six-word memoirs

Writers House people tried their hand at writing six-word memoirs. Jamie-Lee Josselyn's was: "These years writing about those ones." Kaegan Sparks: "On second blush, it reads more". Emma Morgenstern: "Yes or no, with exclamation points!" You can find more here.

alt-poetry, alt-pedagogy

In early 2001 the Writers House held a symposium on the possible connection between experimental poetry and alternative pedagogy. It was webcast live and several dozen people participated from afar via email and telephone. The poet Joan Retallack came to KWH from Bard College and was moderator and featured reader. Yesterday we converted the old RealVideo stream into mp3 and then we segmented the long audio recording into 10-minute portions, by topic. Our Faculty Director, Al Filreis, blogged about this and has provided all the links you'll need to listen to this fascinating event.

Lisa New returns to Penn

Lisa New was for many years a member of Penn's faculty, then left for Harvard. We miss her, but are pleased to announce that she's making a return visit. Join us at 6:30 PM on Thursday, February 5, when Lisa will talk about and read from her forthcoming book, which is called Jacob's Cane: One Family's Journey from the Four Lands of Lithuania to the Ports of Baltimore and London, A Memoir in Five Generations. For more information about the event, click here.

Dick Polman

We're lucky to have Dick Polman, CPCW's Maury Povich "writer in residence," teaching journalism at Penn. He invites an extraordinary set of journalists to the Writers House each semester for frank talks about the industry, allowing us to get firsthand news about the news. Polman recently sat down with Penn Current to talk about his writing career, blogging, and the so-called "liberal media bias," and to offer advice for young journalists.

6-POEM

215 746-7636
or: 215 746-POEM

With the new year we launch another new project. Call the phone number above any day, at any time, and hear

1) what's happening tonight or very soon at the Writers House
2) highlights of upcoming events
3) a featured poem read at the Writers House, from our archives
4) a featured recording of Writers House-affiliated students

We urge all friends and fans of the Writers House to add this number - which we call "6-POEM" - to their contacts list, speed dial, and address book.

"What's happening" will be updated almost every day. The other features will be updated frequently.