Poets in the Garden Featuring Ellen Doré Watson

On Sunday, August 25th at 4pm Macculloch Hall Historical Museum will host their 16th annual “Poets in the Garden” program. Poet Ellen Doré Watson will present her work in the museum’s historic gardens. The event promises to be a wonderful opportunity to hear this established writer share her poems in a unique setting.

Ellen Doré Watson’s most recent volume of poems is Dogged Hearts (Tupelo Press, 2010). Earlier books include This Sharpening, also from Tupelo, and two from Alice James, We Live in Bodies and Ladder Music, winner of the New England/New York award. Her work has appeared in APR, Tin House, Orion, Field, Ploughshares, and The New Yorker. She was named “One of 24 Poets for the 21st Century” by Library Journal, and is currently serving a 5-year term as an Elector for Poet’s Corner, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City. Other honors include a Rona Jaffe Writers Award, fellowships to the Yaddo and to the MacDowell Colony, Vermont Studio Center’s Zoland Poetry Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship. Watson has translated over a dozen books from the Brazilian Portuguese, including two by Adélia Prado, Ex-Voto (Tupelo Press, 2013) and The Alphabet in the Park (Wesleyan University Press, 1990). She has also co-translated contemporary Arabic language poetry with Saadi Simawe.

Ms. Watson lives in Western Massachusetts, where she directs the Poetry Center at Smith College and serves as poetry and translation editor of The Massachusetts Review. She is also core faculty at the Colrain Manuscript Conference and the Drew University Low-Residency MFA Program in Poetry and Translation.

Guests may picnic during garden programs and are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets. Program tickets include admission to take part in a house tour through the period rooms of the Museum for visitors who sign up for a tour during the afternoon.  Visitors can also enjoy the “Thomas Nast: President Maker and Campaign Breaker”, and the “American Heroes in Bronze” exhibits prior to the presentation.  The Museum and galleries close at 4pm.

Admission is Adults $8; Seniors & Students $6; Children 6 – 12 $4. Members and children under 5 are free. Please, no dogs during programs in the garden. We are pleased to offer accessible restroom facilities during garden events this summer.  In the case of inclement weather the performance will be moved indoors. The announcement will be made on the Museum’s main phone message on the day of the program.

Macculloch Hall Historical Museum preserves the history of the Macculloch-Miller families, the Morris area community, and the legacy of its founder W. Parsons Todd through its historic site, collections, exhibits, and educational and cultural programs. The Museum is open for house and exhibit tours on Wednesdays, Thursdays & Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. The last tour leaves at 3pm. Adults $8; Seniors & Students $6; Children 6 – 12 $4. Members and children under 5 are free. The gardens are open (free of charge) during Museum hours. Please check our website for any holiday closings. The museum is closed for the Labor Day holiday on Sunday September 1st. Call (973) 538-2404 ext. 10, visit our website www.maccullochhall.org or find us on Facebook.  Macculloch Hall Historical Museum, 45 Macculloch Ave., Morristown, NJ 07960.  Macculloch Hall Historical Museum is a nonprofit educational affiliate of the W. Parsons Todd Foundation.