Celebrate National Poetry Month with a night of poetry featuring three local poets. Hear poetry readings from Anne Elezabeth Pluto and Linda Carney-Goodrich, followed by Matthew Henry, who will be reading selections from his new collection, Promises to Keep. Copies of the book will be available to purchase.

About the Book

Promises to Keep, which is a narrative through poems, tells the story of a church-going family man who receives a violent call to become a prophet. He’s read the source material, knows how this has ended for others. But without a means of running away, he reluctantly accepts a vocation he rightly fears will result in tragedy for his family. While receiving dreams and visions, delivering sermons and prayers, frequenting political protests and police stations, being placed in handcuffs and straitjackets, the prophet attempts to speak truth to power and make it home whole, if there is a home left to return to. It explores the fear and trembling and doubt required to have faith in ourselves, each other, and whatever forces may be guiding our steps. It demands we consider what we devote our lives to, what we say we love, and whether the cost of such devotion is worth it.

About the Poets

Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is an educator, essayist, occasional fiction writer, and the author of seven poetry collections, most recently Promises to Keep (Wayfarer Books, 2026). He’s editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal and nonfiction editor at Porcupine Literary. MEH’s publications include Had, Massachusetts Review, Mom Egg Review, Pangyrus, Ploughshares, Stone Circle Review, Terrain, Whale Road Review, and The Worcester Review. MEH earned an MFA yet continued to spend money he didn’t have completing an MA in theology and a PhD in education. He writes about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground at www.MEHPoeting.com.

Linda Carney-Goodrich is a writer and teacher from Boston. Her first book of poetry, Dot Girl (Nixes Mate, 2024) was a finalist for the New England Poetry Club's Sheila Margaret Motton Prize. Her poems have been displayed at Boston City Hall through the Boston Mayor’s Poetry Program and have been published in Solstice Literary Magazine, Lily Poetry Review, The MacGuffin, Literary Mama, Muddy River, Anti-Heroin Chic, Amethyst Review, Gyroscope Review and more. She is the Poetry Coordinator for the Menino Arts Center and offers classes, tutoring, and educational consulting through her business, Home Scholars of Boston. Linda is a recent recipient of an Open Doors Residency at Croma Space, a writing residency at T.S. Eliot House, and an artist opportunity grant from the Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.

Anne Elezabeth Pluto grew up in Brooklyn, NY before it was cool. She is Professor of Literature and Theatre at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. She is an alumna of Shakespeare & Company and was a member of the Worcester Shakespeare Company 2011 – 2016. She was a member of the Boston small press scene in the late 1980s and is one of the founders and editors at Nixes Mate Review and Nixes Mate Books. She has two full-length collections The Deepest Part of Dark, Unlikely Stories Press, NOLA (2020), and How Many Miles to Babylon?, Lily Books, (2023).