2026 Poets

The Nantucket Poetry Festival brings together poets of the Cape and greater New England for five days of literary conversation, August 27-31, at venues spanning the island.

The full 2026 program is now available here.

Visiting Poets

A woman with gray curly hair wearing a white button-down shirt with rolled-up sleeves standing outdoors with a blurred forest background.

M.E. Redmond

Mary Ellen Redmond's poems have appeared in a variety of journals, but the publication she is most proud of is the poem tattooed on her son's ribcage. She is the author of The Ocean Effect (2014) and I Have One Student (2026).

South Dennis, MA
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John Bonanni

John Bonanni won the Donald Hall Award for Poetry for his first book of poems, retrovirology (Pitt Poetry Series). He teaches on Cape Cod.

Capetown, MA
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Watertown, MA

Andrea Cohen

Andrea Cohen’s most recent poetry collections are Sugar (2026) and The Sorrow Apartments (2024). She directs the Blacksmith House Poetry Series and teaches at Boston University.

Portrait of a middle-aged man with a slight smile, wearing a blue shirt, standing in front of a white brick wall. 
Vermont

Wyn Cooper

Wyn Cooper has published six books of poetry, including, most recently, The Unraveling (2026). His first novel, Way Out West, was published in 2022.

A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and bangs, wearing a dark brown shirt, standing against a textured wall.

Melissa Cundieff

Melissa Cundieff is the author of Darling Nova, selected by Alberto Ríos for the 2017 Autumn House Press Poetry Prize. She teaches at Harvard University.

Cambridge, MA

E. S. Tomac

E. S. Tomac lives in Dallas, TX with her husband and two dogs, Sargent Pepper and Major Tom. Her poems have been published in The Grinnell Review and in Four Tulips' Out At Sea anthology.

Dallas, TX

Poets of the Island

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Judy Belash spent the last twenty four of her eighty eight years retired on Nantucket, after over thirty years practicing law in NYC (which, it is worth noting, did not inspire poetry writing).

Judy Belash

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Sandy MacDonald has been writing, editing, and translating (French, Spanish, and Italian) since 1969. For the past two decades, poetry has been a pleasurable sideline.

Sandy MacDonald

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A recent graduate of Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, Grace Manning draws inspiration in her poetry from those who are living between countries and continents, using their voices and emotions to try and understand her own.

Grace Manning

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Lucy McGowan

Lucy McGowan writes from her hometown of Nantucket, where she lives with her daughter.

JohnCarl is a writer and filmmaker who has lived on Nantucket his entire life. His films have been screened and won awards at festivals including the Nantucket Film Festival, Berkshire Student Film Festival, and Queen's World Film Festival. He currently works as a reporter for the Nantucket Current. He is not a vampire. Yet.

JohnCarl McGrady

A smiling middle-aged man with short light brown hair, wearing a black jacket and a blue patterned scarf, standing outdoors with blurred residential houses in the background.

Brett’s poems have appeared in the I-70 Review and other journals, and in translation in Spanish, Croatian, and Icelandic. He divides his time between Nantucket and New York City.

Randall Brett

Marley Hollen’s poetry can be found in Eunoia Review, The Mount Holyoke Review, and elsewhere. She is currently earning her undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke College.

Marley Hollen