Six events this week in the Buffalo area literary community, from JBLC’s BABEL, to UB’s Poetics Plus Series, to WNYBAC’s Edible Book Fest.

Wednesday, March 25, 7 p.m.: The Screening Room Series co-hosted by Kevin Koch and Ida Goeckel and featuring poet Jessica Lowell Mason.

About the Author

Jessica Lowell Mason is an instructor with the Bard Prison Initiative, an adjunct instructor at Niagara University and the University at Buffalo, and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, a teaching artist at Just Buffalo Literary Center, and research assistant with the Center for Disability Studies at the University at Buffalo. Her first book of poetry, Straight Jacket, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2019. Her latest book is A New Flora: Sapphic Poems from the Garden of Lesbos published in December of 2025 by Finishing Line Press.

Additional reading slots available. Clearfield Branch Library Meeting Room on 770 Hopkins Road, Williamsville, NY 14221.

Thursday, March 26, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.: Joe Todaro will be the featured reader at the next Kenmore Village Improvement Society Open Mic Night curated and hosted by BlazeVOX Books publisher Geoffrey Gatza at the KVIS/Made for Good Shop, 7 Warren Avenue (near Delaware Ave.) in Kenmore, NY. Additional reading slots are available. The event is free and open to the public.

Thursday, March 26, 7:30 p.m.: Just Buffalo Literary Center BABEL Series talk by and discussion with Tara Westover. Westover’s memoir Educated—a #1 New York Times bestseller for over two years—has transfixed readers with its unforgettable story of self-invention. Born to survivalists in rural Idaho, Westover didn’t set foot in a classroom until she was 17 but went on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University and become an internationally celebrated author.

About the book, from Penguin Random House:

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

About the author:

TARA WESTOVER is an American author. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. An older brother taught her to read, and after that her education was erratic and haphazard, with most of her days spent working in her father’s junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. After that first encounter with education she pursued learning for a decade, graduating magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and subsequently winning a Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

In 2018, she published her memoir, Educated, which explores her struggle to reconcile her desire for education and autonomy with her desire to be loyal to her family. Educated was an instant commercial and critical success, debuting at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and remaining on the list for more than two years. It was also a finalist for several national awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The New York Times named Educated one of the 10 Best Books of 2018, and the American Booksellers Association voted it the Nonfiction Book of the Year. President Barack Obama included Educated on his annual reading list, calling it “remarkable,” and Bill Gates listed it as one of his favorite books of the year, saying, “It’s even better than you’ve heard.”

For her staggering impact, TIME Magazine named Westover one of the 100 most influential people of 2018. She was also awarded the 2021 National Humanities Medal by President Biden in a ceremony at the White House. Westover holds a PhD in intellectual history from Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 2019 she was the Rosenthal Writer in Residence at Harvard University.

In her talk and conversation with Just Buffalo Artistic Director Barbara Cole, Westover will discuss her story of resilience and the power of learning to rewrite your own script.

Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo. $48.
Visit https://www.justbuffalo.org/ for tickets to the event, which also include an online livestreaming option.

Friday, March 27, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.: 4th Friday Poetry Series featuring Buffalo-based poet John McKeone. Additional reading slots available. Dog Ears Bookstore & Café, 688 Abbott Rd., Buffalo. $5.

Friday, March 27, 7:30 p.m.: University at Buffalo Poetics Plus Series reading by Aditi Machado.

Aditi Machado is a poet, translator, and essayist. Her publications include three poetry collections from Nightboat, Material Witness (2024), Emporium (2020), and Some Beheadings (2017); two book-length translations from the French, Baptiste Gaillard’s In the Realm of Motes (Roof, 2025) and Parid Tali’s Prosopopoeia Action, 2016); and several chapbooks. She is also a contributor to Katrine Øgaard Jensen’s collaborative mistranslation book project Ancient Algorithms (Sarabande, 2025). Her work appears or is forthcoming in journals like BOMB, Chicago Review, Fence, jubilat, Lana Turner, Volt, and Western Humanities Review. A recipient of the James Laughlin and The Believer Poetry Awards, she serves as an advisory poetry editor for The Paris Review and teaches at the University of Cincinnati.

Fitz Books and Waffles, 1462 Main St., Buffalo. Free and open to the public.

Saturday, March 28, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Western New York Book Arts Center’s 18th Annual Edible Book Festival.

A moment of whimsy; a celebration of books, art & food; and fundraiser for free book art experiences for local youth in trying times. Western New York Book Arts Center is proud to announce our 18th Annual Edible Book Festival, to be held at 468 Washington Street in downtown Buffalo on Saturday, March 28th, 2026 from 11am-2pm. We want to know: What does your favorite book taste like?

The Edible Book Festival is a family-friendly, international festival held annually on or around April 1, inviting participants to create EDIBLE creations inspired by a book. Edible Book creations are ranked by local ‘celebrity judges’ and the winning artist chefs are awarded with surprise prizes. Then we eat our words! All are welcome to partake in eating the books after winners are announced.

This years judges are:

Geoffrey Gatza – BlazeVOX Books (author & chef)

Keith Raimondi – owner of Dapper Goose

Jessica Aherns – chef at AKG

General admission is $5 ($3 for Book Arts Members).

For additional information visit: https://wnybookarts.org/edible-book-festival-2026/

Western New York Book Arts Center, 468 Washington Street, Buffalo.