December 2020
Tuesday, 12/1
Writers House Salon
Featuring Sophia DuRose, Jamie-Lee Josselyn, Carmen Maria Machado, and Rowana Miller, with Al Filreis
6:30 PM (ET) via Zoom
Register by email: RSVP@writing.upenn.edu
Suggested $20 donation here
The Writers House Salon takes the place of our annual "Writers House New York," held each fall since 2002 in Soho at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery. This year’s special virtual salon, held in support of the Kelly Writers House Student Recruitment Fund, will include readings by current students and faculty; a conversation about our efforts to recruit, through admissions, talented writers from among high school students; and a collaborative close reading of a poem, led by Al Filreis.
As with every year, we are asking for a suggested $20 per person donation. This donation is a tax-deductible contribution to the Kelly Writers House Student Recruitment Fund. You can donate in advance here or donate live during the event. If you are a prospective student or their family, we would like to invite to you attend as our guest.
Sophia DuRose (C'21) is a twenty-one-year-old ex-circus performer and current writer from Florida (unfortunately), who now lives in Philadelphia studying English with a concentration in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in literary magazines such as Rainy Day Magazine, Revelry, National Poetry Magazine, and Apricity. Her first book of poetry, Losing Teeth was published by Shantih press in May of 2019. She lives with her pet pug, Midge. If you like puns, or pugs, you should follow her Twitter account @durosemarysbaby.
Jamie-Lee Josselyn (C'05) is Associate Director for Recruitment for the Creative Writing Program. She is also Director of the Summer Workshop for Young Writers at the Kelly Writers House and has taught writing at the New England Young Writers Conference, St. Paul’s School’s Advanced Studies Program, and numerous workshops for high-school students. She has been listed among Penn’s Top 30 Professors by the Daily Pennsylvanian, and she has received the Beltran Family Award for Innovative Teaching and Mentoring. Her writing has been published in The New Republic, Literary Hub, Cleaver Magazine, and elsewhere. Jamie-Lee received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from Bennington College.
Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction, the Brooklyn Public Library Literature Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. In 2018, the New York Times listed Her Body and Other Parties as a member of "The New Vanguard," one of "15 remarkable books by women that are shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century." Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Tin House, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The Believer, Guernica, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She lives in Philadelphia and is the Abrams Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania.
Rowana Miller (C'22) is a junior in the College studying Sociology and Creative Writing. She works as a Program Assistant at the Kelly Writers House and as a Writing Fellow in the Marks Family Center for Excellence in Writing. Last spring, she received the Parker Prize for Journalism and the Kerry Prize for a student-designed KWH program, which she used to found and direct a virtual creative writing summer camp. She spends her free time writing YA fiction, designing and painting theater sets, and making friends with all the porch cats in West Philly.
Wednesday, 12/2
Edible books virtual party
7:00 PM (ET) on Zoom
watch: a video recording of this program via our YouTube channel
View Submission Slide Show: PDF
View Submission Slide Show: PDF
Are you stress baking? A pun lover? Looking for a creative outlet? We are taking our annual Edible Books Party online – and you should submit a book. Party’s on December 2. Submissions due by November 30. Here’s the idea: we want you to make a book out of food (and then take a picture of it!). Your book can be: a cake decorated to match a favorite book cover, something more architectural, or something very punny that takes a title and tweaks it ever-so-slightly. Past entries have included: Jane Pear, 50 Shades of Earl Gray, and Infinite Pesto. Prizes will be awarded in a a variety of categories including: Most Instagrammable, Punniest, Most Architectural, Most (Likely) Edible, Best Recipe, Most Literal, Most Literary, and Blaziest (the event is held in loving memory of Blaze Bernstein). Questions? email wh@writing.upenn.edu to find out more.
Thursday, 12/3
Friday, 12/4
Saturday, 12/5
Sunday, 12/6
Monday, 12/7
Tuesday, 12/8
Stories from the Deep
Readings by students in Kathryn Watterson's memoir workshop
6:00 PM ET on YouTube
An intimate reading of stories written and curated by students in Kathryn "Kitsi" Watterson's course Writing & Remembering: A Memoir Workshop.
Wednesday, 12/9
Narrative Collage
A reading by students of Karen Rile
6:00 PM (ET) on YouTube
Sponsored by: The Creative Writing Program
The most interesting journey isn’t a straight line. In our fall workshop we’ve been exploring fiction and creative nonfiction using nontraditional techniques including nonlinear segments, multiple voices, found texts, images, Spotify mixes, mathematical mashups, and more. Join us for an hour of narrative collages by Caterina Alvarez, Jinna Han, Shelby Latterman, Jack Nycz, and Sydney Steward. Hosted by Karen Rile.
Thursday, 12/10
Mournings We Collect for One Another: Whatever Sky Awaits Us
A reading by students of Laynie Browne
6:00 PM (ET) on YouTube
Sponsored by: The Creative Writing Program
Please join us to celebrate the writing from two sections of Poetry and Memoir. Enjoy energetic cross-genre writing in many forms — from experiments in attention, poetry walks, lists, text image, procedural works, collage, writing from dreams, memory, film-poems and more.