Roger Angell on the catcher
Among my favorite pieces of prose is the long opening paragraph of Roger Angell’s New Yorker essay “In the Fire.” Here it is:
Category: Kelly Writers House Fellows
Hilton Als on traumatic memory & “the wall” (9-min. video)
I ask Hilton Als about his remarkable essay “It Will Soon Be Here,” a reflection on traumatic memory and the figure of the wall that keeps us from direct access to it. (This is a 9-minute clip from an hour-long conversation that took place on March 30, 2021.) LINK TO...
In memory of Paul Kelly — Daily Pennsylvanian, March 15, 2021
I published a memorial comment on Paul Kelly in the March 15, 2021, issue of the Daily Pennsylvanian. It has been issued as a guest column and can be found HERE.
John Keene at KWH on February 11/12
We at the Kelly Writers House are thrilled to welcome our first Writers House Fellow of 2019, fiction writer, poet, theorist, critic & translator John Keene, on February 11 and 12. John will visit us for two special programs: * a reading on Monday, February 11 at 6:30 PM; and * an...
Kelly Writers House Fellows, 2019: John Keene, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Rosanne Cash
We at the Kelly Writers House are thrilled to announce our 2019 Writers House Fellows events. This year, we will welcome fiction writer, critic, and (as of last month) MacArthur Foundation grantee John Keene, legendary poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, and eminent singer-songwriter and fiction writer Rosanne Cash. Seating is strictly limited for these programs, and an RSVP...
Excerpts from my interview with Jerome Rothenberg (2008)
Excerpts from my interview with Jerome Rothenberg. (Thanks to Tyler Burke, who did the editing.) Jerome Rothenberg was selected as one of the Kelly Writers House’s 2008 Fellows. After meeting in class with students who had been studying his work for a third of their semester, he attended two programs...
Video excerpts from my interview with Nathaniel Mackey (March 2017)
Tyler Burke has now created two video excerpts from my one-hour interview/conversation with Nathaniel Mackey, an event held during his time at Kelly Writers House as a Fellow in March 2017.
My interview with Maria Bamford (a 7-min. excerpt)
Thanks to Tyler Burke for editing the recording of this Kelly Writers House Fellows interview/discussion down from 1+ hours.
Lydia Davis in conversation
During her visit to Kelly Writer House as a KWH Fellow, Lydia Davis spent an hour with me in conversation. In the course of the house I asked her to read several of her pieces and we were then able to discuss these in detail. Thanks for Domenic Casciato of...
Kelly Writers House Fellows 2017: “final words” party
The amazing group of people who formed the KWH Fellows Seminar for spring 2017 met for a final time last night—our “final words” session. Here are some photos I took of the gang. Click on any image for a larger view.
Al Filreis is Kelly Professor, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House, Director of the Center
for Programs in Contemporary Writing, Co-Director of PennSound, and Publisher of Jacket2—all at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his books are Secretaries of the Moon,
Wallace Stevens & the Actual World, Modernism from Left to Right, and Counter-Revolution of the Word: The Conservative Attack on Modern Poetry, 1945-60. His new book is 
Founder/Faculty Director, 