Community/Arts

Historical Fact of the Week

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Somerville Poet Ilan Mochari engages the world with his new book of poetry ‘Playthings’
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Recently, I caught up with Somerville poet and novelist Ilan Mochari to talk to him about his new book of poetry Playthings.

Poet Richard Hoffman writes of the collection:

“Ilan Mochari’s voice in Playthings is exquisite in its range, its responsiveness, its singing. These are poems to be savored and read many times. Whether he is writing about trees native to Mexico, spiders native to his bathroom, or memories native to boyhood, his engagement with the world delivers poems that praise and lament, remember and contemplate. Several are small masterpieces: Playthings, Fiancé, Fiancée, and Weekday, City are jewels. What a treasure. What a pleasure.”

March 4

Poet Jason Youngclaus writes: “When I returned to the Boston area after living in NYC for 15 years, I moved into the heart of East Somerville. As you do when you move into an area, you look for ‘spots’ that become routine. One morning, I was walking along Washington Street, hungry, and I spied this tiny lunch-car diner. I went in and immediately felt at home. I ended up frequenting the joint and getting to know the regulars, the people that worked there, and as a result, started learning about the history of the diner as an establishment once named Buddy’s Truck Stop. But then, suddenly, Buddy’s had to close because of dire plumbing issues.

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‘Flesh’ by David Szalay
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Review by Off The Shelf Correspondent Ed Meek

Flesh won the Booker Prize in 2025 and has generated a lot of buzz. David Szalay is the author of Turbulence, London and the Southeast, and All That Man Is. He won the Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize for Fiction. The novel is written from the point of view of a white male and covers his life from the time he is fifteen until he is in his sixties. Although he is born in Hungary, he spends much of his adult life in London, and he represents a current type of Western male whose emotional growth and development are stunted or limited by his inability to express himself and understand who he is.

February 25

Ilan Mochari is the author of the poetry collection Playthings and the novel Zinsky the Obscure. Ilan’s short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Salamander, Hobart, The Louisville Review, Solstice, J Journal, Valparaiso Fiction Review, and elsewhere. His work has been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes as well as the Derringer Award for crime fiction, and he has been the recipient of a Literature Artist Fellowship grant from the Somerville Arts Council.

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Poet Wendy Drexler harvests what remains
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Recently, I caught up with my fellow New England Poetry Advisory Board Member Wendy Drexler to talk about her new collection of poetry, Harvest of What Remains.

From her publisher: In Harvest of What Remains, Wendy Drexler navigates her intense journey as primary caregiver for her husband as Alzheimer’s wraps its great arms around them, irrevocably altering their relationship in ways that call upon depths of grief and survival strategies of dissimulation as well as the imperative to sow seeds of love and compassion.

February 18

Karen Klein, Associate Professor Emerita, Brandeis University, English/American Literature. Humanities, Women’s Studies faculty, retired after 37 years of teaching. After retirement, her energies were focused on creative activities: contemporary modern dance performances; haiku & contemporary lyric publications: first full-length lyric poetry This Close (Ibbetson Press,2022); chapbook Embodied (Finishing Line Press, 2025); Circularity (Toronto, 2025) Scott Ponemone, linocuts; Karen Klein, haiku. Currently working on poems for a book about growing up in Fargo, North Dakota.

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‘A Day In The Republic’ by Tim Suermondt
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Review by Off the Shelf Correspondent Dennis Daly

Retying a shoelace in poetic terms can make all the difference. Tim Suermondt, in his new book entitled A Day In The Republic celebrates the ordinary progression of life’s footsteps through geography and time. Suermondt, a veritable Everyman, conveys the wonder of inexhaustible routine in poem after poem. His commonplace images surprise with their hidden possibilities and seem to magically flower with each touch or sympathetic attention by the reader.

February 11

Michael Todd Steffen is the author of two books of poetry, most recently On Earth As It Is (Cervena Barva Press, 2022). He is the recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship and an Ibbetson Street Press Poetry Award. His poems have appeared in journals including The Boston Globe, Constellations, Synchronized Chaos, The Lyric, The Dark Horse, and The Poetry Porch.

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Falstaff at the Bagel Shop
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My beard had become biblical, so I took my hoary self to my regular barbershop in Harvard Square. After having my mane tamed, I went to my favorite subterranean bagel shop, The Black Sheep Bagel Cafe, to enjoy my whole wheat bagel with hummus, tomatoes, and tuna fish. Just then, a Falstaffian man of substantial girth, disheveled beard (good I got my trim), and deep, bombastic voice yelled, “The comma has ruined the English Language.” He posed this to a gaggle of Harvard students, and the students politely smiled and humored the man. Now, I was wondering if the guy meant the comma splice, or the notorious Oxford Comma, which has been a subject of debate by rarified literary crowds. (In fact, I probably have had any number of splices in this little essay.) One could say the splice is my spice of life. In any case, the man went to the counter and continued his tirade. The counterman, a Russian gentleman, asked him to leave, and he said, “My aggrieved Russian friend has asked me to leave. Tell me, have I broken the law?” he snorted. Of course, I kept my head down because I sensed that he knew I was a comma culprit … Happy New Year!

February 4

Sarah C. Beckmann is a member of the Somerville Arts Council Board, where she promotes arts initiatives in the Somerville community through a local grant program and the SomerWrites event series. In 2021, she published a poetry chapbook, Naiad Blood, and her first full-length poetry collection, The Race for Daphne, is forthcoming in May 2026. She earned an MFA from Emerson College and works in research communications at the MIT Media Lab. Sarah continues crafting her poetry and draws inspiration from her experiences as an athlete and artist; her identity as a woman and an active member of her family and community; and her interests in genealogy and mythology. Nowadays, you’ll find her rowing out of Gentle Giant Rowing Club in Somerville, on the Mystic River.

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Poet Mark Pawlak: A Buffalo transplant with a long New England literary pedigree
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Recently, I caught up with the poet J.D. Scrimgeour, the current poet laureate of Salem, Ma. He has a new collection of poetry/prose out, Poet in High Street Park: Prose & Poetry for Modern Salem (Loom Press).

January 28

Peter F. Crowley is a prolific writer from the Boston area whose work spans short fiction, op-eds, poetry, and academic essays. His writing has appeared in publications such as Pif Magazine, New Verse News, Counterpunch, Common Dreams, The Galway Review, Digging Through the Fat, and The Opiate. He was a finalist in both the short story and poetry categories of Adelaide’s Award Anthologies. He is the author of two poetry collections, Those Who Hold Up the Earth and Empire’s End, as well as a short fiction collection, That Night and Other Stories.

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J.D. Scrimgeour: A poet in High Street Park
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January 21

Poet Wendy Drexler writes: “My new collection, Harvest of What Remains, will be published at the beginning of February by Lily Poetry Review Books. My book navigates my experience as a caregiver for my husband, who has Alzheimer’s.”