, a flower can symbolize gratitude, love, remembrance, trust, good health, or even danger. Spend some time looking into the language of flowers and write a poem that deploys floriography in some way, perhaps to express something you’ve kept secret until now.
Jehanne Dubrow encourages writers to provide varied points of entry into books on trauma to give readers breathing room and keep them engaged.
In this Lambda Literary video, Rob Macaisa Colgate reads “History of Display,” which appears in his debut poetry collection, Hardly Creatures (Tin House Books, 2025). The collection is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
The 2025 Poets on the Coast: A Weekend Retreat for Women will be held from September 5 to September 7 at the La Conner Inn in La Conner, Washington. The retreat features poetry workshops and one-on-one mentoring with faculty. The faculty includes poets Elizabeth Bradfield, Susan Landgraf, and Susan Rich. Tuition, which does not include lodging or meals, is $579 until May 31 or $589 thereafter, until August 15. Lodging is available at the conference hotel at a nightly rate of $169 to $199. A limited number of scholarships are available. Registration is first come, first served.
Poets on the Coast: A Weekend Retreat for Women, P.O. Box 16037, Seattle, WA 98116. (360) 466-3101.
The 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, sponsored by Mass Poetry, will be held from May 30 to June 1 at several venues throughout Salem, Massachusetts, including the House of the Seven Gables, Old Town Hall, the Peabody Essex Museum, and St. Peter’s Church. Programming includes headline readings, workshops, panels, a small press fair, multimedia events, open mics, and live performances. Participating poets include Diannely Antigua, Marilyn Chin, Ross Gay, Saeed Jones, Danez Smith, and Felicia Zamora.
Massachusetts Poetry Festival, Mass Poetry, c/o Grubstreet, 50 Liberty Drive, Suite 500, Boston, MA 02210. M.P. Carver, Festival Director.
The 2025 annual Chuckanut Writers Conference, cohosted by the Narrative Project, Sidekick Press, and Village Books and Paper Dreams, will be held on June 27 and June 28 at Sehome High School in Bellingham, Washington. The conference features workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as keynote addresses, craft talks, author panels, an open mic, a faculty reading, and breakout sessions that combine lecture, discussion, and generative writing sessions.
Chuckanut Writers Conference, 2700 Bill McDonal Parkway, Bellingham, WA 98225.
The Frost Place Poetry Seminar will be held online from August 3 to August 7. The seminar features poetry workshops, craft talks, and faculty and student readings. The faculty includes poets Patrick Donnelly, Kathy Fagan, and Deborah Paredez. The cost of the conference is $700. To apply, submit three poems of any length with a $25 application fee (waived for returning participants) by July 1. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
The Frost Place, P.O. Box 74, Franconia, NH 03580. (603) 823-5510. Patrick Donnelly, Program Director.
The Adirondack Center for Writing will offer a two-week residency from September 21 to October 5 to six poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers at a lodge on Twitchell Lake in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. Three residents will be chosen from the Adirondack region and three will be chosen from anywhere else in the world. Residents are each provided with a private room and bathroom, work space, and meals. There is no cost to attend the residency, but residents are responsible for travel expenses to and from Twitchell Lake.
Anne LaBastille Memorial Writing Residency, Adirondack Center for Writing, P.O. Box 956, Saranac Lake, NY 12983. (518) 354-1261. Nathalie Thill, Executive Director.
