A.K. Smith Reading Series

The Trinity College English Department welcomes acclaimed authors and poets to share their work with our community through the A.K. Smith Reading Series. These events celebrate the art of creative writing, offering students and faculty the chance to hear new voices, engage with established writers, and experience literature as a living, evolving practice.

Fall 2026 A.K. Smith Reading Series Schedule

Readings are open to all! Food and beverages will be served.

Quiara Alegría Hudes

Monday, October 19 at 4:30 P.M.
Reese Room, Smith House

Join us for an afternoon with acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, memoirist, and novelist Quiara Alegría Hudes, whose powerful work explores family, identity, memory, community, and the Puerto Rican diaspora.

Hudes is the author of eleven plays, two films, a memoir, and a novel. Her influential stage works include Water by the Spoonful, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and In the Heights, which received the Tony Award for Best Musical. Her novel, The White Hot, was shortlisted for both the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Cut, and The Nation. Her films include Vivo and In the Heights.

Now based in New York, Hudes brings a distinctive perspective shaped by her experiences as a daughter of the Puerto Rican diaspora. Come hear her read from her work and learn more about her creative process and career.

Angela Pelster

Tuesday November 17th at 4:30 P.M.
Reese Room, Smith House

Join us for an afternoon with acclaimed essayist Angela Pelster!

Angela Pelster’s new essay collection The Evolution of Fire: Essays on Crisis and Becoming is now out. She is a 2021 McKnight Artist Fellow and her first essay collection Limber won the Great Lakes Colleges Association Award. Her work has appeared in Agni, Orion, LitHub, Ploughshares, Tin House, Granta and The Kenyon Review among others. She’s the founder and director of Writers Go to the Movies and the director of The Creative Writing Programs at Hamline University. She lives in St Paul, Minnesota with her family, two cats and her garden. Come hear her read from her work and learn more about her creative process and career.

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Linked below are the profiles of the poets and novelists we’ve invited to campus for literary readings and Q&A sessions.