Poetry The Art of Words (PTAOW) is a poetry reading series featuring both local and regional poets, meeting monthly between September and June. This event will feature poets Steven Cramer and Jen Jabaily-Blackburn. In addition to the scheduled readers, there will be an open mic for those who want to read a poem. Look for the signup sheet when you arrive.

Doors open at at 1pm. Features begin at 1:30, followed by intermission for books sales and signings, and closing with an open mic. The event is free (suggested donation $5), open to the public, and handicapped accessible.

Steven Cramer’s new chapbook, As If: Variations on Enrique Anderson-Imbert, was published by Lily Poetry Review Books. His seven poetry collections include Departures from Rilke (Arrowsmith Press, 2023); Listen (MadHat Press, 2020)—named a “must read” by the Massachusetts Center for the Book); Clangings (Sarabande Books, 2012); and Goodbye to the Orchard (Sarabande Books, 2004), winner of the New England Poetry Club’s Sheila Motton Prize and named an Honor Book by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, he founded the Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Lesley University.

Jen Jabaily-Blackburn is the author of the full-length collection Girl in a Bear Suit (Elixir Press, 2024) and the e-chapbook Disambiguation (Salamander/Suffolk University, 2024). She is the winner of the Louisa Solano Memorial Emerging Poet Award, selected by Stephanie Burt. Originally from the Boston area, she now lives in Western Massachusetts with her family. In 2024, she joined the advisory board of Perugia Press, and she is an associate editor of Nine Syllables Press, housed at Smith College, where she is the Program & Outreach coordinator for the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center.