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Poet Michael T. Steffen sees his own life flash before his eyes
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I had the privilege of interviewing the accomplished poet and respected Boston/Cambridge/Somerville literary figure, Michael T. Steffen. Steffen has a new collection out titled I Saw My Life. His publisher (Lily Poetry Review Press) writes of this collection:
June 3
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Susan Tepper is a widely published poet and an accomplished playwright.
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‘Lost in the Bardo’ by Carolynn Kingyens
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Review by Off the Shelf Correspondent Ed Meek
Lost in the Bardo is Carolynn Kingyens’ third book. I reviewed her previous book, Coupling. In her new volume, Kingyens continues to develop as a poet well worth reading. Full disclosure, Kingyens gave a positive review to my book, Great Pond.
May 27
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Meg Smith is a writer, journalist, dancer and events producer living in Lowell, Mass., and who spent part of her childhood in Somerville. In addition to The Lyrical Somerville, her poetry has appeared in The Cafe Review, The Lowell Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Poetry Bay, Acropolis Review, and many more. She is a 2025 nominee for the Stanley Kunitz poetry medal. Her journalism work has been honored by the New England Newspaper and Press Association, including with first-place awards for reporting on religion, race and ethnic issues and social issues. She is creator of Poe in Lowell, honoring Edgar Allan Poe’s three visits to Lowell, and a board member of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac. She is author of six poetry books and a short fiction collection, The Plague Confessor. Her new short fiction collection, Night’s Wheel, is due out from Emu Books. She welcomes visits to megsmithwriter.com.
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5AM – Dunkin’ Donuts – Somerville
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I wrote this piece in 2016, so I thought I would bring it back from the dusty archives…
At 62 it is a lot harder to get up for the class that I teach at Endicott College on the North Shore – especially in the winter. I like to do a lot of my prep at the office – so I bite the bullet – and get ready at 4 a.m. I meet the morning demands of my cat – Ketz – brush my crowned teeth, take a brush to the remains of my hair – and I am out the door. I am a man of ritual – my day starts at the Big D Tuesday and Thursday mornings – for almost a decade now – at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Somerville Ave., adjacent to Central Street.
May 20
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Valerie Quercia is a Massachusetts-based poet and storyteller. She is the author of In Gratitude, a chapbook published by Finishing Line Press in 2013 (written under the name Valerie Anne Prescott). Val loves literature, history, baseball, old movies, generous pots of tea, and, most of all, animals. She currently lives in Acton, MA, with four rescued pets, in a house built in 1844. Val calls their home “The Pink House”– for obvious reasons. But local historians say the color of the house is, was, and ever will be … “Chippendale Rose.”
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Poet/ Bartender Christopher Reilley has made many ‘pour’ decisions
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Recently, I caught up with Christopher Reilley about his new book of poetry Pour Decisions. Reilley writes: “Whether you come for the poems, the drinks, or the stories, this is a celebration of bars as civic spaces and bartenders as witnesses to contemporary life.” I think I will hoist one for this fine collection.
May 13
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Keith Tornheim, a biochemistry professor at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, has six recent books, The Sacrifice of Isaac; I Am Lilith, Dancer on the Wind; Spirit Boat: Poems of Crossing Over; Can You Say Kaddish for the Living?; Fireflies; Spoiled Fruit: Adam and Eve in Eden and Beyond. His poems have appeared in Ibbetson Street, The Somerville Times, Boston Literary Magazine, Muddy River Poetry Review and Poetica.
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A Tribute to Jack from his friend Sidewalk Sam
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At the memorial service for Jack Powers, the founder of Stone Soup Poetry of Boston, Mass., the famed street artist and Power’s close friend Sidewalk Sam, made an eloquent tribute speech about Jack. A few years back I worked with Sam to organize Jack’s 70th birthday, along with Margaret Narin and the Rev. Louise Anderson. Sam graciously sent me the text of the speech.
May 6
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Kye DeAngelis is a first-year Studio Art major with a minor in Creative Writing and Expressive Arts Therapies at Endicott College. She is from Mansfield, Massachusetts, and has been writing since she was young, with one short story winning an honorable mention in the Scholastic Writing competition in 2024.
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Poet Trapper Markelz sends his daughters ‘off to war’
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I contacted poet Trapper Markelz about his new collection of poetry, Off to War, Daughter. Trapper is on the advisory board of the New England Poetry Club.
April 29
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Brian Russell is an undergraduate at Endicott College in Beverly, MA.
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‘Special Operation’ by Mark Pawlak
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Review by Off the Shelf Correspondent Dennis Daly
Generally, I try to avoid political poems as well as anti-war poems. Not because they don’t have an important place in those overlapping genres – they do. Or because they can’t effectuate changes in belief systems with their emotional and sometimes rational appeal – they can. But even so, overcome with their own self-importance or consumed with the certainty of true believers, the poets, who write them usually fail. Brilliant exceptions like Sigfried Sassoon (First World War), Wilfred Owen (First World War), and Michael Casey (Vietnam War) prove the rule. Therefore, when confronted with reviewable collections of this verse type, I walk, nay, I run in the other direction. But not today.
April 22
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Our poet writes: “I’m Irina Canute, a student at Endicott College currently enrolled in Professor Doug Holder’s Creative Writing course. I am majoring in Health Science and expect to graduate in 2027. This poem is in response to a sculpture at the Manninen Center for the Arts at Endicott College.”
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Somerville Poet Laureate Lloyd Schwartz brings a symphony to his work
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I had the pleasure to interview Lloyd Schwartz about his latest book of poetry: ARTUR SCHNABEL AND JOSEPH SZIGETI PLAY MOZART AT THE FRICK COLLECTION (APRIL 4, 1948) and other poems. Schwartz’s work is full of musicality and delicately gets the marrow of life.
April 15
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Braxton Crockett is an undergraduate at Endicott College in Beverly, MA.
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‘The Quantity Theory of Morality’ by Will Self
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Review by Off the Shelf Correspondent Ed Meek.
I’m late to reading Will Self, author of 22 works of fiction and 9 works of nonfiction, shortlisted for the Booker prize numerous times, ditto the Whitbread novel of the year, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. The Quantity Theory of Morality is a bookend to The Quantity Theory of Insanity written 35 years ago. The former claims there’s a surfeit of insanity; his current novel brings back a character to argue there isn’t enough morality in our age to keep us on track.
April 8
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Elizabeth S. Wolf has published six books, including the Rattle chapbook Did You Know? Her latest book is a braided poetry collection, Parenting in the Age of Columbine. Her work appears in many journals and anthologies, including Rattle, ONE ART, The Strategic Poet, and Ibbetson Street, and is archived on the moon in the Lunar Codex. Elizabeth has received four Pushcart nominations and is featured in the April 2026 issue of Boston Literary Magazine.
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