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All events take place at the Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia (U of P).
Tuesday, 4/1
- 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: A reading and discussion with poet Robert Wrigley. Co-sponsored by Creative Writing.
Robert Wrigley was born in 1951 in East St. Louis, Ill. He was the first member of his family ever to graduate from college and the first male -- in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Wales and Germany -- never to work in a coal mine.
In 1971, he was inducted into the U.S. Army but filed for discharge on the grounds of conscientious objection.
Wrigley attended Southern Illinois University and the University of Montana. He is currently a professor of English at the University of Idaho, where he teaches in the MFA program.
He has published six books of poetry: The Sinking of Clay City (1979); Moon in a Mason Jar (1986); What My Father Believed (1991); In the Bank of Beautiful Sins (1995); Reign of Snakes (1999); and The Lives of Animals (2003).
He has won two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry magazine, the Wagner Award from the Poetry Society of America, two Pushcart Prizes and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
He lives with his wife, the writer Kim Barnes, and their children, near Moscow, Idaho.
This Event has been Cancelled, and rescheduled for September 18th, 2008
- 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: English 125.301 Magazine Journalism with Avery Rome (arome at phillynews.com)
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.318 Race Matters with Adrian Khactu (adriank at sas.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 Rhetoric of the Presidency with Damon Linker (linkerda at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: English 115.301 Advanced Fiction Writing with Max Apple
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: English 111.302 Poetry & Poetics/Experimental Writing with Tracie Morris
- 9:00 PM in Room 209: F-Word meeting. For more information, contact Kristen Williams at kew2@sas.upenn.edu.
- 7:00 - 9:00 PM in Room 202: Superstar film screening. Word.Doc Film Series in collaboration with the course "Medicine in Literature and Film, 1850-2000." For more information, contact Lance Wahlert at lwahlert@english.upenn.edu.
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Wednesday, 4/2
8:00 PM in the Dining Room: KWH Art opening for Lines Inside the Color: Mixed Media Work by Margery Amdur.
The opening will include a screening of the artist's short film, The Frenzy and the Calm, followed by a reception. You can preview Amdur's work here.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Margery Amdur received her B.F.A. from Carnegie-Mellon University and her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Ms. Amdur has had over 50 solo and two-person exhibitions and has appeared in numerous group shows. Her international exhibitions include Turkey, Hungary, and England. The artist is the recipient of more than a dozen awards and grants. She has been reviewed in national and international publications including Sculpture Magazine and New Art Examiner. Additionally, several catalogs have been published about her work, including Seams to be Constructed.
Creating elegant connections through layers of abstracted sources, Amdur's small scale-work is colorful and complex. In her 4 Across 5 Down series, "color pots" sit atop delicate line work and numbers, evoking paint by numbers whose instructions are discarded. The layers of paper, texture, daubs of color and wax create a soothing environment that invites a deeper look.
Please contact curator Kaegan Sparks at kwhartgallery@gmail.com for more information.
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM in Room 202: English 135.305 Peer Tutor Training with Valerie Ross (vross at writing.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 130.401 Advanced Screenwriting with Kathy DeMarco
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 209: English 162.301 The 2008 Presidential Primaries with Dick Polman
- 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM in Room 209: Writers Workshop meeting. For more information, contact Mary Hale Meyer (mhmyer65@earthlink.net).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Thursday, 4/3
The second Blutt Singer-Songwriter Symposium, featuring Suzanne Vega.
Suzanne Vega (born Suzanne Nadine Vega, 11 July 1959, Santa Monica, California)
is an American singer-songwriter noted for her eclectic folk-inspired music.
She lived most of her life in New York City, attending the New York City High
School of the Performing Arts (the school seen in the feature film musical
Fame), where she studied modern dance.However, Vega realized that her talent in dance was not sufficient to make her living doing it. While attending Columbia studying English, she penned many songs and performed in the Greenwich Village area.
She was discovered in 1984, releasing her eponymous debut the following year. Her sophomore effort, Solitude Standing, garnered critical and commercial success including two hit singles: "Tom's Diner" and "Luka."
Vega has a prolific catalog, and in 2003 she released a retrospective collection. Beauty & Crime, her seventh album, was released in June 2007, which went on to win a Grammy for Best Engineered Album. Inspired by the city where Suzanne grew up and still currently resides, Beauty & Crime revolves around Suzanne's experiences in New York.
Vega has a daughter, Ruby Froom, with her ex-husband Mitchell Froom. In early 2006, Vega married Paul Mills, a lawyer and a poet.
