Events.
Each year, the GWC hosts more than 100 events, including monthly open mics, readings year-round, and Fish Tales, our popular storytelling showcase. All are welcome, always.
Browse upcoming events using the calendar, or scroll to see a full listing below.
Looking for workshops or writing groups? Click here.
Learn more about:
Open Mic: Featured Poet Richard Hoffman
Bring your words, get heard!
Richard Hoffman is author of the memoirs Half the House and Love & Fury; the poetry collections, Without Paradise; Gold Star Road, winner of the 2006 Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize and the 2008 Sheila Motton Award from the New England Poetry Club; Emblem; Noon until Night, winner of the 2018 Massachusetts Book Award for Poetry, and most recently, People Once Real. He is also author of the essay collection Remembering the Alchemists. A fiction writer as well, his Interference & Other Stories was published in 2009. He is Emeritus Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College.
An Evening with Karen Gross: Author, Educator, and Artist
Karen Gross is a Gloucester MA and Washington DC based educator, author and artist. Her work focuses on student success across the educational landscape and the impact of trauma on learning and psychosocial development. She currently is a continuing education instructor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and sits on the Advisory Council at the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. Previously, she served for 8 years as the President of Southern Vermont College and as senior policy advisor to the US Department of Education during the Obama Administration. In addition to writing award winning adult books (including Breakaway Learners and Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door and her coauthored forthcoming book in September 2024 titled Mending Education), she is the author of a children’s book series titled Lady Lucy’s Quest, several publications of which have been translated into Spanish. She was a law professor for 2 plus decades.
For more information, visit her website at www.karengrosseducation.com
Literary Gloucester Walking Tour (7)
Register for Phil Storey's Literary Walk!
There are still many dates available for rebel raconteur Phil Storey's Literary Walk. This tour takes you to past points of intrigue, by literary landmarks, and guides you through gossip high and low. Bring a friend or five!
Learn more and register at this link.
These literary tours began in 2023 under the auspices of the Gloucester 400+
Literary Committee, and are now being sponsored by the Gloucester Writers Center.
Founded in 2010, the Gloucester Writers Center is a working writers' center in a working town. Each year we host dozens of programs, from open mics and readings to workshops, classes, and writing groups—all in support of our mission:
To honor and celebrate Cape Ann's rich literary legacy, and to empower individuals to engage in the writing and telling of stories in the spirit of civic engagement.
Bystanders in front of the Cape Ann Advertiser on Main Street, circa 1862, photograph by W.A. Elwell. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, MA.
Writers in Residence: Ann Charters
Ann Charters returns to Gloucester with a new talk entitled "'What seas, what shores what grey rocks' -- Cape Ann in the poetry of Longfellow, Eliot and Olson”.
Literary Gloucester Walking Tour (8)
Register for Phil Storey's Literary Walk!
There are still many dates available for rebel raconteur Phil Storey's Literary Walk. This tour takes you to past points of intrigue, by literary landmarks, and guides you through gossip high and low. Bring a friend or five!
Learn more and register at this link.
These literary tours began in 2023 under the auspices of the Gloucester 400+
Literary Committee, and are now being sponsored by the Gloucester Writers Center.
Founded in 2010, the Gloucester Writers Center is a working writers' center in a working town. Each year we host dozens of programs, from open mics and readings to workshops, classes, and writing groups—all in support of our mission:
To honor and celebrate Cape Ann's rich literary legacy, and to empower individuals to engage in the writing and telling of stories in the spirit of civic engagement.
Bystanders in front of the Cape Ann Advertiser on Main Street, circa 1862, photograph by W.A. Elwell. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, MA.
Open Mic: Featured Poet J.D. Scrimgeour
J.D. Scrimgeour is a writer who lives in Salem, Massachusetts. His personal essays and poetry often focus on class and education, exploring what constitutes authentic learning in the exchange between student and teacher. Learning was a major theme in Themes For English B: A Professor’s Education In & Out of Class, which won the AWP Award for Nonfiction, and his work on the subject has appeared in The Boston Globe Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed., Thought & Action, Off the Coast, and Solstice.
Literary Gloucester Walking Tour (9)
Register for Phil Storey's Literary Walk!
There are still many dates available for rebel raconteur Phil Storey's Literary Walk. This tour takes you to past points of intrigue, by literary landmarks, and guides you through gossip high and low. Bring a friend or five!
Learn more and register at this link.
