• Tuesday, March 3rd at 6:30pm (Book launch celebration)

Celebrate the publication of SOS—Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader, with editors John Bracey, Sonia Sanchez, & James Smethurst; as well as The New Africa House Ensemble at the Augusta Savage Gallery, New Africa House, UMass.   The aesthetic counterpart of the Black Power movement, the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s & 1970s, burst onto the scene in the form of artists’ circles, writers’ workshops, drama groups, dance troupes, new publishing ventures, bookstores, & cultural centers, & had a presence in practically every community & college campus with an appreciable African American population.  SOS—Calling All Black People brings together nearly 700 pages of key writings from that era.   Bracey & Smethurst both teach in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, here in Amherst.   Sanchez is an award-winning poet, playwright, & author of children’s books.   For more information: W.E.B. Du Bois Upcoming Events.

• Wednesday, March 4th at 5:00pm (Book launch party)

Help us celebrate the publication of a new book by University of Massachusetts history professor, Jon Olsen — Tailoring Truth: Memory Politics & Historical Consciousness in East Germany, 1945-1990.   By looking at state-sponsored memory projects, such as memorials, commemorations, & historical museums, Olsen’s new book reveals that the East German communist regime obsessively monitored & attempted to control public representations of the past to legitimize its rule.

• Thursday, March 5th at 8:00pm (Reading)

Eileen Myles will read in Memorial Hall, University of Massachusetts, as part of the University of Massachusetts MFA Program’s Visiting Writers Series.   Myles is an American poet and writer who has produced more than twenty volumes of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, libretti, plays, & performance pieces over the last three decades.   Perhaps best known for her collection of poetry, Not Me, her most recent collection of poetry is — Snowflake / Different Streets.

• Saturday, March 7th at 7:00pm (Reading)

Erica Dawson, Jason Ockert, & Jeff Parker will read from recent work.   Dawson’s poetry has appeared in Barrow Street, Blackbird, Harvard Review, Literary Imagination, Virginia Quarterly Review, & other journals.   Her most recent collection of poetry is The Small Blades Hurt.   Ockert is the author of Wasp Box, his debut novel, & two collections of short stories: Neighbors of Nothing & Rabbit Punches.   He has received awards from The Atlantic Monthly, Mary Roberts Rinehart, the Dzanc Short Story collection contest, & been nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award.   Parker is the author of several books including Where Bears Roam the Streets: A Russian Journal, the novel Ovenman, & the short story collection, The Taste of Penny.   He co-edited the anthologies Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia, & Amerika: Russian Writers View the United States.   He also co-translated the novel Sankya by Zakhar Prilepin from the Russian.   He is the Director of the DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon.

• Sunday, March 8th at 3:00pm (Poetry reading)

jubilat/Jones Reading Series at the Jones Library, Amherst.   Poets Matthea Harvey & Samuel Amadon will read.   Meet the poets at an informal Q & A session that follows the reading.     For more information go to jubilat/Jones Reading Series on Facebook.

• Tuesday, March 10th at 8:00pm (Reading)

David Vann will read from his latest work, Aquarium.   Vann has won multiple awards for his fiction & non-fiction, including best foreign novel in France & in Spain for Legend of a Suicide/Sukkan Island.   Co-sponsored by the Amherst College Visiting Writers Series.

• Wednesday, March 11th at 7:00pm (Reading)

Heidi Durrow will read at the Munson Memorial Library, 1046 South East Street, Amherst, as part of the Jones Library’s “On the Same Page” series.   Durrow is author of best-seller The Girl Who Fell From the Sky which won the winner of the 2008 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially-Engaged Fiction.   For more information: On the Same Page — Amherst

• Thursday, March 12th at 7:00pm (Poetry reading)

A Canarium Books poetry reading!!   Ish Klein, Tod Marshall, & Michael Morse will read from recent poetry.   Klein, a film-maker, is author of two volumes from Canarium—Moving Day & Union, as well as a forthcoming volume, Consolation & Mirth.   Marshall is author of two volumes of poetry, Tangled Line, & most recently, Bugle.   He has also published Range of the Possible: Conversations with Contemporary Poets, & Range of Voices: A Collection of Contemporary Poets.   Morse, who has been the recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the MacDowell Colony, & Yaddo, is author of Void & Compensation.

• Tuesday, March 17th at 7:00pm (Reading)

Ryan MacDonald, Jordan Stempleman, Seth Landman, Stella Corso, & Christy Crutchfield will read from recent work.   MacDonald’s new book is The Observable Characteristics of Organisms.   Stempleman’s Wallop is just out; Landman’ latest collection of poetry is Sign Your Were Mistaken.   Corso runs a vintage clothing shop called Pale Circus in Greenfield, MA.   Her poetry has appeared in Notnostrums & Caketrain.   Crutchfield’s work has appeared in Mississippi Review online, Salt Hill Journal, the Collagist, Newfound, & others.   Her new novel is How to Catch a Coyote.

• Saturday, March 21st at TBA(Performance)

Bach in the Subways, Happy 330th Birthday   As part of an international movement to promote classical music by performing Bach’s music on his birthday in subways & public spaces, UMass students & faculty will perform.   For more information, Department of Music & Dance.

• Monday, March 23rd at 8:00pm(Reading)

Gina Apostol will read from recent work.   Her last novel, Gun Dealers’ Daughter, won the 2013 PEN/Open Book Award & was shortlisted for the 2014 William Saroyan International Prize.   Her first two novels, Bibliolepsy & The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata, won the Juan Laya Prize for the Novel (Philippine National Book Award).   Co-sponsored by the Amherst College Visiting Writers Series.

• Thursday, March 26th at 4:30pm (Book launch party)

Join Marietta Pritchard in celebrating the publication of her new book, The Way to Go: Portrait of a Residential Hospice, about the Hospice of the Fisher Home, here in Amherst, which cares for those in the last six months of life.   Pritchard, a well-known Amherst author & editor, started volunteering at the Fisher Home in 2007.   In The Way to Go she brings together excerpts from her journal, life stories of several residents, along with profiles of trained volunteers & the devoted professional staff.

• Friday, March 27th at 7:00pm (Poetry reading)

Join us for the inaugural reading of Industrial Lunch, a magazine of poetry & visual art, featuring A.B. Robinson, Greg Purcell, & Ish Klein.   Industrial Lunch was founded in 2013 as a publication for work selfish enough to call itself ”poetry,“ & so far it has published three digital issues as well as two online chapbooks of poetry.

• Monday, March 30th at 7:00pm(Poetry reading)

"Anne Halley Poetry Prize Reading"   Sarah Sousa, winner of the 11th annual Anne Halley Poetry Prize, sponsored by the Massachusetts Review, will read from her prize-winning work, Split the Crow  

The Anne Halley Poetry Prize is named in memorial for Anne Halley, to honor her 25 years of work as poetry co-editor of the Massachusetts Review as well as her work as a poet & writer.   Her last collection of poetry, Rumors of the Turning Wheel, was published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2003.

• Tuesday, March 31st at 7:00pm(Talk)

Sarah van Gelder will talk about her new book, Sustainable Happiness: Live Simply, Live Well, Make a Difference.   Van Gelder is co-founder & editor-in-chief of YES!, a non-profit ad-free magainze that covers topics of social justice, environmental sustainability, alternative economics, & peace.   Written with her colleagues at YES!, Van Gelder’s Sustainable Happiness marshals fascinating research, in-depth essays, & compelling personal stories that lead to a life-altering conclusion: what makes us truly happy are the depth of our relationships, the quality of our communities, the contribution we make through the work we do, & the renewal we receive from a thriving natural world.