- 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: English 125.301 Magazine Journalism with Avery Rome (arome at phillynews.com)
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.318 Race Matters with Adrian Khactu (adriank at sas.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 Rhetoric of the Presidency with Damon Linker (linkerda at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: English 121 Writing for Children with Elizabeth Van Doren
- 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM in Room 209: English 130.402 Advanced Screenwriting with Mark Rosenthal
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Friday, 4/4
- 12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: "Who's Talking to Whom in Poems: The Case of Louise Gluck," a lunch talk with literary scholar Willard Spiegelman. RSVP to wh@writing.upenn.edu or call (215) 573-9748.
- 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM: WriteOn! Celebration. For more information, contact Emily Ozan:
ejozan@sas.upenn.edu.
12:00 PM: Alumni Mentor lunch with Kate Lee.
Kate Lee has been at ICM for six years. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Her clients include Gawker founding editor Elizabeth Spiers; New Yorker writer Cristina Henriquez; New York Times reporter Lily Koppel; Guilt & Pleasure publisher and editor Roger Bennett and Jules Shell, respectively; HarperCollins Executive Editor David Hirshey; UCLA professor Josh Kun; Reed Krakoff, President and Executive Creative Director of Coach; Tina Wells, founder of Buzz Marketing Group; Vanity Fair contributing editor Kate Reardon; memoirists David Matthews and Hana Schank (the latter a Discover Barnes & Noble Great New Writer); former Nerve columnist Grant Stoddard; Deadspin's Will Leitch, The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar; Los Angeles Times editor Matt Welch; Fitness Magazine Editor-in-Chief Denise Brodey; children's author Lesley M. M. Blume; interior designer Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan of Apartment Therapy, and TreeHugger.com, the biggest eco-site on the web. She also represents journalists Katherine Rosman of The Wall Street Journal; Fortune Magazine's Jessi Hempel; New York Post Page Six reporter Paula Froelich; Boston Globe Magazine columnist Alison Lobron; The New York Observer's Doree Shafrir; and Alex Balk, Executive Editor of Radar.com and former Gawker editor, as well as prominent bloggers Glenn Reynolds and Jeff Jarvis.
Willard Spiegelman (a native Philadelphian) is the Hughes Professor of English at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and editor-in-chief of the Southwest Review, the country's third oldest, continuously published literary quarterly. He is the author of four books of literary criticism, most recently How Poets See the World (Oxford). Forthcoming are Imaginative Transcripts: Selected Literary Essays (Oxford), and a memoir, Pursued By Happiness (Farrar Straus Giroux). He writes regularly for the Leisure & Arts page of The Wall Street Journal. He has produced two series of learning tapes for The Teaching Company in Washington, D. C. on poetry
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 145.302 Advanced Journalistic Writing with Lee Eisenberg
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Saturday, 4/5
- 12:00-7:00PM in the Pub Room: First Call meeting. For more information, contact Shira Bender (shiratb@gmail.com).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Sunday, 4/6
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Monday, 4/7
- 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: A Celebration of George Oppen's 100 Birthday, featuring 100 minutes of talk and poetry honoring Oppen, hosted by Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Thomas Devaney, and featuring Stephen Cope, George Economou, Al Filreis, Michael Heller, Ann Lauterbach, Tom Mandel, Bob Perelman, and Ron Silliman.
George Oppen and
his wife, Mary, sailed and hitchhiked from the West Coast to New York
City in the 1920s. There, Oppen became a central member of the
Objectivist Group of poets that flourished in the 1930s. George and
Mary Oppen moved increasingly to the left during the Depression,
becoming social activists and joining the Communist party in 1935.
During this period Oppen's poems appeared in small journals such as
Active Anthology, Poetry, and Hound and Horn, but he
soon gave up writing for more than two decades. Oppen revived his
poetic career when he returned to the United States in 1958. In 1962,
New Directions published Oppen's second book of poetry, The
Materials, which was followed by This in Which (1965). In
1969, Of Being Numerous (1968) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize
for poetry. Oppen's Collected Poems (1975) includes all of his
poetry from Discrete Series (1934) through his last work, Myth
of the Blaze (1975). In the late 1960s, Oppen moved to San
Francisco, where he lived until his death in 1984.
Poet and critic Stephen Cope is editor of George Oppen: Selected Prose Daybooks, and Papers (U. of California Press, 2008), and a founding editor of Essay Press. He has taught at universities in California, Iowa, and Ohio, and is on the faculty of Bard College's Language and Thinking program.
