NewsSubscribe

Amherst, MA - The University of Massachusetts MFA for Poets and Writers announces the 2021 Juniper Literary Festival. This year’s program, The World and The Word: Literature of the Ecological Crisis, hopes to raise awareness about climate and racial injustice, and to animate a robust and empathetic response.  All events are online, free, and open to the public. 

March 12, 2021, 8 PM ET: MFA will host a reading by Toni Jensen and Juliana Spahr followed by a conversation with Malcolm Sen. Jensen is the author of Carry, a memoir-in-essays about gun violence, land and Indigenous women’s lives. Spahr's most recent book of poetry is That Winter the Wolf Came. Sen teaches environmental humanities in the Department of English; he focuses on questions of sovereignty, sustainability, migration, and race. Registration required.

March 13, 2021, 8 PM ET: MFA alumni Leni Zumas ('04), Jason Schwartz ('06), Travis Nichols ('04) and Sueyeun Juliette Lee (‘06) will read from their work, followed by a conversation moderated by Molly Dorozenski (‘04), Senior Campaigns Manager at Change.Org. These writers and change-makers will discuss how art can break through internal resistance and barriers and help change people’s minds. They will delve into the creative processes of activism and art, building community and building trust, and they’ll consider ways that the acknowledgement of history is a necessary part of activism. Registration required.

Readings and conversations will include calls to action and a Q&A with audience members. 

This year's Festival is part of a semester-long, interdisciplinary collaboration, Transforming Crisis, between the MFA, the Fine Arts Center, the School of Earth & Sustainability, with support from the Chancellor's Sustainability Advisory Committee. Transforming Crisis seeks to precipitate action, transformation, collaboration, even joy.  What can we learn from the tumult of the moment?  What is the solace of beauty? What are the possibilities of action? These events articulate a desire to trace the connections between science, culture, activism, and the arts. A link to all events can be found at UMass FAC Transforming Crisis.