10 new paid RealArts summer internships

I am very pleased to announce the 2013 Real Arts@PENN internships - the fifth summer of this innovative project. This program is intended to support creative Penn undergraduates doing art in the realm of practice. This year, RealArts is sponsoring ten paid ten internships:

Viacom Creative Services
Rolling Stone Magazine
Brooklyn Films
Philadelphia Magazine
Original Film
David Stern and Stuart Gibbs, Writers
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Nickelodeon Animation Studios
Shore Fire Media
The Jewish Museum

Yes, RealArts will pay you a stipend to work in such venues. This summer's stipends will be $4000.

We're happy to emphasize that RealArts internships and programs are open to students in all four undergraduate schools.

Why are we doing this? What other projects will we sponsor? How do you apply? When is the deadline? Go here:

www.writing.upenn.edu/realarts

Maria Popova in the NY Times

Former Penn Creative Writing student and Writers House regular Maria Popova was recently featured in an article in the New York Times. Her blog is called "Brain Pickings."
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Jenny Egan receives award

Recently Jennifer Egan - who in her time at Penn was a Creative Writing student and has since become a close friend of the Writers House - was presented with the "Creative Spirit Award" at Penn during homecoming weekend. Diana Cavallo presented the award; Diana taught Creative Writing at Penn for many years, and was Jenny's teacher.

KWH hosts online course on mod & contemp poetry

Enroll here. The course is free and begins on September 1.

Karen Rile wins Beltran Family Teaching Award

The following happy message has been sent to many friends of the Writers House:

I'm very pleased to announce the winner of the first annual Beltran Family Award for Innovative Teaching & Mentoring at the Kelly Writers House. She is Karen Rile, a super-devoted and extraordinarily talented teacher who has taught part-time as a member of the Creative Writing faculty for many years. She offers writing workshops in fiction and creative nonfiction, and year after year her students, in their evaluations and otherwise, give her the highest possible praise as mentor and supportive writerly presence. She has always gone way out of her way to help emergent writers. And she has long been a friend of the Kelly Writers House and a member of the KWH community. We are pleased that this award will provide her with a $1,000 stipend and up to $2,200 to spend on organizing and hosting a program at the Writers House in the coming academic year (2012-13).

We will be celebrating Karen as our first Beltran Award winner at our end-of-year "hub" party at the Writers House starting at 5 PM on Wednesday, April 25. We will honor her again at the program she sponsors next year.

If you know and share our admiration of Karen, please feel free to congratulate her on this honor: krile@writing.upenn.edu.

10 paid summer internships - RealArts@PENN

We received hundreds of applications again this year for ten paid summer RealArts@PENN internships. Below is a list of the students who have been appointed as RealArts interns for 2012.

For more about RealArts: CLICK HERE.

We want to thank Mingo Reynolds, who coordinates RealArts; and Anthony DeCurtis, Director of RealArts and creator of the series of RealArts events and symposia at the Kelly Writers House. We also wish to thank Dirk Wittenborn, Paul & Ossi Burger, & Alan Berger for their support of RealArts.

The quality of the applications was very high, the competition acute.

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Interning with the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial blog "Say What?” will be Lalita Clozel. Lalita is a junior majoring in Philosophy and Economics.

Nadine Zylberberg will be interning at Original Film. Nadine is a Communication and Cinema Studies major, with a minor in French, and she is a writer for the Daily Pennsylvanian.

The intern at Philadelphia Magazine will be Eillie Anzilotti. Eillie is a junior concentrating in Creative Writing, and minoring in Fine Arts.

Natalia Fuller, a junior History of Art major who focuses in Contemporary Art, will be interning at The Jewish Museum this summer.

The intern at Viacom Creative Services (formerly MTV Creative Services) will be Jake Spinowitz. Jake is a junior and a Creative Writing student.

This years Rolling Stone magazine intern will be Joe Pinsker. Joe is a junior studying nonfiction and journalistic writing and is an editor at 34th Street.

Elaine Ogden, a junior majoring in English, will be working at Brooklyn Films in L.A. with producer/director Jon Avnet.

The intern at Nickelodeon Animation Studios will be Kirby Dixon. Kirby is a junior Visual Arts major with a minor in Spanish.

Tim Delaney will be working in L.A. with screenwriters David Stern and Stuart Gibbs. Tim is a junior English major with a focus in Cinema Studies, and he is also a Communications major.

The intern for Shore Fire Media is Greg Bonnem, a junior studying Communications and Hispanic Studies.

