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All events take place at the Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia (U of P).
Saturday, 10/1
- 1:00-3:00 PM throughout the House: Write On! with students from the Penn Alexander School
Write On! brings eighth graders from the Penn Alexander School to the Writers House on Saturday afternoons to work with Penn undergraduate volunteers on creative writing skills and activities. For more information contact Jamie Alter (jlalter@sas.upenn.edu) or Danielle Rosenblatt (dmrosenb@sas.upenn.edu).
- 12:30-5:30 PM: An Open House for the Penn Writers Conference
The Kelly Writers House community welcomes participants in the Penn Writers Conference to its parlor for between-workshop relaxing and conversation. For more information about the Penn Writers Conference, or to register, see www.pennwritersconference.org.
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Sunday, 10/2
- 7 - 9:00 PM in Room 202: Makeup session for Claire Satlof's Jewish-American Fiction class.
- 9:00 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting. For more information, please contact Scott Fishman (sfishman@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Monday, 10/3
- 7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: 2-1-5 Festival Preview: A special taping of LIVE
at the Writers House, featuring performers and writers from the upcoming 2-1-5
Literary Festival - Christian Bauman, Jim Gladstone, Lord Whimsy, CAConrad, and Ron P. Swegman, with musical guest The
Absinthe Drinkers.
You can hear a recording of this program in mp3 format here.
Christian Bauman is author of the novels Voodoo Lounge and The Ice Beneath You, a regular contributor to NPR's All Things Considered, and an editor-at-large for IdentityTheory.com. He lives with his wife and daughters in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Jim Gladstone's 2002 novel, The Big Book of Misunderstanding won the ForeWord silver medal for excellence in small press fiction. He is also author of Gladstone's Games to Go and editor of Skin and Ink a book of erotic stories that all revolve around tattoos. His short stories have appeared in many anthologies, literary journals, and webzines, and his essays and cultural criticism have been published in periodicals including The New York Times Book Review, Spin, and Amsterdam's Butt magazine. He can be found on the web at www.gogladstone.com.
Lord Whimsy is also known as Allen Crawford, and sometimes also known as Mammal of Paradise. He wrote a regular column for the Philadelphia Independent and now has a book coming out this fall from Bloomsbury. You can read his livejournal blog here...http://lordwhimsy.com/. His live act is hotter than Chris Rock gone supernova.
CAConrad is the author of the soon-to-be-released Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press). The Frank Poems (Jargon Press) and advancedELVIScourse (Buck Downs Books) are also forthcoming. He co-edits Frequency: Audio Journal with Magdalena Zurawski and edits the 9X9 Project. He is also the author of several chapbooks, including "The Leo Journals."
Ron P. Swegman is the author of Philadelphia on the Fly: Tales of an Urban Angler (Frank Amato Publications, 2005). He lives, writes, draws, and casts lines in Philadelphia, PA.
The Absinthe Drinkers select poems from various periods/genres/styles and transform them into original pop/funk/rock/whatever songs. The Drinkers shows include arresting visuals and some limited theatrical lunacy. Since forming in 2000, The Drinkers have performed in a number of Philadelphia music venues and the last three Philly Fringe Festivals. The Drinkers recently completed a run of the critically acclaimed 2005 Fringe show Omphalos, featuring songs about murder, madness, and fate.
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 202: English 145.302 with Robert Strauss (straussr@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 209: English 135.303 with Marion Kant (mkant2@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-3:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 088.001 with Charles Bernstein(charles.bernstein@english.upenn.edu)
- 5:20-7:20 in Room 202: Penn and Pencil Club, a writing workshop for Penn and Health Systems staff. For more information, email John Shea at (john.shea@uphs.upenn.edu).
- 7:00 PM in Room 209: Dovetail, a reading and discussion group. For more information, please contact Ellie Kane (kaneer@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Tuesday, 10/4
- 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: A Reading and Conversation with Ken Kalfus, as part of the Cold War Project.