These literary tours began in 2023 under the auspices of the Gloucester 400+
Literary Committee, and are now being sponsored by the Gloucester Writers Center.
Founded in 2010, the Gloucester Writers Center is a working writers' center in a working town. Each year we host dozens of programs, from open mics and readings to workshops, classes, and writing groups—all in support of our mission:
To honor and celebrate Cape Ann's rich literary legacy, and to empower individuals to engage in the writing and telling of stories in the spirit of civic engagement.
Bystanders in front of the Cape Ann Advertiser on Main Street, circa 1862, photograph by W.A. Elwell. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, MA.
Poetry Night: Joshua Fishburn, Dan Murphy, Antonina Palisano, & Nathanael O'Reilly
Come enjoy a night of poetry @ Rocky Neck Cultural Center - with featured poets: Joshua Fishburn, Dan Murphy, Antonina Palisano, & Nathanael O'Reilly
Literary Gloucester Walking Tour (10)
Register for Phil Storey's Literary Walk!
There are still many dates available for rebel raconteur Phil Storey's Literary Walk. This tour takes you to past points of intrigue, by literary landmarks, and guides you through gossip high and low. Bring a friend or five!
Learn more and register at this link.
These literary tours began in 2023 under the auspices of the Gloucester 400+
Literary Committee, and are now being sponsored by the Gloucester Writers Center.
Founded in 2010, the Gloucester Writers Center is a working writers' center in a working town. Each year we host dozens of programs, from open mics and readings to workshops, classes, and writing groups—all in support of our mission:
To honor and celebrate Cape Ann's rich literary legacy, and to empower individuals to engage in the writing and telling of stories in the spirit of civic engagement.
Bystanders in front of the Cape Ann Advertiser on Main Street, circa 1862, photograph by W.A. Elwell. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, MA.
Open Mic: Featured Poet Jennifer Jean
Jennifer Jean’s poetry collections include VOZ, Object Lesson, and The Fool. Her resource book is Object Lesson: a Guide to Writing Poetry. Along with Iraqi poet Dr. Hanaa Ahmad Jabr, she's co-written and co-translated a correspondence in Arabic and English poems, titled Where Do You Live? أين تعيشين؟. As well, she’s the editor of the forthcoming anthology Other Paths for Shahrazad: a Bilingual Anthology of Poetry by Arab Women (Tupelo Press, 2026). Her work appears in POETRY Magazine, Rattle Magazine, On the Seawall, The Common, the Los Angeles Review, on The Slowdown Podcast, and in the Academy of American Poets “Poem-a-Day” series. She’s received honors from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, the Mass Cultural Council, and the Women’s Federation for World Peace. Jennifer is an organizer for the Her Story Is collective, a faculty member at the Solstice MFA, and a senior program manager at the Fine Arts Work Center.
Literary Gloucester Walking Tour (6)
These literary tours began in 2023 under the auspices of the Gloucester 400+
Literary Committee, and are now being sponsored by the Gloucester Writers Center.
Founded in 2010, the Gloucester Writers Center is a working writers' center in a working town. Each year we host dozens of programs, from open mics and readings to workshops, classes, and writing groups—all in support of our mission:
To honor and celebrate Cape Ann's rich literary legacy, and to empower individuals to engage in the writing and telling of stories in the spirit of civic engagement.
Poetry Reading: Matthew E. Henry & Luisa Caycedo-Kimura
Matthew E. Henry
Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is the author of six poetry collections, most recently said the Frog to the scorpion (Harbor Editions, 2024). He is editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal, the creative nonfiction editor at Porcupine Literary, and an associate editor at Rise Up Review. MEH is a high school teacher who holds an MFA, an MA in theology and a PhD in education. He writes about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground at www.MEHPoeting.com (http://www.mehpoeting.com/).
Luisa Caycedo-Kimura
Luisa Caycedo-Kimura is a Colombian-born writer, translator, educator, and the author of All Were Limones, winner of the 2024 Hillary Tham Capital Collection competition. Other honors include a Connecticut Office of the Arts Emerging Recognition Award, a John K. Walsh Residency Fellowship at the Anderson Center, an Adrienne Reiner Hochstadt Fellowship at Ragdale, and a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee, her poems have been widely published
in journals and anthologies.