Thomas Devaney is the author A Series of Small Boxes (Fish Drum, 2007). He teaches in the Critical Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania, and is editing a feature section "Oppen at 100" for Jacket 38 (October 2008).
Rachel Blau DuPlessis has both written on George Oppen's work and edited his Selected Letters (Duke U.P., 1990). DuPlessis has published numerous books of poetry and literary criticism; her most recent critical bookis Blue Studios: Poetry and its Cultural Work. She teaches in the English Department of Temple University.
George Economou's latest book is Acts of Love, Ancient Greek Poetry from Aphrodite's Garden (Modern Library/Random House). Books of Cavafy translations and the poems & fragments of Ananios Kleitor are forthcoming.
Al Filreis is Kelly Professor, Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House and author of four books, most recently Counter-revolution of the Word: The Conservative Attack on Modern Poetry, 1945-60.
Michael Heller is a poet, essayist and critic. Forthcoming in 2008 are Eschaton, a new book of poems, Speaking the Estranged, a collection of his essays on George Oppen, and Marble Snows: Two Novellas.
Ann Lauterbach's most recent books are Hum and The Night Sky: Writings on the Poetics of Experience. She is Schwab Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College, where she also co-directs Writing in the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts.
Tom Mandel grew up in Chicago and was educated in its jazz and blues clubs and at the University of Chicago. He is the author of more than a dozen books including To the Cognoscenti (2007) and is one of the authors of The Grand Piano, an ongoing experiment in collective autobiography.
Bob Perelman has published numerous books of poetry, most recently Iflife. He teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ron Silliman's most recent book is The Age of Huts (compleat) and several volumes of the collectively written Grand Piano project. In 2008, the University of Alabama Press will publish The Alphabet.
A recording of this event, along with supplemental materials, is available on PennSound.
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM in Room 202: English 135.305 Peer Tutor Training with Valerie Ross (vross at writing.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 155.301 Documentary Writing with Paul Hendrickson
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 209: English 112.301 Fiction Writing with Karen Rile
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 274.301 Writers House Fellows Seminar with Al Filreis
- 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM in Room 202: Penn and Pencil Club meeting. For more information contact John Shea (John.Shea@uphs.upenn.edu).
- 6:00 - 8:00 PM in Room 209: 34th Street Poets meeting
- 9:00 PM - 10:30 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting.
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Tuesday, 4/8
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: A reading and conversation with fiction writer Rob Cohen, co-sponsored by Creative Writing.- 7:00 - 9:00 PM in Room 202: Blue film screening. Word.Doc Film Series in collaboration with the course "Medicine in Literature and Film, 1850-2000." For more information, contact Lance Wahlert at lwahlert@english.upenn.edu.
Rob Cohen was educated at Columbia and the University of California at Berkeley and is now an associate professor at Middlebury College. He has written such books as The Here and Now, Varieties of Romantic Experience: Stories, and Inspired Sleep. His work has been awarded a Whiting Writers' Award, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers Award, The Ribalow Prize, and a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Harpers, GQ, The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly Unbound, and Ploughshares.
Download a recording of this event here.
- 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: English 125.301 Magazine Journalism with Avery Rome (arome at phillynews.com)
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.318 Race Matters with Adrian Khactu (adriank at sas.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 Rhetoric of the Presidency with Damon Linker (linkerda at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: English 115.301 Advanced Fiction Writing with Max Apple
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: English 111.302 Poetry & Poetics/Experimental Writing with Tracie Morris
- 9:00 PM in Room 209: F-Word meeting. For more information, contact Kristen Williams at kew2@sas.upenn.edu.
- 7:00 - 8:30 PM in Room 209: The Play's the Thing
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Wednesday, 4/9
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: Sheets of Sound: Francis Davis discusses his John Coltrane biography.
Please join us for a very special event featuring acclaimed writer Francis Davis, who will discuss his work-in-progress Sheets of Sound. Mr. Davis will read from his highly-anticipated book and discuss his writing practices, research, and challenges while constructing the first major biography of the great saxophonist John Coltrane (1926-67).
Sheets of Sound (the title is the critic Ira Gitler's phrase for the rush and simultaneity of notes in Coltrane's solos) will be the first Coltrane biography to give a sense of place in his detailing his childhood and adolescence in High Point, North Carolina (a segregated Southern town founded by Quakers, with no legacy of slavery) and his musical apprenticeship in Philadelphia. It will also be the first to draw extensively from the journals of one of his lovers, an Isabel Archer-type who was his closest confidant for eight years beginning in 1957.
