I’m grateful to Huda Fakhreddine the gift she made of “Lighthouse for the Drowning,” poems by Jawdat Fakhreddine (her father) as translated by herself and Jayson Iwen. “Now when I meet [this poem] in a book / from time to time, / it beckons to me like a prisoner, /...
Have you checked out the commentary series I co-edit with Brian Reed* and Craig Dworkin? It’s called “First Readings.” We ask five critics & poet-critics to write up short initial responses to a supposedly “difficult” poem: https://jacket2.org/commentary/first-readings . * ModPo’ers will remember Brian’s terrific essay about Caroline Bergvall’s “VIA” we read...
In April 2016 Anna Maria Hong gave a reading at the Kelly Writers House. One of the poems she read was “Plain As Him.” She introduced by telling us that it is about Donald Trump and also the U.S. women’s soccer team. Thanks to the video editing work of Dylan...
Back in November 2016 I had the honor of presenting the 99-year-old poet Naomi Replansky at Kelly Writers House. Here I’ve selected three photos from the many taken during her visit. Click on a photo for a larger view. I am also and pleased to offer links to various Replansky...
I’ve now posted a video clip from Li Zhimin’s fall 2016 reading at Kelly Writers House HERE.
Otter Jung-Allen, Philadelphia’s Youth Poet Laureate, performs a poem called “Praise,” about their father. Otter Jung-Allen is a seventeen-year-old genderqueer poet and performer from West Philly. They are the coach of Science Leadership Academy’s Slam League team, a 2015 Brave New Voices International Champion, the 2015 Liberty Unplugged Champion, and the...
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...
Here are two of the many poetry postcards made for us by T. de los Reyes of Manila. T. has been a ModPo regular since 2012 and has served the community brilliantly as a Community TA (CTA) for five years. Click on either image for a larger view.
I was excited and pleased to receive yesterday an advance copy of Peter Cole’s new book, New & Selected Poems & Translations.
Nathaniel Mackey is here as a Kelly Writers House Fellow for several days. Yesterday he joined me and the students in the Kelly Writers House Fellows seminar for an intense three-hour conversation about his work and much else. In the evening he gave a spectacular reading from his work —...
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.