Friends of Great Barrington Libraries

09/21/2026

FREE POETRY READING AT MASON LIBRARY
Great Barrington

4-6 PM on Saturday, September 26th
Free w**e, c***r and snacks will be served.

Poetry readings by Todd Colby and Kimberly Lyons

Todd Colby is a visual artist and poet. He is the author of seven books of
poetry, most recently, Brilliant Juice. Colby has recently presented his visual art at The Met-Cloisters, Hammond Museum, PULP-Holyoke, Hampden Gallery, 1969 Gallery, Andrew Edlin Gallery, White Columns, and The Picture Room. He has given performances at DIA Art Foundation, MoMA PS1, The Public Theater, Hudson Opera House, The Poetry Project, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and Performa Biennial, among others.

Kimberly Lyons’ book of poetry Capella was published by Oread Press in 2018. She is the author of ten other books of poetry, chapbooks and pamphlets. A Selected Poems is forthcoming and she has a recently completed manuscript of poems, Poets vs. the End of the World, and a poetic memoir. Her essay on Mina Loy’s novel Insel was included in A Forest on Many Stems: Essays on the Poet’s Novel. Her essay on William Blake and contemporary poets was recently included in a feature in Jacket2.

EVERYTHING IS FREE. EVERYONE IS WELCOME.

The OtherWords series is sponsored by the Friends of Great Barrington Libraries and the Board of Library Trustees.

08/25/2026

FREE POETRY READING AT MASON LIBRARY
Great Barrington

4-6 PM on Saturday, August 29th
Free w**e, c***r and snacks will be served.

Poetry readings by Jan Conn and Orchid Tierney.

JAN CONN is a poet, biologist, and visual artist. Peony Vertigo is her most recent book. The Disruptive Ordinary, a chapbook, is forthcoming this autumn. Her visual art is represented by Lauren Clark Fine Art Gallery in Great Barrington. She recently retired as Professor and Research Scientist with the New York State Department of Health and SUNY-Albany.

ORCHID TIERNEY is a poet and scholar, originally from New Zealand. She is the author of This Abattoir Is a College and A Year of Misreading the Wildcats as well as several chapbooks including Pedagogies for the Planthroposcene. She co-edited the Routledge Companion to Ecopoetics. She teaches at Kenyon College in Ohio and is a senior editor at the Kenyon Review.

EVERYTHING IS FREE. EVERYONE IS WELCOME.

The OtherWords series is sponsored by the Friends of Great Barrington Libraries and the Board of Library Trustees.

08/19/2026

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE OBSOLETE MEDIA DEPARTMENT :

If you owned a set of 2005 encyclopedias, not only would you be thumbing your nose at AI now, but you’ll be prepared for the future zombie apocalypse.

Bring a few empty boxes to the Mason Library and take them home. Free (or any amount you wish to donate.)

We also have nearly a thousand National Geographic magazines. Take as many as you want.

08/02/2026

Is there an art project in your future?

We got a donation of hundreds of National Geographic magazines that need a new home or a new purpose.

Take a few or a few hundred. Leave a message in the comments or contact the library if you want some.

07/16/2026

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq61660qpdpo

Officials say they are suspected of selling "seditious" books which incited "hatred" against authorities.

07/13/2026

FREE Poetry Reading
FREE W**e and Snacks

Saturday, July 25th from 4:00 – 6:00 PM

Join us for a celebration of Granary Books, including a conversation with publisher Steve Clay; an upstate Granary book launch of Ghost Coast, a collaboration between visual artist Julie Harrison and poet E.J. McAdams; and a poetry reading by McAdams.

Come for great readings and good company, along with drinks and food provided by the Friends of Great Barrington Libraries.

07/13/2026

07/10/2026

You don’t have too many books. You have too few bookshelves.

If you don’t subscribe to the NY Times and you can’t open this, visit the GB Libraries Digital Media page.
https://gblibraries.org/books-media/digital-media/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/style/too-many-books-new-york-city-apartment-scholar-landlord.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Mendel Uminer faced a crisis when his landlord objected to the 10,000 volumes in his New York studio apartment.

07/06/2026

From Wikipedia: