Watertown Zine Fest celebrates marginalized voices through DIY publishing
Antidote to the screen, antidote to the mainstream, antidote to the glossy, the vanilla, the predictable — such is the nature of the zine, and on Saturday, Oct. 14, the Watertown Free Public Library will host its third annual Watertown Zine Fest, a daylong celebration of the DIY publications and their makers. Wander the Zine Marketplace where over 40 zinesters, both local and from further afield, will have their zines for display and purchase, on varied themes and topics: dreams, gender, climate change, monsters, tarot, activism, and more. Create your own zine at the Zine-Making Hive, where supplies and prompts will be provided. At 11:45 a.m., Elisandra Lopes, Stephanie Li, LB Lee, and Anna Wyman will be part of a panel discussion on zines and mental health. And at 2 p.m., Julie Fiveash will discuss Indigenous peoples’ connection to zines, as well as how they explore their Indigeneity through zine making. The library debuted a circulating zine collection in 2021, and patrons can browse, borrow, and submit their own zines. “Zines and DIY publishing provide a powerful outlet for underrepresented and marginalized voices and stories that challenge the cultural mainstream,” the library notes. “We believe that these voices and stories belong in the Library.” The Zine Fest runs 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Watertown Free Public Library. For more information, visit watertownlib.org/615/zine-fest.
New poetry anthology commemorates demolition of Salem power plant
On a July night in 2014, a group of North Shore poets gave a reading at the Salem power plant commemorating its imminent demolition. The smokestacked coal-fueled plant provided jobs and power, and was also a filthifying polluter. A new anthology, “Salem Power,” published by the Salem-based Derby Wharf Light Box, gathers 15 poems from that standing-room-only reading. “Tongues and tides/ brought pool patches that/ foamed between knees/ as the smokestack across the bay/ pricked us hard and fast/ with light,” writes Emma Siemasko. Of those smokestacks, J.D. Scrimgeour writes, “A tunnel to the underworld beside/ A tunnel to the sky.” The reading was part of the Improbable Places Poetry Tour, founded by Colleen Michaels, which brought poetry into unexpected places: a laundromat, a flower shop, a tattoo parlor. Blaine Hebbel writes of climate change: “washed out homes/ reached by raft/ it’s science/ it’s math/ there is absolutely/ nothing to debate.” And in “Love Song for the Decommissioned Power Plant,” January Gill O’Neil writes, “After the cranes and dumpsters leave,/ who will foretell the coming of green space/ pushing up through the seepage of mud/ as if the world has already happened?”
Brattleboro Literary Festival opens on Friday
The Brattleboro Literary Festival unfolds next weekend for its 22nd year. It opens on Friday evening, with events with Jennifer McMahon, Margot Douiahy, and Michael Ruhlman. Saturday’s full day of readings and talks includes a conversation between Maud Newton, author of the widely praised “Ancestor Trouble,” and Liz Scheier. Fabulist and Pulitzer finalist Kelly Link, whose new novel is due out early next year, will talk with Holly Black. Poets Martha Collins and Enzo Silon Surin will read and discuss their work, as will Chen Chen and Brian Turner. Later in the day brings a prose poetry panel with Nin Andrews, Denise Duhamel, Jeff Friedman, and Henry Walters. Green Writers Press celebrates its 10th anniversary that evening, and there’s a Write Action open mic to close out the day. On Sunday, highlights include Idra Novey and Asale Angel-Ajani; a conversation between poets Oliver de la Paz and Baron Wormser, Charles Coe in conversation with Ewa Chrusciel, and events with Allegra Goodman and Daisy Alpert Florin, and Peter Orner and Pam Petro. The weekend closes out with a Write Action Spotlight Reading. The Brattleboro Literary Festival runs Oct. 13-15. Events are free and open to the public. For more information and a complete schedule, visit brattleborolitfest.org.
Coming out
“The Premonition” by Banana Yoshimoto, translated from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda (Counterpoint)
“The Beauty of Light: An Interview” by Etal Adnan and Laure Adler, translated from the French by Ethan Mitchell (Nightboat Books)
“The Hive and the Honey” by Paul Yoon (Simon Element)
Pick of the week
Nora Sternlof at RJ Julia Independent Booksellers in Madison, Conn., recommends “The Book” by Mary Ruefle (Wave Books): “Poet/essayist/artist/genius-at-large Mary Ruefle has a mind like no other. In plain but mysterious language, these — prose poems? parables? very short essays? — dramatize the odd and delicate moments that allow our lives meaning. Plus, she offers a few working definitions of art along the way.”