Kelly Writers House Programs

The Junior Research Seminar is designed to introduce English majors to methodologies currently employed in literary studies.

Poet and translator Ellen Dor eacute Watson directs the Poetry Center at Smith College and has translated a dozen books from the Brazilian Portuguese, most notably poetry by Brazilian Ad eacute Prado.

This program features a short reading by three English-language poets of their work, originally written in German, Yiddish and Russian, and translated into English, followed by a discussion of poetry, translation and creativity, moderated by Al Filreis.

Anthology editors talk about the Golden Shovel form, the process of making this special anthology, and the far-reaching influence of Gwendolyn Brooks.

Former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jennifer Lin discusses her new family memoir, Shanghai Faithful, with Dick Polman.

Anthony DeCurtis talks with Duncan Shiek, a Grammy and Tony Award-winning artist who launched his musical career in 1996 with his self-titled debut album.

Brooke O'Harra of Penn's Faculty Theatre Arts talks with Madeleine George, whose play Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England will run at the Annenberg Center for The Arts April 5-8. George is the Theatre Arts Program’s Visiting Artist this Spring.

The Writers House hosts its monthly Speakeasy Open Mic Night, where community members can share their work.

Editorial cartoonist Bob Englehart discusses his work and draws some original cartoons at the Writers House.

Organized and hosted by Davy Knittle, "City Planning Poetics" holds events that invite one or more poets and one or more planners, designers, planning historians or others working in the field of city planning to discuss a particular topic central to their work, to ask each other questions, and to read from their current projects.

Colleagues and friends read and share memories of Nina Auerbach.

Our student-run open mic night welcomes all kinds of readings, performances, spectacles, and happenings.

“Stand-Ups Sitdown” is an annual series that features stand-up comedians in conversation with eminent TV comedy writer (and Penn alumnus) Lew Schneider.

Students share their works and personal connections to the Writers House for admitted students visiting during Quaker Days.

What does it mean when one of the greatest songwriters of the past century -- and the recent winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature -- devotes that much energy to songs written by other writers?

Stephen Metcalf, critic-at-large and columnist at Slate magazine and Wesley Morris, critic-at-large for The New York Times, join in discussion with Al Filreis.

Four authors and a literary agent participate in a panel discussion about finding and working with an agent.

Artists introduce an installation of sound, maps, surveys, and ephemera from the quantum time capsule of Community Futures Lab, a pop-up oral history/oral futures recording lab, community resource library, workshop space, and gallery located in North Philadelphia exploring eminent futures and temporal domains of housing and displacement.

The Writers House celebrates the Adroit Journal, founded in November 2010 by poet and Penn student Peter LaBerge. At its foundation, the journal has its eyes focused ahead, seeking to showcase what its global staff of emerging writers sees as the future of poetry, prose, and art.

Three winners of the Creative Venture Prize present their projects involving exploring Cuban lullabies, punk music and Barrow, Alaska.