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, 2023, 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. (From October, 2020 to May 2022 all of the readings were held on Zoom due to the pandemic). The other readings will be live only. Chapter and Verse usually features three readers per event. Chapter and Verse managers are: Dorothy Derifield (Director), David Miller (Co-director). For more information, contact dorothy.derifield@gmail.com

Please join us. To be on our email list for readings, email dpmiller1955@outlook.com 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 2023 – Spring 2024

October 13 – at LGH – John Fulton, Jan Schreiber, and  Vivienne Shalom 

John Fulton is the author most recently of The Flounder and Other Stories, which was a Poets & Writers Page One New and Noteworthy Book selection, and three other books of fiction: The Animal Girl, which was short listed for the Story Prize, Retribution, which won the Southern Review Fiction Prize, and the novel More Than Enough, a Barnes and Noble’s Discover Great New Writers selection. His short fiction has been awarded the Pushcart Prize and been published in ZoetropeThe SunPloughshares, and The Missouri Review, among other venues. He lives with his family in Boston, where he teaches in and directs the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts Boston.   

Jan Schreiber was Poet Laureate of Brookline, Massachusetts from 2015 to 2017. His books include Digressions (1970), Wily Apparitions (1992), Bell Buoys (1998), Peccadilloes (2014), and Bay Leaves (2019). A collection of his criticism, Sparring with the Sun, was published in 2014. His translations of The Poems of Paul Valéry appeared in 2021. An advisory editor of Think journal, he teaches in the BOLLI program at Brandeis University and runs The Critical Path, an annual symposium on poetry criticism.


Vivienne Shalom is the author of the recent chapbook The Truth Is, published by Choefpleirn Press. The book won their Jonathan Holden Award for best first chapbook of 2023. Vivienne is a long-time committee member of Rozzie Reads Poetry. Two of her poems were published in Tell Tale Inklings #5. She is the author of the children’s book, The Color of Things (Rizzoli, 1995). A former ESL teacher, graphic designer and welder, she is currently retired and active in the Roslindale community and in the arts.


November 10 – at LGH – Dan Johnson, Dorian Kotsiopoulos*, and Ladette Randolph

December 8 – at LGH – Ben Berman, Jason Tandon, and Lynne Viti 

January 12 – on Zoom – Gloria Mindock, Rodrigo Restrepo Montoya, and Christine Tierney 

February 9 – on Zoom – readers to be announced

March 8 – at LGH – Holly Guran*, David Surette, and Gary Whited

April 12 -at LGH –  Martha Collins, Charles O. Hartman, and Susan Rich 

May 10 – at LGH – Leslie Bannatyne, Gary Duehr, and Maureen McElroy 

*Member of the Jamaica Pond Poets


 

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.


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


January 14: Indran Amirthanayagam and Dick Lourie
To view a recording of this reading – click here
To order Indran Amirthanayagam’s book, click here or here 

To order Dick Lourie’s book, click here


 

February 11: Graciela Baquero, Katherine Hanulla Hill, Alexis Ivy, and Alan Smith Soto

To view a recording of this reading – click  here  

To order Graciela Baquero’s book,  email her here

To order Alexis Ivy’s books, click here or here

To order Alan Smith Soto’s book, click here


 

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

To view a recording of this reading – click here
To purchase Kevin Gallagher’s book – click here
To purchase Marcia Karp’s book – click here
To check out  Chandreyee Lahiri’s work – click here

 

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 books here 

       Buy Jeffrey Harrison’s books here

       Buy Jennifer LeBlanc’s book here

 

*Member of the Jamaica Pond Poets

 

 

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