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In the almost 30 years since presenting its inaugural readings by Etheridge Knight and Toby Olson in the spring of 1985, the Bryn Mawr Reading Series has brought major American and international writers in all literary genres to engage with students and the Philadelphia area community. Series guests visit the College’s Creative Writing Program workshops and present free public readings from their work.

The series has featured Nobel Laureates Nadine Gordimer, Wole Soyinka, and Derek Walcott; Pulitzer Prize winners Jennifer Egan, Richard Ford, Louise Gluck, Anthony Hecht, Edward P. Jones, Yusef Komunyakaa, Jhumpa Lahiri, Paul Muldoon, Suzan-Lori Parks, Adrienne Rich, Charles Simic, Mark Strand, Paula Vogel, Richard Wilbur, August Wilson, and Charles Wright; former Poet Laureates of the United States Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Kay Ryan, and Charles Simic; National Book Award winners Frank Bidart, Lucille Clifton, E.L. Doctorow, Terrance Hayes, Ha Jin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Peter Matthiessen, Alice McDermott, and Jean Valentine; Obie and Tony Award winner John Guare; and other esteemed authors and translators such as Lydia Davis, Umberto Eco, Robert Fagles, Ian McEwan, Rick Moody, and Zadie Smith, among others.

Other special events in the series have included a Tribute to Bryn Mawr alumna Marianne Moore, a program exploring connections between poetry and the visual arts, a recital of Beowulf by renowned performer Benjamin Bagby, a round-table discussion of the state of the short story in America, featuring four 2011 New Yorker "20 Under 40" honorees, and a public reading of John Milton’s verse drama Samson Agonistes by actors and poets including Claire Bloom, John Hollander, John Neville, Rosanna Warren, and others.