Jessica Anthony: Enter the Aardvark

Registration: To attend this Zoom event, please register online. Please note that registration serves only to deter casual zoom-bombers, and does not guarantee a spot if the meeting reaches capacity (100). The software fills the meeting room based on time of arrival, not registration date.

Contact: Gibson’s Bookstore

Suddenly finding the time and energy to work on the creative projects you’ve been meaning to get to? Join Sarah Smith from Dartmouth Library’s Book Arts Workshop for the chance to create with others via Zoom. From working on a book arts project to trying your hand at upholstery, extreme baking, or learning ukulele, everyone is welcome to join, show work in progress, and get ideas! Although we can’t taste or touch what each other is making right now, we can admire and talk about it!

Registration: Join us on Zoom.

Contact: Dartmouth College

The Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society at Dartmouth hosts an online panel discussion from contributing authors to the new book, Earth 2020: An Insider's Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet. The panels will be co-moderated by Philippe Tortell, Earth 2020 editor and professor at the University of British Columbia, and Elizabeth Wilson, director of the Irving Institute and professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.

Participating authors:

• Robert Socolow, Princeton University

• Candis Callison, University of British Columbia

• Janet G. Hering, ETH and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

• Alice Gorman, Flinders University

The book is available for free download.

Registration: Register to attend this free Zoom event.

Contact: Dartmouth College

Wyn Cooper: Mars Poetica

Robert Cording: Without My Asking

The Hoot features two readers and an open mic immediately following. Bring a poem and be ready to read. Open mic participants may read one poem and be no longer than three minutes.

Registration: The Hoot is moving to Zoom. To sign up to attend, send an email to and include “Zoom Hoot” in the subject line. Register to attend by May 5. Register to be an open mic reader by May 3.

Contact: Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program

Wesley McNair: Dwellers in the House of the Lord

Note: At 6:00 pm on April 29, Gibson’s will post a link to special video reading that Wesley McNair has crated specially for Gibson’s Bookstore. For more information, please visit the event page on the Gibson’s website.

Contact: Gibson’s Bookstore

Sandell Morse joins Rebecca Rule in conversation to discuss Sandell's new book, The Sprial Shell: A French Village Reveals Its Secrets of Jewish Resistance in World War II, one woman’s rediscovery of identity and faith.

Note: This event will be held via a Zoom meeting. For more information and the Zoom link, please visit the event page on the Gibson’s website.

Contact: Gibson’s Bookstore

Ainissa G. Ramirez: The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another

Contact: Gibson’s Bookstore

David Allen Sibley: What It's Like to Be a Bird

Note: This event will be held via a Zoom meeting. For more information and the Zoom link, please visit the event page on the Gibson’s website.

Contact: Gibson's Bookstore

Live storytelling at the AVA Gallery and Art Center. The evening’s theme, “The Worst Advice,” will be brought to life as individuals share personal accounts of their experiences.

Note: This event was originally scheduled to happen on March 12, 2020. Anyone who purchased tickets for the March 12th date has a ticket for the next live Mudroom (date to be determined) as well as the virtual Mudroom on April 16. The link to the online Mudroom event will automatically be emailed to you. If you purchased guest tickets, simply forward the link to anyone in a different household.

Cost: By donation. If you do not have a ticket, visit the Mudroom page anytime after 6:00 pm on April 16 for the link.

Contact: AVA Gallery

David Moloney: Barker House

Note: This event will be held via a Zoom meeting. For more information and the Zoom link, please visit the event page on the Gibson’s website.

Contact: Gibson’s Bookstore

Author and illustrator Nora Krug (Belonging) talks with celebrated cartoonist Jason Lutes (Berlin) about her acclaimed graphic novel and her exploration of what it means to be a German of her generation.

This event will be held ONLINE only.

Contact: Leslie Center for the Humanities

Andrew Krivak: The Bear

Contact: Toadstool Bookshop - Peterborough

Loretta L.C. Brady, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, writer, and Professor of psychology at Saint Anselm College.

Cost: $65 for NHWP members ($85 for nonmembers)

Registration: Register online.

Contact: New Hampshire Writers’ Project

So you’ve been introduced to the basics of Scrivener. Maybe you’ve even started using it to get your binder in order or create new scenes. But now it’s time to tackle the big one: research. In this webinar, we’ll learn how to keep track of all of your research materials. Using Scrivener’s research section, we’ll learn how to import, categorize, and organize your research so that you can find them when you need them. We’ll also talk about how tools like bookmarks, keywords, and metadata can help you connect that research to the parts of your manuscript where you most need them.

At the end of the class, there will be an opportunity to ask questions about their own projects. You will come out of the class with an improved toolkit for organizing and using your materials, and a plan for tackling your own research.

This class is appropriate for writers of all genres.

Cost: $20 for NHWP members ($30 for nonmembers)

Registration: Register online.

Contact: New Hampshire Writers’ Project

Jeff Oaks: Little What

Cost: Free but tickets are required

Contact: Silver Center for the Arts

Join Gibson's Bookstore for a prelaunch book event as we welcome Chris Bohjalian back to Concord to share his newest novel, The Red Lotus! A meet and greet book signing line follows his book talk. The Red Lotus will be released for sale early at Gibson's Bookstore only!

Contact: Gibson’s Bookstore

Wheaton Writing Academy is please to host an editing and revising workshop given by Dawn Potter. Dawn helps the poet to see a draft, extract the meaningful and the ‘poetic’ and then work on transforming the poem into an entire work of meaning! Bring two poems to work on and then we will work on a generative prompt!

Cost: $50

Registration: Send an email to or text (603) 969-1060.

