Recently the lovely Jackie Malone, Mass Poetry's long-time web content director, stepped down from her role, and I was asked to help out. It's with such pleasure that I have a small part to play with Mass Poetry again as the new Features Editor, developing weekly stories and curating Poem of the Moment, which features a weekly poem by a poet with Massachusetts ties.
It's a pleasure for a number of reasons, including:
1) I love Mass Poetry. Simple as that! They bend over backward to take poetry to the people, always thinking on their toes, always pushing themselves toward the best use of their bite-size budget to broaden the audience for poetry, boost the poetic economy in Massachusetts, and support poets. Maybe you've seen their new Raining Poetry program?
2) I get to work with Lauren McCormick, who has been working behind the scenes on Mass Poetry's website for years after being featured at U35. She's an awesome poet and person, and does lots of cool book-related stuff, such as "Like This? Read That" videos. <3 Check her out at Burnt Fiction.
3) I love having the opportunity to feature as many exciting and dynamic poets as possible. Toward that end, we've updated the guidelines for Poem of the Moment, which was a program previously open only to Massachusetts residents with a full-length book. It's now open to poets with a strong and demonstrable tie to Massachusetts who have a chapbook or full-length manuscript. Our goal for Poem of the Moment is that it is a diverse and inclusive program/archive that features emerging poets as well as established. On the docket are Ching-In Chen, David Rivard, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Annie Won, Clint Smith, and more.
4) Series are fun. Check out the first edition of 10+ Questions--a new series in which we catch up with poets who have appeared in our programming, and stay tuned for an upcoming series on Massachusetts' "literary legacies."
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