Born in New York in 1954, Ken Kalfus grew up in Long Island and have also lived in Paris, Dublin and Belgrade. His first collection of short stories, Thirst, was published in 1998. From 1994 to 1998 Ken Kalfus lived in Russia, where his wife Inga Saffron was the Philadelphia Inquirer's Moscow correspondent and he wrote his second book of short stories, Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies (1999). He also did research there for his novel, The Commissariat of Enlightenment, published last year by the Ecco Press imprint of HarperCollins. Some of the magazines in which his fiction and non-fiction have appeared are Harper's, the New York Times Book Review and the New York Review of Books. His books have been translated into several languages, including most recently the publication of "The Commissariat" in Dutch and Italian. Ken Kalfus now live in Philadelphia and is working on his next novel.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The Cold War Project at the University of Pennsylvania is a multi-venue, inter-departmental project that will run throughout the Fall 2005-Spring 2006 academic year. This series of events will engage critical, cultural, and political aspects of the 1946-1991 period. The Cold War Project will encompass notable guest speakers, lectures, panels, visual art exhibitions, theatre staged readings, and a year-long film series.
For information, please contact Peter Schwarz, CWP Co-Coordinator: hschwarz@sas.upenn.edu
- 9:00-10:30 AM in Room 202: English 057.001 with Max Cavitch (cavitch@english.upenn.edu)
- 10:30-12:00 PM in Room 202: English 135.304 with Valerie Ross (critwrit@writing.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 202: English 112.302 with Max Apple (maxapple@english.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 209: English 145.301 with Paul Hendrickson (phendric@english.upenn.edu)
- 6:00 PM in Room 209: 34th Street Poets Meeting. For more information, please contact Cindy Savet (savettc@comcast.net).
- 6-8:00 PM in Room 202: Latitudes, a graduate reading group in the Department of English. For more information, please contact Jeehyun Lim (jlim2@english.upenn.edu).
- 9:00 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting. For more information, please contact Scott Fishman (sfishman@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Wednesday, 10/5
- 5:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: 2-1-5 Festival Kickoff Reading
The 2-1-5 Festival Kickoff Event will feature writers from the late, lamented Philadelphia Independent. Join us for a memorable reading to jumpstart the 5th annual 2-1-5 Festival, Philadelphia's homegrown literary arts festival celebrating writers and writing. Tonight's lineup features Matt Schwartz, Jonathan Shainin, Maureen Tkacik, Christine Smallwood, Erik Bader, Lord Whimsy, Bryan Christy, and musical guest The Absinthe Drinkers. For more information about the Festival, and for a complete schedule, see the 2-1-5 Festival website.
Christine Smallwood was staff writer at the Philadelphia Independent. She has since moved to New York and is now Assistant Literary Editor at the Nation. 
Lord Whimsy is also known as Allen Crawford, and sometimes also known the Mammal of Paradise. He wrote a regular column for the Independent and now has a book coming out this fall from Bloomsbury. You can read his livejournal blog here ...http://lordwhimsy.com/. His live act is hotter than Chris Rock gone supernova. 
Erik Bader was an occasional contributer to the Philadelphia Independent and is now an even more occasional contributer to the Philadelphia Weekly. He lives with a fat gray cat on the third floor of an old building in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, where he is putting the finishing touches on his second novel, entitled True Jersey: Volume One.
Writer Bryan Christy's first job was as a mortician's apprentice. He has worked in the Executive Office of the President, for U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., as a CPA and policy adviser for Arthur Andersen, as a whitewater guide, and as a NASCAR team consultant. His education includes Tokyo University Law School, University of Michigan Law School, Cornell University Graduate School, Penn State, and time at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. A Fulbright Scholar and Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow, he has written for New York, Playboy and others. In 2004, he was nominated for a National Magazine Award.
The Absinthe Drinkers select poems from various periods/genres/styles and transform them into original pop/funk/rock/whatever songs. The Drinkers shows include arresting visuals and some limited theatrical lunacy. Since forming in 2000, The Drinkers have performed in a number of Philadelphia music venues and the last three Philly Fringe Festivals. The Drinkers recently completed a run of the critically acclaimed 2005 Fringe show Omphalos, featuring songs about murder, madness, and fate.
Recordings from this event can be found here.
- 8 PM in the Arts Cafe: SPEAKEASY: Poetry, Prose, Anything Goes!
Open-mic night at the Writers House. Come to read, or come to listen!
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 2-3:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 088.001 with Charles Bernstein(charles.bernstein@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 202: English 156.301 with Paul Hendrickson (phendric@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 209: English 115.301 with Karen Rile (krile@english.upenn.edu)
- 5-6:30 PM in Room 202: AmLit, a reading group of the Penn English Department. For more information, please contact Jarrett E. Anthony (janthon2@english.upenn.edu).
- 7:00 PM in Room 202: STEAK, a fiction group. For more information, please contact MoMoody (momoody@sas.upenn.edu).
