Founded in 2015, “NER Out Loud” is a collaboration of the New England Review and Oratory Now. In the tradition of NPR’s “Selected Shorts,” Middlebury student performers from Oratory Now read selections from the New England Review on stage, along with student writers who read their own work. Lending their voices to the words on the page, students bring contemporary literary writing to life for an audience of students, faculty, and community members. An archive of readings can be found on Internet Archive, care of Middlebury College’s special collections.
Also see our related NER Out Loud podcast. Check it out on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or iTunes.
PAST EVENTS
April 23, 2026
NER Out Loud found a new home at the Hepburn Zoo, the black-box theater in Middlebury’s Hepburn Hall. This event featured student writers Adonai Haile ’27, Maya Hynes ‘28.5, and Margaux Joly ’27, and Amador Abiuso ’29, Mack Briglin ‘26.5, Zaina Mahbub ’28, and Monique Pond ’28 from Oratory Now.
Video recording available here
November 1, 2025
NER Out Loud: The Inauguration Edition
As part of a celebration of the arts in honor of the inauguration of President Ian Baucom, New England Review and Oratory Now teamed up to highlight the literary arts at Middlebury in this special edition of NER Out Loud. Students from Oratory Now read selections from recent issues of the New England Review and student writers read their own poetry and prose. The event also featured displays about how NER connects to Middlebury and to the world. On stage: student writers and NER interns Gus Morrill ’27 and Sydney Alexander ‘25.5, and Zane Malarky ’28, Ting Cui ‘25.5, Artemis Ge ’28, and Alvaro Micocci ’28 from Oratory Now.
October 24, 2024
NER Out Loud got Louder in 2024! Students from Oratory Now read selections from the New England Review and student writers joined them on the main stage to read their own poetry and prose for an audience of students, faculty, and community members in the Dance Theatre. Featuring Sam Wemmer ‘26, Caroline Jiao ‘24, Tasha Deen ‘25, Sathvik Kunigal ‘28, Weronika Wozny ‘27, Sorina Johnston ‘25.5, and Max Gibson ‘25. Musical interludes by Mark Christensen.
March 30, 2023
NER Out Loud returned to the Mahaney Arts Center’s Dance Theatre on Thursday, March 30, for the first full performance since November 2019. NER Out Loud was followed by a “S’More Readings” reception, where student writers read their own poetry and prose.
Video recording available here.
Program:
- JARED AHERN ’25 reads “Waiting for Tilda Swinton,”
fiction by Bo Lewis - JOSETTE CHUN ’26 reads “My Mother Is Patient with Plums” and
“My Mother Spends the Day Alone at SeaWorld,” poetry by Josh Tvrdy - LETA CHIBSSA ’26 reads part 1 of an excerpt from “Supernova,”
fiction by Kosiso Ugwueze - SHEA BRAMS ’26 reads “Existential Elegy,” poetry by Kim Addonizio
- ALPANA BAKSHI ’26 reads “Hysterosalpingography,”
poetry by Rosalie Moffett - MAX GIBSON ’25 reads “Lemon Fresh,” monologue by John Cotter
- LIVIA DAVIDSON ’26 reads “Cowboy husband quits his job” and
“Two mothers and I work lunch shift,” poetry by Aumaine Rose Smith - GRACE MTUNGUJA ’26 reads part 2 of an excerpt from “Supernova,” fiction by Kosiso Ugwueze
- ISAIAH IZZO LIZARDI ’25 reads “Commutative Properties of Black Bodies,” poetry by Ajibola Tolase
Writers who presented there own work at the S’More Readings reception were Yardena Carmi ’23, David Factor ’23, Haeun Park ’23, Rose Robinson ’24.5, Bel Spelman ’23, Leo Swainbank ’25, Pearl Tulay ’24, Kai Velazquez ’23, and Keziah Wilde ’24. The reception was coordinated by New England Review student interns Niamh Carty ’23 and Emma Johnson ’23.5.
2020
The seventh annual NER Out Loud event, like everything else in 2020, did not go on as planned. But it also wasn’t canceled! Instead, two students readers were matched up with two works from NER authors, which they rehearsed and read on stage in Robison Hall—to an audience of three. The student readers then did a Zoom interview with the authors, whose works they’d become intimately familiar with. The readings and conversations were recorded for our podcast. The first episode features Madison Middleton reading from the short story “Suffering in Motion” by McKenna Marsden. The next episode will feature Celeste Levy reading “Offered as Suddenly a Forest,” a poem by Zach Linge.
November 8, 2019
The sixth annual NER Out Loud and S’More Readings Reception took place in the Dance Theatre at the Mahaney Center for the Arts, Middlebury College. Live readings of prose and poetry from the New England Review by Oratory Now were followed by dessert and more readings of original creative writing by students. Find event photos here.