Playwriting Class: Peter Littlefield
Peter Littlefield
To learn more about Peter Littlefield, check bio below:
Poets: Forrest Gander & Laura Marris
A writer and translator with degrees in geology and literature, Forrest Gander was born in California’s Mojave Desert and grew up in Virginia. He earned a degree in geology from the College of William & Mary and an MA in literature from San Francisco State University.
Laura Marris is a writer and translator. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, The Paris Review Daily, The Yale Review, The Point, and elsewhere. Her recent translations include Albert Camus’s The Plague, Geraldine Schwarz’s Those Who Forget, and To Live Is to Resist, a biography of Antonio Gramsci. She is a MacDowell fellow and the recipient of Grant for Work in Progress from the Robert B. Silvers Foundation. With Alice Kaplan, she is the co-author of States of Plague: Reading Albert Camus in a Pandemic (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Her first solo-authored book, The Age of Loneliness, is forthcoming from Graywolf in 2024. In this collection of essays, she focuses on landscapes where personal and ecological loneliness entangle and inform each other—like flooded airports, disappearing lakes, or a fake city for self-driving cars.
Literary Gloucester Walking Tour (3)
These literary tours began in 2023 under the auspices of the Gloucester 400+
Literary Committee, and are now being sponsored by the Gloucester Writers Center.
Founded in 2010, the Gloucester Writers Center is a working writers' center in a working town. Each year we host dozens of programs, from open mics and readings to workshops, classes, and writing groups—all in support of our mission:
To honor and celebrate Cape Ann's rich literary legacy, and to empower individuals to engage in the writing and telling of stories in the spirit of civic engagement.
Poetry Reading: Dara Barrois Dixon & MP Carver
Dara Barrois/Dixon
Dara Barrois/Dixon is an American poet and author. She has received awards from the Lannan Foundation, American Poetry Review, The Poetry Center Book Award, Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and Massachusetts Cultural Council.
M.P. Carver
M.P. Carver is a poet and visual artist from Salem, MA. She is Director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, miCrO-Founder of Molecule: a tiny lit mag, and teaches creative and digital writing at Salem State University. Her work has been published in Rattle, Mantis, Jubilat, and Love's Executive Order, among others. She has received funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Essex Community Foundation. In 2023 her poem "In Vitro" was named a finalist in the Connecticut River Review's Experimental Poetry Contest, and in 2022 her poem "You & God & I" was awarded the New England Poetry Club's E.E. Cummings Prize. Her chapbook, Selachipmorpha, was published by Incessant Pipe in 2015. Her second chapbook, Hard Up, is out from Lily Poetry Review Books in early 2025.
Literary Gloucester Walking Tour (2)
These literary tours began in 2023 under the auspices of the Gloucester 400+
Literary Committee, and are now being sponsored by the Gloucester Writers Center.
Founded in 2010, the Gloucester Writers Center is a working writers' center in a working town. Each year we host dozens of programs, from open mics and readings to workshops, classes, and writing groups—all in support of our mission:
To honor and celebrate Cape Ann's rich literary legacy, and to empower individuals to engage in the writing and telling of stories in the spirit of civic engagement.
Literary Gloucester Walking Tour
These literary tours began in 2023 under the auspices of the Gloucester 400+
Literary Committee, and are now being sponsored by the Gloucester Writers Center.
Founded in 2010, the Gloucester Writers Center is a working writers' center in a working town. Each year we host dozens of programs, from open mics and readings to workshops, classes, and writing groups—all in support of our mission:
To honor and celebrate Cape Ann's rich literary legacy, and to empower individuals to engage in the writing and telling of stories in the spirit of civic engagement.
Open Mic
Hosted by Bob Whalen, with guest poet Eric Parkison.
D. ERIC PARKISON is the GWC’s Program Director, he received his MA in English from the University of Rochester and his MFA in Poetry from Boston University. His chapbook, No Arcadia, was published in the fall of 2020. The Massachusetts Cultural Council awarded him a 2022 Artist's Grant in poetry. He lives in Lynn, MA.
Fish Tales: Against The Tide…SOLD OUT
SAVE THE DATE for stories of resistance, presented at Gloucester Stage. Fish Tales: Against The Tide features true stories, told live.
Tickets: $25 GloucesterStage.com
Click here for a free livestream
Storytellers-in-Residence/Co-hosts: Ann McArdle and Nicki Richon Schoel
Cast: Maiuza Alves, Niaz Dorry, David Goudreau, Nancy Henry, Kevin Perrin, Debbie Stansfield, Ross Steinborn, Judy Wright
Ed Sanders in Gloucester
Join us at the Gloucester House for an evening of verse, music, and tales of beatnik glory with legendary poet, author, activist, journalist, publisher, Fugs founder, and glyph-maker Edward Sanders to honor Charles Olson and the polis of Gloucester.
