The Thursday Poets

The Thursday Poets, based in Salem, Massachusetts, is a collective of professional poets. We create, promote, celebrate, and support poetry efforts north of Boston and beyond through readings, gatherings, workshops, publications, and advocacy. Contact us at thursdaypoets11@gmail.com

Who We Are

Kathleen Aguero: The author of  World Happiness Index from Tiger Bark Books. Her other poetry collections include After That, Investigations: The Mystery of the Girl Sleuth, Daughter Of, The Real Weather, and Thirsty Day. She has co-edited three volumes of multi-cultural literature for the University of Georgia Press (A Gift of Tongues, An Ear to the Ground, and Daily Fare) and is consulting poetry editor at Kenyon Review. She teaches in the Solstice low-residency M.F.A. program at Lasell University and in Changing Lives through Literature, an alternative sentencing program. Kathleen has received grants from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and the Elgin Cox foundation.

M.P. Carver: A poet and visual artist living in Salem, MA. She is director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and editor and co-founder of the journal Molecule: a tiny lit mag. M.P. teaches creative and digital writing at Salem State University.

Elisabeth Weiss Horowitz: Teaches writing at Salem State University in Salem, MA.  She’s taught poetry in preschools, prisons, and nursing homes, as well as to the intellectually disabled. She’s worked in the editorial department at Harper & Row in New York and has an MFA from The University of Iowa Writers Workshop. She’s published poems in London’s Poetry Review, Porch, Crazyhorse, the Birmingham Poetry Review, the Paterson Literary Review and many other journals. Lis won the Talking Writing Hybrid Poetry Prize for 2016 and was a runner up in the 2013 Boston Review poetry contest. Her chapbook, The Caretaker’s Lament, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2016.

Jennifer Jean: Poetry collections include VOZ, Object Lesson, and The Fool. Her resource book is Object Lesson: a Guide to Writing Poetry. Her poems and co-translations appear in POETRY Magazine, Rattle, The Common, Waxwing, On the Seawall, and elsewhere. She’s received honors, residencies, and fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, the Academy of American Poets, the Mass Cultural Council, DISQUIET/Dzanc Books, and the Women’s Federation for World Peace. She organizes and co-translates Arabic poetry for the Her Story Is collective, edits translations for Consequence Forum, and is senior program manager of 24PearlStreet, the Fine Arts Work Center’s online writing program. Jennifer lives in Salem, MA with her husband and children.  http://www.jenniferjeanwriter.com

Kali Lightfoot: After living in 8 different states, Kali Lightfoot settled happily in Salem, MA. Her debut poetry collection, Pelted by Flowers, published by CavanKerry Press, was chosen a Must Read for 2022 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book; and Best Dressed by Sundress Publications. Her individual poems have appeared in journals and anthologies, including Lavender Review,Lily Poetry Review, and Star 82 Review. Kali’s work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and Best of the Net. She is available for readings in person and online. Kali earned an MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2015. Website: kali-lightfoot.com

January Gill O’Neil: An associate professor at Salem State University, and the author of Glitter Road (forthcoming 2024), Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. From 2012-2018, she served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and currently serves on the boards of AWP and Montserrat College of Art. Her poem, “At the Rededication of the Emmett Till Memorial,” was a co-winner of the 2022 Allen Ginsberg Poetry award from the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. The recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, O’Neil was the 2019-2020 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. She lives with her two children in Beverly, MA.

J.D. Scrimgeour: The author of five poetry collections, the most recent being a book of bilingual poetry, 香蕉面包 /Banana Bread (Nixes Mate Press). He also won the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s (AWP) Award for Nonfiction for his second book of nonfiction, Themes for English B: A Professor’s Education In & Out of Class. With musician Philip Swanson he released Ogunquit & Other Works, a CD blending music and poetry. The musical, Only Human, which he composed with his sons Aidan and Guthrie, premiered at Ames Hall Theatre in Salem, Massachusetts in 2014. A longtime resident of Salem, Massachusetts, he’s written in many genres about the city. Mary Towne Eastey, an ancestor in his direct line, was put to death during the Salem Witch Trials. Another ancestor, Thomas Perkins, sat on the jury that found her guilty.