Today, the galleries at the Pulitzer are silent. After two days of reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses, I have become accustomed to having visitors, young and old, sitting on the stairs, children playing on the Rock Settee outside, and listening to our 73 readers recount the mythological transformations of gods and humans. It was a tremendously busy and happy occasion, so it is bittersweetto sit at my desk today not having to worry about scheduling readers or happy hour.

I was thrilled to meet the readers and to see my hard work from the past 3 months come together, almost seamlessly. There were a few glitches, but these were expected to happen in some way or another. The schedule changed on Saturday and Sunday with late or cancelled readers. Joan Lipkin from Uppity Theater Company graciously read for Obi Nwakanma, who was running late on Saturday. There was a vacant slot on Sunday, so Obi Nwakanma filled was able to fill in there. Tom Sudholt, the Morning Host of Classic 99, also subbed in for a canceled reader on Sunday. I, too, became a pinch-reader for a Sunday time slot.

It took less time to read the entire ancient text, than I had planned. Instead of 18.3 hours, our readers breezed through the marathon in 16 hours and 45 minutes. This was a wonderfully pleasant surprise, but created a mad dash for the readers, director, and producer at the end.

Finally, thank you to each St. Louisan who read and/or listened to the Metamorphoses. It was fabulous to see so many excited people in the Pulitzer galleries for their first or tenth time listening to the 2,000-year-old poem

I can’t wait for the next marathon reading at the Pulitzer. I wonder what text we will read next.