September 2012

Saturday, 9/1

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Sunday, 9/2

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Monday, 9/3

NSO Speakeasy

9:30 PM in the Garden

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV.

listen: to an audio recording of this event.

This open-mic night features performances by the Class of 2016 and others. All kinds of readings/performances/spectacles are welcome. Bring your poetry, your guitar, or your award-winning essay and share your amazing talents with your classmates. Or just come to hang out, listen, and check out the Writers House.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

11 AM - 12:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 002.307 with Michelle Taransky
2 PM - 5 PM in Room 202: ENG 157 with Sam Apple
2 PM - 5 PM in Room 209: ENG 123 with Elizabeth Van Doren

Tuesday, 9/4

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

9 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: WRIT 030.312 with Dana Walker
10:30 AM - 12 PM in Room 202: Peer Tutoring with Valerie Ross
12 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 027.301 with Emil Weissboard
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: ENG 122 with Max Apple
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: ENG 145 with Stephen Fried
1:30 PM - 3 PM in the Arts Cafe: ENG 88 with Al Filreis

Wednesday, 9/5

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

11 AM to 12:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 002.307 with Michelle Taransky
2 PM to 5 PM in Room 202: ENG 156 with Paul Hendrickson
2 PM to 5 Pm in Room 209: ENG 010 with Jamie-Lee Josselyn

Thursday, 9/6

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

9 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: WRIT 030.312 with Dana Walker
10:30 AM - 12 PM in Room 202: Peer Tutoring with Valerie Ross
12 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 027.301 with Emil Weissboard
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: ENG 117 with Anthony DeCurtis
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: ENG 135 with Max Apple
1:30 PM - 3 PM in the Arts Cafe: ENG 88 with Al Filreis

Friday, 9/7

Open House

1:00 PM in the Writers House

The Kelly Writers House Open House is an opportunity for new and old students to explore the House. We'll have book giveaways, a t-shirt-embellishment table (bring a shirt you'd like to decorate), poem-making stations, and plenty of ways for you to meet community members and student leaders and learn about ways to get involved here. All are welcome.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Saturday, 9/8

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Sunday, 9/9

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Monday, 9/10

A meeting of the Writers House Planning Committee (the "Hub")

5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

rsvp: jalowent@writing.upenn.edu

From the time of its founding in 1995-1996, the Kelly Writers House has been run more or less collectively by members of its community. Our original team of intrepid founders—the group of students, faculty, alumni, and staff who wanted to create an independent haven for writers and supporters of contemporary writing in any genre—took for themselves the name "the hub." "Hub" was the generic term given by Penn's Provost, President, and other planners who hoped that something very innovative would be done at 3805 Locust Walk to prove the viability of the idea that students, working with others, could create an extracurricular learning community around common intellectual and creative passions. To this day, the Writers House Planning Committee refers to itself as "the hub"—the core of engaged faculty, student, staff, and alumni volunteers from whom the House's creative energy and vitality radiates.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

11 AM - 12:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 002.307 with Michelle Taransky
2 PM - 5 PM in Room 202: ENG 157 with Sam Apple
2 PM - 5 PM in Room 209: ENG 123 with Elizabeth Van Doren

Tuesday, 9/11

New Queer Jewish Writing: Dan Fishback and Ezra Berkley Nepon

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

co-sponored by: Creative Ventures and the Wexler Fund for Programs in Jewish Life and Culture

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV.

listen: to an audio recording of this event.

Dan Fishback (C'03) is the 2012-2013 ArtsEdge Resident at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been writing and performing in New York City since 2003. Major works include The Material World (2012), thirtynothing (2011) and You Will Experience Silence (2009), all directed by Stephen Brackett at Dixon Place. Fishback has received grants from the Franklin Furnace Fund (2010) and the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists (2007-2009). He is a resident artist at the Hemispheric Institute for Performance & Politics at NYU (2012), and has enjoyed previous residencies at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange (2010-2012), Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. Previous works include No Direction Homo (P.S. 122, 2006), Please Let Me Love You (Dixon Place, 2006), Waiting for Barbara (Galapagos Art Space, 2006), boi with an i (Collective: Unconscious, 2004), and Assholes Speak Louder Than Words (Sidewalk Cafe, 2004). Also a performing songwriter, Fishback began his music career in the East Village's anti-folk scene. His band, Cheese On Bread, has toured Europe and North America in support of their two full-length albums, "Maybe Maybe Maybe Baby" (2004) and "The Search for Colonel Mustard" (2007), the latter of which was re-issued in Japan in 2010 on Moor Works Records. As a solo artist, Fishback has released several recordings, including "Sweet Chastity" (2005, produced by César Alvarez of The Lisps), and his latest, "The Mammal Years" (2012). He was a member of the movement troupe Underthrust, which collaborated with songwriter Kimya Dawson on several performances and videos. Fishback's essay, "Times Are Changing, Reb Tevye," was featured in the anthology "Mentsh: On Being Jewish & Queer" (Alyson Books, 2004). His visual installation, "Pen Pals," was featured in the 2011 Soho exhibition of the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History, for which he later served on the Selection Committee. Fishback frequently teaches workshops on performance composition and queer performance culture. He blogs at thematerialworld.tumblr.com; his regular website is www.danfishback.com. Before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, Fishback wrote a weekly column for the Daily Pennsylvanian, was heavily involved in anti-war activism, and organized events at Kelly Writers House.

