About us.

Founded in 2010, the Gloucester Writers Center is a working writers’ center in a working town. Each year we host dozens of programs, from open mics and readings to workshops, classes, and writing groups—all in support of our mission: To honor and celebrate Cape Ann’s rich literary legacy, and to empower individuals to engage in the writing and telling of stories in the spirit of civic engagement.

Scroll to learn a bit about our history and our team, and browse our archives.

Our history.

In 1948, poet and frame-maker Vincent Ferrini (1913–2007) moved to a one-room studio at 126 East Main Street in Gloucester. Over the next seven decades, in this place, Ferrini wrote some thirty volumes of poetry, as well as plays, an autobiography, and—like his friend, Charles Olson—countless letters to the editor of the Gloucester Daily Times.

Prolific, outspoken, Ferrini was a vivid figure here in Gloucester—a public, proletarian poet and a near-constant presence at City Council meetings. He also cultivated an astounding circle of writers, artists, and thinkers for whom 126 East Main Street became a cultural salon. Friends and peers traveled to Gloucester to visit Ferrini. Olson returned to Gloucester and stayed; Vincent connected him with Robert Creeley, and the history of American poetry was forever changed. Late in life, Vincent was named Gloucester’s first poet laureate—a recognition of his remarkable body of work, as well as his key role in making Gloucester a 20th-century literary hub, alongside writers Peter Anastas, Jonathan Bayliss, Gerrit Lansing, and others.

Vincent Ferrini (Photo: Paul Foley)

Gloucester writers Peter Anastas, Charles Olson, and Vincent Ferrini.

Following Vincent’s death in 2007, a small group of friends organized an effort to preserve his home as a living memorial and place for writers to gather in the spirit of poetic inquiry and civic engagement modeled by Vincent and his circle. They were: Henry Ferrini (Vincent’s nephew), close friend Annie Thomas, Unitarian Universalist minister Paul Sawyer, and writer André Spears.

The Gloucester Writers Center was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2010, just before Sawyer’s death. In its first decade the GWC quickly developed into a hub—a place, in the words of poet and artist Ed Sanders, that “shouts YES to poetry, writing, rumination, study, and planning.”

Since its founding, the GWC has developed a diverse program, with a year-round calendar of events serving writers and audiences across Cape Ann and the region. Writers in residence, writing groups, lively reading series, workshops, and community events have kept Vincent’s studio alive with voices.

In the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 swept the planet, the GWC was forced to halt in-person programming. The closure did not stop our work, however: we produced virtual events; fundraised and hired staff; and completed a renovation that strengthened the foundation at 126 East Main Street. After more than two full years, the Gloucester Writers Center reopened to programs in June 2022, just a few days before Vincent’s 109th birthday.

“Poem in Action” documentary on Vincent by Henry Ferrini.

  • Henry Ferrini

    Co-Founder, Executive Director

    Henry is a co-founder of the Gloucester Writers Center and a documentary filmmaker. His work has played on PBS and at museums and galleries around the world. His films include: Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place; Poem in Action, a portrait of his uncle Vincent Ferrini; and Lowell Blues: the Words of Jack Kerouac. He is working on a new film about the iconic jazz stylist Lester Young. He lives in Gloucester with his wife and son.

    Ruth Sullivan

    Manager

    A longtime Gloucester resident, Ruth is an expert on the area’s live music scene and has been an arts and theater aficionado for years. Before joining the GWC, Ruth spent 18 years as a career counselor at the North Shore Career Center, and has worked in various capacities over her career, including office management roles in the public and private sectors. At the Writers Center, you’ll find Ruth managing all office and business functions, day to day.

    Ellie O’Leary

    Education Director

    Ellie is a poet, a memoirist, and the Poet Laureate Emerita of Amesbury, MA, where she lives. She has published Breathe Here (poetry, 2020) and Up Home Again (memoir, 2023)—both with North Country Press. She has an MFA in poetry from the Stonecoast program of the University of Southern Maine.

    D. Erik Parkison

    Program Director

    Eric received his MA in English from the University of Rochester and his MFA in Poetry from Boston University. His chapbook, No Arcadia, was published in the fall of 2020. The Massachusetts Cultural Council awarded him a 2022 Artist's Grant in poetry. He lives in Lynn, MA, and has been with the GWC since 2023.

    Jennifer Bartlett

    Development

    Jennifer Bartlett is the author of four books of poetry and Sustaining Air: The Life of Larry Eigner. She is co-founder of Zoeglossia, an organization for poets with disabilities. Bartlett lived in Brooklyn, NY for 22 years where she raised her son, Jeffrey. During this time, she taught at Montclair State University and Borough of Manhattan Community College. She held a Lower Manhattan Cultural Counsel Fellowship and worked for Andy Byford at New York City Transit. She lives in Gloucester.

  • Jay Featherstone, President

    Heidi Wakeman, Vice President

    Mary Baine Campbell

    Robert D. Cohan

    Dorothy Shubow Nelson

    Adam Tessier

    Board member biographies

  • Ammiel Alcalay

    Shahar Bram

    Andrei Codrescu

    Kate Colby

    Jennifer Finney Boylan

    Diane di Prima

    Mark Kurlansky

    Kenneth Riaf

    Michael Rumaker

    Ed Sanders

    Anna Solomon

    André Spears

    Anne Waldman

    We are grateful to have had the advice and support of the late Peter Anastas, Ken Irby, Gerrit Lansing, Reverend Paul Sawyer, Kenneth Warren, and Jim Harrison. Their influence carries on at 126 East Main Street.

Our team.