Francis Davis is a Contributing Editor of The Atlantic, a columnist for the Village Voice, and the author of In the Moment (Oxford University Press, 1986), Outcats (OUP, 1990), The History of the Blues (Hyperion, 1995), Bebop and Nothingness (Schirmer, 1996), Like Young (Da Capo, 2001), Afterglow: A Last Conversation with Pauline Kael (Da Capo, 2002), and Jazz and Its Discontents: A Francis Davis Reader (Da Capo, 2004). Mr. Davis has written about music, film, and other aspects of popular culture for The Atlantic since 1984 and was appointed lead jazz critic for the Voice in 2004. He was jazz critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1982 to 1996, jazz editor of Musician from 1982 to 1985, and a staff writer for 7 Days from 1988 to 1990. Mr. Davis lives in Philadelphia with his wife, the radio host and producer Terry Gross.
Listen to an audio recording of this event.
- 8:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: Speakeasy - poetry, prose, anything goes!
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM in Room 202: English 135.305 Peer Tutor Training with Valerie Ross (vross at writing.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 130.401 Advanced Screenwriting with Kathy DeMarco
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 209: English 162.301 The 2008 Presidential Primaries with Dick Polman
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Thursday, 4/10
- 12 PM in the Arts Cafe: "Freelance Journalism and Quirky Books," a lunch talk with Penn alumna Caroline Tiger (C'96)
Caroline Tiger is a freelance journalist and author and a former managing editor of Philadelphia magazine. Her byline has appeared in many publications including Departures, Town & Country, Fortune Small Business, National Geographic Traveler and the Washington Post. She writes most frequently about travel, design, business, and cultural trends. Tiger has also authored nonfiction books on varied topics including modern manners, long-distance relationships, the Battle of Germantown, and Philadelphia architecture. She grew up in New Jersey and has lived in Center City Philadelphia since graduating from the U. of Penn in 1996. Find out more online at www.carolinetiger.com.
- 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: English 125.301 Magazine Journalism with Avery Rome (arome at phillynews.com)
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.318 Race Matters with Adrian Khactu (adriank at sas.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 Rhetoric of the Presidency with Damon Linker (linkerda at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: English 121 Writing for Children with Elizabeth Van Doren
- 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM in Room 209: English 130.402 Advanced Screenwriting with Mark Rosenthal
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Friday, 4/11
12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: The Sylvia W. Kauders series presents a lunch talk with Leo Bretholz. RSVP required. To RSVP, please email wh@writing.upenn.edu or call 215-573-9748.
Leo Bretholz was raised in Vienna, from which he fled at the age of 17 following Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938. For seven years, Mr. Bretholz was on the run throughout wartime Europe, motivated by the fear of being deported to a death camp. He swam across the Sauer River to Luxembourg in the middle of the night, and served time as an "Enemy Alien" in an internment camp in the South of France, before escaping. In 1947, Bretholz immigrated to the United States and settled in Baltimore. Fifty years later he wrote his memoirs, Leap into Darkness, which the Holocaust Museum in Washington chose for their 1999 fundraising efforts. An Austrian filmmaker is currently at work on a documentary project based on Bretholz's experiences.
Download a recording of this event here.
12:00 PM: Alumni Mentor lunch with Randi Hutter Epstein.
Randi Hutter Epstein, MD is an adjunct professor of journalism at the The Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University as well as a medical journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph and several national magazines. She is currently working on a book to be published by W.W. Norton about the medical and cultural history of childbirth. Previously, she worked as a medical reporter for the London bureau of the Associated Press, and was the London bureau chief for Physician's Weekly. In 1996, she was a Reuter Foundation Fellow for Medical Journalists at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University. She received her M.D. from Yale University, her M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, and B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 145.302 Advanced Journalistic Writing with Lee Eisenberg
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Saturday, 4/12
- 12:00 - 3:00 PM in Room 202: Brave Star meeting. Contact Aichlee Bushnell: aichlee at sas.upenn.edu.
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Sunday, 4/13
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Monday, 4/14
- 5:30 PM in the Dining Room and Arts Cafe: a Writers House Planning Committee (Hub) meeting. RSVP to jalowenth@writing.upenn.edu.
