Gerard Holmes Publishes New Work on Emily Dickinson

Birdsong, nature, and music in Emily Dickinson’s poetry are explored in Gerard Holmes’ multiple new publications and service activities

Lecturer Gerard Holmes shares news of his recent scholarly research and service in Emily Dickinson studies. 

In March 2021, Women’s Studies published a special issue, “New Directions in Emily Dickinson and Music,” to which Gerard co-edited and contributed an essay, “‘the Bird / Who sings the same, unheard, / As unto Crowd -’: Dickinson, Improvisation, and the Business of Birdsong.”

Gerard contributed a chapter, “‘Discretion in the Interval’: Emily Dickinson, Musical Improvisation, and Manuscript Variations,” to the Oxford Handbook to Emily Dickinson, Oxford University Press, 2022.

He led a virtual poetry discussion group, themed “Emily Dickinson’s Natural Music,” for the Emily Dickinson Museum, March 23 & 25, 2022. In March 2021, He also led a similar group for the Museum, themed “Yankee Doodle Variations: Emily Dickinson and Improvisation.”

Gerard is currently co-editing a special issue of the journal ESQ to be published in early 2024, with the theme, “Thomas Wentworth Higginson, apart from Emily Dickinson,” to which he will contribute an essay, “The Results of Spiritualism: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Improvised Speech, and Nineteenth-Century Phonography.” Professor Martha Nell Smith is also contributing an essay to this issue, which grows out of a panel at the 2022 Modern Language Association convention.