- 9:00 PM in Room 209: Pennumbra, a science fiction/fantasy writing group for Penn students. For more information, please contact Lucy Ho (ratofsumatra@gmail.com).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Thursday, 10/6
- The 215 Literary Festival
For more information about the festival see 215 Literary Festival website
- 5:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: A Celebration of Anthony
DeCurtis's new
book, In Other Words: Artists Talk About Life and Work, with
readings by friends and former students. Hosted by Anthony
DeCurtis. This program was recorded and is
now available in free downloadable MP3 files. Click here to see the
list of performers and find links to their readings.
In Other Words: Artists Talk about Life and Work Anthony DeCurtis's new book features 39 interviews with music legends, groundbreaking directors, artistic provocateurs, and rising visionaries, many of which were originally published in Rolling Stone and The New York Times. Included are interviews with Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Bono, Elton John, David Bowie, Rufus Wainwright and Martin Scorsese. DeCurtis has added new introductions for each interview that offer a behind-the-scenes view of these legendary figures, as well as including previously unreleased material and interviews. Come to congratulate DeCurtis and hear him read from the book that the New York Post has called "an essential book for anyone fascinated by the creative process."
Introductions by Al Filreis and Tom Devaney. Presentations and readings by Anthony DeCurtis reading from his interview with Iggy Pop, Paul Raushenbush reading from his interview on spirituality with Anthony DeCurtis, Anthony DeCurtis reading from his interview with Paul McCartney, Steven Volk reading from his article on David Bowie fans, Anthony DeCurtis reading from his interview with David Bowie, Daniel McQuade reading from his article on graduationg from Penn, Anthony DeCurtis reading from his interview with Keith Richards, Cassidy Hartmann reading from her article on the Iraq war, Tom Moon reading from his interview with Ryan Adams.
Anthony DeCurtis is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine, where he has written since 1980. One of the most acclaimed writers on popular music in the country, he is the author of Rocking My Life Away: Writing About Music and Other Matters (1999), editor of Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture (1992), co-editor of The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll (1995) and The Rolling Stone Music Guide (third edition)(1992), and guest editor of The Best in Rock Fiction (2004). His essay accompanying the Eric Clapton box set, Crossroads, won a Grammy in the "Best Album Notes" category in 1988. DeCurtis holds a Ph.D. in American Literature and is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania.
- 9:00 PM: LIVE at the Writers House airs on WXPN 88.5 FM, featuring performers and writers from the 2-1-5 Literary Festival: Christian Bauman and Jim Gladstone with musical guest The Absinthe Drinkers.
- 9:00-10:30 AM in Room 202: English 057.001 with Max Cavitch (cavitch@english.upenn.edu)
- 10:30-12:00 PM in Room 202: English 135.304 with Valerie Ross (critwrit@writing.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 209: English 135.301 with Max Apple (maxapple@english.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 202: English 117.301 with Anthony DeCurtis (adecurtis@aol.com)
- 8:00 PM in Room 209: In Words meeting. For more information, contact Grant Potts (gpotts@ccat.sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Friday, 10/7
- The 215 Literary Festival
For more information about the festival see 215 Literary Festival website
- 3:00 - 5:00 PM throughout the House: Write On! with students from the Lea Elementary School
Write On! brings eighth graders from the Lea Elementary School to the Writers House on Friday afternoons to work with Penn undergraduate volunteers on creative writing skills and activities. For more information contact Elaine Braithwaite (ebraithw@sas.upenn.edu) or Paul Townsend (ptownsen@sas.upenn.edu).
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Saturday, 10/8
- 1:00-3:00 PM throughout the House: Write On! with students from the Penn Alexander School
Write On! brings eighth graders from the Penn Alexander School to the Writers House on Saturday afternoons to work with Penn undergraduate volunteers on creative writing skills and activities. For more information contact Jamie Alter (jlalter@sas.upenn.edu) or Danielle Rosenblatt (dmrosenb@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Sunday, 10/9
- 6-9:00 PM in Room 209: Pandora's Box meeting. For more information contact Carrie Alexander (carriela@sas.upenn.edu).
- 6-9:00 PM in Room 202: CPCW movie screening.
- 9:00 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting. For more information, please contact Scott Fishman (sfishman@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Monday, 10/10
- 5:00 PM: Writers House Planning Committee ("Hub") Meeting and Gathering. (For more information about the "hub" or to RSVP, write to wh@writing.upenn.edu.)
