Tuesday 6 PM: poet & performance artist

On Tuesday, December 1, poet & performance artist Ursula Rucker is with us, starting at 6 PM. She has enchanted critics and fans across the globe with her diverse repertoire, captivating vocals, and accessible poetic verse. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she began documenting her observations of the world when she was just a girl. After graduating from Temple University's journalism program and a stint at The Painted Bride Art Center, Ursula made her debut in 1994 at Philadelphia's famed jazz venue, Zanzibar Blue. Click here for more info about the event. This is the fourth annual Caroline Rothstein Oral Poetry Program at KWH. Click here for much more about the series--including links to recordings of the three previous sessions.

Thanksgiving podcast

Our friends at PennSound have prepared a new episode in the PennSound Podcast series - this one just in time for Thanksgiving. Yes, we hope you'll have a PennSound Thanksgiving. Listen and hear six poets giving thanks.

foxtrot johnson debuts edit

The photo at right: earlier this week, at the inaugural "EDIT" event: Jeremy James Foxtrot Johnson. He is an instructor at New York's Center for Book Arts as well as curator for the TEXTFORM reading series. He was born in Los Angeles, CA, and now resides in Queens. Through his own Auto Types Press he prints broadsides and other text-centric ephemera, including collaborative prints with poets Edwin Torres, Joan Retallack, David Lehman and Charles Bernstein, among others.

Writers House in SoHo

At left: Charles Bernstein presenting at our annual "Writers House New York" event at Meisel Gallery in SoHo; photo taken by Arielle Brousse. We've been gathering every November at Meisel Gallery since 2002, and we're grateful to Susan & Lou Meisel for turning over their place to us--125 or so friends and affiliates of the Writers House project. This year, in addition to Charles, we were delighted by readings by Liz Van Doren, Tracie Morris, Lily Applebaum, and Molly Johnsen. And Al Filreis as always led us in a collaborative close reading of a poem - this time, Cid Corman's "It isn't for want..."

the green couch

Eric Karlan was and is a denizen of KWH and a regular resident of the famous Green Couch in our living room. In fact Eric is probably the main reason why the couch is so widely known; first-time visitors often ask where the couch is, and, having it pointed out to them, walk over to stare with a sense of recognition at its velvety greenness. In April 2007 Eric published an essay about the couch in the Pennsylvania Gazette. Click here and listen to Eric read a passage from that essay.

a PhillySound mainstay

Frank Sherlock has read at the Writers House a number of times over the years. In April 2009 he was back again - this time to read from his recent poetry. Here is a video recording. Frank is the author of Over Here (Factory School 2009) and the co-author of Ready-To-Eat Individual (Lavender Ink 2008), a collaborative work with the Poet Laureate of Dumaine Street, Brett Evans. A duet with CAConrad entitled The City Real & Imagined: Philadelphia Poems is forthcoming from Factory School in fall 2009. Frank is a mainstay of the PhillySound scene and can often be found in Writers House audiences. He, Tom Devaney and Fran Ryan joined together to co-host an over-the-phone reading by the great Cid Corman (who was calling from Kyoto) in November '01, one of our most memorable events.

democracy at 10th & A

Today marks the release of episode 25 of our PoemTalk (full name: "PoemTalk at the Writers House") podcast series, co-sponsored by PennSound and the Poetry Foundation of Chicago. This episode features a discussion of Alice Notley's poem "I the People." You can find the link to this new podcast and the 24 other episodes by going to the PoemTalk site. Be sure, too, to check out Alice Notley's PennSound page and note there that you'll find recordings of Notley's fine reading at the Writers House.

featured in iTunes

As of this writing (Friday morning), the Kelly Writers House is featured on iTunes - in the music store under "writers & writing." Click here and you'll be taken to a link directly to iTunes. Writers House audio in iTunes: a sampling of 50 of our programs, and the complete run of our podcast series.

conversation about crime fiction Nov 10

Our annual "Bernheimer Symposium" (held in memory of Penn Comparative Lit professor Charles Bernheimer, who died tragically young) this year happens on Tues Nov 10 at 6 PM. This year the program is a conversation about crime fiction - with Lenny Cassuto and S.J. Rozan (pictured at right). Cassuto has published among other books an anthology of American crime fiction. Rozan is a New Yorker & author of 11 crime novels. Thanks to Kate Levin for making this ongoing annual event possible. Here is your link to our calendar entry - all info.

transcribing the world

Kenny Goldsmith, every other year, teaches a year-long seminar which is a collaboration of the Writers House/Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW) and the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art). We at KWH adore what Kenny's doing in this course. This year Kenny and the students are transcribing the world. Yes, that's what they're doing--no more or less than that. Next year Kenny will be teaching his famous "Uncreative Writing" course. If you are interested in taking it, contact Gregory Djanikian at (215) 573-CPCW.