Kelly Writers House Fellow

The amazing novelist, poet, and playwright Jessica Hagedorn visits Writers House tonight (April 27) at 6:30 PM. Hagedorn is best known for her hip, funky, surreal epic novel about Manila, Dogeaters, and for editing the anthology Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction. But she's also the author of many other poems, novels, and plays -- and is currently writing a musical adaptation of Lysley Tenorio's acclaimed short story "Felix Starro." There are a few seats left. Email whfellow@writing.upenn.edu to reserve your seat.

Camara and Nadia!

Camara Brown and Nadia Laher after their fabulously good readings/performances the other day for a group of Trustee Council of Penn Women members gathered at Kelly Writers House.

great poet eyebrows

Great poet eyebrows belonging to two poets beloved by KWH'ers—Bob Perelman and Greg Djanikian. During our 4/9/15 celebration of Bob (who is retiring after this semester), Greg rose to toast him and remarked that one reason he (Greg) likes him (Bob) is his fabulous eyebrows. Later, during the reception, two posed for eyebrowish comparison.

leonard cohen celebration - video

The video recording of our recent Leonard Cohen festival is now available here. Here is a link to a preview of the event.

getting medieval - a new podcast

Episode #32 in the "Kelly Writers House podcast" series features a 20-minute excerpt from a program led by David Wallace and students in his medieval literature seminar in December 2013 - called "Getting Medieval": CLICK HERE TO LISTEN. You can also watch the video recording of the entire program by clicking here.

Heled Grant winner: Kristen Kelly

We are very pleased to announce that Kristen Kelly has won the Terry B. Heled Travel & Research Grant at the Kelly Writers House.  This year, we received dozens of fine applications for this award. Kristen (C'16) is majoring in Urban Studies and English. 

Supported financially by this grant, Kristen will travel to San Francisco and Seattle to research the history of Asian immigration (including its familial/personal impacts) into the US.  She will present her writing, the result of this research, next fall at the Kelly Writers House.

As a way of remembering her mother, Terry B. Heled - and of honoring the students of her alma mater in gratitude for the encouragement her own research and writing received while she was at Penn - Mali Heled Kinberg (C'95) has created this endowed fund at the Kelly Writers House that, each summer, enables a student to travel for the purpose of conducting the research leading to a significant writing project.

For more about the Heled Grant, see:  http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/involved/awards/heled/

Congratulations to Kristen! (And many thanks to Mingo Reynolds for once again coordinating the review of applicants and also, of course, to Mali Heled Kinberg for making possible this opportunity for a venturesome Penn student.)

should you get an MFA?

Should you get an MFA in writing? A panel discussion led by Karen Rile. Video recording of the session: http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/multimedia/tv/reruns/watch/186278 . And audio: https://media.sas.upenn.edu/writershouse/15A/Should-You-Get-An-MFA_KWH-UPenn_02-11-15.mp3 .