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM in Room 202: English 135.305 Peer Tutor Training with Valerie Ross (vross at writing.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 155.301 Documentary Writing with Paul Hendrickson
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 209: English 112.301 Fiction Writing with Karen Rile
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 274.301 Writers House Fellows Seminar with Al Filreis
- 6:00 - 8:00 PM in Room 209: 34th Street Poets meeting
- 9:00 PM - 10:30 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting.
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Tuesday, 4/15
- 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: Writers Without Borders: The provost's international writers series at the Kelly Writers House, supported by Seth Ginns (C'00). A reading by Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña, introduced by Charles Bernstein.
Cecilia Vicuña, acclaimed Chilean poet, filmmaker and performance artist weaves time, space and sound to evoke ancient sensory memories. Through playful improvisations, stories and chants she leads her audience into a communal space where poetry unfolds. In her work indigenous word-play interfaces the contemporary realities of ecological disaster. Cecilia Vicuña is the author of sixteen poetry books published in Europe, Latin America and the US. Born and raised in Santiago de Chile, she has been an exile since the Pinochet coup in the early 1970s, and since 1980 has resided in New York, spending several months a year in Latin America. Currently she is co-editing the Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry, forthcoming 2008.
Writers Without Borders features writers from around the world whose fiction, drama, poetry, memoir, journalism, and performance art demand an international – and, what's more, a globally minded – readership and response. Through this ongoing series, Penn's provost, Ron Daniels, has challenged the students and faculty who form the literary community at the Kelly Writers House to bring to the intimate cottage at 3805 Locust writers whose voices – whether because of regional unrest, cultural turmoil, aesthetic misunderstanding, the difficulty of travel, problems of translation, etc. – have not been much heard here. The setting, always conducive to workshop-style give-and-take, seems apt for introducing these writers to the broader Penn community and to our internationalist Philadelphia-area neighbors and partners.
Support for Writers Without Borders comes indeed from the Office of the
Provost, supplemented by a generous start-up grant from Seth Ginns (C'00).
A recording of this event is now available on PennSound.
- 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: English 125.301 Magazine Journalism with Avery Rome (arome at phillynews.com)
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.318 Race Matters with Adrian Khactu (adriank at sas.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 Rhetoric of the Presidency with Damon Linker (linkerda at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: English 115.301 Advanced Fiction Writing with Max Apple
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: English 111.302 Poetry & Poetics/Experimental Writing with Tracie Morris
- 9:00 PM in Room 209: F-Word meeting. For more information, contact Kristen Williams at kew2@sas.upenn.edu.
- 6:00 - 8:00 PM in Room 209: Suppose an Eyes Meeting. For more information, contact Pat Green patricia78@aol.com
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Wednesday, 4/16
7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: Old English Live! featuring Herman Beavers, Charles Bernstein, Emily Steiner, Bob Perelman, Herman Beavers, Deb Burnham, Charles Bernstein, Sarah Dowling, Julia Bloch, Francisco Cadavid, Joseph Clark, Andrea Collins, Jessica Deimel, Samuel Farber, Daniel Hazard, Richard Heaslip, Lee Huttner, Kevin Kimura, Caleb Knedlik, Curtis Rogers and Lance Wahlert. Hosted by Emily Steiner
Listen to a recording of the event.
and co-sponsored by the English Department.A reading of Old English poems and new poems inspired by Old English.
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM in Room 202: English 135.305 Peer Tutor Training with Valerie Ross (vross at writing.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 130.401 Advanced Screenwriting with Kathy DeMarco
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 209: English 162.301 The 2008 Presidential Primaries with Dick Polman
- 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM in Room 209: Writers Workshop meeting. For more information, contact Mary Hale Meyer (mhmyer65@earthlink.net).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Thursday, 4/17
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM: An Ubu experiment with Kenny Goldsmith and ENGL 165.
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: Running a CITY PAPER, featuring editors, writers, and an intern from one of Philadelphia's independent weeklies.
What's the future of independent newspaper publishing in Philadelphia? Who's moving and shaking in Philly's vibrant news culture? How does an intern become Editor in Chief? Join newly-minted Editor-in-Chief Brian Howard, News Editor Doron Taussig, Senior Editor Patrick Rapa, and Agenda Editor Monica Weymouth for a free-wheeling discussion of the present and future of the THE PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER, independent journalism outlet for over 26 years.
Download a recording of this event here.
