September 2024
Sunday, 9/1
Monday, 9/2
Tuesday, 9/3
Wednesday, 9/4
Thursday, 9/5
Armen Davoudian & Fatemeh Shams
A reading and conversation
6:00 PM in person
Armen Davoudian grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and is the author of
the poetry collection The Palace of Forty Pillars (Tin House)
and the translator, from the Persian, of Hopscotch
by Fatemeh Shams (Ugly Duckling Presse). His poems appear in the Atlantic,
Poetry, The Yale Review.
He is a PhD candidate in English and a Next Generation Scholar Fellow at Stanford University,
where he is writing a dissertation titled "Metanoia: How Poets Change Their Minds.”
Fatemeh Shams is the author of two books of poetry in Persian and
a critical monograph in English on poetry and politics,
A Revolution in Rhyme (Oxford UP).
When They Broke Down the Door (Mage, 2016),
a collection of her poems translated by Dick Davis, won the 2016 Latifeh Yarshater Award
from the Association for Iranian Studies. Her poetry has been featured in
Poetry magazine,
PBS NewsHour,
World Literature Today,
and the Penguin Book of Feminist Writing, among other venues.
She is Associate Professor of Persian Literature at the University of Pennsylvania.
Friday, 9/6
Saturday, 9/7
Sunday, 9/8
Monday, 9/9
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, 9/10
Mamie Morgan: a reading and conversation
6:00 PM in person
hosted by: Jamie-Lee Josselyn
Mamie Morgan lives on Edisto Island, South Carolina, with her
husband and their two dogs, Henrietta Modine and Wednesday Stewart. Her poems and essays
have appeared in
The Atlantic,
Oxford American,
Muzzle,
Washington Square Review,
Carolina Quarterly,
Fish Barrel Review,
Sixth Finch,
Four Way Review, and elsewhere. Her first poetry collection,
Everyone I've Danced With Is Dead, was published by JackLeg Press (2024).
She also wrote a chapbook about her husband learning to draw during the pandemic.
It is quite literally titled:
My husband is learning to draw.
Mamie waitresses and owns a small, inclusivity and sustainability focused bridal shop.
Wednesday, 9/11
Thursday, 9/12
Friday, 9/13
Saturday, 9/14
Sunday, 9/15
Monday, 9/16
YA Novelist Candice Iloh
DeMarco Program
6:00 PM in person
Co-sponsored by: the Creative Writing Program
candice iloh is the award-winning author of young adult novels,
Every Body Looking,
Break This House,
Salt the Water.
A 2020 National Book Award Finalist and 2021 Printz Honoree, iloh is a first-generation
Nigerian-American writer whose books center home. In 2018, they were awarded a
Critical Breaks residency with Hi-ARTS to develop and perform a one-night-only stage production
of ADA: On Stage, a multi-media one-person-show, introducing
the audience to in-progress themes of their now critically-acclaimed debut novel.
They are a proud alum of the Rhode Island Writers Colony and their work has earned
fellowships from Lambda Literary, VONA, Kimbilio Fiction and, most recently,
The PEW Center for Arts & Heritage for 2023-2025. iloh is a former high school creative
writing teacher who has previously taught young people of every age, from pre-K through high school.
Their debut picture book, EMEKA: EAT EGUSI! will be published
by Simon & Schuster in 2026.
Tuesday, 9/17
Small Ball (the musical)
A conversation about sports narratives and musical theater
6:00 PM in person
registration required (seating limited): register here
Join us for a discussion of the musical Small Ball. With book and lyrics by Mickle Maher, and music by the avant-rock duo Anthony Barilla and Merel van Dijk, Small Ball was birthed from the question: "What about a basketball musical?" Taking place in a world six months from today where every myth, every fairytale, and every work of fantasy fiction has been discovered to be real, Small Ball is the story of Michael Jordan (not the Michael Jordan), a down-on-his-luck journeyman basketball player who finds himself playing point guard for a newly formed basketball team of six inch tall players on the isle of Lilliput from Gulliver’s Travels. Is there mystery yet in this world of Great Disenchantment? The wildly comic and strange trip of love, loss, colonialist politics around very tiny people, and poor sportsmanship that is Small Ball, says Yes.
Wednesday, 9/18
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, 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, 9/19
Friday, 9/20
Saturday, 9/21
Sunday, 9/22
Monday, 9/23
Alina Grabowski: a reading and conversation
Cheryl J. Family Fiction Program
6:00 PM in the Arts Café
hosted by: Jamie-Lee Josselyn and Karen Rile
Join us for a conversation with Alina Grabowski (C’16), who will discuss her debut novel Women and Children First. Told through the eyes of ten local women, Women and Children First is an exquisite portrait of grief and a powerful reminder of life’s interconnectedness. Touching on womanhood, class, sexuality, ambition, disappointment, and tragedy, this novel is a stunning rendering of love and loss, and a bracing lesson that no one walks this earth alone.
Alina Grabowski (C’16) grew up in coastal Massachusetts and holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University. Her writing has appeared in Story, The Masters Review, Joyland, The Adroit Journal, and Day One. She has received scholarships from Aspen Summer Words, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Tuesday, 9/24
Wednesday, 9/25
Jim Rutenberg & Dick Polman in conversation
Povich Journalism Program
12:00 PM in person
Jim Rutenberg is a New York Times staff writer who specializes in the intersection of media and politics. A proud native of Philadelphia, he joined the Times in early 2000 after working for several NYC papers, including The New York Post, The New York Daily News, and The New York Observer. At the Times, he has covered the TV industry, the media in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections, the mayoralty of Michael R. Bloomberg, the White House during George W. Bush’s second term, and the 2012 presidential campaign.
Poet Peter Gizzi
But Company reading series
6:00 PM in the Arts Café
hosted by: Michelle Taransky
PETER GIZZI is the author of several collections of poetry, most recently Fierce Elegy (2023), Now It’s Dark (2020), and Archeophonics (2016), a finalist for the National Book Award, all from Wesleyan. In 2020 Carcanet published Sky Burial: New and Selected Poems and in 2024 Penguin UK published an expanded edition of Fierce Elegy. His honors include fellowships from The Rex Foundation, The Howard Foundation, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Guggenheim Foundation, and The Judith E. Wilson Visiting Fellowship in Poetry at the University of Cambridge. In 2018 Wesleyan published In the Air: Essays on the Poetry of Peter Gizzi. Editing projects have included o•blēk: a journal of language arts (1987-1993); The Exact Change Yearbook (Exact Change/Carcanet, 1995); The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer (Wesleyan, 1998); and with the late Kevin Killian, My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer (Wesleyan, 2008). He teaches poetry and poetics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.