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© 2026 The Somerville Times. All rights reserved.
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Counting Bricks Poems by Gary Metras
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Review by Dennis Daly
Mnemonic sentiment, boiled down to its essential, tear-charged elements, cannot be ignored. It drives human nature. It mobilizes the emotions. It guides our unruly impulses toward goodness. Poets who completely excise sentimentality from their art do so at their own peril. Thankfully, Gary Metras is not one of those poets.
September 23
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Deborah Leipziger is an author, poet, and advisor on sustainability. Born in Brazil, Ms. Leipziger is the author of several books on sustainability and human rights. Her second collection of poems, Tell Me, was published in 2026 by Lily Poetry Review Books. Her work appears in numerous anthologies, including The Nature of our Times and Tree Lines: 21st Century American Poems. Her poems have been published in ten countries in such magazines as Revista Cardenal, Inkwell, The Bombay Literary Magazine, On the Seawall, and Salamander.
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Review of ‘Hope’ by BRM Evett
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Review by Lo Galluccio
For those of you who loved the Netflix series The Last of Us, which took place in the middle of the 22nd century after a fungal pandemic had destroyed the government and devastated the country with tribal divisions and a band of rabid infected, called “Clickers,” striking the healthy survivors, you will want to read BRM’s novel, Hope, a sequel to his first novel, Joy.
September 16
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Susan Sklan is a social worker and published poet, an Australian now living in the Boston area. Her poems have appeared in Constellations, Folio, Kalliope, Nixes Mate, Pleiades, Sojourner, Soul-Lit, The Centennial Review, The Muddy River Poetry Review, and other journals and anthologies. On passing an old lover’s address was chosen by the Cambridge MA, Sidewalk Poetry Program, 2018, and installed on a city sidewalk. Her poetry chapbook The Letters was published by Main Street Rag, 2023. Her poetry book The Lost Garden is to be published by Finishing LIne Press, 2026.
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Poet Michael Minassian: Having a pint with Christopher Marlowe
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I caught up with Michael Minassian about his latest poetry collection, 1,000 Pieces of Time. From his website:
Michael Minassian, a graduate of Dumont High School, Fairleigh Dickinson University (BA), and California State University at Dominguez Hills (MA) was born in New York and has lived in New Jersey, California, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas. A professor of English for 30 years at Broward College in South Florida, he also taught in Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Jamaica, England, and served as a consultant in Spain and Ecuador.
September 9
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Michael Todd Steffen helps coordinate The Hastings Room Reading Series and frequently publishes articles about new and established poets on the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene website. His poems have appeared recently in The Exacting Clam, Ibbetson Street, The Red Letters, and spoKe. Boris Dralyuk (managing editor for Nimrod Journal) writes, I have read [Steffen’s] poems with enormous satisfaction. His lines are supple and wear their unmistakable wisdom lightly.
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On Being a Regular
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By Off the Shelf Correspondent Jen Fries.
An acquaintance of mine, poet and columnist Doug Holder, recently posed a question on social media: Have you ever been a regular, and what does that mean to you?
September 2
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Holly Chatelain is a writer and editor new to the Boston area, having recently moved from Denver to Revere. She is a managing editor of Ibbetson Street Press. This poem was inspired by her cross-country drive from Denver to Boston to make the move.
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Memoirist Brittany Perham: Pens a poetic memoir that meets the demands of memory
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Recently, I caught up with Brittany Perham, the author of the memoir Executrix. Brittany is an associate professor of English at Endicott College in Beverly, MA. She is an accomplished poet, and as she told me this memoir is very much a poet’s memoir. It is written in an original style, and exhibits the sensibility of a poet. Her publisher writes of the book:
August 26
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Richard Wilhelm is a Somerville resident. He is an artist and poet. He was one of the founders of the Ibbetson Street Press in Somerville, MA.
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Review of ‘Conversations with Michael S. Harper’
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Reviewed by Rishabh Kumar and Vivek Singh
There’s a moment, decades into this book, where Michael S. Harper stops explaining himself and just says it plainly, “to survive as an artist in America is always an endurance contest, particularly if you are Black.” By then you believe him as you’ve watched him prove it, interview after interview, for almost forty years.
August 19
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Marilyn Jurich is a poet, author, and Associate Professor Emerita of English at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. During her long academic career at the university, she specialized in a diverse range of subjects, including fantasy and folklore, speculative literature, children’s literature, and modern British poetry.
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Poets Beth Rosenberg and Charles Levenstein explore ‘secret cities’
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I recently caught up with Somerville professor and poet Beth Rosenberg. Along with her mentor, Chuck Levenstein, they have written a book of poems about the workers in the nuclear industry.
August 12
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Poet Doug Holder writes: “You know, I have taught Ray Bradbury’s short story There will come soft rains for years now at Endicott College. The story is about the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The date for the piece is set on Aug. 4, 2026. And now with wars around the world … I wrote this small poem that was inspired by Bradbury.”
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‘The Language of Two’ by Jean Flanagan
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Reviewed by Lee Varon
Jean Flanagan’s latest collection of poetry, The Language of Two, brings us breathtaking poems of remembrance, loss, acceptance, and paying homage. Her finely crafted lyrics help us see how to live a rich and fulfilling life, despite intense moments of grief.
August 5
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Our poet Barbara Reynolds writes: “These were inspired by my frequent visits to Bloc Cafe. One day I was taken with the sensual act of eating a muffin, which led to memories of the 1940 film Fantasia. Another time led to recurring dreams of a coffee shop existing exclusively for raspberry muffins.”
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A New England Archive of Jewish History revives the past for all of New England
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While I was having my usual bagel at the Bagel Bin on Shirley Ave., City Councilman Ira Novosesky told me about an event that was presented by the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center. The program was a presentation regarding Jewish life and history in the city of Revere.
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