Where you can hear/see MEH in the future.
I will be a featured reader at Everyone Has A Voice at the Brockton Public Library alongside one of my students..
I’ll be presenting and reading at the Five Ponds Creative Writing Festival at Gordon College.
“What Can We Learn from the Prophetic Voice?”
It has been argued the prophets of the Hebrew Bible have more in common with spoken word and slam poets than Sunday morning preachers. Tasked with communicating the “word” and “vision” of the LORD, and recognizing the magnitude of the communal and cosmic stakes, their sensitivity to evil and hatred of public performative piety, infused their poetry with controversial imagery, often at great personal risk. What can modern writers with similar spiritual sensitivities learn from the rhetorical elements of the Prophetic critique—the images, metaphors, and sign-acts that they employed? What can we get away with? How far is too far?
Keynote speaker for the Educators Showcase in Brockton.
More details TBA…
The book launch for Promises to Keep is on Thursday, April 23rd 7-8:30pm at the Main Branch of the Thomas Crane Library.
Guest readers: Linda Carney-Goodrich and Anne Elezabeth Pluto!
More info coming…
Linda Carney-Goodrich is a writer and teacher from Boston. Her first book of poetry, Dot Girl (Nixes Mate, 2024) was a finalist for the New England Poetry Club's Sheila Margaret Motton Prize. Her poems have been displayed at Boston City Hall through the Boston Mayor’s Poetry Program and have been published in Solstice Literary Magazine, Lily Poetry Review, The MacGuffin, Literary Mama, Muddy River, Anti-Heroin Chic, Amethyst Review, Gyroscope Review and more. She is the Poetry Coordinator for the Menino Arts Center and offers classes, tutoring, and educational consulting through her business, Home Scholars of Boston. Linda is a recent recipient of an Open Doors Residency at Croma Space, a writing residency at T.S. Eliot House, and an artist opportunity grant from the Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.
Anne Elezabeth Pluto grew up in Brooklyn, NY before it was cool. She is Professor of Literature and Theatre at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. She is an alumna of Shakespeare & Company and was a member of the Worcester Shakespeare Company 2011 – 2016. She was a member of the Boston small press scene in the late 1980s and is one of the founders and editors at Nixes Mate Review and Nixes Mate Books. She has two full-length collections The Deepest Part of Dark, Unlikely Stories Press, NOLA (2020), and How Many Miles to Babylon?, Lily Books, (2023).
It is my please to read, once again, at Tidepool Bookshop in Worcester, MA.
More info to come…
I will be returning to St Andrews Episcopal Church (Marblehead, MA) to read and discuss Promises to Keep.
I will be leading a craft talk/generative workshop entitled Getting the Picture for the Sundress Academy for the Arts Poetry Retreat.
Getting the Picture
It’s time to be honest: for some of us, life has included shamelessly skimming long, detailed descriptions in stories to get to the plot, rolling our eyes in frustration when presented with writing prompts asking us to picture something, and never (fully) understanding what our English teachers and college professors meant when they repeatedly admonished us to “show, don’t tell.” Why? Because visual imagery hits differently for those who don’t primarily (or ever) think in pictures. The immense power of visual imagery can be lost when not fully appreciating that our creative thoughts are on a spectrum between conceptualizers and visualizers, which impacts both how we mine memories and activate our imaginations. This workshop seeks to hone the visual imagery of our writing by exploring the effect of this spectrum on both readers and writers, and by embodying visual images through personal somatic activities, social and scenic research, ekphrastic prompts, and other ways of bringing visualization into our writing from the outside.
This summer I will be returning to The Bookstore of Gloucester.
More info TBA
Guest lecturing for the amazing Tatiana Johnson-Boria’s Cultivating Your Poetry Collection, a three-month virtual intensive meant to help poets develop their collections through an artists collective called "The Starshine Arts Collective." More details here.
My virtual lecture will be on Generating Poems For a Manuscript. 30-mins lecture/craft talk and a 30-mins Q&A with students.
Date: 1/21/26
Time: 7-8pm EST/ 4-5PM PST
Place: Virtual
More info to follow
Reading and discussion of my poetry (theological and otherwise) at St Andrews Episcopal Church in Marblehead, MA).
Reading and class discussion with students at Acadia University.
Bearded Bards of Bluesky is returning and raising money for Trans Lifeline!
The November lineup:
Todd Dillard
Brian Spears
Matthew E. Henry
James McConachie
David J Bauman
Jonathan Everitt
Join us for an inspiring evening of spoken word and poetic expression at our Poetry Night, featuring five dynamic voices: Sam Aureli, Sara Jane Ferreira, Ariel Friedman, Matthew Henry, and Merryn Rutledge. Each poet brings a unique rhythm and perspective to the mic, offering a night of creativity, connection, and powerful storytelling. Whether you're a longtime poetry lover or just curious, come be part of the magic—words are waiting.
The NEPC’s summer season continues at The Old Manse in Concord, Mass. This free reading will be held under a tent outdoors, at an accessible venue where I will be reading with Nina Alonso Hathaway and Elizabeth C. Maxey.
See the link below for more information.
