The Wordsmiths Poetry Reading Series for the 2025 Fall semester features newly published works from acclaimed poets Amy Small-McKinney, Jennifer Tseng and Lynn Fanok at the Bucks County Community College Newtown campus.
All events will be held at Tyler Hall 142; Wordsmiths events are free and open to all students, faculty and community members.
Though Wordsmiths reliably draws in an audience of older poetry fans, Wordsmiths coordinator Dr. Ethel Rackin selects authors reflecting on their young adult lives and similar subject matter that she feels the Bucks student demographic can connect to. The speakers selected for the Wordsmiths Fall 2025 events follow this north star, each reflecting on her adolescence as an older woman.
The first event is held on Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m., where Small-McKinney, a Philadelphia resident, will be promoting her 2025 full length poetry book “& You Think It Ends.” Rackin praises this work as, “one of the strongest books [of poetry] I’ve read in a really long time.”
Of the work’s main themes, Rackin continues, “[Small-McKinney] talks about trauma she experienced as a young woman that only now has dealt with… [she discusses] the experiences in nuanced and powerful ways that connect with the reader. As a psychotherapist herself, she approaches the topic of adolescent sexual trauma from an enlightened perspective.”
Within this highly personal work, Rackin notes, Small-McKinney weaves in the apt political themes of widespread and institutionalized violence against women.
Also to be featured in the first event is Tseng, likely reading from her 2024 full length poetry book “Thanks for Letting Us Know You Are Alive” – a work expanding on the central concept from her 2017 chapbook “Not so dear Jenny.” In these works, Tseng addresses letters to her first-generation Chinese-American father in conversation with the English letters he wrote to her in life. Rackin describes the book’s central “dialogic back and forth between father and daughter,” commending how Tseng “plays with the letter form in a way that feels fresh and contemporary.” Rackin adds, “this work will speak to people who are working on themselves” as Tseng demonstrates self-reflection with admirable proficiency.
Fanok is the sole writer featured in the 12:30 p.m. Wordsmiths event on Oct. 23. Fanok will likely read from her Summer 2025 poetry collection “The Weeds.” punctuation goes inside quotes. Rackin says this new release portrays a vision of girlhood as anchored in Fanok’s own adolescence within her American-Ukrainian household – all written with the wisdom of her current self. The collection is composed of lyrical poems of themes of coming of age alongside grief and contemplation of the natural world. As the feature of a midday event, Fanok and her readings are especially selected with Bucks students in mind – gearing chiefly to a young-adult audience.
The final Fall 2025 Wordsmiths event will be held on Nov. 15 from 1 to 3 p.m., serving as an eclectic victory-lap for those involved in the Poet Laureate competition. This event will feature the 2025 Poet Laureate alongside readings and appearances from preliminary judge and highly-regarded poet Nicole Greaves, the competition’s final judge (and Fall 2025 Wordsmiths featured author) Jennifer Tseng, as well as past Poet Laureates and 2025 runners-up.
Wordsmiths Reading Series has roots going back to the 1960s at Bucks and is highly regarded by visiting writers and event attendees as a renowned institution setting Bucks apart from other Philadelphia-area colleges and universities. Featured authors are often recipients of awards and accolades for their literary works, a claim remaining true of the Fall 2025 featured published authors. The Wordsmiths Reading Series grants students and community members the opportunity to hear from working writers well-practiced in their craft.