- 7:30 PM: A Word.doc event - special guest Barry Bub, M.D.
What are those "invisible" boundaries frequently spoken about by therapists yet rarely by other professionals including physicians? Relationships with friends, loved ones, colleagues, and patients are dependent on an awareness, understanding and respect of healthy, fluid, flexible boundaries. In this workshop, we will creatively explore an important topic that will enhance your ability to create feelings of safety, encourage communication in those you connect with as well as protect you from unhealthy relationships.
Physician/psychotherapist/educator/author, Barry Bub, M.D. is a member of the AMA physician health initiative commitee. A family physician for almost 30 years, he retrained in Gestalt, psychotherapy, and chaplaincy and now innovates new concepts in holistic medicine. Dr. Bub teaches and confidentially mentors physicians on issues of communication and self care. He has taught nationally for such organizations as the American Psychiatric Association, AMA, AAPP, NICABM and at numerous hospitals, medical schools and retreat centers. He is author of ProcessMedicine.com and Communication Skills that Heal (Radcliffe Medical Press, 2005).
Word.doc, Penn's student-run and conceived narrative medicine group, aims to gather students, graduate students, faculty, and anyone who is interested in writing and narrative medicine to discuss and experience the ways in which medicine, narrative, literature and art can inform and broaden one another. For more information or to join, contact Kerry Cooperman at kerryc@sas.upenn.edu.
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 202: English 145.302 with Robert Strauss (straussr@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 209: English 135.303 with Marion Kant (mkant2@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-3:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 088.001 with Charles Bernstein(charles.bernstein@english.upenn.edu)
- 6:00 PM in Room 209: 34th Street Poets Meeting. For more information, please contact Cindy Savet (savettc@comcast.net).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Tuesday, 10/11
- 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: Information Session about 2006 Pew Fellowships in the Arts. Please feel
free to bring a lunch.
An informational meeting to review the application requirements, discuss the selection process, and answer questions about the fellowships. This year's categories are Poetry, Performance Arts, and Sculpture/Installation. For more information, call the PFA office at 215-875-2285 or visit the website at www.pewarts.org.
- 9:00-10:30 AM in Room 202: English 057.001 with Max Cavitch (cavitch@english.upenn.edu)
- 10:30-12:00 PM in Room 202: English 135.304 with Valerie Ross (critwrit@writing.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 202: English 112.302 with Max Apple (maxapple@english.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 209: English 145.301 with Paul Hendrickson (phendric@english.upenn.edu)
- 4:30-6:00 PM in Room 202: Proposals Hublet meeting; For more information, contact Erin Gautsche at (gautsche@writing.upenn.edu).
- 5-7:00 PM in the Dining Room: Talk Poets meeting. For more information, contact Jessice Lowenthal (jalowent@sas.upenn.edu).
- 6-8:00 PM in room 209: Suppose an Eyes poetry group; for more information, email Pat Green at (patgreen@vet.upenn.edu).
- 9:00 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting. For more information, please contact Scott Fishman (sfishman@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Wednesday, 10/12
- 12-1:00 PM in the Dining Room: All-CPCW Staff Lunch Sessions
- 5:30-7 PM in the Arts Cafe: Art Gallery Reception for Still from the Cinematic Street: Photography by Ted Adams.
Ted Adams moved to Philadelphia in 1988 at a time when Philadelphia, a largely working-class industrial city, continued to experience a period of profound urban decline and malaise that in later years would dissolve into the current period of expanding gentrification. It is within this process, where remnants of both worlds co-exist (not always seamlessly), where Adams situates himself and his work. During the course of his twenty-two year photographic career, Adams has presented his work at the Arts Bank, Da Vinci Art Alliance, Franklin & Marshall College, Nexus Foundation, and WXPN-FM. In addition, Adams' work has been published in the Philadelphia Independent. Adams is a member of the Philadelphia Conference, the Philadelphia Photographic Society, the Print Center, and the Plastic Club.
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 2-3:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 088.001 with Charles Bernstein(charles.bernstein@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 202: English 156.301 with Paul Hendrickson (phendric@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 209: English 115.301 with Karen Rile (krile@english.upenn.edu)
- 7:30 PM in Room 209: Reality Writes Meeting; for more information, contact Mary Hale Meyer (mhmeyer65@earthlink.net).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Thursday, 10/13
- 5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: An event with Kenneth Goldsmith's "Writing Through Culture and Art" course. Special Guest TBA.