Program:
• Kamari Williams ’23 reading Still Still Still by Matthew Lippman
• Dave Anderson ’19.5 reading Breathe by Jerald Walker
• Andrés Santana ’23 reading Last Sundays at Bootleggers by Carlos Andrés Gómez
• Steph Miller ’20 reading Protozoa by Ella Martinsen Gorham, edited and directed by Cole Merrell ’21
• Cole Merrell ’21 reading For You by Aleš Šteger
• Max Padilla ’22 reading Caterpillars by Rosaleen Bertolino
October 26, 2018
• Melanie Rivera ’19 reading “In Order of Appearance,” a poem by Heather Christle
• Gillinda James ’21 reading “Dead Weight,” a story by Raven Leilani
• Masha Makutonina ’21 reading the story “Biomass” by Alla Gorbunova, translated from Russian by Elina Alter
• Pele Voncujovi ’19 reading the poem “Don’t tell them we’re going or they’ll want to come too” by Nathan Trantraal, translated from Afrikaans by André Trantraal
• Sam Martin ’19 and Rebecca Berlind ’21 reading “Modal Window,” a story by Janet Towle
Followed by students reading from their own work in the Mahaney Center lobby.
November 10, 2017
The fourth annual NER Out Loud event took place at the Dance Theatre in the MAC. Live readings of prose and poetry from the New England Review were followed by readings from student magazines Blackbird and MiddGeo. Sign language interpretation by Trudy Gilbert. Photos from the event can be found HERE.
The Program:
• Pele Voncujovi ’19
Reading “Origin Story” by Kazim Ali
• Sam Martin ’19
Reading “Take Stock” by Clarence Orsi
• Paige Guarino ’18.5
Reading “Philomath” by Devon Walker-Figueroa
• Nia Robinson ’19
Reading “The Doll Family” by Rosaleen Bertolino
• Dominick Tanoh ’18
Reading “Horn of Plenty” by Paisley Rekdal
• Amanda Whiteley ’19
Reading “War Stories” by David Heronry
The performance was followed by S’More Readings, with readings from student magazines and dessert.
February 24, 2017
The February 2017 program, held in the Dance Theatre, included Ellen Colton ’19 (reading Alison Stagner’s “Midnight”), Josh Espy ’17 (reading Maciej Milkowski’s “The Week of German Cinema”), Jabari Matthew ’17 (reading Cortney Lamar Charleston’s “Still Life…”), Steven Medina ’17 (reading Alex McElroy’s “Endure”), Melanie Rivera ’19 (reading Alia Volz’s “Chasing Arrows”), and Nia Robinson ’19 (reading Franny Choi’s “The Price of Rain”). Student publications featured at the S’More Readings reception included Blackbird, Frame, and Translingual .
March 4, 2016
The second annual NER Out Loud, in the Robison Concert Hall, featured Sally Seitz ’17, reading “The Red Painter” by Penelope Cray, a Vermont author who attended the reading; Alexander Burnett ’16, reading a “Rediscovery” from 1870 by Henry Reed Stiles, titled “To Bundle or to Tarry”; Mariah Levin ‘16.5, reading the poem “High School in Suzhou” by Cate Marvin; Kathleen Gudas ‘16.5, reading from the short story “Forty-Two” by Lisa Taddeo; Melanie Rivera ’19, reading the poem “At the Tribunals” by Patrick Rosal; and August Rosenthal ’17, reading from the story “Eleven Girls” by David Ebenbach. ASL interpretation by Eliza Goodhue.
At the “S’more Readings” reception, NER intern Isabelle Stillman ’16 welcomed the student magazines and readers. Student editors, who introduced their magazines, and in some cases read their own work, included Nicholas Kaye ’17 of Blackbird, Filippos Papageorgiou ’16 and Anthea Viragh ’16.5 of Middlebury Geographic, Natalie Figueroa ’18 and Maya Reich ’19 of Translingual, and Meg Daly ’18 and Wendy Walcoff ’16.5 of Frame. Other student writers who read were Christina Brook ’18, Anna Parker ’17.5, Naomi Eisenberg ’18, Lizzie Apple ’18, Taylor Scott Berkley ’16.5, Daria Cenedella ’18, and Samuel Wegner ’18.
LISTEN HERE. Photos of the reception are available HERE.
February 24, 2015
The first NER Out Loud event took place on Tuesday, February 24, 2015, in the Robison Concert Hall at the Mahaney Center for the Arts. Students readers were Kevin Benscheidt ’17 (reading Matthew Olzmann), Brenna Christensen ’17 (reading Kelli Russell Agodon), Caitlyn Duffy ’15.5 (reading Allegra Hyde), Cole Ellison ’17 (reading James Hoch), Jabari Matthew ’17 (reading Larry I. Palmer), Melissa MacDonald ’15 (reading Kate Lebo), and Sally Seitz ’17 (reading January Gill O’Neil). Eliza Goodhue provided ASL interpretation, side by side with the student orators.
For more details and recordings of this event, LOOK AND LISTEN HERE.