Ezra Berkley Nepon is a West Philadelphian writer, performer, and organizer. Nepon recently returned from an East and West Coast tour with her new book Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue: A History of New Jewish Agenda, published by Thread Makes Blanket Press and distributed by AK Press. Other creations include the full-length play Between Two Worlds: Who Loved You Before You Were Mine which used themes from The Dybbuk to think about relationships between queer generations in the wake of the AIDS epidemic ("a love letter to the ghosts among us"), and Little Orphan Gender Revolutionary Annie – a 4-act song-cycle about the gender binary oppression of the girls' orphanage, told through toy theater/green screen magic. Nepon is pursuing an MA in Goddard College's Transformative Language Arts Program, and working on a thesis about New Yiddish Theater-maker Jenny Romaine and radical faerie theater-troupe The Eggplant Faerie Players. Visit: www.ezraberkleynepon.wordpress.com.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

9 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: WRIT 030.312 with Dana Walker
10:30 AM - 12 PM in Room 202: Peer Tutoring with Valerie Ross
12 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 027.301 with Emil Weissboard
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: ENG 122 with Max Apple
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: ENG 145 with Stephen Fried
1:30 PM - 3 PM in the Arts Cafe: ENG 88 with Al Filreis

Wednesday, 9/12

Speakeasy open mic night

Poetry, Prose, and Anything Goes!

7:30 PM in the Arts Cafe

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV.

listen: to an audio recording of this event.

Our Speakeasy Open Mic Night is held once a month. We invite writers to share their work, or the work of others, in our Arts Cafe. Speakeasy welcomes all kinds of readings, performances, spectacles, and happenings. Bring your poetry, your guitar, your dance troupe, your award-winning essay, or your stand up comedy to share. You should expect outrageous (and free!) raffles for things you didn't know you needed, occasional costumes, and, of course, community members who love writing.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

11 AM to 12:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 002.307 with Michelle Taransky
2 PM to 5 PM in Room 202: ENG 156 with Paul Hendrickson
2 PM to 5 Pm in Room 209: ENG 010 with Jamie-Lee Josselyn

Thursday, 9/13

Brodsky Gallery Opening

imaginary gardens, real toads: recent paintings and prints by Kaitlin Pomerantz

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV.

listen: to an audio recording of this event.

Join us in celebrating the first Brodsky Gallery show of the academic year with a poetry reading featuring Claire Wilcox, Tim Leonido and Alex Cuff, followed by a reception and time to enjoy the art.

Kaitlin Pomerantz (b. 1986, New York City) is an artist based out of Philadelphia. Her work explores relationships between nature and culture, material and memory, objecthood and representation, and draws from the history of the still life genre. Pomerantz received a bachelor's degree in art history from the University of Chicago and studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Her work has been shown in Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Palouse, Washington; most recently at the Invisible Dog, Brooklyn, and the University City Arts League, Philadelphia. Pomerantz will serve as resident artist this fall at Annmarie Garden in the Southern Chesapeake, where she will conduct a site specific installation and oyster restoration project.

Claire Wilcox is a Philadelphia-based writer, originally from New York City. She is currently a student in the Bard MFA program.

Tim Leonido is a writer who lives in Philadelphia. He keeps an audio journal at foxedandgrimed.wordpress.com.

Alex Cuff teaches public high school in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared in Apocalypse Anthology from Flying Guillotine Press, Boog City Reader, The Bridge, The Enpipe Line, and is forthcoming in Staging Ground. She is a co-founder and editor of No, Dear magazine.