- 9:00-10:30 AM in Room 202: English 057.001 with Max Cavitch (cavitch@english.upenn.edu)
- 10:30-12:00 PM in Room 202: English 135.304 with Valerie Ross (critwrit@writing.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 209: English 135.301 with Max Apple (maxapple@english.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 202: English 117.301 with Anthony DeCurtis (adecurtis@aol.com)
- 6:30 PM in Room 209: Calliope meeting. For more information, please contact Katie Fleishman kmfleish@sas.upenn.edu.
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Friday, 10/14
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Saturday, 10/15
- Writers House closed for Fall Break
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Sunday, 10/16
- Writers House closed for Fall Break
- 9:00 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting. For more information, please contact Scott Fishman (sfishman@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Monday, 10/17
- Writers House closed for Fall Break
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Tuesday, 10/18
- Writers House closed for Fall Break
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Wednesday, 10/19
- 12-1:00 PM in the Dining Room: A lunch discussion with author Greg Downs, hosted by Karen Rile's Advanced Fiction class. Please RSVP to wh@writing.upenn.edu to reserve a seat.
- 6:00 PM: A reading by Clayton Eshleman.
Clayton Eshleman is a poet, translator, essayist, and editor. Black Sparrow Press published 13 of his collections between 1968 and 2004, the most recent being My Devotion (2004). He is the main American translator of Cesar Vallejo, Aime Cesaire, and Antonin Artaud. His Vallejo translations have received the National Book Award, and the Landon Translation Prize from the Academy of American Poets. He was the founder and editor of Caterpillar magazine (1967-1973, 20 issues) and Sulfur magazine (1981-2000, 46 issues). In 2003, Wesleyan University Press published his Juniper Fuse: Upper Paleolithic Imagination & the Construction of the Underworld, the fruits of a 25 year investigation of the origins of image-making via the Ice Age painted caves of southwestern France. In her Introduction to Companion Spider (Wesleyan, 2002), Adrienne Rich wrote: "This is the accumulated prose-work of a poet and translator who has gone more deeply into his art, its process and demands, than any modern American poet since Robert Duncan or Muriel Rukeyser." Recent poems, translations, and prose by CE may be found in Poets & Writers magazine, APR, New American Writing, Hunger, House Organ, and Verse. This fall, The Chronicle will publish a long interview with CE conducted by Dale Smith.
At the Writers House, Eshleman will do a program based on his book, Juniper Fuse: Upper Paleotlihic Imagination & the Construction of the Underworld (Wesleyan, 2003), a 25 year investigation of the origins of image-making, and the roots of poetry, via the Ice Age painted caves of southwestern France. CE will read poetry and prose from Juniper Fuse, and show slides of cave images, after which he will be happy to respond to audience questions and comments.
This reading was recorded and is available for free through PENNsound.
Greg Downs is a fiction writer and historian who lives in West Philadelphia with his wife Diane. He is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. History at Penn and has an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, which awarded him a Michener Fellowship. His book of short stories, Caught Up in the Past, was named the winner of the 2006 Flannery O'Connor Prize and will be published in Oct. 2006 by the University of Georgia Press.
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 2-3:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 088.001 with Charles Bernstein(charles.bernstein@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 202: English 156.301 with Paul Hendrickson (phendric@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 209: English 115.301 with Karen Rile (krile@english.upenn.edu)
- 7:00 PM in Room 202: STEAK, a fiction group. For more information, please contact MoMoody (momoody@sas.upenn.edu).
- 9:00 PM in Room 209: Pennumbra, a science fiction/fantasy writing group for Penn students. For more information, please contact Lucy Ho (ratofsumatra@gmail.com).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Thursday, 10/20
- 12:30 PM in the Dining Room and Arts Cafe: A Lunchtime Conversation with Raphael Rubinstein. RSVP required to
wh@writing.upenn.edu.
Raphael Rubinstein is the author of a collection of poems, The Basement of the Cafe Rilke (1997), a book of autobiographical prose, Postcards from Alphaville (2000) and Polychrome Profusion: Selected Art Criticism 1990-2002 (2003), all published by Hard Press Editions. A new collection of poems is forthcoming from Make Now Press. His poetry has appeared in many publications, including Grand Street, American Poetry Review and The Oulipo Compendium.
