Kelly Writers House Staff 2025-2026
The staff is an integral part of the House, coming together with the Planning Committee to generate ideas, as well as ensuring that readings, musical performances, screenings, publicity, and fundraising plans go off without a hitch. We are open to ideas, questions and comments you may have, so drop us a line.
Faculty Director: Al Filreis
Al is Kelly Professor of English and Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing and is one of the founders of the Writers House, along with an intrepid group of students, faculty and staff whom he led into the cottage at 3805 Locust back in October of 1995. He has been the Faculty Director of the Writers House ever since. He has taught the Writers House Fellows seminar since 2000, and created the Writers House Book Groups among other projects; he has won the Lindback Award and the Meyer Abrams Award for Distinguished Teaching and was chosen as the Pennsylvania Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation in 1999. He has published books on modern poetry and has written extensively on poetry and politics and radical literary generations. Here is Al's web site.
Director: Jessica Lowenthal
Jessica has been the Director of Kelly Writers House since 2005, and an active member of its Planning Committee since 2003. As of 2010 she's the associate publisher of Jacket2. In 2009, Jessica's daughter Alice (pictured, reading spreadsheets) joined the KWH community. Jessica holds an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop, an MA in English from Penn, and an AB in English from Brown -- and she's putting her education to work daily, directing the activities of this vibrant and experimental literary community. Jessica's reading interests are eclectic: she loves experimental poetry, trashy novels, cookbooks, and the Philly weeklies. Visit Jessica in room 109 (all the way in the back of the house) and you'll find her eager to talk about ways you can get involved in the Writers House community.
Program Coordinator: Alli Katz
Alli Katz is the Program Coordinator for the Kelly Writers House. She's lived in West Philly since she graduated from Oberlin College in 2006, but she still introduces herself as "being from Chicago." In her sort-of-free time, she's taught comic book workshops to the cool kids at Mighty Writers, pretends to be Ernest Hemingway for City Paper, and is good at etch-a-sketching. You can find Alli all the way at the back of the house in 109 to talk about the internet, graphic novels, the 1989 NBC primetime lineup, scheduling rooms for group meetings, and working for KWH.
Associate Director of Development and Finance: Andrew Beal
Andrew Beal has a BA from Miami University in Theater, a graduate certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and took some classes at Fels Institute of Government, University of Pennsylvania. He has previously worked at a few theaters up and down the east coast, helped keep historic Plays and Players Theater alive, and briefly operated a probably illegal performing arts space in an empty restaurant on South Street. He is along for the ride with his daughter Rory and wife Rachel.
Assistant Program Coordinator: Heidi Kalloo
Heidi is the one in the pink hat. They graduated in 2018 from Swarthmore College with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Japanese. They live in South Philly with their two cats and spend their time writing cybertext and playing video games. They will definitely be your friend if you want.
Associate Director for Recruitment: Jamie-Lee Josselyn
Jamie-Lee Josselyn is from Epping, New Hampshire, and has lived in Philadelphia since 2001. She directs KWH’s student recruitment efforts and our Summer Workshop for Young Writers, serves as an advisor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and teaches in the Creative Writing Program. She is also the host of the podcast Dead Parents Society. Jamie-Lee received a BA from Penn in English and French and an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College. She has published personal essays on topics ranging from her mother's life and death to her experience attending cat shows. When not on campus, Jamie-Lee may be performing some feat of endurance: running a long way, biking an even longer way, or consuming a massive quantity of food. Jamie-Lee lives in South Philadelphia with her gentlemanfriend, her dog, and her two cats.
Assistant to the Faculty Director: Sophia DuRose
Sophia DuRose likes puns and pugs. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021, and is now an MFA Candidate at Temple University, studying poetry. She works as Assistant to the Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House, coordinating the Fellows Seminar and their online book groups. She works as a Teaching Assistant for the (free!) massive open online classroom, ModPo. Some of her publications include Postcards to the Past: (Re-)Writing the Poets’ Archive with Oxford University Press.
Development and Records Assistant: Meagan Thomas
Meagan is the Development and Records Assistant at the KWH. They help Julia and Andrew from the Hub Office. Meagan grew up in Connecticut and has a BA in creative writing from Bryn Mawr College. They write a little bit of everything, but these days mostly talk about science fiction and horror. They have a short stories upcoming in Fantasy & Science Fiction and Tales to Terrify. If you want to get them talking, ask about fencing. Their favorite piece of punctuation is the em dash.
Digital Projects Manager: Zach Carduner
Zach is… well, okay, so, it’s basically, like, the way it started, like, his working at the Writers House, I mean, is… well here’s basically the gist of it. There’s this building, you know, it’s the old—well, it’s green and maybe a bit red, parts are red, it could be called a Victorian cottage, that’s what people seem to say generally at least, and that’s where he works now, in this, like, room—it’s a new room, not Victorian like the rest of the house, so you can forget that first part—no, let me start over. The Wexler Studio, it’s a recording studio, with microphones and, not, like, not really a radio station, but that’s beside the point—see, the way Zach fits in, is—well, actually he was here before the studio, so maybe that’s not the best way to describe it either. To get more to the point, there’s a house—the House—and Zach and, Zach and the House, that’s how it is now, and that’s how it’s been for a while, and sometimes that’s like, that’s how it goes.
