Celebrate Taylor Swift's birthday a day early! As we all know, Taylor is a musician and poet. Her words, put to music, sing to our souls. Today, we're chatting with author Kristie Frederick Daugherty about her book, "Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift" - Swifties will experience the profundity and nuance of Swift’s lyrics through this anthology of brand-new poems inspired by Taylor Swift songs, while having fun matching the poems to songs from all of her eras—vault tracks included! For poetry lovers, this one-of-a-kind anthology is an unparalleled collection of new work from today’s most lauded and revered poets.

RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

About Invisible Strings:  An anthology of brand-new poems inspired by Taylor Swift songs, from a powerhouse group of contemporary poets, including Kate Baer, Maggie Smith, and Joy Harjo.

Let the decoding begin!  With a record-breaking four Grammy awards for Album of the Year, Taylor Swift stands alone in the world of pop music. One of the most talented lyricists of all time, her music captivates millions of fans throughout the globe with the narrative depth and emotional resonance of her songwriting.

In Invisible Strings, poet, professor, and dedicated Swiftie Kristie Frederick Daugherty has brought together 113 contemporary poets, each contributing an original poem that responds to a specific Taylor Swift song.

In a spirit of celebration and collaboration, poets have taken a cue from Swift’s love of dropping clues and puzzles for her fandom to decode, as each poem alludes to a song without using direct lyrics. Swifties will enjoy closely reading each of the poems to discover which song each poet responded to; each poem responds to only one song.

The collection showcases a diverse and accomplished array of writers including the 23rd US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, Pulitzer Prize winners Diane Seuss, Yusef Komunyakaa, Carl Phillips, Rae Armantrout, Paul Muldoon, and Gregory Pardlo, National Book Critics Circle Award winners Mary Jo Bang and Laura Kasischke, and bestselling poets Maggie Smith, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Kate Baer, amanda lovelace, Tyler Knott Gregson, and Jane Hirshfield.

About Kristie:  Kristie Frederick Daugherty is a poet and a professor at the University of Evansville. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is also a PhD candidate in Literature/Criticism at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she is writing a dissertation which examines how Taylor Swift's lyrics intersect with contemporary poetry.

Please register for this event and you'll receive the link in the confirmation and reminder emails - make sure to check your spam folder for them, the email will be coming from ashlandprograms@minlib.net.  Please register directly on Zoom here.  

We're thrilled to be collaborating with a multitude of MA Libraries to bring this program to our communities.