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Kelly Writers House

Poet Wes Matthews combines writing, music, research, and service
Wes Matthews leaning in a doorway at the Kelly Writers House

Matthews says he plans to write poetry throughout his life, and hopes someday to collaborate on a poem or book with his mother. 

Poet Wes Matthews combines writing, music, research, and service

College fourth-year Wes Matthews is combining writing, music, research, and service during his Penn experience. A former Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, the anthropology major and religious studies minor works at the Kelly Writers House and is a Wolf Humanities Center fellow.

Louisa Shepard

ModPo celebrates its first decade
Al Filreis holds up the Book "The Difference is Spreading" while seated at a long table with four other people to his left and a television screen with the faces of several other people to his right in front of an audience

English Professor Al Filreis holds up a copy of the just-published book “The Difference is Spreading: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Fifty Poems,” during the ModPo webcast to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the free massive online open course Modern and Contemporary Poetry. 

ModPo celebrates its first decade

Modern and Contemporary Poetry was founded by Al Filreis of the School of Arts & Sciences at Kelly Writers House in 2012, and now has 69,000 people enrolled globally. Poets and participants came to campus to celebrate the 10th anniversary.

Louisa Shepard

Cosmic Writers brings free creative writing education to school-aged children 
Manoj Simha and Rowana Miller standing on stairway

May graduates Rowana Miller (right) and Manoj Simha lead Cosmic Writers, a project supported by President’s Engagement Prize that provides free creative writing instruction to K-12 students virtually throughout the world, taught by college students. The new nonprofit is expanding to offer in-person workshops in Philadelphia and several other U.S. cities.

Cosmic Writers brings free creative writing education to school-aged children 

May graduates Rowana Miller and Manoj Simha lead Cosmic Writers, a project supported by President’s Engagement Prize that provides free creative writing instruction to K-12 students virtually throughout the world.

Louisa Shepard

Rounding the bases and finding home at the Kelly Writers House
Doug Glanville sitting at table speaking at microphone gesturing with his hands

Former Major League Baseball centerfielder Doug Glanville (right) spoke about his life and career with students as a Kelly Writers House Fellow, in a seminar created and taught by English Professor Al Filreis and during a public reading and discussion. A 1992 Penn graduate, Glanville is now an author, columnist, professor, and sports broadcaster. 

Rounding the bases and finding home at the Kelly Writers House

Former Major League Baseball centerfielder Doug Glanville spoke with students about his life and career in the seminar created and taught by English Professor Al Filreis and during a public reading and conversation.

Louisa Shepard

From the page to the stage
students performing on stage

(Homepage image) Five students portray Dohhkin Rai, a tiger demon that convinces villain Dhona to sacrifice his own nephew in exchange for riches from the forest. “There’s a lot being said about the nature of lust and greed, about forgiveness, and about the bonds between parent and child, human and non-human, and the Earth and those who dwell on it,” Sethi says.

From the page to the stage

In collaboration with author Amitav Ghosh, musician Ali Sethi, and Penn’s Brooke O’Harra, 14 students brought to life a parable Ghosh wrote about the world’s largest mangrove forest, human greed, and the environment.

Michele W. Berger

Mentor support for the first-generation college experience
two people standing outside back to back smiling at camera

Senior Rachel Swym (left) was a summer intern with alumna Leanne Huebner at the educational nonprofit Minds Matter, and they have continued their connection ever since.

Mentor support for the first-generation college experience

Three decades apart, senior Rachel Swym and alumna Leanne Huebner found a common bond in their rural backgrounds and first-generation, highly aided college experience.

Louisa Shepard

Alumni Award of Merit and Creative Spirit Awards honor seven alumni
Judith Bollinger, Al Filreis, Stephen Goff, Ghislain Gouraige, Mike Kowalski, Clemson Smith Muniz, Ashley Zampini Ritter, and John Vosmek.

Top row, left to right: Judith Bollinger, Al Filreis, Stephen Goff, and Ghislain Gouraige. Bottom row, left to right: Mike Kowalski, Clemson Smith Muniz, Ashley Zampini Ritter, and John Vosmek.

Alumni Award of Merit and Creative Spirit Awards honor seven alumni

Stephen Goff is awarded Creative Spirit Award and Al Filreis is to receive the Faculty Award of Merit.
Al Filreis dwells in possibility
Al Filreis standing in front of the Kelly Writers House

Al Filreis, an English professor at Penn since 1995, founded the Kelly Writers House on Locust Walk in 1995 and has since served as the faculty director.

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Al Filreis dwells in possibility

Celebrating poetry and literature at Penn since 1985, Al Filreis continues to create community at the home for writers he founded in a Locust Walk house a quarter-century ago.

Louisa Shepard

Ilyse Reisman summer in the writers’ room
student standing outside with hill in the background

Senior Ilyse Reisman, an English and cinema studies major in the College of Arts and Sciences, was a summer intern at the film studio Indigenous Media in Los Angeles.

Ilyse Reisman summer in the writers’ room

An aspiring comedy writer, senior Ilyse Reisman got a chance to be on set and in meetings to pitch production ideas during her RealArts@Penn summer internship at the film studio Indigenous Media in Los Angeles.

Louisa Shepard