The Wordsmiths Reading Series, one of the longest-running cultural events at Newtown-based Bucks County Community College, continues its proud tradition of live readings with three exciting gatherings for the fall 2023 season.

Poets Joanna Fuhrman and Lynn Levin will read selected poems in room 142 of the historic Tyler Hall on the Newtown campus on Sept. 22 at 7:30 PM.

Fuhrman, an assistant teaching professor in creative writing at Rutgers University, is the author of six books of poetry, most recently “To a New Era” (Hanging Loose Press, 2021). Fuhrman’s next book “Data Mind”, a collection of prose poems about the internet, is forthcoming from Curbstone/ Northwestern University Press in 2024.

Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming on “The Slowdown” podcast and in “The Pushcart Prize Anthology” and “Best American Poetry” 2023. Last year, Fuhrman became a co-editor of Hanging Loose Press after publishing with them since she was a teenager. 

Levin, a poet and writer, is the author of nine books, most recently “House Parties” (Spuyten Duyvil), her debut collection of short fiction. Philadelphia Magazine calls the stories “vivid, funny, and quietly powerful” and says, “House Parties may break your heart, but it’ll never do it the same way twice.” 

A Bucks County poet laureate and winner of the Bucks County Short Fiction Contest, Levin has published stories, poems, essays, and translations in Valparaiso Fiction Review, Elm Leaves Journal, Cleaver, Boulevard, Southwest Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Mandorla, and other places. She lives in Southampton and teaches at Drexel University. Her website is lynnlevinpoet.com. 

The next reading in the fall series, at 7:30 PM on Oct. 20, will feature poets Patricia Smith and Hayden Saunier.

The final reading for the fall comes on Nov. 12, at 1 PM when poet Courtney Bambrick and the still-to-be-chosen 2023 Bucks County Poet Laureate will read selected works. 

Dr. Ethel Rackin, a Language and Literature professor at the College, is the director of the Wordsmiths Reading Series and Poet Laureate Program. Dr. Rackin has been organizing these public collaborations since 2010, shortly after she began her teaching career at Bucks.

The first Wordsmiths reading was in the 1960s and featured Allen Ginsburg strumming on his guitar, and chanting verses to the audience as they swayed sitting on top of cushions on the floor. Since then, the series has featured dozens of outstanding and respected poets over the years. In recent years, the series has also featured renowned fiction writers.

Poets featured in the series have won a host of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the PEN Literary Award.

Learn more about the Wordsmiths Reading Series at Bucks County Community College.

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