He is also the co-author of monographs on Norman Bluhm and Claude Viallat. His most recent book, translated into French by Marcel Cohen, is En Quete de Miracle: Cinquante épisodes extraits des annales de l'art contemporain (Editions Greges, Montpellier, 2004). Forthcoming books include his translation of Cohen's In Search of a Lost Ladino: Letter to Antonio Saura (Ibis Editions, Jerusalem) and an anthology titled Critical Mess: Contemporary Art Critics on the State of their Practice. He has been writing about contemporary art since 1986, mostly for Art in America, where he is a Senior Editor. In 2002, the French government presented him with the award of Chevalier dans l'Order des Arts et des Lettres.
Raphael Rubinstein appears at the Writers House through Kenneth Goldsmith's "Writing Through Culture and Art" course, a collaboration of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing and the Institute for Contemporary Art.
At this event Rubinstein read from In Search of the Miraculous, which he described as "fifty short texts each devoted to one artist." "Some of them," he added, "are real figures and some are fictional figures." (The selections he read at this program were all about actual artists--some, he said, were eminent and thus would be recognizable by the audience, while others were more obscure. This program was recorded and is available as a free downloadable PennSound mp3 here. This program is also featured as a Kelly Writers House podcast.
- 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: A reading by Albert Goldbarth hosted by Penn's Creative Writing
Program. A reception and dinner will follow the reading. To reserve a seat for dinner, please RSVP to
wh@writing.upenn.edu.
Albert Goldbarth is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, and the winner of two National Book Critics Circle Awards: for Saving Lives (2001) and Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology (1991). He has also written two collections of essays, A Sympathy of Souls and Great Topics of the World. Comparing his work to film, Library Journal has said: "Goldbarth's sensibility is one of the few that deserves to be called cinematic: he works like an avant-garde filmmaker, with the verbal-aesthetic equivalents of jump-cut editing and the hand-held camera."
Goldbarth received his B.A. in English at University of Illinois and earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. He has taught at Cornell University, Syracuse University, and University of Texas at Austin, and Witchita State University in Kansas, where he is currently the Distinguished Professor of Humanities.
This reading was recorded and is available for free through PENNsound.
- 9:00-10:30 AM in Room 202: English 057.001 with Max Cavitch (cavitch@english.upenn.edu)
- 10:30-12:00 PM in Room 202: English 135.304 with Valerie Ross (critwrit@writing.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 209: English 135.301 with Max Apple (maxapple@english.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 202: English 117.301 with Anthony DeCurtis (adecurtis@aol.com)
- 4:30-6:00 PM in Room 202: Modernist Reading Group; for more information, contact Benjy Kahan (kahan@sas.upenn.edu).
- 8:00 PM in Room 209: In Words meeting. For more information, contact Grant Potts (gpotts@ccat.sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Friday, 10/21
- 12-1:30 PM in the Dining Room: Critical Writing Program event
- 3:00 - 5:00 PM throughout the House: Write On! with students from the Lea Elementary School
Write On! brings eighth graders from the Lea Elementary School to the Writers House on Friday afternoons to work with Penn undergraduate volunteers on creative writing skills and activities. For more information contact Elaine Braithwaite (ebraithw@sas.upenn.edu) or Paul Townsend (ptownsen@sas.upenn.edu).
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Saturday, 10/22
- 1:00 - 3:00 PM throughout the House: Write On! with students from the Penn Alexander School
Write On! brings eighth graders from the Penn Alexander School to the Writers House on Saturday afternoons to work with Penn undergraduate volunteers on creative writing skills and activities. For more information contact Jamie Alter (jlalter@sas.upenn.edu) or Danielle Rosenblatt (dmrosenb@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Sunday, 10/23
- 6-9:00 PM in Room 202: Pandora's Box meeting. For more information contact Carrie Alexander (carriela@sas.upenn.edu).
- 9:00 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting. For more information, please contact Scott Fishman (sfishman@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Monday, 10/24
- 4:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: The Sixth Annual Gay Talese Lecture, featuring poet, critic, and National Endowment for
the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia. Presented by the Kelly Writers House in collaboration with the National Italian American Foundation. A reception will follow; please RSVP to
wh@writing.upenn.edu.
The annual Gay Talese Lecture Series was conceived of and is supported by the National Italian American Foundation
(NIAF) in conjunction with the Kelly Writers House. Each year for the past five years, the National Italian American
Foundation has sponsored one public performance by an Italian American author of note, held at the Kelly Writers House. To
read more about the Gay Talese Lecture Series, its past speakers, and NIAF's recently instituted lecture series at Villanova
University, click here. Poet, critic, and best-selling anthologist, Dana Gioia is one of America's leading contemporary men of letters. Winner of the American Book Award, Gioia is internationally recognized for his role in reviving rhyme, meter, and narrative in contemporary poetry. An influential critic, he has combined populist ideals and high standards to bring poetry to a broader audience.
