It’s now time for us, all together, to respond to the essays that have been submitted for essay #1 on Emily Dickinson’s four-line poem “Love reckons by itself—alone.” The poem and assignment are HERE. The essays submitted by ModPo people are all posted here to this subforum. (To find this...
We are now in week 3 of ModPo ’17! We are now in week 3 of ModPo ’17. Here we turn to “chapter 2,” the rise of modernism. As usual, we strongly recommend the following process: (1) read a poem, (2) watch a video of us discussing the poem, (3)...
In the current issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette, there’s a good article about ModPo — conveying well, I think, the unusual pedagogy and communal sensibility of our version of the MOOC mode. HERE‘s your link.
The ModPo team will travel to London in early October 2017. If you are in or near London, please plan to join us at one or both of two events that will be open to all. The first event will be a webcast on Thursday, October 5 at 6:30 in...
I’m finishing up additions to the ModPo site in prep for the new ModPo season starting 9/9/17 (next Saturday). Here is the current list of Tracie Morris materials you’ll find at the end of chapter 9.3/week 10 of the “ModPoPLUS” syllabus (an extra/supplemental syllabus parallel to the main schedule). Go...
New to ModPo for fall ’17—a video discussion of Tracie Morris’s “Enclosed,” one of her poems in response to Gertrude Stein’s “Tender Buttons.” Tracie Morris herself joined us for this discussion. Here’s the link to the video inside the ModPo site: https://www.coursera.org/learn/modpo/resources/vmyjg — For access to this & all ModPo...
New to ModPoPLUS (as we prepare for ModPo ’17’s opening next weekend): a video discussion of Naomi Replansky’s “An Inheritance,” to accompany a video of Naomi R. herself performing & discussing the poem. Here’s your direct link to the video inside the ModPo site (you must enroll in the course...
The free, open, non-credit course on modern & contemporary U.S. poetry hosted by the Kelly Writers House—known as “ModPo”—will begin its sixth year on Saturday, September 9. ModPo is designed as a 10-week course, but it also serves (all year, always open) resource site and also as a community for...
Class Central’s assessment of reviews and responses (contributed to their own site and that of others) is that ModPo is in the top 3 among free open online courses “of all time.” LINKS: [] the Class Central top 50 ranking [] how to enroll in ModPo [] ModPo week 8...
I’m writing you briefly this morning from the Kelly Writers House in Philadelphia, PA, USA, to say hello, and welcome you (or welcome you back) to ModPo, our course on—and community gathered around—modern and contemporary U.S. poetry. I will be writing again in the coming days. Please forgive the flurry...
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 1960: When Art & Literature Confronted the Memory of World War II & Remade the Modern (Columbia University Press, 2021). He is currently writing a book about online pedagogy. He has taught a massive open online course, "ModPo," to 265,000 participants in 192 countries since 2012.
Founder/Faculty Director, Kelly Writers House—intro video ][ events calendar
Convener/teacher, “ModPo.” an open online course on modern & contemporary U.S. poetry—overview of the course ][ intro video
Publisher of Jacket2 magazine—my Jacket2 commentary series ][ "First Readings"
Producer/host, PoemTalk podcast series—co-sponsored by Kelly Writers House & the Poetry Foundation
Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing—Creative Writing ][ RealArts internships ]
Co-founder & co-director of PennSound—50,000 files ][ 15 million downloads annually
Teacher & host, "Kelly Writers House Fellows"—since 1999 ][ Susan Sontag, John Ashbery, Jamaica Kincaid, Laurie Anderson, Adrienne Rich, Joan Didion, John Edgar Wideman & more
Teacher, "Representations of the Holocaust"—a course on survivor testimony ][ my holocaust site
Click on the image for information about the book.