Nantucket Poetry Festival Returns This Week

The Nantucket Poetry Festival returns for its second annual event this weekend, featuring both local poets and nationally recognizable names.

Some of the more well-known poets who will be reading at the festival include influential poetry critic Stephanie Burt and Audre Lord Award winner Elizabeth Bradfield. They will be joined by local poets, including Sandy MacDonald and Judy Belash.

Founded by 17-year-old Nantucket High School graduate and Harvard University student Anna Popnikolova, the Nantucket Poetry Festival runs from August 22nd-24th, with nearly every event free and open to the public.

“I want people to come and have an experience with at least one of the poets in one of the events where they go, ‘I need more of this,’” Popnikolova said.

The festival, presented in collaboration with the Nantucket Book Foundation, is organized by Popnikolova with help from a number of volunteers, including creative director Taylon Breeden.

The Nantucket Poetry Festival has expanded significantly from its inaugural edition, adding several events.

“Making it bigger has made me realize how many more people there are on the island who are into this kind of thing, and who maybe some of the festivals don't give them the chance to be as involved as they would like them to be,” Popnikolova said.

The Nantucket Poetry Festival, formerly known as Farewell Fest, doesn’t have the resources or the reach of some of Nantucket’s premier festivals, like the Nantucket Book Festival or the Nantucket Film Festival, but there is an upside to being smaller. Popnikolova thinks it allows her to be more experimental, trying out unique venues, assigning colour hex codes to events for no particular reason, and using stock photos of sheep to stand in for festival participants who haven’t sent her their headshots yet.

“I think it is unconventional in a lot of ways, and I think that larger festivals or festivals that have been around for a long time can’t really afford to be super unconventional. They kind of stick to the way they have always been doing things,” Popnikolova said. “I just want to do things in a way that I think is fun and different.”

What does the future of the Nantucket Poetry Festival look like?

“There are a couple of bigger names that have expressed interest in coming next year, and I can’t really pass up that opportunity,” Popnikolova said. “It would be such an incredible opportunity that I couldn’t pass it up.”

A complete program of events is available here, and donations can be made to the festival directly here.