Anthony DeCurtis talks about Joy Division at 7-Up

At our annual 7-UP event, seven KWH friends talk for seven minutes each about a topic the community has chosen. This year the theme was "isolation." Here is a link to the web calendar entry, which provides a list of speakers and their topics. Here is a link to our web page on the whole 7-UP series.

Heled Grant enables KWH'ers to travel for research

Each year a student is awarded the Terry B. Heled Travel & Research Grant, which provides funding for one or several research trips so that the writer can prepare to write a major project. The winner presents his or her findings at an event during the fall after the research summer. Be sure to check out the previous winners and their projects at our Heled Research Grant page. Applications for this year's grant are during on Sunday, March 11. Pictured here (at left in the photo) is Emma Morgenstern, 2009-10 Heled winner. Her project was entitled: "Judeo-Spanish in Greece: The Dying Language of a Survivor Community."

Rufus at KWH

Rufus Wainwright was interviewed by Anthony DeCurtis at the Writers House last year, as part of our annual Blutt Singer-Songwriter Symposium. Watch the video here.

Pico Iyer, shadowing Graham Greene

Pico Iyer visited KWH on February 8, 2012, and spoke about his remarkable new memoir (a kind of "Secret Sharer"/doppelganger story about his shadowy connection to Graham Greene). Rolf Potts, with him in this photo, invited him and introduced the event.

Gay Talese at KWH in 2007

Back in 2007, Gay Talese visited the Writers House and talked about - and read from - his then-current work. Here is the web calendar entry for that event, and here is the audio recording. Talese had spent a great deal of time at the Writers House in 1999. That was the very first year we ran the Kelly Writers House Fellows program. In its first year, Talese taught the course and was himself the Fellow. Our Dick Polman - now a member of our faculty - was actually a student in that class.

Amze Emmons currently in our gallery

The first Brodsky Gallery exhibition of 2012 currently feature drawings and prints by artist Amze Emmons. Born in 1974, in Amsterdam, NY, Emmons is a Philadelphia-based, multi-disciplinary artist with a background in drawing and printmaking. Emmons received a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University and a MA and MFA from the University of Iowa. He has held solo exhibitions at Space 1026, Philadelphia; OHT Gallery, Boston; and Works on Paper Gallery, Philadelphia. His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions including EFA Project Space and the International Print Center, New York; the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington; the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines; Wendy Cooper Gallery, Chicago; and The Print Center, Philadelphia. Emmons has received numerous awards including a Fellowship in the Arts from the Independence Foundation; an Individual Creative Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Arts Council; and a Fellowship at the MacDowell Colony. His work has received critical attention in New American Paintings, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe,among other publications. He has taught at the University of Vermont and the University of Iowa and is currently an associate professor of art at Muhlenberg College. Emmons is also a co-founder and contributor of the popular art blog, Printeresting.org.

Murat Nemet-Nejat on Tuesday at 6 PM

Tuesday, January 31, A poetry reading by Murat Nemet-Nejat, 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe. Poet, translator and essayist, Murat Nemet-Nejat's most recent work includes the poem The Spiritual Life of Replicants (Talisman House, 2011), the translation of the Turkish poet Seyhan Erozçelik's Rosestrikes and Coffee Grinds (Talisman House, 2010), and the memoir/essay "Istanbul Noir" (in Istanbul: Metamorphoses In an Imperial City, Talisman House, 2011). Nemet-Nejat's translation of the Turkish poet Birhan Keskin's book Y'ol (Ro(a)de) will be published in 2012. He is presently working on "Things," part VI of the seven part poem, "The Structure of Escape," of which The Spiritual Life of Replicants is part V.

Murat Nemet-Nejat in the last few years also edited and largely translated Eda: An Anthology of Contemporary Turkish Poetry (Talisman House, 2004), translated Orhan Veli, I, Orhan Veli (Hanging Loose Press, 1989), and Ece Ayhan, A Blind Cat Black and Orthodoxies (Sun and Moon Press, 1997). He is the author of the essay The Peripheral Space of Photography (Green Integers Press, 2004), the poems "steps" (Mirage, 2008), "Prelude" (2009), "I Did My Best Work During a Writer's Block" (First Identity, 2009), "Disappearances" (Zen Monster, 2010), and the collaboration with Standard Schaefer, Alphabet Dialogues/Penis Monologues (Karaub, 2010).

mind of winter 1/26/12

Al Filreis will once again (as he does annually) lead a discussion of "The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens at our annual "Mind of Winter" celebration on Thursday, January 26, starting at 5:30 PM.

Nora Magid Mentorship Prize for 2012

The Nora Magid Mentorship Prize for 2012 has been awarded to Jessica Goodman, Stephen Fried announced on behalf of the former students of Nora Magid.

