2025 Summer Reading Author to Visit Meredith in September

Acclaimed author Tracy K. Smith, whose memoir Ordinary Light is Meredith’s 2025 Summer Reading Program selection, will visit campus in September.

Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and memoirist, will come to campus to present a public lecture on Thursday, September 18 at 7 p.m. in Jones Auditorium.  

The co-sponsors for Smith’s visit are the Lillian Parker Wallace Lecture series and the Mary Lynch Johnson chair, established by the Department of English.

The College will also host a book signing, a luncheon with students and faculty, and other student-focused programming on September 18. In preparation for the event, English 111 instructors will assign Smith’s work in their classes, and First-Year Experience classes will complete an assignment related to the memoir.

First-year students will also discuss the book in their advising groups, facilitated by their Faculty Advisor or another faculty/staff member and their Student Advisor, on Monday, September 22.

About the Book
Ordinary Light covers the years between Smith’s elementary school years and her college years and ends with the loss of her mother when Smith was in her early 20s. The memoir recounts various impactful moments. Through these vignettes, Smith explores how family, faith, education – and, finally, loss – helped shape her sense of identity. 

“Ordinary Light explores themes and experiences that will be familiar to Meredith students and raises issues around identity that many young people face in college,” said Ashley Hogan, co-chair of the Summer Reading Program Committee. “Additionally, the memoir’s complexity and literary merit will challenge and enrich incoming students.”

Learn more about Tracy K. Smith and Meredith’s Summer Reading Program selection at meredith.edu/srp-2025.