And announcing a limited 20-issue run of 100 Glyphs for Gloucester.
Sponsored by Neptune’s Harvest, Cape Ann Cosmos, and Cosmic Bear.
Immersion, Observation, Reflection: Communicating Sense of Place through Essay
Photographer and essayist Mark Thayer offers a final session on crafting essays that illuminate the natural world. Through immersive observation and reflection, participants will learn to convey a vivid sense of place and personal insight into the environment around them. REGISTER HERE
For more information or to register for any of these workshops, please visit the Sawyer Free Library in person or online at sawyerfreelibrary.org, or contact Meg O’Neill at 978-325-5562 or moneill@sawyerfreelibrary.org.
March Open Mic with Special Guest Martha Fox
For this month’s Open Mic, host and organizer Bob Whelan is joined by poet Martha Fox, author of the full-length poetry collection The Arc of Assurances.
BOOK CLUB: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Join us on February 24 to discuss The Message by Ta-Nahisi Coates in a conversation!
FISH TALES: Catch & Release
Fish Tales at Gloucester Stage on Friday, February 14, at 7:30 PM was a rollicking good evening of “catch & release” performances, including seven storytellers and a special short dance interlude. Click here to view GWC’s YouTube channel, where we will post the edited video of the show.
Between Worlds: Olson and Us
With Dr. Miriam Nichols, Professor Emerita at the University of Fraser Valley, in Abbotsford, British Colombia. Held in collaboration with the Gloucester Writers’ Center.
Saturday, February 8th, 2025
1pm – 2pm
Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA 01930
Free and Open to the Public, $10 donation suggested.
Registration is required
Miriam Nichols, Professor Emerita at the University of Fraser Valley, will give this year’s annual Charles Olson Lecture, presented at the Gloucester Stage Company in partnership with the Gloucester Writers Center. Nichols will discuss Charles Olson’s early poems written during World War II and the ways he re-imagined the possibility of agency in the public sphere under seemingly impossible conditions. For more insight, please view Nichols’ abstract below.
In connection with this lecture, the Museum will be offering a tour of the Maud/Olson Library the day prior at the CAM Green on Friday, February 7th at 3:00 p.m. To learn more about the Maud/Olson Library and its acquisition, click here. To register for this tour, please email: Library@capeannmuseum.org
Reading with David Daniel and George Cochrane
Join us at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck for this one-of-a-kind reading and presentation. Daniel and Cochrane have collaborated on What Love Is, a combination of text and image that Matthew Lippman calls “a miracle of visions coming together to make something utterly new and emotionally reverberant.” These two major talents have created an experience with this text — one not to be missed.
An Evening with Dr. Sima Samar
The Gloucester Writers Center will host Dr. Sima Samar, former Minister of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan, for a reading of her new book, the impassioned memoir, OUTSPOKEN: My Fight for Freedom & Human Rights in Afghanistan. Local writer and community activist Nicole Richon-Schoel will moderate the event.
OUTSPOKEN was recently shortlisted for the Moore Prize, naming it one of 5 best books of Human Rights Writing published this year.
Dr. Greg Barnhisel discusses Code Name Puritan
Join us at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck for this fascinating lecture and conversation. The talk will focus especially on Pearson’s roots in the North Shore, his wrestling with the Puritan legacy in the American character, and his connections with writers such as Ezra Pound, H.D., and Charles Olson.
Karl Frank will lead a conversation and question-and-answer after the lecture.
Book Launch with JoeAnn Hart and Maureen Aylward
Join us at the North Shore Arts Association to celebrate the launch of JoeAnn Hart’s new novel, Arroyo Circle! Hart will read from the book and then have a conversation with TownGreen’s Maureen Aylward.
Literary Walk with Phil Storey
Join celebrated raconteur Phil Storey for a tour of places of literary importance in the city of Gloucester. Meet Phil before 10:00AM at the Sargent House garden on Main Street. No registration or ticket necessary.
Jim Dunn and Clay Ventre
Join us at the Gloucester Writers Center on Thursday, September 12th for our first reading of the fall season: poets Jim Dunn and Clay Ventre! The show starts at 7PM.