Rozzie Reads Poetry

Rozzie Reads Poetry is a long-running monthly poetry series sponsored by the Friends of the Roslindale Library. The series is organized by a committee which includes Steve Babcock, Dorothy Derifield, Holly Guran (coordinator), Mary McCusker, Maureen McElroy, and Vivienne Shalom. The readings take place on Thursdays at 7:00 pm and are free. Refreshments are provided and voluntary donations are welcome.  

For several years, the readings had been held on Zoom.  Happily this fall, Rozzie Reads Poetry will again be live only (no Zoom) in the community room at Roslindale House (for map and directions, see below) with the exception of the January and February readings which will be Zoom ONLY. At each reading there are two featured poets, followed by a lively open mic. Many find this a comfortable place to try out their recent work. For more information and for the Zoom link,  contact Vivienne Shalom– no later than 6:30 PM on the day of the reading.


Biographies of Our Next Readers 

  April 18,  Thursday, at 7:00 PM 

Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is the 2023 winner of the Solstice Literary Magazine Stephen Dunn Prize and the author of six poetry collections including said the Frog to the scorpion (Harbor Editions, 2024). He is editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal and an associate poetry editor at Pidgeonholes and Rise Up Review. You can find him at www.MEHPoeting.com writing about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground.


Jennifer Jean’s poetry collections include VOZ, Object Lesson, and The Fool. Her resource book is Object Lesson: a Guide to Writing Poetry. And, she’s co-written and co-translated Where Do You Live? with Iraqi poet Dr. Hanaa Ahmed. As well, she’s edited the forthcoming anthology Other Paths for Shahrazad: a Bilingual Anthology of Poetry by Arab Women (Tupelo Press, 2025). Her work appears in POETRY, Rattle, The Common, On the Seawall, the Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere.


Jason Tandon is the author of five books of poetry, including This Far North (Black Lawrence Press, 2023) and The Actual World (Black Lawrence Press, 2019). His poems have appeared in PloughsharesPrairie SchoonerThe Southern ReviewBeloit Poetry JournalAlaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. He teaches at Boston University, where he is a master lecturer in the Arts & Sciences Writing Program.


Upcoming Readings

          May 16, 2024         –     Kieran Collier and Vivienne Shalom
          June 20, 2024        –     Daniel Johnson and Gloria Mindock 


*member of the Jamaica Pond Poets


       

Getting to Roslindale House, located at 120 Poplar Street

From Roslindale Square at the Library, go down Poplar Street. The entrance to Roslindale House is about 100 yards past the first corner (Florence Street) on the left. There is generally ample on-street parking on both Florence Street and Poplar street. Please do not park in the Roslindale House parking lot.