Chapter and Verse
Chapter and Verse is a literary reading series sponsored by Jamaica Pond
Poets, usually held on the second Friday of the month, from October through
May at 7 p.m.
The readings this 2025-2026 season will be 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 be on Zoom only. The other readings
will be live only at the Revolutionary War era building.
Chapter and Verse will feature two readers per event. This season, for the first
time, the in-person readings will also feature an open mic afterwards. People
will be welcome to sign up at the reading to share a poem for all to enjoy. After
the readings, refreshments, conversation and book signings by the featured
writers will take place in the dining room, as usual.
Chapter and Verse co-directors are: David Miller dpmiller1955@outlook.com
and Dorian Kotsiopoulos dkotsi99@gmail.com .
To be on the email list for readings or to get a Zoom link to the winter ones,
email dpmiller1955@outlook.com with your name and email address. For
January and February, more information about getting the Zoom link will be
in the emailed announcements of the readings.
Donations to the readings are welcome.
Upcoming Readings: Fall 2025 – Spring 2026
**Note that there is a new, earlier start time – 7:00 PM**
February 13 (Zoom only) – Audrey Henderson*, Cate Marvin, and Carolyn Oliver
Audrey Henderson’s collection Airstream was shortlisted for Scotland’s Saltire Society First Book Award. She has received awards from The River Styx International Poetry Competition, The Indiana Review ½ K Award, The Muriel Craft Bailey Award and the Philbrick Poetry Award. She was a finalist for the Alpine Fellowship and the Dr. Gavin Wallace Fellowship and received a Hawthornden Fellowship. Her work has appeared in the anthologies New Writing Scotland, La Gagua Poetry Anthology, COVID Winter and most recently Coal, published by The Poetry Business. Her work appears widely in poetry journals which include: PN Review, Dark Horse, The Frogmore Papers, Ambit, The Roanoke Review, Tar River Poetry and The Midwest Quarterly. Longer work includes the short story Tales to Tell, featured on BBC Radio. Her work draws on her experiences growing up in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Cate Marvin teaches poetry writing in the Stonecoast M.F.A. Program at the University of Southern Maine and is Professor of English at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. A former Whiting Award recipient and Guggenheim Fellow, she lives in Scarborough, Maine. Event Horizon, her fourth collection, appeared from Copper Canyon Press in 2022.
Carolyn Oliver is the author of The Alcestis Machine (Acre, 2024) and Inside the Storm I Want to Touch the Tremble (University of Utah Press, 2022; selected for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry). Her third collection, Whale Garden, will be published in 2027 by River River Books. She is also the author of three chapbooks, including Night Ocean (Seven Kitchens Press, 2023; selected for the Rane Arroyo series). Her poems appear in Poetry Daily, TriQuarterly, Ecotone, Copper Nickel, Image, Consequence, and elsewhere. Her work has been supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and by Mount Auburn Cemetery’s artist-in-residence program; her honors include the Goldstein Prize from Michigan Quarterly Review, the NEPC’s E. E. Cummings Prize, and the Frank O’Hara Prize from The Worcester Review. Born in Buffalo and raised in Ohio, she now lives in Massachusetts.