Digital Projects Coordinator: Magda Andrews-Hoke
Magda Andrews-Hoke grew up in Philadelphia. She studied English and Linguistics at Yale University and Religion and Literature at the University of St. Andrews. Now she lives in West Philly with 5 roommates & 3 cats and likes to play guitar, sew, listen to the Indigo Girls, and walk around. She writes poems.
Video Editor: Makena Deveraux
And if you ask me how I'm feeling
Night Manager: Peter Schwarz
Peter dreams of moving to Corsica where he would own a 1966 Shelby Cobra, eat civet de sanglier (wild boar) but obviously not every day, write a novel about something and learn Turkish. He'll settle for a Doberman puppy for now.
Assistant to Sophia DuRose: Samantha Bohn
I get a bio? Nice. Always wanted one of those. It's not a real bio though, right, if I'm writing it for myself. What if you wrote it for me? No? Well, why not? What do you mean, "I just work here"?
Sam is in her final semester at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a learning assistant for the Kelly Writers House first-year seminar and a managing editor at Fish Barrel Review. Her creative thesis in poetry is titled Everyday Emotion.
Editorial Assistant: Chelsea Branch
Chelsea is a freshman in the College studying neuroscience. She is obsessed with music, so please ask her for song recommendations and the links to her Spotify playlists. She is also an aspiring (and very talented) DJ, who is happy to perform at your various functions.
Media Assistant: Ezinma Aguwa
Ezinma Aguwa snuck into the Writers House through CURF in the last year possible, and has somehow stayed without alerting suspicion despite not actually being a writer. Ezinma has likely considered doing every major in the College (and some in SEAS), but has settled on 2 or 3 for now.
Media Assistant: Kenza Aissaoui
Kenza Aissaoui is a junior in the College majoring in both International Relations and Cinema & Media Studies! She spends all her time watching movies “for research.”
Media Assistant: Andrew Qiu
Andrew is the only member on the student staff in Wharton. Despite claiming he's not like the other Wharton students, he faces constant ridicule and prejudice from his so-called Writers House friends in the College. If you ever see him in the Writers House please give him either pecans or peaches as a snack.
Photographer and Program Assistant: Bella Romeo
Bella is a freshman in the College studying creative writing and film-- obviously since she loves binge-watching shows and making video edits. She also loves anything related to diamonds and glitter!
Program Archivist and Scrapbooker: María Fernanda Osegueda Morales
Currently learning (and failing) to cook an omelette
Program Assistant: Amara Ali
Amara is a junior in the College studying English. She is an avid cilantro hater and a fellow left-hander. In her free time she enjoys wearing fuzzy socks and wrapping her cat up in a blanket to make him look like a purrito.
Program Assistant: Vicky Avanesov
Vicky's favorite book is currently The Unbearable Lightness of Being. She says, quote "it's probably because I have the unbearable tendency to swag until I die."
Program Assistant: Lex Bartee
I(Lex) is a senior linguistics major in the College of Arts and Sciences who will hopefully know what law school she is attending by the time this post is updated. She has worked at KWH for the last 4 years, and has developed a deep love of KWH staff, Kelly's brown couch by the arts cafe, and Alli's potato soup.
Program Assistant: Prakriti Dhamala
I am a Freshman planning on majoring in Biology. I was born in Nepal, but grew up in Maryland. I am a loyal fan of Lana Del Rey and boba.
Program Assistant: Nik Donoughe
Nik is a senior at Penn majoring in English and Political Science. Throughout their time at the Kelly Writers House, they’ve taken on a variety of roles, including Program Assistant and LIVE Assistant. In their final semester, they’re taking things a bit more lightly while completing a creative writing thesis — a Southern gothic horror exploring vampirism, race, and queer desire in the 1920s Deep South.
Program Assistant: Laura Gboloo
Laura is a senior in the College studying political science and sociology. She loves Sally Rooney, wiener schnitzel, and LSU football, so don't bring any of these things up around her unless you're ready for a 45-minute convo...
Program Assistant: Sophia Hall
Sophia Hall lives a double life: poet by day, secret agent by night. Just don't tell anyone.
Program Assistant: Zahra Kücük
Zahra had to think a super lot about writing this bio but couldn't find anything funny to say so just know that she likes yellow and trees and sparrows and such!
Program Assistant: Jay Adrian Lotivio
Jay’s a freshman probably studying environmental science, who earnestly believes that STEM majors can write creatively too. Jay probably likes red velvet cakes and nonfiction, definitely talk to him to confirm.
Program Assistant: Masi Matthew
Writing is fun!
Program Assistant: Sara Ugbana
Sara allegedly comes from the great state of California. Go Valkyries?
Purchasing Librarian: Stephanie Hernandez
Hello! My name is Stephanie Hernandez, and I'm a current sophomore at Penn. I plan to major in English and possibly minor in Creative Writing or Political Science. In my free time, I love going on hikes and watching movies. Ive been on the books and finance team at KWH since my Freshman year.
Webmaster: Azzaya Galsandum
Azzaya likes apples, bananas, and grapes.
Webmaster: Ife Watts
Ife is a person of many talents (though none of them include coding, despite the job description). They love to bake, write poetry, and yapping. They also have a doppelgänger on campus, the real Ife is the one with the funky hair.