This photo, taken in 1988, appeared on the back cover of Every Other Thursday’s first anthology. After all our poems, and after more conventional bios, an afterword assembled anonymous statements by every member, about what it was like to be in the group. This was mine:
When it’s time to leave, I’m never ready to leave. We all stand talking in bunches in the hall, on the porch, in the street—call last goodbyes and advices from our cars. On a last minute, emergency basis, we offer each other large sums of money to keep particular lines. Or to do away with them. And all the dark way home I carry these people, and their poems, and the blessing of that passionate attention we give to each other. Through the weeks between meetings I carry the blessing of what we demand. This work is important, worth risk and foolishness. It can change lives.
I joined Every Other Thursday in 1986, driving from Hopkinton, Massachusetts to the homes of members who lived in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown and Newton. I was not the only member who traveled a considerable distance home in the middle of the night: others returned to Shrewsbury, Natick, the North Shore.
We met faithfully on alternate Thursdays, skipping only holidays; arrived with enough copies to hand around; left with the margins of our poems full of scribbled notes and questions to mull over. Every now and then, we did a public reading, and noticed which suggestions for revisions had been ignored, and which had been pursued in ways we might never have expected.
Over the decades, we lost members, gained members, grew older, evolved. Sometimes we met regularly in the home of a member too ill to travel elsewhere: next to Erika Mumford’s hospital bed, in her study; in Bill Holshouser’s living room during his last months; in a meeting room at John Hildebidle’s care facility. Erika encouraged us to think about making books, and we eventually called that effort Every Other Thursday Press. When the last of us retired from our day jobs, we decided to meet in the afternoon instead of at night. When Covid hit, we figured out how to meet by Zoom.
The group’s process has always been collaborative. Again and again, Susan Donnelly, the group’s founder, has steadied us through loss and change, and recruited new members when we’ve needed a shuffle in the recipe. One way or another, though, every member of the group has played a role in tending the life of the group.
Post-Covid, we’ve continued to meet by Zoom, and that has let me continue to be an active member, although I now live in Maine. We’ve gotten together for parties and memorial services and a public reading celebrating a new anthology. Recently we were able to gather for a workshopping session, live and in person.
At the bottom of this page, in the section devoted to Every Other Thursday Press, I’ve convened a virtual group reading by both current and some past members, a poem for each, chosen from those in the anthologies. You’ll get to that eventually, scrolling down.
Here’s a link that includes just four of the current members reading in the First and Last Word Reading Series, which happens online. Susan Donnelly, Ellen Steinbaum, Polly Brown, and Steven Ratiner each read for about 10 minutes, introduced by Gloria Mindock.
Every Other Thursday Press
The idea of Every Other Thursday Press was new at the time of the group photograph back at the top of this page. Erika Mumford wanted to publish some of her last poems while she could still see them come to print, and her third book, Willow Water, was the first individual collection published by the press. A small group worked to create our first anthology, that same year. After Erika’s death, another small group, with help from Erika’s husband David, assembled Words For Myself.
Erika had given the press seed money to help with ongoing publication of members’ books, and one of those early books was my own first chapbook, Blue Heron Stone.
I would give so much for recordings of readings from those years. Yearning for that, I came up with this idea of a virtual reading of some of the poems from each anthology. Assembling this will take me a while. Right now, many poems are listed without recordings, and almost all the recordings included so far are in my own voice. But more recordings in the voices of other poets will appear as we go along.
Meanwhile, here we are, captured on very little warning, at the end of a group reading to celebrate our latest anthology. I’m that huge grin fourth from the left, grinning with the joy of our being together.
Every Other Thursday Press, 1986.
Some recordings of poems from this anthology:
“Shaker Box,” by John Hildebidle, read by Polly Brown:
“Talking to the Moon While Cooking from Scratch,”
by Adelle Leiblein, read by Polly Brown:
“What There Is,” by Erika Mumford, read by Polly Brown:
“For Mr. Grimes, Who Tried to Teach Me Physics
After My Father Died,” read by John Hodgen,
with an additional poem, “Spit.”
Every Other Thursday Press, 1996.
Some recordings of poems from this anthology:
“College,” by Bonnie Bishop
“The Bricklayers,” by Susan Donnelly
“The Kingfisher,” by Bill Holshouser
“The Optics of Speech,” by Deborah Melone
An intermission in this virtual reading, to think about the roles of Every Other Thursday Press books in the life of the group.
After Bill Holshouser’s death, several EOT poets worked with members of Bill’s family to produce his second book: poems that didn’t appear in his first book, including his very last poems, as well as some sermons, and a fragment from a book about Sequoya, which had occupied Bill in his last years and vanished, all but one fragment, in a computer mishap.
Almost all books of poetry are labors of love, not commerce; often many minds have helped a book come to print. To an unusual degree, the Every Other Thursday Press books, even if focused on the work of just one poet, have come out of the whole group’s energy, and have helped stitch the group together.
Here’s another example. After the death of John Hildebidle, one of the earliest members of EOT, we learned that he had left a small legacy to EOT. Soon we reached a decision to create a new anthology, dedicated to him. The cover of this third EOT anthology shows John’s visage emerging from a golden mist, thanks to Sarah Bennett, who worked on the design and production. Bonnie Bishop acted as Sarah’s point person, shepherding us all through the process of assembling materials and making decisions.
Every Other Thursday, 2025.
Recordings of some poems from this anthology:
“In Anne’s Studio,” by Ellen Steinbaum
“Estuary,” by Conrad Squires
“Supermoon,” by Steven Ratiner, read by him!
“Temple of One Hundred Ponds,” a sijo poem by David McCann
“Near the Connecticut,” by Polly Brown
Every Other Thursday Press has also published a number of books and chapbooks by individual members. In recent years, we’ve been fortunate that a past member of the group, Sarah Bennett, at shbennettbookdesign.com, has turned toward designing and producing books of poetry, and has worked with many of EOT’s members on their books.
Here’s a list of all the Every Other Thursday books by individual members, as of early 2026:
Local Habitation, Bonnie Bishop
River Jazz, Bonnie Bishop
Patience, Bonnie Bishop
Blue Heron Stone, Polly Brown
Stitching, Polly Brown
The Ether Dome, Susan Donnelly
The Finding Day, Susan Donnelly
The Maureen Papers, Susan Donnelly
tenderly pressed: A Memoir in Poetry, Susan Donnelly
Grace in Mid-Fall, Bill Holshouser
Naked Bread, Bill Holshouser
Farmers’ Market, Deborah Melone
Wheel for the Turn of the Year, Deborah Melone
Willow Water, Erika Mumford
Words for Myself, Erika Mumford
Ifka’s Castle, Conrad Squires
Leavings, Ellen Steinbaum
Polly Brown / Poet 