In 1998-99 I was named the “Pennsylvania Professor of the Year” by the Carnegie Foundation, a huge honor even though I don’t quite know what the award specifically meant. My friends and colleagues at Penn took this as a sign that our success in establishing the Writers House starting 1995-96...
We here at 3805 Locust Walk are thrilled to announce that MAYA ARTHUR (C’18) has been selected as the inaugural Kelly Writers House Post-Baccalaureate Fellow. The KWH Post-Bacc Fellows project extends a central objective of the Writers House: to direct resources toward opportunities, learning experiences, and foundational support to young...
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.
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...
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.)
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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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.