- 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: English 125.301 Magazine Journalism with Avery Rome (arome at phillynews.com)
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.318 Race Matters with Adrian Khactu (adriank at sas.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 Rhetoric of the Presidency with Damon Linker (linkerda at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: English 121 Writing for Children with Elizabeth Van Doren
- 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM in Room 209: English 130.402 Advanced Screenwriting with Mark Rosenthal
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Friday, 4/18
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 145.302 Advanced Journalistic Writing with Lee Eisenberg
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Saturday, 4/19
- 12:00-7:00PM in the Pub Room: First Call meeting. For more information, contact Shira Bender (shiratb@gmail.com).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Sunday, 4/20
4:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: a reading and discussion of the prize-winning play Margarita, or Some Child's Play, by Genna Erlikhman, winner of the Front Row Theatre Playwriting Fellowship.
For the fourth year in a row, the Front Row Theatre Company and the Kelly Writers House have sponsored a playwriting fellowship. Please join us for a public reading and discussion of the winning play, to help prepare the work for a capstone staged reading. More information is available at www.frontrowtheatreco.com.
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Monday, 4/21
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: The second annual Caroline Rothstein Oral Poetry Event.
WORDS IN YOUR FACE: A GUIDED TOUR THROUGH TWENTY YEARS OF THE NEW YORK CITY POETRY SLAM
Come and learn about one of the most explosive art movements of the 21st Century: the Poetry Slam. Author/slam poet (and Philly-native) Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz will explore the birth, growing pains and continuing development of this raucous poetry event, which has been called "a pop culture phenomenon" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times), "the death of Art" (Harold Bloom, Paris Review) and has been blamed for making "poetry sexy again in a way it hasn't been since the heyday of the Beats" (Stephen Holden, The New York Times). In addition to walking the audience through the Poetry Slam's atonishing twenty year history, Cristin will be joined by four New York City slam poets -- Shappy Seasholtz, Edward Garcia, Nicole Homer and Chad Anderson -- who will illustrate the variety of work found in the slam, including comedic pieces, political pieces and electrifying group work.
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is the author of four books of poetry as well as the recently released non-fiction title, "Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam" (Soft Skull Press, 2008). At age 19, she founded the NYC-Urbana poetry slam series, which has earned three National Poetry Slam championships to date. She has toured through the U.S. and abroad with her poetry, and currently lives in New York City.
Chad Anderson is a spoken work poet and college professor in New Jersey. A member of the 2005 NYC Urbana poetry team (which placed 10th in the nation) and the 2007 New Jersey Grand Slam Champion, Chad has performed at venues as diverse as the Javitz Center, Columbia University and Kunsan Korea.
Edward Garcia was the recipient of the NYFA fellowship in poetry for 2003. He is a New York native who has performed his work at many venues across the country, including The Bowery Poetry Club, Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Yale University. Edward teaches creative writing and currently lives in Philadelphia.
Nicole Homer has represented New York City in several national poetry slam tournaments, including the 2007 Individual World Poetry Slam in Vancouver, Canada (where she placed where she ranked 9th) and the 2007 National Poetry Slam in Austin, TX (where she and her team placed 6th in the nation). She has slammed across the country at venues such as the Brookdale College, Port Africa and the legendary Chicago Green Mill.
Shappy Seaholtz is a National Poetry Slam Champion, a two-time National Forensics Champion and founding member of the Bowery Poetry Club. Shappy has appeared HBO's "Def Poetry," has toured the country with Lollapalooza and is a frequent performer at the South by Southwest. His second volume of poetry, "Little Book of Ass," won the 2001 Firecracker Award for Poetry.
Download a recording of this event here.- 7:00 - 9:00 PM in Room 202: Safe film screening. Word.Doc Film Series in collaboration with the course "Medicine in Literature and Film, 1850-2000." For more information, contact Lance Wahlert at lwahlert@english.upenn.edu.
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM in Room 202: English 135.305 Peer Tutor Training with Valerie Ross (vross at writing.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 155.301 Documentary Writing with Paul Hendrickson
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 209: English 112.301 Fiction Writing with Karen Rile
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 274.301 Writers House Fellows Seminar with Al Filreis
- 6:00 - 8:00 PM in Room 209: 34th Street Poets meeting
- 9:00 PM - 10:30 PM in Room 202: Penn Review meeting.
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Tuesday, 4/22
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: "Scrapbook: Imagining Philadelphia," a Junior Fellows Project by Moira Moody (C'06).
Throughout the year, Moira Moody has invited Philadelphians to help imagine the city's past and she is building a "scrapbook" of the city from their various responses: a collection of writings by local authors, written in response to historical artifacts.