March 13 (live only) – Max Heinegg and Vijaya Sundaram
April 10 (live only) – Heather Treseler and Anthony Walton
May 8 (live only) – Julia Thacker and Jenny Grassl
*Member of the Jamaica Pond Poets
Previous Readings
some with links on how to buy readers’ books and to videos of some of the readings
Readings: Fall 2025 – Spring 2026
October 17: MP Carver and January O’Neill
November 14: Dorothy Derifield* and Nidia Hernandez
December 12: Jill McDonough and Shubha Sunder
January 9: Nadia Arioli, Adam Grabowski, and Valerie Loveland*
To view a recording of this reading, click here
To order Nadia Arioli’s book, click here
To order Adam Grabowski’s chapbook, click here
To order Valerie Loveland’s book, click here
Readings: Fall 2024 – Spring 2025
October 10: Mary Bonina, David Miller*, and Richard Wohlman
November 8: Shari Caplan, Linda Carney-Goodrich, and Mark Pawlak
December 13: Richard Hoffman, Susanna Kittredge*, and Sara Letourneau
January 10: Katie Daley, Oliver de la Paz, and Anya Johanna DeNiro
To view a recording of this reading, click here
To order Katie Daley’s book, click here
To order Oliver de la Paz’s books, click here
To order Anya Johanna DeNiro’s book, click here
February 14: Matthew Clark, Jessica Purdy, and Adam Scheffler
To view a recording of this reading, click here
To order Matthew Clark’s books, click here
To order Jessica Purdy’s book, click here
To order Adam Scheffler’s book, click here
March 14: Kevin Gallagher, Matthew Henry, and Anastasia Vassos
April 11: Mary Buchinger, Tim Gager, and Jennifer Markell*
May 9: Mary Birnbaum*, Josh Coben, and Elizabeth Sylvia
Readings: Fall 2023 – Spring 2024
October 13: Vivienne Shalom, John Fulton, and Jan Schreiber
November 10: Daniel Brock Johnson, Dorian Kotsiopoulos, and Ladette Randolph
December 8: Ben Berman, Jason Tandon, and Lynne Vitti
January 12: Gloria Mindock, Rodrigo Restrepo Montoya, and Christine Tierney
To view a recording of this reading, click here
To order Gloria Mindock’s books, click here
To order Rodrigo Restrepo Montoya’s book, click here
To order Christine Tierney’s books, click here
February 9: Vivian Eyre, Rebecca Turkewitz, and Margot Wizansky
To view a recording of this reading, click here
To order Vivian Eyre’s book, click here
To order Rebecca Turkewitz’s book, click here
To order Margot Wizansky’s book, click here
March 8: Holly Guran, David Surette, and Gary Whited
April 12: Martha Collins, Charles O. Hartman, and Susan Rich
May 10: Lesley Bannatyne, Gary Duehr, and Maureen McElroy
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.
February 10: Jean Dany Joachim, Mark Smith-Soto, and Alan Smith Soto; MC: Audrey Henderson
To view a recording of this reading, click here
To buy Mark Smith-Soto’s book, Time Pieces, click here
March 10 – Wendy Drexler, Holly Guran*, and Tom Laughlin; MC – Sandra Storey
April 14 – Jean Monahan, Robert Pessek, and Lloyd Schwartz; MC – Alan Smith Soto
May 12 – Tom Daly, Rebecca Kaiser Gibson, and Cheryl Clark Vermeulen; MC – Dorothy Derifield
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
To view a recording of this reading – click here
To order Danielle Legros Georges’s book, click here or here
To order Jennifer Markell’s book, click here or go to her site for a signed copy
To order Jan Schreiber’s books go to Amazon.com
March 11: *Dorothy Derifield, Mark Pawlak, and Sheryl White
To view a recording of this reading – click here
To purchase Dorothy Derifield’s book, click here
To purchase Mark Pawlak’s book, click here
To purchase Sheryl White’s chapbook, click here
April 8: Sam Cha, Gloria Mindock, and Peter Schmitt; MC: Sandee Storey
To view a recording of this reading – click here
To purchase Sam Cha’s books, click here or here
To purchase Gloria Mindock’s book, click here
To purchase Peter Schmitt’s book, click here
May 13: Kevin Gallagher, Marcia Karp, and Chandreyee Lahiri; MC: Dorothy Derifield
Readings: Fall 2020 – Spring 2021
October 16: Mary Buchinger, *Valerie Loveland, *Jennifer Markell; MC: *Alan Smith Soto
November 13: Allison Adair, Robbie Gamble, *Susanna Kittredge; MC: *Jennifer Markell
December 11: Joshua Coben, Steven Cramer, Joyce Peseroff; MC: *Sandra Storey
January 8: Poetry in Spanish and Translations into English and into Music
Poet: Pedro Granados Translator: Leslie Bary
Poet: Daisy Novoa Vásquez Translator: *Alan Smith Soto
Poet: Juana Borrero Translator/Composer: Stephany Svorinić
MC: *Alan Smith Soto
February 12: Susan Buttenwieser, Jennifer Martelli, Scott Withiam; MC: *Dorothy Derifield
March 12: Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Robert Carr, and Jennifer De Leon; MC: *David Miller
To view a recording of this reading, click here.
April 9: Clare Beams, Greg LeStage, and David McCann; MC: *Mary Birnbaum
To view a recording of this reading, click here.
May 14: Jane Brox, Jeffrey Harrison, and Jennifer LeBlanc; MC: *Susanna Kittredge
To view a recording of this reading, click here.
Buy Jane Brox’s bookshere
Buy Jeffrey Harrison’s bookshere
Buy Jennifer LeBlanc’s book here
*Member of the Jamaica Pond Poets
October 14: Kathleen Aguero, Eileen Cleary, and Steven Riel: MC: Sandee Storey