Events.
Each year, the GWC hosts more than 100 events, including monthly open mics, readings year-round, and Fish Tales, our popular storytelling showcase. All are welcome, always.
Browse upcoming events using the calendar, or scroll to see a full listing below.
Looking for workshops or writing groups? Click here.
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BOOK CLUB: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Join us on February 24 to discuss The Message by Ta-Nahisi Coates in a conversation!
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FISH TALES: Catch & Release
Fish Tales at Gloucester Stage on Friday, February 14, at 7:30 PM was a rollicking good evening of “catch & release” performances, including seven storytellers and a special short dance interlude. Click here to view GWC’s YouTube channel, where we will post the edited video of the show.
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Between Worlds: Olson and Us
With Dr. Miriam Nichols, Professor Emerita at the University of Fraser Valley, in Abbotsford, British Colombia. Held in collaboration with the Gloucester Writers’ Center.
Saturday, February 8th, 2025
1pm – 2pm
Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA 01930
Free and Open to the Public, $10 donation suggested.
Registration is required
Miriam Nichols, Professor Emerita at the University of Fraser Valley, will give this year’s annual Charles Olson Lecture, presented at the Gloucester Stage Company in partnership with the Gloucester Writers Center. Nichols will discuss Charles Olson’s early poems written during World War II and the ways he re-imagined the possibility of agency in the public sphere under seemingly impossible conditions. For more insight, please view Nichols’ abstract below.
In connection with this lecture, the Museum will be offering a tour of the Maud/Olson Library the day prior at the CAM Green on Friday, February 7th at 3:00 p.m. To learn more about the Maud/Olson Library and its acquisition, click here. To register for this tour, please email: Library@capeannmuseum.org
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Reading with David Daniel and George Cochrane
Join us at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck for this one-of-a-kind reading and presentation. Daniel and Cochrane have collaborated on What Love Is, a combination of text and image that Matthew Lippman calls “a miracle of visions coming together to make something utterly new and emotionally reverberant.” These two major talents have created an experience with this text — one not to be missed.
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An Evening with Dr. Sima Samar
The Gloucester Writers Center will host Dr. Sima Samar, former Minister of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan, for a reading of her new book, the impassioned memoir, OUTSPOKEN: My Fight for Freedom & Human Rights in Afghanistan. Local writer and community activist Nicole Richon-Schoel will moderate the event.
OUTSPOKEN was recently shortlisted for the Moore Prize, naming it one of 5 best books of Human Rights Writing published this year.
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Dr. Greg Barnhisel discusses Code Name Puritan
Join us at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck for this fascinating lecture and conversation. The talk will focus especially on Pearson’s roots in the North Shore, his wrestling with the Puritan legacy in the American character, and his connections with writers such as Ezra Pound, H.D., and Charles Olson.
Karl Frank will lead a conversation and question-and-answer after the lecture.
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Book Launch with JoeAnn Hart and Maureen Aylward
Join us at the North Shore Arts Association to celebrate the launch of JoeAnn Hart’s new novel, Arroyo Circle! Hart will read from the book and then have a conversation with TownGreen’s Maureen Aylward.
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Literary Walk with Phil Storey
Join celebrated raconteur Phil Storey for a tour of places of literary importance in the city of Gloucester. Meet Phil before 10:00AM at the Sargent House garden on Main Street. No registration or ticket necessary.
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Jim Dunn and Clay Ventre
Join us at the Gloucester Writers Center on Thursday, September 12th for our first reading of the fall season: poets Jim Dunn and Clay Ventre! The show starts at 7PM.
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Literary Walk with Phil Storey
Join celebrated raconteur Phil Storey for a tour of places of literary importance in the city of Gloucester. Meet Phil before 10:00AM at the Sargent House garden on Main Street. No registration or ticket necessary.
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Holy Local! Open Mic
Join Open Mic host Bob Whelan for this once-in-a-blue-moon second Open Mic for the month of August! The GWC decided we’d like to celebrate the summer and hear what our friends and neighbors have been up to.
Programming Director D. Eric Parkison features, reading from No Arcadia and new poems. Show starts at seven, so show up early to get your name on the list! Bring a poem, bring a story, bring a friend.
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Book Launch and Poetry Reading: Charles Coe and Melissa Green
Join the poets Charles Coe and Melissa Green at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck for this incredible literary event! Charles Coe will introduce his new book, Charles Coe: New and Selected Poems. Melissa Green will read from works in progress and poems from Magpiety and other books.
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Literary Walk with Phil Storey
Join celebrated raconteur Phil Storey for a tour of places of literary importance in the city of Gloucester. Meet Phil before 10:00AM at the Sargent House garden on Main Street. No registration or ticket necessary.
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Literary Walk with Phil Storey
Join celebrated raconteur Phil Storey for a tour of places of literary importance in the city of Gloucester. Meet Phil before 10:00AM at the Sargent House garden on Main Street. No registration or ticket necessary.
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First Monday Open Mic w/ Bob Whelan
Join us at the Gloucester Writers Center for our First Monday Open Mic series. This monthly event is open to the public. Bring your poems, stories, and others and sign up for a reading slot. We often includes a featured reader.
This month the featured reader is Mark Lipman! The Beat Poet laureate of the United States. Come early to sign up and hear what your friends and neighbors are up to!
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Book Launch and Reading: Jay Featherstone
Join the Gloucester Writers Center in celebrating the release of Jay Featherstone’s latest book of poems, Rising Out of Nowhere. This event will take place at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck and is free and open to the public.
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Literary Walk with Phil Storey
Join celebrated raconteur Phil Storey for a tour of places of literary importance in the city of Gloucester. Meet Phil before 10:00AM at the Sargent House garden on Main Street. No registration or ticket necessary.
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BOOK SIGNING + READING Young Tom and Charlie: Two American Poets at Home in Gloucester
Join us for a Book Signing and Reading with Ann Charters
Free and open to all. Donations are appreciated to support the GWC’s work in the community.
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It Can't Happen Here - Again! Reading
Join GWC board member and author JoeAnn Hart at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck in this celebration of American democracy sponsored by Writers for Democratic Action. Readers include Malcom Ingram, Cheryl Singleton, Christopher Lydon, Emme Shaw, & Barbara Koen.
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Literary Walk with Phil Storey
Join celebrated raconteur Phil Storey for a tour of places of literary importance in the city of Gloucester. Meet Phil before 10:00AM at the Sargent House garden on Main Street. No registration or ticket necessary.
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Literary Walk with Phil Storey
Join celebrated raconteur Phil Storey for a tour of places of literary importance in the city of Gloucester. Meet Phil before 10:00AM at the Sargent House garden on Main Street. No registration or ticket necessary.
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Poetry Reading: Antigua + Gjika
Join us for a reading by Diannely Antigua and Ani Gjika at Rocky Neck!
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Reflections on Home
Join Board Members JoeAnn Hart and Heidi Wakeman, director of programming D. Eric Parkison, and the Veterans and Their Families workshop facilitator Kevin Perrin at the Cultural Center on Rocky Neck for this special reading in conjunction with the ongoing exhibition, HOME.
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Ferrini + Lynn: A Legacy
A Celebration of Vincent Ferrini and Lynn's Literary History at the Lynn Public Library
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Radical Hospitality Launch
Readings from Rosemary Haughton and Nancy Schwoyer’s deeply felt and powerful new book, Radical Hospitality.
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Stephen Provizier + Philip Swanson in Conversation
Provizier and Swanson in conversation about As Long as They Can Blow: Interracial Jazz Recordings and Oher Jive before 1936