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Fireside, a collaboration between The Mastheads, Pittsfield Public Schools, and other local organizations, provides poetry programming for children and adults that places students at the center of the literary culture of their city.

Named after the “Fireside Poets,” a group that includes writers with ties to Pittsfield including Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the program shares in the spirit of poetry as something to gather around, and to draw together families, communities, and schoolrooms.

At the elementary level, our ten-week workshops make creative writing feel significant, empowering, and fun.

We use local writers and artists as inspiration for writing classes and workshops, helping students to see themselves as part of a vibrant local literary culture, and making creative writing feel concrete and familiar. Each course culminates in the production of a Student Anthology and a Student Poetry Reading for family, friends, and community members. We make every semester unique by bringing in guest artists, taking field trips to our writing studios at Arrowhead, and incorporating student poetry into county-wide design projects. Our current partners include Morningside Community School and Conte Community School.

At the teenage through adult level, we offer workshops tailored to each group of students.

Workshops can range from a series of one to ten workshops for any number of students. Each workshop focuses on themes specific to the group, for example, poetry & food with our partner Roots Rising, or poetry & community with our partners the Westside Legends. If your organization is interested in a workshop, please reach out at info@themastheads.org!

Fireside is generously supported in part by The Blackwing Foundation. Find out more about them here!


Welcome to The Fireside Virtual Poetry School!

Join poet Sarah Trudgeon and other published writers for an adventure in poetry writing. In each interactive video, students will play games, brainstorm, and write their own original poems. (The program was designed specifically for 3rd-5th graders, but it can be fun for all ages.) If you like, email your poem to us at info@themastheads.org and be sure to include your name!

A poem can be made from anything! For Poem 1, we’ll write about the things we see around us every day, and we’ll use repetition to give our poems structure. You’ll also meet Sarah & learn about some of the (sometimes funny!) objects in her office!

For Poem 3, we'll listen to a dreamy poem by Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. We’ll learn about creating striking, original images that readers can picture perfectly, and write a poem about our favorite color!

For Poem 5, artist Ari Wolff leads us through a drawing project, and then we’ll write a poem about our creation using a new poetry skill: simile. Bring some paper, a pencil, a marker, and your crayons or colored pencils!

For Poem 2, we’ll write about all of the things we WISH we could see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and do. We’ll use repetition again to give our poems rhythm and structure, and learn about using details to make our writing come alive!

Today, writer Kendra Allen visits to talk to us about her favorite poetry assignment, and, the Super Soaker! We’ll learn about point of view by writing from the perspective of our favorite toy or object in the house!