The Bucks Wordsmiths Series returns to campus featuring author Jared Harél on March 7 in Tyler Hall 142 at 12:30 p.m. and is open to anyone in the community who is interested.

The Wordsmith Reading Series is an event that has been going on at Bucks since the opening of the school in the 1960s, which presents local and visiting writers. This event, which usually takes place twice in a semester, brings in writers to read original works and interact with students and community members.

Ethel Rackin, Professor of Language and Literature at Bucks, has been the director of the series since around 2019.  She explained that usually the guests are chosen based on books that are actively being taught in classes on campus. When that is not the case, guests are chosen based on what has recently been released, what authors are available, or what the audience wants to hear.

Rackin believes that The Wordsmith Series is significant because “it is important for students and community members to have an opportunity to see world-class writers live and for free.”  Rackin also described the valued tradition of oral poetry, as before it was written, it was always read aloud, “it retains its roots, whether it’s slam poetry or academic poetry.”

At these events, there is time divided up between hearing the work, and then conversation between the writer and audience. There are also usually refreshments, snacks and copies of the work being sold, which gives you the option to get it signed.

These events have been highly successful in the past which Rackin attributes to the flourishing of Bucks County and its relationship with the arts, “There are so many people, not just at the community college but in the county at large, who are writing and reading and interested in these sorts of things.”

For more information on the Wordsmith Series this semester, contact Rackin at [email protected], or visit https://www.bucks.edu/academics/department/lang-lit/wordsmiths/ .