The Massachusetts Poetry Festival 2016

We’ve all had the experience of hearing the whispers of photographs that seem to have a deeper story to tell. Whether they’re treasured family snapshots, polished studio portraits or cell phone images, certain pictures arrest our attention and prompt an emotional response we cannot immediately express. Writing poetry from photos allows us to express the truth of what we feel and haven’t said, and capture the beauty and deeper meaning of an image in words. We’ll let the images “speak” - writing poems, fragments of memoir, or stories that capture the feelings, personalities, relationships, rites of passage, cultural identity and family history evoked by photographs. When personally chosen photos are brought into a writing circle, powerful writing about family, community, and cross-cultural identity emerges. We’ll explore the photos as a warm-up to generating first drafts. Writers of all backgrounds and experience are welcome - bring photos to work from.