T243.
How to Start a Poetry Festival & Why
Thursday, March 24, 2022
3:20 pm to 4:20 pm
Why did Dodge Poetry, Mass Poetry, and Split This Rock call themselves festivals? Do they share some fundamental goals for the kinds of events and experiences they want to create, voices they choose to present, or the audiences they hope to reach? What distinguishes them from academic or professional conferences? Past and present directors of some of our most vibrant poetry festivals discuss the hows and whys of starting, sustaining, and keeping them alive and well.
Participants
Martin Jude Farawell directs the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, where he has filled a variety of roles since 1998. Author of the poetry collection Odd Boy from Sibling Rivalry Press, he was a visiting poet and writing, literature, and poetry instructor for a decade before arriving at Dodge.
Sarah Browning is cofounder and for ten years was executive director of Split This Rock. Author of Killing Summer and Whiskey in the Garden of Eden, she received an MFA in poetry and creative nonfiction from Rutgers Camden in 2021 and is a recipient of the Lillian E. Smith Writer-in-Service Award.
M.P. Carver is a poet and visual artist from Salem, Massachusetts. She teaches digital and creative writing at Salem State University and directed the 2021 Massachusetts Poetry Festival. She is microfounder of Molecule: A Tiny Lit Mag and former poetry editor of Soundings East. See more at mpcarver.com.