The Brodsky Gallery is an art gallery integrated with the ground floor of the Writers House. Up to six exhibitions take place during the academic year from September through May. Openings feature a reception for the artist and an accompanying program; examples include panel discussions, poetry readings, film screenings, and technique demonstrations by the artist. Through exhibiting a diverse array of art media and cross-disciplinary programming, the Brodsky Gallery at KWH seeks to engage Penn students and the broader Philadelphia community with the interrelationships between literary and visual arts. Thanks to the generosity of Michael and Heidi Brodsky, whose support makes our gallery space possible, the Brodsky Gallery is a permanent project of Kelly Writers House.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

9 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: WRIT 030.312 with Dana Walker
10:30 AM - 12 PM in Room 202: Peer Tutoring with Valerie Ross
12 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 027.301 with Emil Weissboard
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: ENG 117 with Anthony DeCurtis
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: ENG 135 with Max Apple
1:30 PM - 3 PM in the Arts Cafe: ENG 88 with Al Filreis

Friday, 9/14

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Saturday, 9/15

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Sunday, 9/16

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Monday, 9/17

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

11 AM - 12:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 002.307 with Michelle Taransky
2 PM - 5 PM in Room 202: ENG 157 with Sam Apple
2 PM - 5 PM in Room 209: ENG 123 with Elizabeth Van Doren

Tuesday, 9/18

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

9 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: WRIT 030.312 with Dana Walker
10:30 AM - 12 PM in Room 202: Peer Tutoring with Valerie Ross
12 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 027.301 with Emil Weissboard
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: ENG 122 with Max Apple
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: ENG 145 with Stephen Fried
1:30 PM - 3 PM in the Arts Cafe: ENG 88 with Al Filreis

Wednesday, 9/19

Careers in Journalism and New Media

What you need to know to get a real job in print or broadcast journalism, book publishing, new media, and beyond

5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

co-sponsored by: The Daily Pennsylvanian, The Nora Magid Mentorship Prize, and the Maury Povich Fund for Journalism Programs at the Kelly Writers House

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV.

listen: to an audio recording of this event.

Ruth Davis Konigsberg (C'90): Senior Editor at Time magazine, author of The Truth About Grief (Simon & Schuster), former editor at Glamour and New York, and former contributing writer at Elle and New York Observer.

Matt Flegenheimer (C'11): reporter, New York Times; freelance writer, SportsIllustrated.com; Nora Prize winner.

Melody Kramer (C'06): associate producer, "Fresh Air;" freelance writer, National Geographic; former producer at "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me;" Kroc Fellow at NPR; Nora Prize winner.

Eliot Kaplan (C'78): executive director and talent acquisition for Hearst Magazines; former editor-in-chief Philadelphia magazine and managing editor GQ.

Stephen Fried (C'79): author; lecturer, CPCW; adjunct professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; former senior writer and editor, Philadelphia; former contributing editor Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour, Ladies Home Journal.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

11 AM to 12:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 002.307 with Michelle Taransky
2 PM to 5 PM in Room 202: ENG 156 with Paul Hendrickson
2 PM to 5 Pm in Room 209: ENG 010 with Jamie-Lee Josselyn

Thursday, 9/20

Whenever we feel like it

featuring Jordan Stempleman and Mark Nowak

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Michelle Taransky

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV.

listen: to an audio recording of this event.

The Whenever We Feel Like It Reading Series is put on by Committee of Vigilance members Michelle Taransky and Emily Pettit. The Committee of Vigilance is a subdivision of Sleepy Lemur Quality Enterprises, which is the production division of The Meeteetzee Institute.

Jordan Stempleman's most recent collections of poetry are No, Not Today (Magic Helicopter Press, 2012) and Doubled Over (BlazeVOX Books, 2009). He co-edits The Continental Review, teaches writing and literature at the Kansas City Art Institute, and curates A Common Sense Reading Series.

Mark Nowak, a 2010 Guggenheim fellow, is the author of Coal Mountain Elementary(Coffee House Press, 2009) and Shut Up Shut Down (Coffee House Press, 2004) – a New York Times Editor's Choice. He frequently speaks about global working class policies and issues, most recently on Al Jazeera, BBC World News America, BBC Radio 3, and Pacifica Radio's "Against the Grain." A native of Buffalo, New York, Nowak currently directs the MFA program at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY. For information on bookings, contact Speak Out Now: The Institute for Democratic Education and Culture. Follow on Twitter: @coalmtn.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

9 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: WRIT 030.312 with Dana Walker
10:30 AM - 12 PM in Room 202: Peer Tutoring with Valerie Ross
12 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 027.301 with Emil Weissboard
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: ENG 117 with Anthony DeCurtis
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: ENG 135 with Max Apple
1:30 PM - 3 PM in the Arts Cafe: ENG 88 with Al Filreis

Friday, 9/21

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Saturday, 9/22

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Sunday, 9/23

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Monday, 9/24

Live at the Writers House Presents Quirk

featuring Doogie Horner, Don Steinberg, Michael Rogalski, Caroline Tiger

with musical guest Emily Bate

7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Michaela Majoun

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV

listen: to an audio recording of this event.