Contact: The Frost Place

Please join us as we seek to build community with our sister city of Nichinan, Japan all year long. There will be ways for everyone, non-poets and poets of all levels and ages, to be involved in this project. Many Seacoast organizations will be joining us in learning about and celebrating Japan. The PPLP will offer three “Come Create!” workshops at the Portsmouth Public Library where several instructors will guide us in experimenting with several traditional Japanese poetry forms and one visual art form. Attend one or all.

At the end of the year we will celebrate with a broadside contest and art show /reception. The broadsides will reflect Japanese influence in some way and the contest will be open to all. A guest poet will be brought to town to judge the contest and give a reading. Winning broadsides will be sent to Nichinan. Poets from both communities will be able to submit related work for possible inclusion in an anthology to be published in 2021.

Future program dates:

• May 3, 2020 - Children’s Day at GWilliker’s! Toy Shop, 12 to 4 pm

• June 20, 2020 - 2nd “Come Create” workshop, Portsmouth Public Library, 2 to 4 pm

• Sept. 19, 2020 - 3rd “Come Create” workshop, Portsmouth Public Library, 2 to 4 pm

• Nov. 2020 - broadside contest submissions due

• Dec. 5, 2020 - Grand Finale: Broadside Art Show with awards/reading in evening.

Contact: Portsmouth Athenaeum

Perhaps you’ve written the best story ever, and now you’re ready for the next step: Editing! It’s the most critical undertaking on the path to publication. Why? Nothing turns off readers more than improper grammar and poor punctuation, so if you want to hook and hold their attention from the git-go, you’ll need a second and/or third pair of eyes to clean up those typos and fix your grammar,punctuation, homonyms, comma splices, et al). You might also need direction in tightening scenes, story plots, and fleshing out your characters.

In this workshop, New York Times Bestselling Author, Ana E Ross, teaches you the basics of editing your own work, so that when you do enlist the help of a professional editor, the cost will be reduced dramatically. Industry norm: the more edits needed, the higher the cost. Prior to the workshop, a five-page maximum submission of your manuscript is required for Ana’s editing and detailing. Come, with pen and pencil in hand, and ready to have fun editing your own manuscript.

Cost: $65 for NHWP members ($85 for nonmembers)

Registration: Register online.

Contact: New Hampshire Writers’ Project

Anne Enright: Actress

Cost: $41; Ticket package includes reserved seat, book (Actress, $26.95, hardcover), author discussion, Q+A, beverage, and book signing meet-and-greet.

Contact: The Music Hall Loft

Portsmouth Poet Laureate Tammi Truax will be one of the poets reading their work forthcoming in The Hole in the Head Review. A special chance to support independent bookstores, small presses, and struggling poets.

Contact: Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program

Jennifer Rosner: The Yellow Bird Sings

Contact: Gibson’s Bookstore

Theresa Monteiro

Sally Ball: Wreck Me

Noah Burton: Clothesline Saga

Doors open at 3:30 pm. Beer/wine/cider by donation; and complimentary coffee & delicious sweet treats made by Jen Evans.

Cost: $5 suggested donation. Beer/wine/cider available (suggested donation)

Contact: The Word Barn

Join former UNH English professor Deborah Brown, author of Walking the Dog’s Shadow and The Human Half, for a monthly Poetry Workshop. Bring a poem you like. The first session will include discussion of our format. For the novice to the published, 9 to 99 years.

Contact: MainStreet BookEnds

Enjoy a unique evening that combines art and poetry. The Traveling Poetry Emporium will offer poems-to-order and composed on-the-spot. Let art inspire you to write your own poem during an interactive tour, or use prompts to write with friends while sipping a cocktail. The evening will end with an open mic for any poet wanting to share their words. Cash bar and full menu available in the Winter Garden Cafe.

Contact: Currier Museum of Art

Lerone A. Martin, Associate Professor in Religion and Politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, will present a lecture titled, “America’s Bishop: J. Edgar Hoover and the Shaping of American Religion.“

Martin is the author of the award-winning Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Making of Modern African American Religion (New York University Press, 2014), which tracks the role of the phonograph in the shaping of African American religion, culture, and politics during the first half of the twentieth century. He is writing a book on the relationship between religion, the FBI, and national security in American history to be published by Princeton University Press.

Contact: Leslie Center of the Humanities

Charles Coe: Memento Mori

Sarah Anderson

The Hoot features two readers and an open mic immediately following. Bring a poem and be ready to read. Open mic participants may read one poem and be no longer than three minutes. Please: no announcements from the podium. See below for listing of upcoming featured hoot readers.

Contact: Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program

Kevin Gardner, author of The Granite Kiss, explains how and why New England came to acquire its thousands of miles of stone walls, the ways in which they and other dry stone structures were built, how their styles emerged and changed over time and their significance to the famous New England landscape. Along the way, Kevin occupies himself building a miniature wall or walls on a tabletop, using tiny stones from a five-gallon bucket.

This event will be held at the Marion Gerrish Community Center in Derry, New Hampshire

Contact: New Hampshire Humanities

This everyone-is-welcome writing workshop with Joni B. Cole is all about unleashing your creativity and tapping into your stories (real or imagined) without judgment or second guessing. You will be invited to write from a “prompt” and share aloud what you wrote for appreciation. Expect to be surprised by what lands on the page! Absolutely no writing experience is required, but if you are an aspiring author this workshop offers plenty of narrative techniques and tips to help you write more, write better, and be happier every draft of the way. Please bring a ready pen (or laptop) and an open mind.

Note this workshop is offered January 7, February 4, and March 3.  Come to one or come to all.

Contact: Howe Library

Michele Filgate: What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About

Contact: Bookery Manchester