February 2026
Sunday, 2/1/2026
Monday, 2/2/2026
A Meeting of the Writers House Planning Committee
5:30 PM in person
Join us for a meeting of the Writers House Planning Committee (also known as "the Hub") — the core group of engaged students, staff, faculty, and volunteers who help make things happen at Writers House. Anyone is welcome to become a Hub member by participating in Hub activities and helping out. Members of the Hub plan programs, share ideas, and discuss upcoming projects.
Tuesday, 2/3/2026
Wednesday, 2/4/2026
Thursday, 2/5/2026
Friday, 2/6/2026
Saturday, 2/7/2026
Sunday, 2/8/2026
Monday, 2/9/2026
Chili Cook Off
5:30 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
It’s time for our annual Kelly Writers House Chili Cook-Off! To participate, please make a big batch of your best chili and bring it to the KWH ready to eat by 5:30 PM for a community tasting. (You can also participate by coming to eat chili). Awards will be given in a number of categories, including Best Chili. The Writers House Cook-Off is open to teams and individuals. We’ll reimburse you up to $50 for ingredients (so hang on to your receipts).
Tuesday, 2/10/2026
Wednesday, 2/11/2026
Speakeasy Open Mic Night
Poetry, prose, anything goes
7:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Our student-run open mic night welcomes all kinds of readings and performances. A sign-up sheet will be available when you arrive and you’ll have three minutes at the podium to perform. Bring your poetry, your guitar, your dance troupe, your award-winning essay, or your flash fiction to share – or just come to celebrate your classmates, colleagues, and fellow writers.
Thursday, 2/12/2026
Food Editors in Conversation
Margaret Eby and Hannah Filreis Albertine
Applebaum Editors and Publishers Series
6:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Margaret Eby is the Philadelphia Inquirer's food editor and has worked at the newspaper since 2022. She's written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. Her most recent book, You Gotta Eat, a guide to cooking when you don't have the energy, came out from Quirk Books in 2024. She lives in West Philly.
Hannah Filreis Albertine s a Philly-based writer and editor who is working on her first novel. She was formerly the Food Editor of Philadelphia Magazine, where she won a National Magazine Award in Lifestyle Journalism and was nominated for a James Beard Award. Now she supports the The Infatuation's editorial teams across the U.S. and in London as a Senior Editor.
Friday, 2/13/2026
Saturday, 2/14/2026
Sunday, 2/15/2026
Monday, 2/16/2026
Live at the Writers House
A monthly radio show produced at the KWH in collaboration with WXPN
6:30 PM in person
LIVE at the Writers House is a long-standing collaboration anong the people of the Kelly Writers House and WXPN (88.5 FM). Six times annually between September and April, we gather at the KWH to record a one-hour show of poetry, music, and other spoken-word art for broadcast by WXPN. Edited by Zach Carduner and produced by Alli Katz, LIVE at the Writers House is made possible thorugh the generous support of BigRoc.
Tuesday, 2/17/2026
Wednesday, 2/18/2026
Truth in Audio Storytelling
Maori Holmes, Matt Katz, and Yowei Shaw, hosted by Nate Chinen
6:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
co-sponsored by: Truth and Disinformation in the Writing Arts and the Creative Writing Program
Thursday, 2/19/2026
Bent Button Film Fest
6:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Join us for a screening of short films by college students, hosted by Bent Button Productions, Penn’s only film production club. Prizes will be awarded in several categories, including best picture, best script, and best editing. Do you have a short film (three–fifteen minutes) to submit? Email us at wh@writing.upenn.edu to find out more.
Friday, 2/20/2026
Saturday, 2/21/2026
Sunday, 2/22/2026
Monday, 2/23/2026
A READING BY ELIZABETH WILLIS
Kelly Writers House Fellows Program
6:30 PM in person
rsvp required: whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
Elizabeth Willis is the author of the poetry collections Liontaming in America, (New Directions, 2024); Alive: New and Selected Poems (2015), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Address (2011), recipient of the Laurence L. & Thomas Winship/PEN New England Award; Meteoric Flowers (2006); Turneresque (2003); The Human Abstract (1995), a National Poetry Series selection; and Second Law (1993). She is also the editor of Radical Vernacular: Lorine Niedecker and the Poetics of Place (2008). Her poetry has been translated into French, Dutch, Polish, and Slovak. Willis earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and a PhD in poetics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The recipient of a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship, Willis served as Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing at Wesleyan University from 2002 to 2015. Since 2015, she has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Tuesday, 2/24/2026
A Conversation With ELIZABETH WILLIS
Kelly Writers House Fellows Program
10:00 AM in person
rsvp required: whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
Elizabeth Willis is the author of the poetry collections Liontaming in America, (New Directions, 2024); Alive: New and Selected Poems (2015), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Address (2011), recipient of the Laurence L. & Thomas Winship/PEN New England Award; Meteoric Flowers (2006); Turneresque (2003); The Human Abstract (1995), a National Poetry Series selection; and Second Law (1993). She is also the editor of Radical Vernacular: Lorine Niedecker and the Poetics of Place (2008). Her poetry has been translated into French, Dutch, Polish, and Slovak. Willis earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and a PhD in poetics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The recipient of a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship, Willis served as Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing at Wesleyan University from 2002 to 2015. Since 2015, she has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.