April 25, 21st Annual Newburyport Literary Festival Day of Poetry 8:30-4:00, Central Congregational Church, + Zoom
March 30, 2026March 30, 2026
Dear Friends of Powows,
We hope you will join poets and lovers of poetry in Newburyport on Saturday, April 25, for our Day of Poetry in the 21st Annual Newburyport Literary Festival at the Central Congregational Church, 14 Titcomb Street, Newburyport from 8:30 AM -4:00 PM.
We recommend parking in the city garage (rate – $1.50/hr for 24 hrs/day, subject to change). On street parking is limited to 2 hours.
Attending the Poetry venue is also available via Zoom, though you miss the Book Table and author signings.
AM link (9:00 – 12:15): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89781417310
PM link: (1:45 – 4:00): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89407888190
We invite you to browse the event descriptions below for a taste of the day.
I Breakfast with the Poets
The nationally recognized Powow River Poets open the Day of Poetry sharing breakfast breads, pastries, fruit, and beverages generously donated by our local venders.
The Day of Poetry readings begins at 9:00 a.m. with Jean L. Kreiling reading her endearing poems of home, family, loss, nature, and travel, in traditional forms, from Home and Away (Kelsay Books, 2025). A master of the sonnet, she includes many in this collection, closing with a Sonnet Crown. James Najarian follows, sharing light poems of several lesser-known late Romanticist poets who appear in his newly released scholarly text, Minor Literature in Late Romanticism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), such as Thomas Hood with his “The Song of the Shirt,” which exposes the monotonous dehumanizing work settings of Victorian era sweatshop labor, opening with “Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!”
Presenters: Jean L. Kreiling and James Najarian
Moderator: Owen X. Grey
II Inducements to Deep Breathing
“I’m broken like bread. / Take, eat.” As powerfully as breath drawn in and released from every cell of the body, the poetic line unfolds. Such are the poems published by the prestigious Copper Canyon Press in Diannely Antigua’s Good Monster. “Sometimes,” one love song concludes, “touching is the only food around, sometimes / I set the table for the wounds.” Complementing this poet’s music is the exceptional rhythmic counterpoint of Jan Schreiber’s Breath Lines: How Poems Work and Why They Matter (LSU Press, 2025). Schreiber delivers with striking scope and in simple, supple prose, what his subtitle promises. A highly accomplished poet and educator, he draws richly on examples from across the canon, citing unexpected and delightful sources.
Presenters: Diannely Antigua and Jan Schreiber
Hosts: Priscilla Turner Spada and Deborah Warren
III Writing the Book of Love
Who can write the Book of Love? Can Jenna Lê vie for this in her striking new collection, Manatee Lagoon (University of Chicago Press, 2022) in which the sea creature’s huge sad eyes say “they could love you like no land wife ever could” and ancient Athenaeus relates “how the loveliest girl in Greece / once laid Diogenes, / the homely sage, for free”? Jenna Lê—whose Vietnamese parents fled Vietnam—learned young that people of her community “must protect each other.” Petrarch may still hold the key in his 366 idealized passionate and lyrical sonnets to his beloved Laura who did not return his love. A.M. Juster, master of the sonnet—the only three-time winner of the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award, among many other prestigious literary prizes—reads from his recently released Canzoniere: A New Translation, each sonnet brilliantly hewed to the meter and rhyme of Petrarch’s Italian and the depth of his emotions for his virtuous, unattainable Laura.
Presenters: Jenna Lê and A.M. Juster
Hosts: Zara Raab and Alfred Nicol
V The Diaspora Journey and Landscapes of Home
In breath-taking imagery, Oliver de la Paz’s masterful The Diaspora Sonnets (Liveright, 2023, long listed for the National Book Award and 2023 winner of the New England Book Award for Poetry) evokes landscapes that migrant children move through and briefly call home: the heavy boughs laden with apples the father harvests; clouds of dust “scattering the sun”; rain that keeps pouring despite the need for sleep; and skeins of geese “arrowing past.” Different in mood and meaning are the Vermont landscapes captured in Rachel Hadas’s Pastorals (Measure Press, 2025) familiar since childhood and steeped in a lifetime of memories, inextricably intertwining lines of prose poetry with poets she has known. “By noon,” she writes, “tall shadows are already looming . . .” Here “almost everything goes unharvested.” Join us for this hour. “Come, pick an apple up, take a bite.”
Presenters: Oliver de la Paz and Rachel Hadas
Hosts: Meredith Bergmann and Priscilla Turner Spada
V Essential Voices in Fragile Moments
Award-winning Newburyport High School Poetry Soup students—each reading one of their own exceptional poems—join the poets, expressing the inner voices that they have begun to share with the world. We remember the essential voice of Charles Coe, poet, educator, musician, and community activist, in a Melopoeia for Charles Coe, performed by the original Diminished Prophets. Poets Rhina P. Espaillat and Alfred Nicol read two significant poems by Coe, accompanied by John Tavano on Spanish guitar, followed by a moment of silence. Proud Dominican American Rhina P. Espaillat, our city’s most inspiring and accomplished poet, translator, essayist, short story writer, and mentor, delves deeply into the fragile moments of humanity with her exceptional lyricism, humor, and wisdom, from her newly released for instance: poems (Wiseblood Books, 2026), her ninth full collection of poetry—capping our celebration of the 250th birthday of our nation of immigrants.
Presenters: NHS Poetry Soup students, The Diminished Prophets, and Rhina P. Espaillat
Hosts: Debbie Szabo, Paulette Demers Turco, and NHS Poetry Soup
Please mark your calendars and help us spread the news and share the date and Zoom links with your poetry friends.
We are grateful to the Friends of the Newburyport Library, a major donor to the Festival, who when offered the sponsorship of any session in the Festival, elected to sponsor poetry’s closing session.
In appreciation for your support,
Paulette, Priscilla, and Zara
Poetry Planning Team
Steering Committee
Newburyport Literary Festival
