A six month long poetry event is taking place at Bucks until March 30 at no cost to students or the public.
The poetry reading event, known as Wordsmiths, started Sept. 30, and will continue through March 30 in the Orangery at Bucks, with the final reading April 27 in the Gateway Auditorium.
According to Language and Literature Professor Dr. Chris Bursk, “Wordsmiths is a reading series that has been here, pretty much, since the beginning of the college which used to be called the Bucks Country poetry series.”
At each reading, Wordsmiths presents either a single author or multiple authors who read aloud to students as well as, members of the community interested in their stories.
“We try to pick authors that might not otherwise have been bumped into,” Bursk said, “but authors who will engage students, whose work will speak to students’ lives and also authors who might show students different sides of life than they are used to.”
The authors who will perform at this event, come from many different places with different experiences and stories to share.
“We like to have a diversity of authors, so not just straight authors, but straight and gay, and not just white authors, but a mixture of ethnicities and also not specifically one gender.” Bursk said.
The poetry event started off with an African American poet, Iain Hailey Pollock, who was accompanied by local poet, Joseph Chelius.
Bursk said that the school likes to match up nationally known poets with local poets to influence poetry at Bucks.

“Next is going to be Edmund White, probably the most preeminent gay novelist and memoirist in America, and he will be reading by himself.” said Bursk.
White will be reading on Nov. 4, followed by Martha Rhodes on Dec. 2.

Rhodes is the author of five books and she is reading with former Bucks County Poet Laureate, Cheryl Bald, Bursk said.
In the winter, Professor Ethel Rackin has agreed to read with a Princeton poet named James Richardson, Bursk said.
Professor Rackin and Richardson will be appearing Feb. 17.
Following Rackin and Richarson, will be April Linder, a nationally known poet who works at Villanova University.
“Linder will read with the winners of the Heim-Camp competition who are Bucks student poets, along with Stan Heim, who is the originator of this series,” said Bursk.

 
Linder’s reading will take place March 30.
Finally, on April 27, a recipient of the National Book Award for his book entitled, “Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems,” Mark Doty will read with author Paul Lisicky in the Gateway Auditorium.
The series also includes a daytime reading by alumni poets.

 
“These are authors who went to Bucks and went on to publish books,” Bursk explained.
After each reading, there are books written by the authors which students or anyone attending the readings can purchase.
The entire series is open for anyone, and completely free to attend.
For more information on the Wordsmiths series, students may contact Bursk or view the available information on the Bucks website.