Trained in comparative literature, Gioia has been an active translator of poetry from Latin, Italian, German, and Romanian. He has published a translation of the Italian Nobel Prize-winning poet Eugenio Montale's Mottetti (1990) as well as two large anthologies of Italian poetry. His translation of Seneca’s The Madness of Hercules (1995) was performed by Verse Theater Manhattan.
Gioia's poems, translations, essays, and reviews have appeared in many magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and The Hudson Review. Gioia has published three full-length books of poetry, Daily Horoscope (1986), The Gods of Winter (1991), and Interrogations at Noon (2001). He is also a long time commentator on American culture and literature for BBC Radio. Since February 2003, he has also been serving as chairman of the NEA.
The Penn Current reported on this lecture.
Download a recording of this event here.
- 7:30 PM in Room 202:
A screening and discussion of The Good Fight, presented by Al Filreis for The Cold War ProjectPOSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!The Cold War Project at the University of Pennsylvania is a multi-venue, inter-departmental project that will run throughout the Fall 2005-Spring 2006 academic year. This series of events will engage critical, cultural, and political aspects of the 1946-1991 period. The Cold War Project will encompass notable guest speakers, lectures, panels, visual art exhibitions, theatre staged readings, and a year-long film series.
For information, please contact Peter Schwarz, CWP Co-Coordinator: hschwarz@sas.upenn.edu
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 202: English 145.302 with Robert Strauss (straussr@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 209: English 135.303 with Marion Kant (mkant2@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-3:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 088.001 with Charles Bernstein(charles.bernstein@english.upenn.edu)
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Tuesday, 10/25
- 7:00 PM: Reading and Launch Party for Quake
Quake is the University of Pennsylvania's first literary erotica magazine. Quake is student-run, University recognized, and dedicated to the principle that sex should be both enjoyed and discussed. The publication will showcase the prose, poetry, and photography of Penn undergraduates from all sexualities and backgrounds. Inquiries and submissions are welcome year round at pennquake@gmail.com.
- 9:00-10:30 AM in Room 202: English 057.001 with Max Cavitch (cavitch@english.upenn.edu)
- 10:30-12:00 PM in Room 202: English 135.304 with Valerie Ross (critwrit@writing.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 202: English 112.302 with Max Apple (maxapple@english.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 209: English 145.301 with Paul Hendrickson (phendric@english.upenn.edu)
- 6-8:00 PM in room 209: Suppose an Eyes poetry group; for more information, email Pat Green a (patgreen@vet.upenn.edu).
- 6:00 PM in Room 202: 34th Street Poets Meeting. For more information, please contact Cindy Savet (savettc@comcast.net).
- 9:00 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting. For more information, please contact Scott Fishman (sfishman@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Wednesday, 10/26
- 8:00 PM: Spookeasy!
Come join us for the annual Halloween edition of our open-mic series at the Writers House. Come to perform or come to listen!
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 2-3:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 088.001 with Charles Bernstein(charles.bernstein@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 202: English 156.301 with Paul Hendrickson (phendric@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 209: English 115.301 with Karen Rile (krile@english.upenn.edu)
- 5-6:30 PM in Room 202: The American Literature seminar. For more information, please contact Jarrett Anthony (janthon2@dept.english.upenn.edu).
- 6:30-8 PM in Room 202: Lacan Study Group; For more information, contact Patricia Gherovici at (pgherovici@aol.com)
- 7:30 PM in Room 209: Reality Writes Meeting; for more information, contact Mary Hale Meyer (mhmeyer65@earthlink.net).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Thursday, 10/27
- 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: A reading and conversation with novelist Judith Frank, cosponsored by Penn's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center.
Judith Frank was born in Chicago and raised in Evanston, IL. When she was seventeen her family moved to Israel, where she lived for six years; she attended college at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has an MFA in fiction writing and a PhD in English literature from Cornell University. Her first book, Common Ground: Eighteenth-Century English Satiric Fiction and the Poor (Stanford UP, 1997), is a book of literary criticism that studies the impact of the poor on the rise of the novel in England. She has published stories in other voices, The Massachusetts Review, and Best Lesbian Love Stories 2005 (Alyson Press). In 2000, she was awarded the Astraea Foundation's Emerging Lesbian Writers Fund prize in fiction. Her first novel, Crybaby Butch (Firebrand, 2004), recently won a Lambda Literary Award for Debut Lesbian Fiction, and is a finalist for the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award. She is currently working on a second novel, tentatively called Noah's Ark, which is about queerness, parenting, terrorism, and the Israeli occupation. She teaches English at Amherst College.
