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On May 5, 2003, at the annual end-of-year celebration of the Kelly Writers House, that community of writers inaugurated The Kerry Sherin Wright Prize. The "Kerry Prize" is to be an annual award, honoring the extraordinary achievement of Kerry Sherin Wright as our Director. She joined the Writers House in 1997 as our second Resident Coordinator; soon she became first person to be called "Director." Writers House-affiliated people--students, faculty, staff, Penn alumni, Philadelphia-area writers and supporters from across the U.S.--honor her and recognize the impact she has had on the development of the Writers House project as a first-rate literary venue--a place where great writing is produced and at the same time is open, extensive, and generous.
Each spring the prize will be awarded by a representative committee of Writers House-affiliated writers, chaired by the Faculty Director, to a member of the Writers House community (the hub or Planning Committee) based on proposals. The prize will go to the person who proposes to create an event or project that best captures the aesthetic capaciousness and literary communitarianism that is a founding idea of the Writers House and is indeed the hallmark of Kerry's work as our director.
The Kerry Prize will be awarded in early May of each year. The proposed event or project will happen during the following fall semester.
The prize will be awarded every year without fail so long as there is a Writers House. The amount of the prize shall be $1,000.
With support from the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW), Matthew Abess (C'08) spent the duration of Summer 2006 at the Sackner Archive of Concrete & Visual Poetry researching "concrete text-sound" poetry and in particular the work of innovative writer Bob Cobbing. Matthew's research culminated in two major projects, "Make Perhaps This Out Sense Of Can You," an exhibition of Cobbing's work at the Rosenwald Gallery of Penn's library; and this year's Kerry Sherin Wright Prize program: "Suddenly Everyone Began Reading Aloud" an evening of readings and discussion in celebration of Cobbing's the life and work.
Scott glassman and Julia Bloch used the Kerry Prize to establish a poetry series called EMERGENCY
What does it mean to be an emerging poet in America today? Does Dana Gioia's claim that "poetry has vanished as a cultural force in America" ring true for poets at the cutting edge of literary production? Does today's emerging poet face increasing isolation and shrinking audiences, or is a quiet renaissance taking place, one centered around close-knit communities, long-distance mentorships, new media, and chapbook exchange? How are theoretical stances and aesthetic practices transmitted among poets at different stages in their careers?
The Emergency Series at Kelly Writers House seeks to answer these questions, highlighting perspectives on the current state of American poetry through the diverse experiences of its practicing poets. By bringing together emerging and established poets for readings and discussions, it aims to create an ongoing dialogue about the role poetic lineage plays in a poet's development, and its impact on the vitality of the craft.
Poetry, Politics, Proximity: For this year's Kerry Sherin Wright program, hub members Josh Schuster and Jessica Lowenthal commissioned new work from six writers: C.A. Conrad, Jamie-Lee Josselyn, Jenn McCreary, Jena Osman, Frank Sherlock, and John Taggart. Josh and Jessica asked each of the six writers to compose work about the microclimate and micropolitics of their neighborhoods -- within 100 meters -- focusing, in particular, on changes and tensions they may have noticed since the recent, intense conservative turn in American governmental practice. A list of questions prompted each writer to think about a broad range of local subjects, from neighbors and their noises to the relationship between economy and ecology.
Phil's Kerry Prize proposal was to bring poet Hal Sirowitz to the House in the spring of 2005 for a reading and an afternoon workshop with Penn undergraduates. These events are scheduled to take place on March 24, 2005.
Hal Sirowitz is the author of three books of poems, Mother Said, My Therapist Said (Crown) and Before During and After (Soft Skull Press). In the spring of 2004 Father Said will be published, also by Soft Skull Press. He is the recipient of a Frederick Delius Award and The Susan Rose Recording Grant for Contemporary Jewish Music. Mother Said will be released on CD with music composed by Alla Borzova, sung by Paul Sperry. John Flansburgh of the rock group, They Might Be Giants, has recorded him for Hello Records, and the group spoke about him during their Mother's Day interview for NPR's Studio 360. Garrison Keillor has read his work on NPR's Writer's Almanac. Sirowitz has performed on MTV's Spoken Word Unplugged, PBS's Poetry Heaven, and NPR's All Things Considered. Awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a 2003 New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, Sirowitz is also the best selling translated poet in Norway, where Mother Said has been adapted for the stage and has been made into animated cartoons. Hal is the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. He has a poem in Garrison Keillor's anthology, Good Poems, in Poetry in Motion from Coast to Coast (W.W. Norton), in Poetry After 9/11 (Melville House Publishing) and in 110 Stories: Writers Respond to 9/11 (NYU Press). He worked for 25 years as a special education teacher for the New York City public schools. Hal is married to the writer Mary Minter Krotzer.
The first winner of the Kerry Sherin Wright Prize was hub member Mytili Jagannathan. Mytili's proposal brought California-based writers Sesshu Foster and Karen Tei Yamashita to the Writers House, in collaboration with Asian Arts Initiative, on September 18, 2003.
Sesshu Foster is the author of two books of poetry, Angry Days and City Terrace Field Manual, and a recent novel, Atomik Aztex. He also co-edited the anthology Invocation L.A.: Urban Multicultural Poetry.
Karen Tei Yamashita is the author of three novels, Through the Arc of the Rainforest, Brazil-Maru, and Tropic of Orange; and an experimental mixed-genre work, Circle K Cycles.
To read the 9/19/03 Daily Pennsylvanian article on this event, click here.