My new book, The Classroom and the Crowd: Poetry and the Promise of Digital Community, will be published by Columbia University Press just after Thanksgiving 2025. You can pre-order a copy (e-book, hardcover or paperback) HERE. A description: For more than a decade, Al Filreis has taught a free online...
Here’s a nice feature on PoemTalk — written on the occasion of the recording of our 200th episode: LINK “It’s such an honor. I have been a listener to ‘PoemTalk’ from the early days right up to the present. So I came into the room feeling the weight and the...
I was pleased to receive and read a copy of Marque, a book of poems by Iain Morrison (of Edinburgh, Scotland). A note that came with the book informed me, gratifyingly, of Iain’s interest in episodes of PoemTalk. I am mentioned in several of his poems. “Phlox,” the book’s final...
I am often asked to recommend my five favorite episodes of PoemTalk. I mean, there have been 158 of them since 2007, so naming five is a tall order. I’ve loved many of them. Found dozens of them so powerful—such a moving experience, even in the middle of my scrambling...
In a few days we will release PoemTalk episode 128—in which Sawako Nakayasu, Gabriel Ojeda-Sague & Donato Mancini talk with me about Sueyuen Juliette Lee’s “Perfect Villagers.” Below, from left to right: Sawako, Gabe, Donato. Below that, of course, is Juliette.
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...
It’s that time of year. For counting blessings & discerning why we’re grateful. The ModPo team, based here at the Kelly Writers House, makes ModPo (ever expanding, ever further elaborating) available to you as truly a labor of love. Can you tell? We just love doing this, and reaching out...
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...
Today in KWH’s Wexler Studio I had the great pleasure of convening & moderating a new episode of PoemTalk. Amber Rose Johnson, Tracie Morris, Alexandria Johnson & I discussed six sections of NourbeSe Philip’s “Zong!” (It will be a few months before this episode will be available.)
The great poet Joanne Kyger passed yesterday. I had the honor of hosting an on-location episode of PoemTalk a few months ago not far from her home in Bolinas, California. You can hear that conversation here. That afternoon was brilliant: a late summer day, clear skies, the mesa field behind...
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, Counter-Revolution of the Word: The Conservative Attack on Modern Poetry, 1945-60; 1960: When Art & Literature Confronted the Memory of World War II & Remade the Modern (2021); and The Difference Is Spreading: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Fifty Poems. His new book is The Classroom & the Crowd: Poetry & the Promise of Digital Community (2025). He has taught a massive open online course, "ModPo," to 315,000 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.