Two Page Tuesday is a low-key, low stakes literary salon where writers bring rough drafts, not resumés
An audience watches as Nick Roberts reads during the one-year anniversary of Two Page Tuesday at The Banshee in Dorchester.
Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe
The event marked the one-year anniversary of the series, which Belmont resident Danny Elfanbaum began in June 2024. It started as a casual writer meetup, and by November had established a standing date on the second or third Tuesday of each month.
The first few events brought in around 15 attendees, and have since grown to audiences of 50 or more. The organizers swap between hosting at The Banshee and Charlie's Kitchen in Harvard Square each month. At Charlie's, Two Page Tuesday often morphs into impromptu karaoke after the main event. '[It's] mostly just a social thing that parades as a reading,' Elfanbaum said.
Elfanbaum curates a lineup of around six readers for each event; interested writers can typically get on the roster to read by reaching out to Elfanbaum. Writers in all genres are welcome to submit work: 'We had some really great diss poems a couple of months ago.'
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June's iteration featured four readers: Kathleen Carr Foster, Maddie Kaprich, Nick Roberts, and Nicole-Anne Bales Keyton. Foster shared a novel-in-progress, Kaprich presented a 'kind of a true story' about a grief-laden bachelorette trip.
Danny Elfanbaum reacts as he listens to Maddie Kaprich read during a Two Page Tuesday at The Banshee in Dorchester June 10, 2025.
Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe
Roberts read two poems, which he prefaced by describing as 'weird and short,' one regarding Jumping Frenchmen of Maine, the other about cats and E.E. Cummings. Keyton shared two pieces, one of which was experimental, written with predictive text; the second, an excerpt from a novel they 'may or may not abandon.'
Each reading is brief, only lasting a few minutes. The two-page limit and standard manuscript format: 12-point font, double-spaced, are typically honor-code ordeals, though readers often bring their work printed out as proof. They can't be published works; they should be new. Writers can get '[bonus] points if you can think of a funny way to end your reading mid-sentence,' according to the website.
Elfanbaum's emphasis on brevity is, in part, personal preference: 'I like form, I like constraints.' According to him, a lower barrier to entry also helps writers get words onto a page.
'The best feedback I get from the readers is 'I hadn't written in months, and I had a deadline, and now I wrote this great thing,'' he said. 'It lowers the stakes for the readers.'
At the event, readers are introduced by Elfanbaum with their first name only, no accolades or gravitas before they begin.
Kathleen Foster reads an excerpt from a book she is working on, 'The Old Belvedere,' during Two Page Tuesday.
Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe
'It does serve to sort of democratize the event,' Elfanbaum said. 'A reader who's maybe newer to publishing is going to read next to somebody who has published three books, and their work should be heard just the same.'
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Keyton — who attended UMass Boston's MFA program with Elfanbaum — has participated in the event since its inception. They view Two Page Tuesday as a 'test ground, like a place to play.' While the original crowd was mostly made up of their former classmates, the event now attracts a broader audience of aspiring creatives.
'To see so many people I don't know now is so fun,' Keyton said. 'I'm really awed by how much it has changed in a really great way.'
Promotion for Two Page Tuesday is mostly word of mouth or through
'I think it's very important, especially in a city with a lot of academic establishments like Boston, to have a sort of DIY literary scene,' said Roberts. 'Poetry has become too corporatized in a lot of ways, and I view Two Page Tuesday, in some small way, as a step away from all that. It's a group of people, not fighting for prizes or awards, who share a deep love of literature, art, and each other's company.'
TWO PAGE TUESDAY
July 15, 6:30 p.m. Charlie's Kitchen, 10 Eliot St, Cambridge. Free.
Haley Clough can be reached at
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