J.D. Scrimgeour

J.D. Scrimgeour is the inaugural poet laureate of Salem, Massachusetts and the author of six books of poetry, the most recent being Small, Rectangular, Reflected World (Nixes Mate, 2025). Scrimgeour’s second book of nonfiction, Themes for English B: A Professor’s Education In & Out of Class won the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s Award for Nonfiction. A longtime resident of Salem, Scrimgeour has written in many genres about the city. His ancestor, Mary Towne Eastey, was put to death during the Salem Witch Trials. Another ancestor, Thomas Perkins, sat on the jury that found her guilty.

Heather Treseler

Heather Treseler is the author of the poetry collection Auguries & Divinations, which received the Shelia Margaret Motton Book Award and the May Sarton Prize, and two chapbooks, Parturition and Hard Bargain. Her award-winning poetry has appeared in the Harvard Review and American Scholar among others. She is professor of English at Worcester State University and a scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center.

*Photo by Rick Bern