Join us for a showcase of some of this work! There will be plenty of time for food and drink and talk about Philadelphia's rich history. For more information about the project, visit Moira's project website: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/involved/awards/juniorfellow/scrapbook/.
Download a recording of this event here.
- 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: English 125.301 Magazine Journalism with Avery Rome (arome at phillynews.com)
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.318 Race Matters with Adrian Khactu (adriank at sas.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 Rhetoric of the Presidency with Damon Linker (linkerda at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: English 115.301 Advanced Fiction Writing with Max Apple
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: English 111.302 Poetry & Poetics/Experimental Writing with Tracie Morris
- 9:00 PM in Room 209: F-Word meeting. For more information, contact Kristen Williams at kew2@sas.upenn.edu.
- 6:00 - 8:00 PM in Room 202: Virginia Woolf Discussion Group. For more information, contact Judith Allen at woolfgroup@mindspring.com.
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Wednesday, 4/23
- 8:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: Speakeasy - poetry, prose, anything goes!
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM in Room 202: English 135.305 Peer Tutor Training with Valerie Ross (vross at writing.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 130.401 Advanced Screenwriting with Kathy DeMarco
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 209: English 162.301 The 2008 Presidential Primaries with Dick Polman
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Thursday, 4/24
-
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: A book release party for
Madwomen: The "Locas mujeres" Poems of Gabriela Mistral, translated by Randall Couch, featuring a bilingual reading by Randall Couch and guest. Co-sponsored by the Women's Studies Program and the Department of Romance Languages. - 7:00 - 9:00 PM in Room 202: Birth film screening. Word.Doc Film Series in collaboration with the course "Medicine in Literature and Film, 1850-2000." For more information, contact Lance Wahlert at lwahlert@english.upenn.edu.
Gabriela Mistral was the first Latin American and the only hispanophone woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Madwomen will be the first English selection to focus on a coherent series of Mistral's mature and most compelling poetry and the first volume in Spanish or English to bring together all 26 poems of the "Locas mujeres" series, including those left unpublished at her death. The book includes the sixteen poems published during the poet's lifetime in Lagar (Wine Press), eight collected in the typescript known as "Lagar II," and the two remaining uncollected poems on women of Greek tragedy—"Clitemnestra" and "Casandra."
Randall Couch edited and translated Madwomen: The "Locas mujeres" Poems of Gabriela Mistral (University of Chicago Press, 2008). He is a regular panelist on the podcast series PoemTalk sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, PennSound, and Kelly Writers House. Couch has published essays and book chapters on Ezra Pound, Gabriela Mistral, and Harryette Mullen. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and have been anthologized in Best New Poets 2005 and Xconnect: Writers of the Information Age VIII. In 2000 he was awarded a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in poetry. As Adjunct Professor of English at Arcadia University, he has taught advanced poetry writing and poetics since 2003. From 1989 he has served on the professional staff of the University of Pennsylvania. Trained as an art conservator, between 1980 and 1989 he held positions at the Northeast Document Conservation Center, U.T. Austin's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Couch holds an undergraduate degree magna cum laude in English from Trinity University and an MFA in poetry from the Warren Wilson College MFA program for writers.
Download a recording of this event here.
- 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: English 125.301 Magazine Journalism with Avery Rome (arome at phillynews.com)
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.318 Race Matters with Adrian Khactu (adriank at sas.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 Rhetoric of the Presidency with Damon Linker (linkerda at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: English 121 Writing for Children with Elizabeth Van Doren
- 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM in Room 209: English 130.402 Advanced Screenwriting with Mark Rosenthal
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Friday, 4/25
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 145.302 Advanced Journalistic Writing with Lee Eisenberg
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Saturday, 4/26
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Sunday, 4/27
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Monday, 4/28
- 6:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: The Kelly Writers House Fellows Program presents
Jerome Rothenberg. RSVP only; please RSVP to
whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
or call 215-573-9749.
Jerome Rothenberg is the author of over seventy books of poetry including Poland/1931 (1974), That Dada Strain
(1983), New Selected Poems 1970-1985 (1986), Khurbn (1989), and most recently, The Case for Memory (2001)
and A Book of Witness (2003). Describing his poetry career as "an ongoing attempt to reinterpret the poetic past from
the point of view of the present," he has also edited seven major assemblages of traditional and contemporary poetry,
including Technicians of the Sacred (1985), comprised of tribal and oral poetry from Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and
Oceania, Revolution of the Word (1974), a collection of American experimental poetry between the two world wars and two
volumes of Poems for the Millennium (1995, 1998), which won the Josephine Miles Award in 1996. In 1999 and again in
2001 he was a co-organizer of the People's Poetry Gathering, a three-day festival, under joint sponsorship by City Lore and
Poet's House in New York City. Rothenberg was elected to the World Academy of Poetry (UNESCO) in 2001.
