April 2024
Monday, 4/1
A reading by Harryette Mullen
Kelly Writers House Fellows Program
6:30 PM in person and on YouTube
rsvp required: whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
watch: here
Harryette Mullen is a poet and professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned a BA from the University of Texas and a PhD from the University of California Santa Cruz. Her collections of poetry include S*PeRM**K*T (1992), Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002), Recyclopedia (2006), and Urban Tumbleweed: Notes from a Tanka Diary (2012). Her various honors and awards include fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Women’s Studies at the University of Rochester. She was also the recipient of a Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry. She describes her work as “writing for the eye and the ear at once, at the intersection of orality and literacy” (The Poetry Foundation).
Tuesday, 4/2
A conversation with Harryette Mullen
Kelly Writers House Fellows Program
10:00 AM in person and on YouTube
rsvp required: whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
watch: here
Harryette Mullen is a poet and professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned a BA from the University of Texas and a PhD from the University of California Santa Cruz. Her collections of poetry include S*PeRM**K*T (1992), Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002), Recyclopedia (2006), and Urban Tumbleweed: Notes from a Tanka Diary (2012). Her various honors and awards include fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Women’s Studies at the University of Rochester. She was also the recipient of a Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry. She describes her work as “writing for the eye and the ear at once, at the intersection of orality and literacy” (The Poetry Foundation).
Wednesday, 4/3
Thursday, 4/4
Friday, 4/5
Saturday, 4/6
Sunday, 4/7
Monday, 4/8
Tuesday, 4/9
Reginald Dwayne Betts
Brave Testimony Poetry Reading
5:30 PM in person
hosted by: the Center for Africana Studies
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet and lawyer. A 2021 MacArthur Fellow, he is the Executive Director of Freedom Reads, a not-for-profit organization that is radically transforming the access to literature in prisons through the installation of Freedom Libraries in prisons across this country.
For more than twenty-years, he has used his poetry and essays to explore the world of prison and the effects of violence and incarceration on American society. The author of a memoir and three collections of poetry, he has transformed his latest collection of poetry, the American Book Award winning Felon, into a solo theater show that explores the post incarceration experience and lingering consequences of a criminal record through poetry, stories, and engaging with the timeless and transcendental art of paper-making.
In 2019, Betts won the National Magazine Award in the Essays and Criticism category for his New York Times Magazine essay that chronicles his journey from prison to becoming a licensed attorney. He has been awarded a Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Emerson Fellow at New America, and most recently a Civil Society Fellow at Aspen. Betts holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Wednesday, 4/10
Thursday, 4/11
Friday, 4/12
Saturday, 4/13
Sunday, 4/14
Monday, 4/15
A meeting of the writers house planning committee
5:00 PM in person
rsvp: register here to attend this meeting in person
The Kelly Writers House is run collectively by members of its community, especially students. The Writers House Planning Committee — also known as "the Hub" — meets monthly to discuss Writers House projects and programs. Join us at this first meeting of the year to find out about some of the things we will work on this year, including our annual marathon reading, and to find out how you can get involved with community-led events and projects.
Tuesday, 4/16
Wednesday, 4/17
Thursday, 4/18
Friday, 4/19
Saturday, 4/20
Sunday, 4/21
Monday, 4/22
Tuesday, 4/23
Wednesday, 4/24
SPEAKEASY OPEN MIC NIGHT
Poetry, prose, anything goes
7:00 PM in person and on YouTube
rsvp: register here to attend in person
Our student-run open mic night welcomes all kinds of readings, performances, spectacles, and happenings. 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.
Thursday, 4/25
Friday, 4/26
Saturday, 4/27
Sunday, 4/28
Monday, 4/29
A reading by Maggie Nelson
Kelly Writers House Fellows Program
10:00 AM in person and on YouTube
rsvp required: whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
watch: here
Maggie Nelson is a poet, scholar, and nonfiction writer who currently teaches in the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts. On top of her many publications, she has received grants and fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She is the author of poetry collections Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007), Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull press, 2005), The Latest Winter (Hanging Loose Press, 2003), and Shiner (Hanging Loose Press, 2001). She has also written genre-defying collections of lyrical prose, including The Argonauts (Graywolf Press, 2015), and Bluets (Wave Books, 2009). The Argonauts won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism and was a New York Times best-seller. She earned a BA from Wesleyan University in 1994 and a PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2004.
Tuesday, 4/30
A conversation with Maggie Nelson
Kelly Writers House Fellows Program
10:00 AM in person and on YouTube
rsvp required: whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
watch: here
Maggie Nelson is a poet, scholar, and nonfiction writer who currently teaches in the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts. On top of her many publications, she has received grants and fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She is the author of poetry collections Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007), Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull press, 2005), The Latest Winter (Hanging Loose Press, 2003), and Shiner (Hanging Loose Press, 2001). She has also written genre-defying collections of lyrical prose, including The Argonauts (Graywolf Press, 2015), and Bluets (Wave Books, 2009). The Argonauts won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism and was a New York Times best-seller. She earned a BA from Wesleyan University in 1994 and a PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2004.