LIVE AT THE WRITERS HOUSE is a long-standing collaboration between the Kelly Writers House and WXPN FM (88.5). Six times annually between September and April, Michaela Majoun hosts a one-hour broadcast of poetry, music, and other spoken-word art, along with one musical guest, all from our Arts Cafe onto the airwaves at WXPN. LIVE is made possible by generous support from BigRoc. For more information, contact Producer Alli Katz (katza@writing.upenn.edu)

Quirk Books publishes innovative and buzzworthy books that entertain, amuse, and inform. Founded in 2002, Quirk publishes books that are objects of desire and delight--in the categories of pop culture, humor and gift, horror, sci-fi, and mystery, food and drink, parenting, pets, history, crafts, reference, and of course, “irreference,” with 25 new titles per year, in print and digital formats. Quirk is best known as the publishers of the international best-seller Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and as the creators of the best-selling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook series—but they do so much more.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

11 AM - 12:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 002.307 with Michelle Taransky
2 PM - 5 PM in Room 202: ENG 157 with Sam Apple
2 PM - 5 PM in Room 209: ENG 123 with Elizabeth Van Doren

Tuesday, 9/25

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

9 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: WRIT 030.312 with Dana Walker
10:30 AM - 12 PM in Room 202: Peer Tutoring with Valerie Ross
12 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 027.301 with Emil Weissboard
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: ENG 122 with Max Apple
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: ENG 145 with Stephen Fried
1:30 PM - 3 PM in the Arts Cafe: ENG 88 with Al Filreis

Wednesday, 9/26

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

11 AM to 12:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 002.307 with Michelle Taransky
2 PM to 5 PM in Room 202: ENG 156 with Paul Hendrickson
2 PM to 5 Pm in Room 209: ENG 010 with Jamie-Lee Josselyn

Thursday, 9/27

A fiction reading by Eileen Pollack

6:00 PM in the Writers House

co-sponsored by: Creative Writing

hosted by: Sam and Max Apple

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV.

listen: to an audio recording of this event.

Eileen Pollack is the author of a collection of short fiction, The Rabbi in the Attic And Other Stories, a novel, Paradise, New York, and a work of creative nonfiction called Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull, which won a 2003 WILLA finalist award. Eileen's essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in many periodicals; her innovative textbook and anthology, Creative Nonfiction: A Guide to Form, Content, and Style, with Readings, was published in January 2009 by Wadsworth/Cengage.

A new collection of stories and novellas called In the Mouth was published in 2008 by Four Way Books and was named the winner of the 2008 Edward Lewis Wallant Award, in addition to being shortlisted for the Sophie Brody Medal for Jewish literature, chosen as a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Award, and awarded a silver medal in ForeWord Magazine's 2008 Book of the Year Awards.

Eileen's second novel, Breaking and Entering, was published in January 2012 by Four Way Books and soon after was awarded the 2012 Grub Street National Book Prize and named a New York Times Editor's Choice selection; the novel was also favorably reviewed in People, More, Oprah, Kirkus, and Publishe's Weekly.

Eileen has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michener Foundation, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. Her stories have appeared in journals such as Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Michigan Quarterly Review, SubTropics, Agni, and New England Review. Her novella "The Bris" was chosen to appear in the Best American Short Stories 2007 anthology, edited by Stephen King, while her stories have been awarded two Pushcart Prizes, the Cohen Award for best fiction of the year from Ploughshares, and similar awards from Literary Review and MQR.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

9 AM - 10:30 AM in Room 202: WRIT 030.312 with Dana Walker
10:30 AM - 12 PM in Room 202: Peer Tutoring with Valerie Ross
12 PM - 1:30 PM in Room 202: WRIT 027.301 with Emil Weissboard
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 202: ENG 117 with Anthony DeCurtis
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM in Room 209: ENG 135 with Max Apple
1:30 PM - 3 PM in the Arts Cafe: ENG 88 with Al Filreis

Friday, 9/28

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Saturday, 9/29

100k Poets for Change

1:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Kitsi Watterson

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV.

listen: to an audio recording of this event.

"100 Thousand Poets for Change" is a global phenomenon – nearly 700 events planned in over 115 countries – which will bring poets and musicians together to call for environmental, social and political change within the framework of peace and sustainability. The Writers House "100 Thousand Poets for Change" event will provide a forum for young poets and well-published poets to address our universal needs for peace and justice, and we will join the global call for an end to hunger, poverty, and war. Featured readers will include Alicia Ostriker and Donna Wolf-Palacio, as well as youth poets from Camden, Chester, and Philadelphia. The poets will voice their specific area of concerns – such as homelessness, racism, ecocide and censorship – and offer their visions for transformation, community and unity. PLP TheUnity (Peace, Love & Power) will open the event with music, and each poet will present one poem, rap or spoken word piece. A reception will follow immediately after.

"Peace and sustainability is a major concern worldwide, and the guiding principle for this global event," said Michael Rothenberg, Co-Founder of "100 Thousand Poets for Change," a grassroots organization that has inspired these events. "We are in a world where it isn't just one issue that needs to be addressed. A common ground is built through this global compilation of local stories, which is how we create a true narrative for discourse to inform the future."