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      PEM Reads

      Pieces of Salem: An Anthology of Salem Voices

      Sunday, September 20, 2026 from 1—2 pm

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      Pieces of Salem Book Cover

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      Location: Morse Auditorium

      Included with admission. Preregistration encouraged; registration link coming soon. 

      Copies of Pieces of Salem will be available for purchase at the event.

      Join Salem’s Poet Laureate J.D. Scrimgeour and PEM’s Director of Learning and Community Engagement David Snider for the official book launch of Pieces of Salem: An Anthology of Salem Voices.  

      Pieces of Salem: An Anthology of Salem Voices is like a stroll along a beach, each step bringing a new, fascinating discovery — a rock shaped like an ear, a smoothed bit of sea glass, the intricate patterns on a glossy shell. Edited by J.D. Scrimgeour, the collection contains prose and poems from more than 130 citizens who live or work in Salem. Each contribution keeps to a 400-word limit, a number chosen to commemorate the city’s quadricentennial. Taken together, the pieces celebrate a famed city marked by ancient tragedy, but brimming with vitality.

      A book signing and light reception will follow the program.

      This book was commissioned and compiled as a part of Salem’s 400th anniversary. This PEM Reads event is a part of PEM’s celebration of Salem 400+.

      About our collaborators

      J.D. Scrimgeour
      J.D. Scrimgeour

      J.D. Scrimgeour is Salem’s inaugural poet laureate. The city has been one of his main subjects, epitomized in his recent collection, Poet in High Street Park: Prose & Poetry for Modern Salem. His writing has won awards from the Academy of American Poets, Creative Nonfiction Magazine, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the National Society of Arts & Letters and the Salem Cultural Council. He also received the Salem Athenaeum’s Edward Augustus Holyoke Award for “exemplary leadership cultivating a community of writers.” Scrimgeour teaches at Salem State University, where he has served as Chair of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing. He has received the University’s Senior Award for Faculty, the Global Achievement Award from the Center for International Education, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award for “outstanding and significant contributions to the causes of freedom, justice, and equality.” For the past 30 years he has lived in Salem, a city where some of his ancestors were accused of witchcraft and put to death, and others sat on the jury that found them guilty. Visit his website to learn more. 

      David Snider
      David Snider

      David Snider oversees all of the museum’s learning and community engagement efforts, including public programming, internships and fellowships, community partnerships and education programming from preschool to postgraduate studies. His focus is to develop an array of inclusive offerings and education programs that engage visitors of all ages and backgrounds and to cultivate partnerships with schools, universities, museum volunteers and community organizations at the local, national and international levels.

      Snider brings over 25 years of experience as a director, educator, producer and arts administrator and previously served as the Executive and Artistic Director of Hubbard Hall, a multidisciplinary arts and education center in Cambridge, NY. Prior to Hubbard Hall, Snider served as the Director of Artistic Programming at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington, D.C. and as the Producing Artistic Director and CEO of Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT). 

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