Charles Bernstein, Penn's Reagan Professor of English and Kelly Writers House regular, has said, "The significance of Jerome Rothenberg's animating spirit looms larger every year. ... [He] is the ultimate 'hyphenated' poet: critic-anthropologist-editor-anthologist-performer-teacher- translator, to each of which he brings an unbridled exuberance and an innovator's insistence on transforming a given state of affairs."
This program was recorded and is available on Rothenberg's PennSound author page and his Fellows page
- 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM in Room 202: English 135.305 Peer Tutor Training with Valerie Ross (vross at writing.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.315 Cult Classics with Megan Cook (cookm at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Room 202: Anthropology 009.303 The Meaning of Money with Brad Hafford (whafford at sas.upenn.edu)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 202: English 155.301 Documentary Writing with Paul Hendrickson
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in Room 209: English 112.301 Fiction Writing with Karen Rile
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: English 274.301 Writers House Fellows Seminar with Al Filreis
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Tuesday, 4/29
- Last Day of Classes
- 10:00 AM in the Arts Cafe: The Kelly Writers House Fellows Program presents
Jerome Rothenberg. RSVP only; please RSVP to
whfellow@writing.upenn.edu
or call 215-573-9749.
Jerome Rothenberg is the author of over seventy books of poetry including Poland/1931 (1974), That Dada Strain
(1983), New Selected Poems 1970-1985 (1986), Khurbn (1989), and most recently, The Case for Memory (2001)
and A Book of Witness (2003). Describing his poetry career as "an ongoing attempt to reinterpret the poetic past from
the point of view of the present," he has also edited seven major assemblages of traditional and contemporary poetry,
including Technicians of the Sacred (1985), comprised of tribal and oral poetry from Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and
Oceania, Revolution of the Word (1974), a collection of American experimental poetry between the two world wars and two
volumes of Poems for the Millennium (1995, 1998), which won the Josephine Miles Award in 1996. In 1999 and again in
2001 he was a co-organizer of the People's Poetry Gathering, a three-day festival, under joint sponsorship by City Lore and
Poet's House in New York City. Rothenberg was elected to the World Academy of Poetry (UNESCO) in 2001.
Charles Bernstein, Penn's Reagan Professor of English and Kelly Writers House regular, has said, "The significance of Jerome Rothenberg's animating spirit looms larger every year. ... [He] is the ultimate 'hyphenated' poet: critic-anthropologist-editor-anthologist-performer-teacher- translator, to each of which he brings an unbridled exuberance and an innovator's insistence on transforming a given state of affairs."
This program was recorded and is available on Rothenberg's PennSound author page
Streaming video of this program is available on Rothenberg's Kelly Writers House Fellows Program page. 5:30 PM in the Arts Cafe: a reading for students of Courtney Zoffness, "Writing Linked Short Stories" (English 415).
Listen to a recording of the event.
- 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: English 125.301 Magazine Journalism with Avery Rome (arome at phillynews.com)
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 202: English 009.318 Race Matters with Adrian Khactu (adriank at sas.upenn.edu)
- 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: Political Science 009.301 Rhetoric of the Presidency with Damon Linker (linkerda at sas.upenn.edu)
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: English 115.301 Advanced Fiction Writing with Max Apple
- 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: English 111.302 Poetry & Poetics/Experimental Writing with Tracie Morris
- 9:00 PM in Room 209: F-Word meeting. For more information, contact Kristen Williams at kew2@sas.upenn.edu.
- 6:00 - 8:00 PM in Room 209: Suppose an Eyes Meeting. For more information, contact Pat Green patricia78@aol.com
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.
Wednesday, 4/30
5:30 PM: the end-of-year Hub party!
Each spring, at the end of the semester, the Writers House Planning Committee comes together to celebrate another year gone by. We toast and roast old friends and recognize the contributions of various Hub members to this incredible project. To see and hear more about the Hub party, go here.
- 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM in Room 209: Writers Workshop meeting. For more information, contact Mary Hale Meyer (mhmyer65@earthlink.net).
Please note that some of the discussions and classes listed below are open to the public and some require advance registration or enrollment. Call 215-746-POEM or e-mail wh@writing.upenn.edu for more info.