The Blacksmith House Poetry Series: 40th Anniversary Season

Founded in 1973, the award-winning Blacksmith House Poetry Series celebrates 40 years of bringing established and emerging writers of poetry and fiction to Harvard Square. The series is sponsored by the Cambridge Center for Adult Education and holds readings at the Blacksmith House, site of the village smithy and spreading chestnut tree of Longfellow’s 1839 poem "The Village Blacksmith."

  • Andrea Cohen, Director
  • Mariya Deykute, Assistant to the Director
  • Gail Mazur, Founding Director

Readings take place at 56 Brattle Street unless otherwise noted.
8:00 pm | $3
Tickets may be purchased 45 minutes prior to the reading.

So that we can send fewer pieces of snail mail, we invite you to join our Blacksmith House Poetry Series e-list. You can also scroll to the bottom of the page to the link to our Facebook page for regular updates and reminders about our events.

Click here to sign up

We will then be sure to invite you to all poetry programs, and share early notice of any new offerings. If you do not have e–mail or access to a computer, call us or stop by the Registration Office — we will add you to the list of people who will receive notification by regular mail.

Monday, April 22

Carl Phillips reads from his most recent poetry collection, Silverchest, with Will Schutt, whose debut poetry collection is Westerly.

Monday, April 29

Catherine Barnett reads from her new poetry collection, The Game of Boxes, with Oni Buchanan, author of the new collection Must a Violence.

Monday, May 6

Joan Wickersham reads from her new story collection, The News from Spain, with Jennifer Haigh, whose new story collection is News from Heaven.

Monday, May 13

Frank Bidart reads from his new poetry collection, Metaphysical Dog.

Monday, June 3

Kay Ryan, United States Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner, will read at The First Parish Church on Monday, June 3 at 6 pm. The reading caps the 40th anniversary of The Blacksmith House Poetry Series. Ryan's recent collections of poetry include The Best of It: New and Selected Poems, The Niagara River, and Say Uncle.

Ryan's awards include the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the MacArthur "Genius" Award. Ryan was elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 2006 and was appointed the Library of Congress's sixteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry in 2008.

We hope you can join us for this special reading, which will be followed by a Q&A and book signing.

The Blacksmith House Poetry Series

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Supported in part by:

cambridge arts council massachusetts cultural council logo