A family wedding in Gloucester, Mass. — perfect early-November weather and lots of occasions for running along the seawalls. We also drove up to Rockport and hiked out to the quarry in Halibut State Park. Click on any photo for a larger view and a permanent URL.
I had a half hour to kill while waiting for Jane to arrive on the 6:11 PM Amtrak coming from Penn Station to Rhinecliff Station along the Hudson, so I walked around and took in the scenes. I love the Hudson Valley and this odd old riverside station is one...
I can’t think of an urban park I admire more than Hudson River Park running south from Chelsea all the way to the bottom of Manhattan Island. The features vary; it’s not a single design. Some of the piers have been renovated, but each differently. The gardens are gorgeous, each...
A perfect weekend in Cornwall, in the northwest corner of Connecticut. This is essentially the Berkshires — but lower rolling hills, more farmland, etc. I did a lot of running and walking and was fascinated by various objects and scenes seen from the road. Here, below, is a selection of...
The day lilies are now out, and looking good despite the 90+-degree heat. Click on an image for a larger view.
We drove into the Wicklow Mountains and found ourselves driving many km along a road called “Wicklow Way.” We’re staying at a B&B here and this afternoon did a 2-mile hike among the hills. The gorse was out in full yellow! Click on any image for a larger view.
Today we saw Beckett’s telephone at the Irish Writers Museum and encountered Joyce in St. Stephens Green. At the Chester Beatty Museum we were awed by his collection of early paper and early book bindings. The post-impressionist paintings at the Hugh Lane Gallery were ones we’d never seen. The map...
Arrived in Dublin today — and spent most of the day (despite jet-lag) walking around the city, dodging raindrops and then enjoying the sudden sun. We stopped in at the National Gallery, walked across the Liffey for dinner, strolled Grafton street, had a few pub pints. Click on any image...
Here in Cambridge, MA, to host a KWH “salon” evening and to record an episode of PoemTalk at the Woodberry Poetry Room. I went for a beat-the-heat early run this morning—3 miles all the way through and around Harvard’s campus. Here are a few views I found interesting and, as...
On this cool, partly sunny afternoon, I met a friend for lunch on Cornelia Street. Along the way I snapped these photographs. Click on any image for a larger view. The fifth photo was taken inside Murray’s Cheese shop. The first two: Charles Street.
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.