Events & CalendarsAmherst Poetry Festival

The Amherst Poetry Festival returns for a sixth year, celebrating the literary legacy and contemporary creativity of the Pioneer Valley and beyond.

Anchored by the annual Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon, the 2018 festival features Ocean Vuong, the Astro Poets, Shayla Lawson, a screening of the new feature film Wild Nights with Emily, the No-No project, the art exhibition, reading Dickinson's poem "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark" and much more!

A poetry master class with Amherst College writer-in-residence Shayla Lawson and Astro poet Dorothea Lasky is free to all on Saturday, September 22, at 2:30 p.m. in the Powerhouse.

Organized by the Emily Dickinson Museum, and funded in part by the Mass Cultural Council and Amherst Business Improvement District, this year's festival partners include Mass Poetry, the Jones Library, UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Hope & Feathers Framing and Printing, Attack Bear Press, Union St. Records and other local businesses and organizations.