9-day writer's residency—apply before 12/1/18

HOSTED BY BUZZ BISSINGER AND LISA SMITH AT THEIR FIVE-ACRE WATERFRONT PROPERTY IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.

March 2 through March 10, 2018 (Penn’s spring break)

Buzz Bissinger and Lisa Smith, in collaboration with the Kelly Writers House, are sponsoring a writer’s residency at their guest cottage on the Long Beach Peninsula in the southwest corner of Washington State. Recipients of the Clearman Cottage Residency will reside at a fully appointed cottage (with kitchen, room to write, wifi connection, etc.) on magnificent Willapa Bay, minutes from the Pacific Ocean. The residency provides young writers with continuous writing time and space in an idyllic setting in order that they may make substantial progress on a significant writing project—a novel, short stories, literary nonfiction, journalism, play, memoir, screenplay, song lyrics, etc.

Domestic round-trip airfare, ground transportation, lodging, and a stipend for meals are provided.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications are due December 1, 2018. The application consists of (1) a cover letter not to exceed two pages describing your experience and interests as a writer, your affiliation with the Kelly Writers House and/or one of Penn’s writing programs, and what you hope to accomplish through the Clearman Cottage Residency; (2) a one-page description of your writing project, its scope, its likely state as of the start of the residency; (3) a short (1-5 page) writing sample, and (4) a resume, including a list of all writing courses taken at Penn (with names of instructors). Please submit application materials via email to RJ Bernocco.

You are eligible to apply if you are a currently matriculated undergraduate at Penn.

ModPo opens on 9/8/18 (ten week free course on poetry)

Since 2012 KWH has hosted a free, open, online course on modern & contemporary U.S. poetry called "ModPo." Yes, it's free (like everything else at KWH). Yes, it's truly open to all. Some 180,000 people have participated in these past six years. The new ModPo season starts on September 8. To enroll go here: https://www.coursera.org/learn/modpo . If you have questions, contact us at modpo@writing.upenn.edu.

computer-generated books

On February 5, 2018, the people of the Kelly Writers House welcomed Nick Montfort, Allison Parish, and Rafael Pérez y Pérez who joined us to talk about computer-generated book. Using Electricity is a series of computer generated books published by Counterpath Press, meant to reward reading in conventional and unconventional ways. The series title takes a line from the computer generated poem “A House of Dust,” developed by Alison Knowles with James Tenney in 1967. This work, a FORTRAN computer program and a significant early generator of poetic text, combines different lines to produce descriptions of houses. The series is edited by Nick Montfort. The first three books in the series are The Truelist by Nick Montfort, Mexica: 20 Years—20 Stories [Mexica: 20 años—20 historias] by Rafael Pérez y Pérez, and Articulations by Allison Parrish. You can watch the video recording of this event by clicking HERE. An audio recording is HERE.

How to work with a literary agent

How does a book make it from the author's hand to your bookshelf? And what role does an agent play in this? Beth Kephart leads a panel of writers and agents at the Kelly Writers House to dig into the business of publishing and marketing a book. For more info about the event, and full a recording of the program in its entirety, click here.

Camara Brown!

People associated with ModPo in the last few years will know Camara Brown as a TA and participant in a number of ModPo videos. We at KWH & ModPo are proud of her for being featured in this article: Proud and excited for my student, advisee, KWH staff colleague Camara Brown, who is featured in this article: http://www.34st.com/article/2017/04/penn-10-camara-brown Check it out: there are a few videos of Camara performing her poetry.

Sharon Hayes & Brooke O'Harra at KWH

An 18-minute excerpt from the conversation with Sharon Hayes & Brooke O'Harra. For links to recordings of the full program, click HERE.

feminist journalists

We were thrilled in February to welcome ANNA HOLMES back to the Writers House for our annual APPLEBAUM PUBLISHERS AND EDITORS SERIES. Holmes, who founded the iconic feminist website Jezebel and now serves as editor of digital voices at Fusion, will be joined by Penn English professor SALAMISHAH TILLET, along with Penn student journalists TAYLOR HOSKING and REBECCA TAN. Moderated by Creative Writing Program director JULIA BLOCH, our group of writers discussed the current state of doing feminist, anti-racist, intersectional journalism, including the new sorts of challenges journalists face around parity, opportunity, and integrity in the current political and social landscape. For more information about the event, and links to audio and video recordings, click HERE.