Charles Alexander at lunch on Tuesday Feb 1

Charles Alexander will be with us this Tuesday (Feb 1) at noon for a lunchtime program featuring this wonderful and important poet. Charles Alexander is the founder and director of Chax Press, in Tucson, where he has lived all but three of the past 27 years. His books include Hopeful Buildings (Chax 1990), Arc of Light / Dark Matter (Segue 1992), Near or Random Acts (Singing Horse 2004), and Certain Slants (Junction 2007), which includes 30 sections of the ongoing work Pushing Water, which is expected to be published in its entirety in 2011. He is currently at work on a book about the pleasures of poetry. Rsvp: email wh@writing.upenn.edu or call 215-746-POEM.

introduction to RealArts

Not too long ago Anthony DeCurtis hosted a session at the Writers House that served as an introduction to the RealArts summer internship program. The video here gives you the first few minutes of that session.

visiting Chinese poet Yanrong reads a poem

The Chinese poet Yanrong performs his poem, "Prophecy and Carnival," in Chinese, while Charles Bernstein reads an English translation. On December 9, 2010, a group of poets from Wuhan, China, visited the Writers House: Liang Biwen, Liu Yishan, Chen Ying-Song, Tian He, Wang Xinmin, Ke Yumin, Li Ming, Hu Xiang, Liu An. Several American poets read their work in English and listened while the visiting poets read their poems in Chinese.

north of invention

At the end of his reading tonight at the Kelly Writers House, Fred Wah was joined by Nicole Broussard. They read a poem of hers, together, she reading, of course, the original French, while he read an English translation. A wonderful way to end a long and continuously interesting day of talks and readings, day one of the "North of Invention" program. Be sure tomorrow--Friday, January 21--to watch the live video stream, starting at 10:30 AM eastern time.

scaremongering in the media

Dick Polman discusses scaremongering in the media. Visit our YouTube channel for more video excerpts.

ah, the singularity of the Writers House scene

When Susan Howe visited us last spring, we were ready. So ready! Such a classic Writers House scene: the edgy and famously "difficult" poet (=supposedly difficult to read) is coming to spend time with us and we not only read the poetry, and talk it through until we get it; but, more, we make T-shirts and feel, well, the sheer singularity of the context. Writers House Fellows, every spring, every single spring since 1999: we are starting up again and this spring we'll be spending time with Susan Cheever in February, Edward Albee in March, and Marjorie Perloff in April.

snow again

Our Class of 1942 Garden as it looked yesterday morning after Philly got 6-8 inches of new snow. We love our garden, and here is more about it - and here a glimpse during renovation.