The Night Office: Embracing the Creative Power of Darkness
With lights and ever more lights, we drive the holiness and the beauty of night back to the forests and the sea … Henry Beston, “Night on a Great Beach” (1928)
How does darkness influence our art, our prayer, our perspective? Given the explosion of artificial light over the past 150 years, how do we navigate the loss of darkness and what—exactly—are we losing? In this panel, we’ll explore ways to enrich our creative practices through mindful engagement with darkness, literal and metaphorical. We’ll also explore the profound effects artificial light has on the natural world, and our accompanying grief. We hope to converse across theology, ecology, poetry and non-fiction, touching on such topics as winter solstice, via negativa, midnight prayer (‘the night office’), and the importance of the night sky.
Presenters: Hannah Larrabee, Nina MacLaughlin, Carolyn Oliver, and Matthew E. Henry
Goin’ Up Yonder: Religion in Black Poetics
For many in the Black American community, religion played a large role in our upbringing. Whether we maintain our beliefs into adulthood, embrace a new faith, or abandon religion altogether, we may reckon with or otherwise allude to how that cultural context informed our lives through poetry. Four writers will read poems that include imagery, diction, and other aspects of religion. Then they will discuss among themselves and with the audience how these influences appear in and drive their work.
Presenters: Quintin Collins, Sarah Kersey, Porsha Olayiwola, and Matthew E. Henry
I will be joining Jabari Adsim and Alexis Rizzuto at Newtonville Books to celebrate and launch the latest issue launch of Solstice Literary Magazine.
I’ll be reading alongside Michelle Richardson (AKA Michelle de la Poetica) at The Galleries at Lynn Arts (GALA) as part of The Thursday Poets Reading Series, which celebrates the talent and diversity of Lynn’s literary community.
Reading alongside Crystal Valentine, Dorothea Lasky, Ricky Orng, Bianca Stone, Maeve Flusser, and M.P. Carver. Hosted by Meghan Miraglia and Gregory Glenn.
I’m on from 1:30- 2:00pm
Room 210 | Hamilton Smith Hall
Though it May Look Like Disaster: Poetic Forms to Save Your Life (Marianne Kunkel, Melissa Fite Johnson, Faisal Mohyuddin, Ashley M. Jones, Matthew E. Henry)
Do poetic forms have life-saving properties? Five poets will discuss how meter, rhyme, syllable count and other constraints have been sources of constancy and control during personal and political upheaval: layoffs, death, addiction, religious trauma, racism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They will examine the healing power of classic forms—sonnet, abecedarian and #ceasefire haiku—as well as remixed/invented forms, and share how forms can be a balm for a writer’s (or reader’s) heartbreak.
Location: Concourse Hall 151, Level One, Los Angeles Convention Center
Session Code: F227
3:20 PM - 4:35 PM PDT (6:20 - 7:35 EST)
Leading workshop/craft talk and a poetry reading for the final SPU MFA residency.
I will be reading with Kevin Gallagher and Anastasia Vassos at the Chapter and Verse literary reading series in Jamaica Plain at the historic Loring-Greenough House, sponsored by the Jamaica Pond Poets.
I’ll be reading with Sara Letourneau as part of the Poetry: the Art of Words Reading Series in Plymouth, MA once again.
I’ll be reading at Athan’s Bakery with poets Ruth Chad, Tzynia Pinchback, and Irish story teller Aidan Parkinson.
I'll be reading with Eric Hyett and Linda Lamenza, followed by an open mic, at Open Doors Center for the Arts in Weymouth, MA on Saturday, February 22nd at 6 PM.
Experiment under the mentorship of accomplished writers. The conference will feature a combination of writing workshops and readings led by published mentors. This year we are pleased to offer mentorship by authors January O’Neil, Matthew Henry, and D. Eric Parkison. The workshop will culminate in a group reading of student work created during the day. Participants may experiment with different styles of creative writing, including poetry, fiction, and personal essay. Students will have an opportunity to work in small groups with each mentor over the course of the day.
The Word is a monthly poetry open mic & reading series at Workshop13, a cultural arts & learning center in Ware, Massachusetts. We start with an engaging, compassionate open mic with a featured reader to follow right after. The event takes place in Workshop13’s Great Hall, a refurbished church and a beautiful space to read, listen, and be heard. BYOB. Free popcorn. This is an all ages event.
SIGN-UPS start at 2:30. Open mic starts promptly at 3pm, with our featured reader to follow after a short break.
I’ll be the featured reader at the Pour Me A Poem Reading Series. Open mic to follow.
See the information below about the reading
Poets Wayne-Daniel Berard and Sara Letourneau are hosting Pour Me a Poem on the second Thursday of each month at 51 Park Street (Wayne-Daniel's home) in Mansfield, MA, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. The next one will be on Thursday, August 8, 2
Please ensure you are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 before attending. Also, please make sure you park on the even-numbered side of the street, opposite from Wayne-Daniel's house.
I will be returning as a feature reading for the Brookline Poetry Series with Sara Epstein.
I’ll be joining Joan Kwon Glass and Miller Oberman at Possible Futures in New Haven, CT
Poetry as a Radical Act
I have the honor of reading with Joan Kwon Glass, Jennifer Martelli, Kevin McLellan, and Anna V. Q. Ross, with Danielle Jones as part of the Boston Book Festival.
Audre Lorde said, “Poetry is not a luxury.” To think, write, and be fully engaged with the world around us in ways that matter is nothing less than a radical act of survival.
I am honored to be joining Quintin Collins as a reader for the launch of Sarah Kersey’s debut collection Residence Time!
![The Night Office: Embracing the Creative Power of Darkness [MassPoetry Festival Panel]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d4d95401b2f610001882e44/1743258408150-UDH9XWGY5SJ06QU5BXYT/masspoetry.jpg)
