Writers House Fellows

The Kelly Writers House Fellows program enables us to realize two unusual goals. We want to make it possible for the youngest writers and writer-critics to have sustained contact with authors of great accomplishment in an informal atmosphere. We also want to resist the time-honored distinction -- more honored in practice than in theory -- between working with eminent writers on the one hand and studying literature on the other. .

During the visit of each Fellow, a reading will take place on Monday at 6:30 PM. On Tuesday at 10 AM the Writers House will host a brunch followed by a one-hour interview/conversation; attendance for both programs is by rsvp only (rsvp to whfellow@writing.upenn.edu). Both programs will be broadcast live worldwide on KWH-TV and both of the Monday and Tuesday programs will generally be available as a link from this page a week or so after the events.

The coordinator of the Writers House Fellows program is Sophia DuRose.

Click on the images below for the biographies of the past fellows, as well as links to archived webcasts of their visits.

Jamaica Kincaid
February 26-27, 2024
Harryette Mullen
April 1-2, 2024
Maggie Nelson
April 29-30, 2024
Joan Retallack
Feb 20-21, 2023
Wayne Koestenbaum
April 24-25, 2023
Jason Reynolds
March 27-28, 2023
Amitav Ghosh
February 21-22, 2022
Caroline Bergvall
March 28-29, 2022
Doug Glanville
April 25-26, 2022
Erica Hunt
February 22-23, 2021
Hilton Als
March 29-30, 2021
Gabrielle Hamilton
April 26-27, 2021
Saidiya Hartman
February 17-18, 2020
Erín Moure
March 30, 2020
Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris
April 27-28, 2020
John Keene
February 11-12, 2019
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
March 25-26, 2019
Rosanne Cash
April 22-23, 2019
Paul Auster
February 14-15, 2018
Bernadette Mayer
March 26-27, 2018
Charles M. Blow
April 23-24, 2018
Lydia Davis
April 24-25, 2017
Nathaniel Mackey
March 20-21, 2017
Maria Bamford
February 6-7, 2017
Matthew Weiner
April 25-26, 2016
Eileen Myles
March 21-22, 2016
Samuel Delany
February 15-16, 2016
Anne Waldman
February 16-17, 2015
Dorothy Allison
March 23-24, 2015
Jessica Hagedorn
April 27-28, 2015
Buzz Bissinger
February 17-18, 2014
T.C. Boyle
March 31-April 1, 2014
Rae Armantrout
April 28-29, 2014
John Ashbery
February 11-12, 2013
Janet Malcolm
March 18-19, 2013
Rodrigo García
April 22-23, 2013
Karen Finley
February 13-14, 2012
Ron Silliman
March 19-20, 2012
John Barth
April 23-24, 2012
Susan Cheever
February 14-15, 2011
Edward Albee
March 21-22, 2011
Marjorie Perloff
April 25-26, 2011
Joyce Carol Oates
February 15-16, 2010
Susan Howe
March 22-23, 2010
David Milch
April 26-27, 2010
Robert Coover
February 23-24, 2009
Joan Didion
March 30-31, 2009
Mary Gordon
April 27-28, 2009
Art Spiegelman
February 18-19, 2008
Lynne Sharon Schwartz
March 24-25, 2008
Jerome Rothenberg
April 28-29, 2008
John McPhee
February 12-13, 2007
Jamaica Kincaid
March 19-20, 2007
Donald Hall
April 16-17, 2007
Richard Ford
February 13-14, 2006
Cynthia Ozick
March 20-21, 2006
Ian Frazier
April 17-18, 2006
Roger Angell
February 28-March 1, 2005
E.L. Doctorow
March 21-22, 2005
Adrienne Rich
April 18-19, 2005
Russell Banks
February 16-17, 2004
Lyn Hejinian
February 21-22, 2005
James Alan McPherson
April 19-20, 2004
Walter Bernstein
March 17-18, 2003
Laurie Anderson
March 24-25, 2003
Susan Sontag
April 21-22, 2003
Michael Cunningham
February 11-12, 2002
John Ashbery
March 25-26, 2002
Charles Fuller
April 15-16, 2002
Tony Kushner
February 12-13, 2001
David Sedaris
March 5-6, 2001
June Jordan
April 23-24, 2001
Grace Paley
February 14-15, 2000
Robert Creeley
April 10-11, 2000
John Edgar Wideman
April 24-25, 2000
Gay Talese
February 3, 1999