September 11, 7pm

Presented in partnership with the Amherst Business Improvement District, Writers Reading is a curated series featuring local authors. In our next installment of the reading series, join us for a line-up curated by featured writer Michael Mercurio. Mercurio and fellow authors JJ Starr-McClain, Kirun Kapur, and Patrick Donnelly will share selections from their work. See author bios below. This event is free to attend and open to all.

A poet, editor, and occasional critic, Michael Mercurio lives and writes in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. His poems, interviews, and reviews have been published or are forthcoming in Palette Poetry, Thrush, The Common, Cream City Review, Sierra (the magazine of the Sierra Club), Sugar House Review, Lily Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Michael is the founder and curator of What The Universe Is: A (Virtual) Reading Series, where established and emerging poets read together monthly on Zoom. In addition, he serves on the planning committee for the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival, held each September at Emily Dickinson's house, and he is an instructor for the Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop. You can find out more about Michael at poetmercurio.com.

J.J. Starr-McClain is a poet from Chicago and is currently based in Massachusetts. Her work has appeared in The Common, Four Way Review, Juked, The Journal, and elsewhere. She studied at the NYU Creative Writing Program and has received support from Wesleyan University and the Community of Writers. jjstarrwrites.com

Kirun Kapur is the winner of the Arts & Letters Rumi Prize in Poetry and the Antivenom Poetry Award for her first book, Visiting Indira Gandhi’s Palmist (Elixir Press, 2015). Her second collection, Women in the Waiting Room (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and was included in the Best Books of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews. Named an “Asian-American poet to watch” by NBC News, her work has appeared in AGNI, Poetry International, Prairie Schooner, Ploughshares and many other journals. She has been granted fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Vermont Studio Center and MacDowell Colony. Kapur serves as the editor at The Beloit Poetry Journal, one of the nation’s oldest poetry publications. She teaches at Amherst College, where she is director of the Creative Writing Program. Learn more at kirunkapur.com.

Patrick Donnelly is the author of five books of poetry, most recently WILLOW HAMMER (Four Way Books, 2025). Former poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, his poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Slate, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Yale Review, and many other journals. Donnelly is Program Director of The Frost Place, Robert Frost’s old homestead in Franconia, NH, now a center for poetry and the arts. Donnelly’s translations with Stephen D. Miller of classical Japanese poetry were awarded the 2015-2016 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. More at: patrickdonnellypoetry.com.

First Tuesdays, 10am-4pm

Looking for job opportunities at UMass Amherst? Need help with your application or have questions about the hiring process? Are you a new employee with questions about onboarding? UMass Amherst Human Resources is here to help! 

The UMass HR team offers weekly community office hours at UMass Downtown to provide application assistance and interview guidance for prospective employees and CORI verifications and onboarding support for new hires. 

No appointment necessary. Just stop by during UMass HR's community office hours!

Fourth Wednesdays, 10am-4pm

The Massachusetts Small Business Development Center provides free advising for Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce members on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Meet with Rob DelMastro, Regional Director of the MA SBDC, and receive confidential one-on-one support tailored to your business. 

Hosted in partnership with the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, with thanks to presenting sponsor Greenfield Northampton Cooperative Bank. Registration is required. Learn more and register for a slot at amherstarea.com/events.

James oversees the university's multipurpose retail, event and meeting satellite space in downtown Amherst, which opened this week.

The conversations, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on April 24, May 6 and June 10 in the university’s new multipurpose retail, event and meeting space at 108 North Pleasant St. in downtown Amherst, are free and open to all.

Attendees at the event, scheduled for 5:30-7 p.m. at UMass Downtown, will learn about various volunteer opportunities and discover ways to contribute their time and skills to support local organizations and strengthen our community.