Chapter and Verse, Jamaica Pond Poets

Chapter and Verse

Chapter and Verse is a literary reading series sponsored by Jamaica Pond Poets, usually on the second Friday of the month, from October through May at 7:30 pm. The readings resume in fall, 2022, at the historic Loring Greenough House, 12 South Street in Monument Square in Jamaica Plain where they have been held for more than 20 years.

Readings in January and February will still be on Zoom in 2023. (From October, 2020 to May 2022 the readings were held on Zoom due to the pandemic. Chapter and Verse usually features three readers per event. Chapter and Verse managers are: Dorothy Derifield (Director), Sandra Storey (Co-director). For more information, contact dorothy.derifield@gmail.com

Please join us. To be on our email list for readings, email sandeestorey@fastmail.fm with your name and email address. In January and February, to receive a Zoom invitation with a link on the day of the reading, RSVP to sandeestorey@fastmail.fm with your email stating that you want to attend.

Upcoming Readings: Fall 2022 – Spring 2023

February 10 – Jean Dany Joachim, Mark Soto, and Alan Smith Soto; MC – Audrey Henderson

Jean Dany Joachim is a poet, past Cambridge Poet Populist, Poet in residence at First Church in Cambridge, Director of City Night Readings Series, and in residence at Little Crepe Café in Cambridge. He has three published collections of poetry, Crossroads/Chimenkwaze (2013), Avec des Mots (2014), and Quartier (2016). Joachim is a 2017 Massachusetts Cultural Council grant recipient for his play: “Your Voice Poet.”

Poet/translator Mark Smith-Soto was born in the U.S. and raised in his mother’s country, Costa Rica. He has authored three prize-winning chapbooks and three full-length poetry collections, Our Lives Are Rivers (U. Press of Florida, 2003), Any Second Now (Main Street Rag, 2006) and Time Pieces (Main Street Rag, 2015). His work, recognized in 2005 with an NEA Fellowship in Creative Writing, has appeared in Kenyon Review, Literary Review, Louisville Review, Missouri Review, Nimrod, Poetry East, Rattle, The Sun and many other journals and anthologies. His work of translation, Fever Season: Selected Poetry of Ana Istarú (2010) and his lyrical memoir Berkeley Prelude (2013), were both published by Unicorn Press.

Born in San José, Costa Rica into a bicultural family, Alan Smith Soto lives in Jamaica Plain, Mass. and is a member of Jamaica Pond Poets. He has published three collections of poetry: Fragmentos de Alcancía (Treasure Jar Fragments, 1998), with a grant from the Spanish consulate in Boston; Libro del lago (Lake Poems, 2014); and Hasta que no haya luna (Till the Moon is No More, 2021). He translated Life and Death, by Robert Creeley. Vida y muerte, was published in 2000. His translation and edition of a special issue of the International Poetry Review, Spain’s Poetry of Conscience, was published in 2006. In 2017, he directed and acted in Tres episodios y un incendio (Three Episodes and a Fire), a work of poetry written with Pilar González España. His current work includes a collection of poetic pieces for stage and his first poetry collection in English.

March 10 – Wendy Drexler, Tom Laughlin, and Ladette Randolph; MC – Sandra Storey

April 14 – readers TBA

May 12 – readers TBA

Previous Readings

with links on how to buy readers’ books and to videos of some of the readings

Readings: Fall 2022 – Spring 2023

October 14: Kathleen Aguero, Eileen Cleary, and Steven Riel: MC: Sandee Storey

To order Kathleen Aguero’s World Happiness Index, click here

To order Eileen Cleary’s 2 a.m. with Keats, click here

To order Steven Riel’s Fellow Odd Fellow, click here

November 11: Jennifer Barber, Charles Coe, and Aaron Tillman: MC: Dorothy Derifield

December 9: Ann Bookman, Harris Gardner, and Sandra Storey: MC: David Miller

January 13: Susan Donnelly, Jim Nichols, and Melissa Peters: MC: Susanna Kittredge

To view a recording of this reading, click here.

To buy Susan Donnelly’s books, click here.

To buy Jim Nichols’s book, click here.

Readings: Fall 2021 – Spring 2022

October 15: Frannie Lindsay, Maureen McElroy, Brian Simoneau; MC: Sandee Storey

To view a recording of this reading, click here.

To order Frannie Lindsay’s The Snow Wife, click here

To order Maureen McElroy’s chapbook, contact her at mcelroy55@rcn.com

To order Brian Sim0neau’s No Small Comfort, click here

November 12: Gail Mazur, *David Miller, Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne; MC: Dorothy Derifield

To view a recording of this reading, click here

To order Gail Mazur’s book, click here or here

To order David Miller’s book, click here or, write to him at dpmiller1955@outlook.com

To order Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne’s book, click here or here

December 10: Danielle Legros Georges, *Jennifer Markell, Jan Schreiber; MC: David Miller