Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Attend This Year’s Massachusetts Poetry Festival

10. Witch persecutions in Salem no longer an issue.
9. Poetry Trolleys!
8. Watch emcee Christopher Lydon try to pronounce “Aimee Nezhukumatathil.”
7. Rare opportunity to hear barbaric yawps.
6. Borders is closing—buy books at the Small Press Fair and our book sellers.
5. See secret “eighth gable” in basement of The House of Seven Gables.
4. No problem parking—plenty of meter!
3. Long-form birth certificates not required for entry.
2. Bad poetry—this means you!—celebrated by Steve Almond.

And the #1 reason to attend this year’s Massachusetts Poetry Festival …

1. Free Versers/Formalists food fight!

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Join us for our kickoff event TONIGHT!

Tom Sexton, Brian Brodeur, & Poetry from Public Colleges
May 12, 7 p.m.
Celebrate the legacy of poetry from Massachusetts public colleges and universities. Tom Sexton, author of 12 books of poetry, Poet Laureate of Alaska, and a graduate of Salem State University (1968) will read from his work. The event will also feature work by alumni from the Salem Poetry Seminar, a program that provides a free week to write and study poetry for select college students from public institutions in the Commonwealth.