Crybaby Butch is a novel about living in a deviant gender, about the tremors in one's identity set off by upward mobility, and about the pleasure and pain of reading. Tracing the relationship between Anna Singer, a young, middle-class butch lesbian who teaches adult basic education, and Chris Rinaldi, an older, working-class, illiterate butch who becomes her student, it centers upon the often comic identifications and misunderstandings between them, as these women of different social classes, generations, and temperaments engage in the intimate interactions of the classroom.
Download a recording of this event here.
- 9:00-10:30 AM in Room 202: English 057.001 with Max Cavitch (cavitch@english.upenn.edu)
- 10:30-12:00 PM in Room 202: English 135.304 with Valerie Ross (critwrit@writing.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 209: English 135.301 with Max Apple (maxapple@english.upenn.edu)
- 1:30-4:30 PM in Room 202: English 117.301 with Anthony DeCurtis (adecurtis@aol.com)
- 5:00 PM in Room 209: the Eighteenth Century Reading group presents Dahlia Porter (University of Pennsylvania) on "Method, Form and Format in Lyrical Ballads." For more information, please contact Jared Richman (richman@english.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Friday, 10/28
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Saturday, 10/29
- 12:00-2:00 PM in the Dining Room and Arts Cafe: Write On! Lea School End of Year Celebration!!
Join us as we celebrate the end of another year of Write On! with the Lea Elementary School -- all are welcome!
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Sunday, 10/30
- 12:00-2:00 PM in the Dining Room and Arts Cafe: Write On! Penn Alexander End of Year Celebration!
Join us as we celebrate the first-ever Write On! collaboration with students from the Penn Alexander School. All are welcome!
- 6-9:00 PM in Room 202: CPCW movie screening.
- 6-9:00 PM in the Dining Room: Pandora's Box meeting. For more information contact Carrie Alexander (carriela@sas.upenn.edu).
- 8:00 PM in Room 209: Pennumbra, a science fiction/fantasy writing group for Penn students. For more information, please contact Lucy Ho (ratofsumatra@gmail.com).
- 9:00 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting. For more information, please contact Scott Fishman (sfishman@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Monday, 10/31
- 12:30 PM: Lunch with David Hickey.
Dave Hickey is a free-lance writer of fiction and cultural criticism. He has served as owner-director of A Clean Well-Lighted Place gallery in Austin, Texas, as director of the Reese Palley Gallery in New York City, as Executive Editor of Art in America Magazine in New York City, and as Contributing Editor to The Texas Observer, The Village Voice, Art Issues, Parkett and Context. He has written for most major American cultural publications including The Rolling Stone, Art News, Art in America, Artforum, Interview, Harper's Magazine, Vanity Fair, Nest, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has published a volume of short fiction, Prior Convictions, with the SMU Press. His critical essays on art have been collected in two volumes published by Art Issues Press, The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993), which is in its sixth printing, and Air Guitar, Essays on Art and Democracy (1998), now in its fourth printing. His most recent book, Stardumb (Artspace Press, 1999), is a collection of stories with drawings by artist John DeFazi. He has two books in production at the University of Chicago Press: Connoisseur of Waves, More Essays on Art and Democracy (2006) and Feint of Heart: Essays on Individual Artists (two volumes)(2008)
Hickey holds the position of Schaeffer Professor of Modern Letters at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He will also serve as Distinguished Visiting Professor at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles from 2004 to 2006. He was recently awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for 2002-2007. In May 2003, he received an honorary degree from The Rhode Island School of Design.
- 10-11:00 AM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 11-12:00 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.302 with Keally McBride (keally@sas.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 202: English 145.302 with Robert Strauss (straussr@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-5:00 PM in Room 209: English 135.303 with Marion Kant (mkant2@english.upenn.edu)
- 2-3:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 088.001 with Charles Bernstein(charles.bernstein@english.upenn.edu)
- 7:00 PM in Room 209: Dovetail, a reading and discussion group. For more information, please contact Ellie Kane (kaneer@sas.upenn.edu).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.