Woodberry Poetry Room collection of posters for Harvard and Boston-area literary readings

This collection includes over 600 publicity posters and related materials from a range of Harvard University and Boston-area literary reading series and venues, including posters from over four decades of Woodberry Poetry Room events.

The materials provide a broad overview of the local literary scene from the 1960s through the early aughts: including readings at area universities (e.g. Amherst College, Boston College, Boston University, Emerson College, Massachusetts College of Arts, and MIT), bookstores (e.g. Grolier Poetry Book Store), literary non-profits and magazines (Blacksmith House, Fag Rag, New Poets’ Theatre, and Ploughshares), independent reading series (e.g. Good Gay Poets, Mass Pax, the Poets in the City Committee, and the Word of Mouth Reading Series), and a range of Harvard-based departments, libraries, and organizations (e.g. events hosted by the Harvard Advocate, Harvard Department of English, Lowell House, Padan Aram, and the Woodberry Poetry Room).

The posters feature information about Boston-area readings by an array of authors, including Ai, John Ashbery, W. H. Auden, John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, Sam Cornish, Robert Creeley, Nikki Giovanni, Seamus Heaney, Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Diane Wakowski, and John Wieners. The collection is also a valuable resource for material history: the posters reflect a range of technological production processes, including mimeograph, letterpress, xerox, collage, and early desktop publishing.