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Wordsmiths Spring 2025 Featuring Novelist Carolyn Kuebler

Wordsmiths Reading Series Features Novelist Carolyn Kuebler

Bucks County Community College, which has been bringing widely acclaimed authors and poets to Newtown for more than 60 years, invites the public to the next Wordsmiths Reading Series event on Thursday, April 3, featuring author Carolyn Kuebler. Kuebler, whose debut novel “Liquid, Fragile, Perishable” was published by Melville House in 2024, will read from her works at 12:30 p.m. in room 142 of historic Tyler Hall on the Newtown Campus. For the past decade, Kuebler has been the editor of the New England Review, a quarterly literary magazine published by Middlebury College. She also co-founded the magazine Rain Taxi. Her stories and essays have been published in The Common and Colorado Review, among other prominent periodicals. Her essay “Wildflower Season,” published in The Massachusetts Review, won the 2022 John Burroughs Award for Nature Essay. Originally from Allentown, Pa., Kuebler has an MFA from Bard College and a BA from Middlebury College. In addition to editing NER, she is a justice of the peace, a volunteer with 350 Vermont, a “bad birdwatcher, and an even worse gardener.” She lives in Middlebury, Vermont, with her husband, Christopher, and daughter, Vivian Ross. The Wordsmiths Reading Series is another way that the College connects the community with the region’s vibrant literary heritage, according to Language and Literature Professor Ethel Rackin, Ph.D. “These events give students an opportunity to connect what they're learning in their classes with the wider world of living writers and discourse,” said Rackin, director of the Wordsmiths Reading Series and a published poet. “Historically, the series has featured fiction writers as well as poets, and this seemed like a fine time to revive that tradition.” Rackin, who is also director of the Bucks County Poet Laureate Program, has been organizing these public collaborations since 2010, shortly after she began teaching at Bucks. The College – which was founded in 1964 and opened its doors the following year – has a long history of hosting literary greats, including poet Allen Ginsberg and many award-winning authors. The Wordsmiths Reading Series, which is free and open to the public, is funded by the College’s Cultural Affairs Committee. To learn more, contact the School of Language & Literature at langandlit@bucks.edu or 215-968-8150. Bucks County Community College is located at 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, Pa., 18940, where there is ample free parking. For a campus map and directions, visit the Newtown Campus page.
Images from the memoir We Are on Our Own illustrated in pencil

Forum to Discuss Illustrated Memoir of the Holocaust

Bucks County Community College, which has been hosting free academic forums for more than 60 years, invites the public to discuss the Holocaust memoir “We Are on Our Own” at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, in-person at the Newtown Campus and online. In her graphic narrative, Miriam Katin tells the true story of her and her mother's escape on foot from the Nazi invasion of Budapest. After faking their deaths, the two escape into hiding, disguised as a Russian servant and her illegitimate child. The discussion, led by world-renown Holocaust scholar Rachel Perry, Ph.D., will focus on Holocaust graphic novels as a medium of memory. She will be joined by three other panelists, including Professor Paula Raimondo, who teaches in the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Certificate Program at BCCC. Raimondo noted that most readers are familiar with written narratives of the Holocaust such as the “Diary of Anne Frank” and Elie Wiesel's “Night,” but graphic narratives show us a different perspective. “Many people have heard of Art Spiegelman's ‘Maus,’ but there is a long history of the graphic narrative used as a medium for recording and remembering the Holocaust, from artists documenting in the camps and ghettos and in hiding, through the immediate post-war period, up to the present,” said Raimondo. “Works like Katin's, which use both pictures and words, ask us to think differently about the challenges of representing the Holocaust.” A limited number of copies of “We Are on Our Own” are available, free of charge, at the Office of Social and Behavioral Science in room 301 of Grupp Hall on the Newtown Campus. Reading in advance is helpful but not necessary for attending the talk, which is free and open to the public, Raimondo added. About the panelists Rachel Perry teaches in the Weiss-Livnat Graduate Program in Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, and in the Holocaust and Human Rights program at Gratz College in Melrose Park, Pa. Her research focuses on the representation and memory of the Holocaust and the Second World War in visual culture. She is currently Scholar in Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute in Waltham, Mass., writing a manuscript on Holocaust graphic albums, and is preparing an exhibition on the same topic, “Who Will Draw Our History? Early Holocaust Graphic Narratives by Women Survivors, 1944-1949.” She will be participating live on Zoom. Also joining the discussion at the Newtown Campus will be Sophie Don, Associate Director of the Philadelphia Holocaust and Remembrance Foundation; poet and visual artist Bernadette Karpa; and BCCC Professor Paula Raimondo. Samantha Gross, Dean of the School of Social and Behavioral Science at BCCC, will moderate. This program is supported by a grant from the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation. The discussion of “We Are on Our Own” takes place at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, in the Gallagher Room, located inside the Rollins Center building. The campus is located at 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, Pa., where there is ample free parking. For a campus map and directions, visit the Newtown Campus page. The event can also be viewed live online for those who register in advance. For those interested in a deeper dive into the subject, the course “Rescue and Resistance” (course number HGNS 140) is offered online from March 24 to May 16. Students will explore why some people help while others “stand by,” the varied forms that resistance can take, and how these powerful responses to genocide and human suffering can help us better understand both our past and present. For more information about the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Certificate program at BCCC, including current course offerings, contact the School of Social and Behavioral Science at sb@bucks.edu or 215-968-8270.
Karen O’Donnell

BCCC Announces New Vice President for Advancement & Alumni Relations

Bucks County Community College (BCCC) officials are pleased to announce that Karen O’Donnell has joined the College as Vice President for Advancement & Alumni Relations and Executive Director of the BCCC Foundation. In this role, O’Donnell will be responsible for advancing the mission of Bucks County Community College through increasing philanthropic support from alumni, philanthropists, donors, foundations, workforce partners, and friends of the College throughout Bucks County and beyond. She will lead a team of advancement professionals and facilitate the work of dedicated volunteers on the Alumni Council and the BCCC Foundation board who, working together, engage friends and supporters of the College in support of the institutional mission of providing affordable high-quality education to residents from every community of Bucks County. BCCC President & CEO Patrick M. Jones said, “Karen’s expertise in fundraising, corporate and foundation relations, leadership, and team building is impressive. I am confident she will help to position the College for long-term success by working closely with the leadership team and the deans in fulfilling our strategic plan.” "I am thrilled and deeply grateful to be joining Bucks County Community College,” said O’Donnell. “This opportunity brings me back home to Bucks County, where I am honored to serve my neighbors and friends in a respected institution dedicated to excellence and community impact. I look forward to advancing the mission of BCCC and helping to shape a bright future for our students and the region." O’Donnell is a lifelong resident of Bucks County and has served in advancement roles in several institutions including Conwell-Egan High School, St. Mary Medical Center, The College of New Jersey, and most recently, Rosemont College. She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and a Conwell-Egan Catholic High School Wall of Fame inductee. O’Donnell has a master’s degree in arts administration from Drexel University and a bachelor’s degree in studio art from The Catholic University of America.