New England Poetry Club Returns to the Westwood Library on January 11, for Reading and Open Mic

The New England Poetry Club is delighted to return to the Westwood Public Library, 660 High Street, Westwood, on Sunday, January 11, 2026, at 2:30 p.m., in the Community Reading Room. For an afternoon of poetry. Three featured poets will be introduced by Lynne Viti, Westwood Poet Laureate Emerita and a member of the NEPC Advisory Board. This event is free and open to the public, in an accessible venue. A community open mic, with signups at the door, will follow the featured poets.

The Poets

Pushcart Prize nominee Jim Brosnan is a university professor, writer, photographer, and avid traveler, who lives with his wife Donna in southeastern Massachusetts when they are not spending time as residents of coastal Maine. He is a five-time finalist in NEATE’s Poet of the Year competition and has won awards by the National Federation of Poetry Societies. His poetry has appeared in many journals including The Aurorean, The Avocet, The Bridge, Eunoia Review (Singapore), Lakeview Journal (India), Minnesota English Journal, Naugatuck River Review, Nine Muses (Wales), Scarlet Leaf Review (Canada), Strand (India), The Madrigal (Ireland), and Voices of the Poppies (UK). His first book, Nameless Roads (Moon Pie Press, 2019) focused on New England. Long Distance Driving, his second collection (Ochre Leaf Press 2024), focuses on states west of the Mississippi.

Jennifer L Freed is the author of When Light Shifts (2022), a finalist for the New England Poetry Club’s Sheila Margaret Motton book prize, and second place in the 2025 Eric Hoffer Legacy Non-fiction awards, where it was also a finalist for the Medal Provocateur for poetry. Her poems appear in Atlanta Review, Rust and Moth, Sheila-na-Gig, Vox Populi, and others, and have been nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. For many years she taught adult-level English language (ESL) classes both overseas and to immigrants in the USA. She now leads creative writing programs and facilitates workshops from Beverly, Massachusetts.

Alix Klingenberg is a poet, artist, and Unitarian Universalist spiritual director. Her poetic work moves between the intimate and the elemental, braiding daily life with ecological and spiritual attention. She is the author of four collections of poetry: Secrets and Stars, Bread Sex Trees, Hermit Season, and most recently Quietly Wild (Mandala Earth Publishing, 2025), which pairs poems and photographs with rituals honoring the seasons of the year.

Her poems have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, and she currently serves as the Managing Poetry Editor at Phil Lit Journal. Alix studied visual art at Oberlin College and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and holds a Master of Divinity from Meadville Lombard Theological School. In addition to her writing, she teaches workshops and leads retreats that guide participants into deeper connection with language, creativity, and the living world.

About the New England Poetry Club

The New England Poetry Club is a poets' association founded in 1915 by Amy Lowell, Robert Frost, and Conrad Aiken to foster the art of poetic expression. Home of the oldest poetry reading series in the country, NEPC offers an ongoing writing workshop open to all members. NEPC sponsors awards and contests to encourage and recognize poetic achievement, and its officers and members look for new creative ways to foster understanding and love of poetry. Members of New England Poetry Club are poets, publishers, and readers and translators of poetry who live in New England or have strong ties to the region. For further information, go to https://nepoetryclub.org/.

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