A Penn senior studying Creative Writing, with a minor in Gender, Culture and Society, Jessica Goodman has been an intern and researcher for Rolling Stone magazine and the editor-in-chief of 34th Street magazine and its blog, Under The Button. She began in journalism at Penn as a freshman copy editor at Street and later food editor, and she spent a summer at Estee Lauder working on a breast cancer awareness campaign. Then, as a junior, she won the prestigious RealArts@PENN internship—allowing her to work at Rolling Stone, and also do research for author and Inside Edition TV producer Charles Lachman. As editor of Street, she managed a staff of 30 and wrote features, including “There’s Something About Molly,” an excellent in-depth look at the use of the drug MDMA among college students.

A native of Muttontown, NY on Long Island and a graduate of Friends Academy in Locust Valley, Jessica is a dogged reporter, a stylish writer and a smart, intuitive and generous editor and colleague—both at Street and in her non-fiction writing classes. She clearly has the passion, professionalism and curiosity that Nora Magid so valued in non-fiction writers and editors. While her mentorship will begin immediately, she will receive her award at a reception in New York which is being organized for March.

Goodman was recommended to the Nora Magid Prize committee by Anthony DeCurtis. The other finalists for the award were Katie Sanders, Brian Kotloff and Samantha Sharf. Our thanks to all the Penn seniors who applied for the award this year, to the Penn faculty who wrote recommendations, and to everyone who has generously supported the prize fund.

About the Prize: Nora Magid was an extraordinarily gifted and giving teacher of non-fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania from the mid-1970s until her death in 1991. During those years, she nurtured an amazing number of students, many of whom went on to some of the top jobs in magazines, newspapers, book publishing and broadcasting. In 2003, a group of "Nora-ites" came together to create The Nora Magid Mentorship Prize, which is now given every year to a senior at the University of Pennsylvania who shows exceptional ability and promise in non-fiction writing and editing, and who would benefit most from combined mentorship of Nora's network of former students and their colleagues. The prize is $1000, which is used as a stipend for transportation, lodging and meals as the student travels to New York, Washington and elsewhere to develop professional contacts. The Nora Prize is given in partnership with the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, the Daily Pennsylvanian and the Kelly Writers House.

Where our previous winners are now:
*Matt Flegenheimer, 2011: metro reporter, New York Times
* Jamie France, 2010: executive assistant to NBC's President of Entertainment and Digital Networks/Integrated Media; former executive assistant to Today Show executive producer, former intern at The New Yorker.
* Gabe Oppenheim, 2009: published first novel, How Delightful is the Day, freelance writer; former intern Washington Post, Esquire
* Jessica Sidman, 2008: reporter at Bisnow Media, editor of DiningBisnow and runs popular blog Frozen Fix; former intern at Washingtonian and Dallas Morning News
* Jason Schwartz, 2007: senior editor, Boston Magazine
* Melody Joy Kramer, 2006: associate producer, "Fresh Air"; former producer at "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me," Kroc Fellow at NPR
* Ashley Parker, 2005: campaign reporter, New York Times; former assistant to columnist Maureen Dowd
* Rebecca Klein, 2004: freelancer for Brides and Everyday with Rachel Ray; former associate editor, Quick & Simple
* Dan Kaplan, 2004: product marketing manager, Twilio, former freelance tech writer and director of marketing at VentureBeat

The Nora Magid Mentorship Prize Scholarship Advisory Committee is: Stephen Fried, author, adjunct professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 215-592-1662, stephenfried@comcast.net; Eliot Kaplan, executive director, talent acquisition, Hearst Magazines, 212-649-2064 ekaplan@hearst.com; Miriam Arond, director Good Housekeeping Research Institute; Barri Bernstein, executive director, Tennessee Bar Foundation; David Borgenicht, president and publisher, Quirk Books, author; Sandee Brawarsky, author, book columnist, The Jewish Week, editor Text/Context: Fresh Encounters with Jewish Tradition; Jean Chatzky, author, Today Show financial correspondent, Newsweek magazine personal finance contributor; Lisa DePaulo, correspondent, GQ, contributing editor, Elle; Stefan Fatsis, author, sports commentator, All Things Considered, NPR; Loren Feldman, online editor, small business, New York Times; Lisa Green, head of communications, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, former NBC News legal analyst and Weekend Today senior producer; Randall Lane, editor-in chief, Forbes magazine, author; John Prendergast, editor-in-chief, Pennsylvania Gazette; Joel Siegel, head writer and producer, ABC Weekend World News