Maynard Book Festival poetry and photography event at Felixology bookshop

Come to a reading to celebrate the creativity of Maynard and sister-city Lowell. Curated by Rebecca Kirk Connors (Maynard) and Meg Smith (Lowell), the evening will feature poets from the Maynard area and Lowell and a photography exhibit of Maynard and Lowell historic places of note, featuring work by local and regional photographers. 

Event starts at 6 PM at Felixology, 2 Walnut Street, Maynard.

Poets:

Stephan Anstey is a poet and artist based in Lowell, Massachusetts. A constant writer, his work reflects a life lived across professions, across the country, and in travels around the world, while remaining rooted in questions of meaning, absurdity, and the ordinary human condition. He is the author of several poetry collections, including Dragon in My Closet and Squirrels, Turtles, Tyrannical Bastards & Fascist Pigs. Anstey is the founder of the Lowell Writers Group and an active participant in the city’s vibrant arts community. 

Hazelyn Aroian lives in Massachusetts. Her writing has been nominated for Best Spiritual Literature and can be found or is forthcoming in The Shore, Stone Circle Review, Strange Hymnal, and elsewhere. She recently graduated from Northeastern University, where she studied computer science, English, and philosophy. She has worked as a software engineer, grocery store clerk, and movie theatre attendant.

Rebecca Kirk Connors (she/her) is the author of the chapbook, Split Map and her poems can be found in Nixes Mate, Asterales, and Salamander, among others. She is the co-founder of the virtual literary space, The Notebooks Collective, and received her MFA in poetry from the Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program, now at Lasell University. She is happily settled with her family and cats in a mill town in Massachusetts, where she writes poetry and hangs out with ghosts. Find her at aprilist.com or https://www.instagram.com/aprilistwrites/

Rikhav Kothari is a poet and community organizer hailing from Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. His poetic work covers topics related to artistic process, nature, community development, and relationships. When not weaving words into imagery, Rikhav can be found managing the tech stack for the Lowell Poetry Wheel, bounding from rock to root on one mountain or another, or thinking of new creative ways to break his 9 to 5’s product. His debut chapbook of poetry, Myriad in the Mundane, was released April 2025. Find more of Rikhav’s work at https://pitchandpoetry.wordpress.com/

Meg Smith is a writer based in Lowell, Mass. She has published numerous poems, short stories, and other writings and journals, publications and anthologies. Originally from the greater Boston area, she has long made her home in Lowell, Mass., where she serves on the board of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! -- a festival honoring native author, Jack Kerouac. She is creator and producer of Poe in Lowell, which celebrates Edgar Allan Poe's visits to Lowell. Her latest poetry collection is Straw, Feathers, Bones. She welcomes visits to http://megsmithwriter.com/

​Julia Story is the author of Post Moxie (Sarabande Books), winner of the 2009 Katherine A. Morton Prize and the Ploughshares' John C. Zacharis First Book Award; The Trapdoor (Dancing Girl Press); Julie the Astonishing (Sixth Finch Books); and Spinster for Hire (The Word Works). Her work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in many publications including Diode, Ploughshares, The Paris Review, Sixth Finch, and The New Yorker. She is from Indiana and now lives in Massachusetts. Find her at https://www.julia-story.com/

Photographers:

Cris Antonio is a long-time Maynard resident who fell in love with photography in 2010 when he noticed his family friend's photos looked way better than what normal point and shoot cameras can produce. He saved up enough to get his own DSLR camera and has been into photography ever since. He is a self-taught photographer constantly trying to improve his craft. He has covered a lot of Maynard town events unofficially and has published his work on his Facebook page (Cris Antonio Photography) and Instagram page (d_photo_hobbyist). He has worked with clients for senior portraits, corporate headshots, family portraits and event coverages. Cris is a registered nurse by profession with a passion for photography. He dabbles in different types of photography such as wildlife/bird, landscape, portrait and event photography and has been the Maynard Holiday Parade official photographer for the past 3 years.

David Brow is a retired Lowell Sun photojournalist, having worked for the paper for 50 years. Known for his artistic, social documentary style photography, Brow has won numerous awards as a photojournalist, including the New England Society of Newspaper Editors' Master Photographer award and First Place in the Portrait Personality photo category by the New England Associated Press in 1979. In addition to being known for his artistry, Brow is known for his ability to connect with people from all walks of life earning him the unofficial title of the unofficial Mayor of Lowell. Brow was just 22 years old, and had only been working for the Lowell Sun for 8 months, when he photographed Jack Kerouac's funeral. Though he was a Lowell Sun staff member, he shot the funeral during his free time. Brow plans on spending his retirement archiving his body of work so that he can present exhibits and publish photography books. David also happens to be the father of Felixology owner, Libby Brow Parise, and the grandfather of the store's namesake, the late Felix Brow.

Sarah Measures has lived in Maynard since 2006. She specializes in photographing natural spaces in and around Maynard. Through photography, she shares the beauty of wetlands, water, trees, and native plants. She is the author of the blog "Maynard Biodiversity Talks" (greenmaynard.org), which highlights hero residents who work to protect and promote local ecosystems and wildlife. Her other activities include working with families who have children with special needs, engaging in climate activism, and serving as a member of the Conservation Commission.