Eric Andersen sings “Thirsty Boots”
Anthony DeCurtis hosted legendary singer-songwriter Eric Andersen at the Kelly Writers House yesterday. At my request Eric sang “Thirsty Boots” to conclude the event.
Category: Kelly Writers House
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...
House of the Book
Second dwelling from the left: House of the Book. (With thanks to Harris Steinberg & Jane Stevens Steinberg, who gave us a framed sketch of this at the time of the completed first renovation of 3805 Locust Walk in late 1997.)
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...
Oct. 25 @ 5 pm: Mehrsa Baradaran on “the color of money” (the history of black banks)
On Thursday, October 25, starting at 5 PM at Kelly Writers House, I will have the honor of hosting Mehrsa Baradaran, this year’s featured guest at our annual Weber Symposium. RSVP by writing to mingo@writing.upenn.edu. Free & open to all but seating is limited, so RSVP soon! I am nearly...
Renovation of the Arts Cafe, summer 2018
Construction has begun on the Arts Cafe here at the Kelly Writers House. The architects are DIGSAU, a team led by Jeff Goldstein and Aaron Jezzi. The contractor is Murphy, Quigley, led by Nick Holz. Acoustics are being handled by Metropolitan Acoustics, led by Seth Harrison. At Penn our project...
Podcast interview with Rolf Potts (“Deviate”): on collaborative learning & the end of the lecture
Rolf Potts returned to the Writers House recently and, after leading a public program he and I went into the Wexler Studio to record an episode of his fine podcast series, “Deviate.” It was a long interview. Even after some editing, it’s still 93 minutes long. You can listen to...
Laurie Olin sketches me
During a meeting in which I and architect Jeff Goldstein (of the DIGSAU firm) presented on our plan to renovate and expand the Arts Cafe at KWH, Laurie Olin, the eminent architect, sketched the south-facing end of the plan for the space & sketched me too.
ENGL 589 — Fall 2018 — Modern & Contemporary U.S. Poetry: Poetics & Pedagogy
English 589 – Modern & Contemporary U.S. Poetry: Poetics & Pedagogy Fall 2018 — Mondays 3-6 PM Arts Café, Kelly Writers House This survey of experimental modern and contemporary U.S. poetry will be taught collaboratively,* and its primary mode will be interactive and iterative. This will be simultaneously a course...
Erica Baum on Wednesday (November 8, 2017)
On Wednesday (November 8th) the artist and photographer-poet Erica Baum—whose work we encounter in week 10 of our course, next week—will be spending the day visiting us at the Kelly Writers House. We are all very excited about Erica’s visit. Anyone ModPo’er anywhere in the world can join us for...
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, 