May 2010
Saturday, 5/1
Sunday, 5/2
Monday, 5/3
Tuesday, 5/4
Wednesday, 5/5
Thursday, 5/6
Friday, 5/7
Saturday, 5/8
Sunday, 5/9
Monday, 5/10
Tuesday, 5/11
Wednesday, 5/12
- 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM in Room 209: Writers Workshop. For more information, contact Martha Turner at m-turner@verizon.net.
Thursday, 5/13
Friday, 5/14
Saturday, 5/15
Does a Great Poem Do Any Good?
Class of 1970 Poetry Discussion, led by Al Filreis
10:30 in the Arts Cafe
Listen: to an audio recording of this event
Watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV
RSVP: to whalumniweekend@writing.upenn.edu or call (215)746-POEM
Join Al Filreis – the Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House, Kelly Professor of English and Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing – for a stimulating, wide-open discussion of one brilliant, compelling modern poem. Does a great poem do any good? Does it have practical value? In the course of this free-wheeling discussion, find out what the Kelly Writers House is and does, and meet some of Penn's most talented young writers. No prior reading or preparation is necessary.
Alumni Weekend Open House
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM throughout the Writers House
rsvp: to whalumniweekend@writing.upenn.edu or call (215)746-POEM
Listen: to an audio recording of this event
Renew your acquaintance or get to know this lively and innovative home for writers of all ages and genres as you join members of the Writers House community and its staff for informal conversation and coffee.
Alumni Authors Spotlight: Beth Kephart and Alice Elliott Dark
4:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
RSVP: to whalumniweekend@writing.upenn.edu or (215) 573-9748.
Beth Kephart is the author of ten books, including the National Book Award finalist,
A Slant of Sun (1998, W.W. Norton and Company); the
BookSense pick, Ghosts in the Garden (2005, New World Library); the autobiography of
Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, Flow (2007, Temple University Press); and the
critically acclaimed novels for young adults, Undercover (2007, HarperTeen),
House of Dance (2008, HarperCollins), and
Nothing but Ghosts (2009, HarperCollins). A fourth young adult novel,
The Heart is Not a Size, will be released in March 2010 and a fifth, Dangerous Neighbors,
is slated for a fall 2010 release from Egmont. Beth Kephart's acclaimed short story, "The Longest Distance,"
appears in the May 2009 HarperTeen anthology, No Such Thing as the Real World. She is a winner of the
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fiction grant, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Leeway grant,
a Pew Fellowships in the Arts grant, and the Speakeasy Poetry Prize, among other honors. Kephart's essays
are frequently anthologized, she has judged numerous competitions, and she has taught workshops at many
institutions, to all ages. In the fall of 2009, Kephart will teach at the University of Pennsylvania and
serve as the readergirlz author in residence. Kephart is the strategic writing partner in the boutique
marketing communications firm, Fusion. She is at work on a novel for adults.
Alice Elliott Dark is the author of two
story collections, Naked to the Waist (1991, Houghton Mifflin Co.) and
In the Gloaming (2001, Simon & Schuster), and one novel, Think of England (2002, Simon & Schuster).
Originally from Bryn Mawr, PA, she attended Kenyon College and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.A.
in Chinese studies. She received her MA from the Antioch University program in London. Dark has published stories in
Doubletake, Book Magazine, Five Points,
and Redbook, and contributed essays and reviews to The New York Times,
The Washington Post, and Harper's Bazaar. Her short story "In the Gloaming"
was included in the Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike,
and also selected for The Best American Short Stories 1994 by Tobias Wolff. In 1997,
it was adapted into an HBO film starring Glenn Close and directed by Christopher Reeve. She is the recipient of an
NEA grant and has led numerous workshops. Currently, she lives in New Jersey where she is the Writer in Residence at Rutgers-Newark University.
Sunday, 5/16
Senior Capstone
10:00 AM in the Arts Cafe
listen: to an audio recording of this event
watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV
Each year, we celebrate graduating seniors who have been closely affiliated with the Writers House community. Attending our "capstone" program are the families and friends of the seniors – a joyous occasion for the community, truly.