May 2018
Tuesday, 5/1
Wednesday, 5/2
Thursday, 5/3
Friday, 5/4
Saturday, 5/5
Sunday, 5/6
Monday, 5/7
Tuesday, 5/8
Wednesday, 5/9
Thursday, 5/10
Friday, 5/11
Saturday, 5/12
ALUMNI WEEKEND OPEN HOUSE
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
rsvp: whalumniweekend@writing.upenn.edu or call (215) 746-POEM
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 for informal conversation, coffee, and light refreshments. Advance registration is not required, but we'd love to hear from you.
Alumni Authors Fiction Reading
Ariel Djanikian, Amina Gautier, Melissa Jensen
4:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
RSVP: whalumniweekend@writing.upenn.edu or (215) 573-9748
Ariel Djanikian's stories have recently appeared in Tin House, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Glimmer Train. Her nonfiction can be found at The Millions, The Rumpus, The Kenyon Review Online, and The Paris Review Daily. Her first novel, The Office of Mercy, was published with Viking, and she is currently at work on a historical novel about the Klondike Gold Rush. She lives in Maryland with her family.
Dr. Amina Gautier is the author of three short story collections: At-Risk, Now We Will Be Happy and The Loss of All Lost Things. At-Risk was awarded the Flannery O’Connor Award, The First Horizon Award, and the Eric Hoffer Legacy Fiction Award. Now We Will Be Happy was awarded the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, the International Latino Book Award, the Florida Authors and Publishers Association President's Book Award, a National Silver Medal IPPY Award and was a Finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize. The Loss of All Lost Things was awarded the Elixir Press Award in Fiction, the Phillis Wheatley Award, the Royal Palm Literary Award, the Chicago Public Library’s 21st Century Award, the International Latino Book Award, a National Silver Medal IPPY Award, was shortlisted for the SFC Literary Prize, and was a Finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award, the Paterson Prize and the John Gardner Award. More than ninety-five of her stories have been published, appearing in African American Review, Agni, Callaloo, Glimmer Train, Iowa Review, Oxford American, Prairie Schooner, Southern Review, and Quarterly West. Gautier has received fellowships, residencies, and scholarships from Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, The Carmago Foundation, The Château de Lavigny, Dora Maar/Brown Foundation, Disquiet International, Hawthornden, Kimbilio, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Ucross Foundation, VCCA, and Vermont Studio Center.
Melissa Jensen is an award-winning writer of historical and contemporary fiction. Most recently, her Young Adult novels have been official selections on such lists as New York Public Library's Teen Reading and FYA. She is currently working on the fourth and final book in her Philadelphia novel series and a play centered around bog bodies and Irish rap music, as well as participating in an ongoing San Francisco-based multi-media project exploring the connection between anthropology, archaeology, and literature. “Broken Siren”, a contemporary work for string ensemble and soprano based on Homer’s Odyssey, for which she wrote the libretto, will debut in 2018, followed by Carmilla from the Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu novella in 2020. She has contributed to numerous print media, including Philadelphia Style Magazine and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She currently divides her time between Philadelphia and Dublin, all the better to be immersed in the worlds of really really good fiction and poetry, and fascinating stuff unearthed from underground.