Black text on white background that reads "Discovery Lists." On the image, there is a black film reel in the upper left-hand corner. On the bottom right hand corner, there is a music staff with music notes on it. Between the words "Discovery" and "Lists" there is a black and white sketch of an opened book with flowers growing out of it.

Celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month: A Reading List

May is Jewish American Heritage Month! This month gives us the opportunity to celebrate the diverse and vibrant history, culture, and contributions of Jewish Americans through the years. There area many ways to celebrate Jewish American Heritage. One way we are celebrating at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers is through this reading list that…

Black text on white background that reads "Discovery Lists." On the image, there is a black film reel in the upper left-hand corner. On the bottom right hand corner, there is a music staff with music notes on it. Between the words "Discovery" and "Lists" there is a black and white sketch of an opened book with flowers growing out of it.

Celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month: A Discovery List

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10,…

Black text on white background that reads "Discovery Lists." On the image, there is a black film reel in the upper left-hand corner. On the bottom right hand corner, there is a music staff with music notes on it. Between the words "Discovery" and "Lists" there is a black and white sketch of an opened book with flowers growing out of it.

Celebrating National Poetry Month: A Discovery List

National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996 to celebrate the integral role of poets and poetry in our culture. One of the ways we are celebrating National Poetry Month at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers is through this discovery list of our favorite poetry collections and poems.…

Celebrating National Poetry Month

I’m going to kick off the celebration with a project I discovered last year: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Big Read. I was instantly hooked after listening to the first reading (by actor Jeremy Irons—see below—which I may or may not have listened to more than once) and eagerly looked forward to the next…

Michelle Recommends: A Fortune For Your Disaster – Hanif Abdurraqib (National Poetry Month)

Along with Pagie Lewis’ Star Struck, Abdurraqib’s A Fortune For Your Disaster was another one of my favorite collections released in 2019. (His previous collection, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much, might be one of my favorite collections full-stop.) The audiobook – read by Hanif Abdurraqib(!) – is available on Hoopla. About the collection: “In his…

It’s National Poetry Month!

Throughout the month I will be recommending poetry collections available via Hoopla and/or Overdrive. In the meantime, a few related items of note: This snippet from the poem “Pain Can Warn Us Of Danger,” from the 2011 collection by G.C. Waldrep and John Gallaher, Your Father On the Train of Ghosts, is eerily relevant still:…

Poetry Recommendation: Virgin – Analicia Sotelo

“Selected by Ross Gay as winner of the inaugural Jake Adam York Prize, Analicia Sotelo’s debut collection of poems is a vivid portrait of the artist as a young woman. In Virgin, Sotelo walks the line between autobiography and mythmaking, offering up identities like dishes at a feast. These poems devour and complicate tropes of femininity―of…

Poetry Recommendation: Life on Mars – Tracy K. Smith

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize * Poet Laureate of the United States * * A New York Times Notable Book of 2011 and New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice * * A New Yorker, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * “With allusions to David Bowie and interplanetary travel, Life on Mars imagines a soundtrack for the universe to…

Poetry Pairing: Elizabeth Bishop

Poems – Elizabeth Bishop “Elizabeth Bishop is one of America’s greatest writers, and her art is loved and admired by readers and fellow poets alike. The poems that make up Bishop’s small and select body of work display honesty and humor, grief and acceptance, observing nature and human nature with painstaking accuracy. Her poems often…

So You Want to Write (or Understand) Poetry…

A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry – Robert Haas “From the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner, an illuminating dissection of poetic form, traditional and modern, for students, enthusiasts, and newcomers alike In addition to his magisterial poetry, Robert Hass is beloved for his…