By Jess Benninger ’26 staff writer

LVC welcomed playwright and novelist, Monica Byrne, on Monday, Oct. 17, as a part of the Writing: A Life series.

Students, professors and community members had the opportunity to attend Byrne’s live reading that featured selections from Byrne’s most recent novel, “The Actual Star,” and her unpublished novel, “Ordinary Days.”

Byrne is an Annville-grown writer who was not always interested in writing. Being the youngest of five siblings who pursued careers in the field of humanities and the daughter of two Catholic theologists, Byrne rebelled by obtaining degrees in biochemistry from Wellesley College and MIT. She eventually found her calling to write and moved to Durham, North Carolina where she has resided for the past seventeen years.

Byrne recently moved back to Annville to finish her next novel, “Ordinary Days,” that is set in a town based off Annville.

LVC English and Creative Writing students also had opportunities to work with Byrne one-on-one through various workshops.

When asked what her favorite part of Byrne’s visit was, Eunice Messick, a psychology major, shared that she enjoyed “getting to meet a successful author and getting to hear her story of how she started.”

For creative writing students such as Messick, it was inspiring to be able to attend generative writing workshops and learn more about the process of publishing.