"We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are."

These words - from Anne Lamott's famous Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life - seem to me a perfect epigraph for this exciting first year of Writers Without Borders, the Provost's International Writers Series at the Kelly Writers House.

"Who we are" in the current world is inescapably global. Our identities take shape in a wider global community; yet it is often hard for us to grasp this abstraction in our daily lives.

It is writers and other artists who can help us all understand, in vivid and tangible ways, what it means to be global citizens in the 21st century. That is why this series will bring together Penn's vital commitment to global engagement with the activism and inspiration of some of the world's most compelling writers.

I join Al Filreis and his invaluable Kelly Writers House in welcoming you on this voyage of communal and global discovery.

Ronald J. Daniels
Provost and Professor of Law
The University of Pennsylvania