Airea D. Matthews, a Bryn Mawr College professor, recently released a new poetry collection, Bread and Circus, writes the staff of Poets & Writers.

Published by Scribner, the book is a mix of lyrics, prose poems, images and docupoetic form which combines nonliterary texts with poetry to make a social statement.

Matthews wants her readers to see the self as a product of both individual experience and systemic forces.

She does this by weaving Adam Smith’s 1776 The Wealth of Nations, personal narrative, and public history throughout her collection.

Matthews is a fellow with The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and directs the poetry program at Bryn Mawr College. She earned her MFA from the Helen Zell Writer’s Program and an MPA from the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, both at the University of Michigan. She earned a BA in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

She was named the 2022-23 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.

During an interview, she was asked 10 questions about the book and her writing process. Read her answers at Poets & Writers.

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