Kelly Writers House

**About the Kelly Writers House** Founded in 1995 by a group of students, faculty, staff and alumni, the Kelly Writers House is an actual 13-room house at 3805 Locust Walk on Penn's campus that serves as a center for writers of all kinds from Penn and the Philadelphia region at large. Each semester the Writers House hosts approximately 150 [public programs and projects](http://www.writing.upenn.edu/wh/involved/everything.php)\--poetry readings, film screenings, seminars, web magazines, lectures, dinners, radio broadcasts, workshops, art exhibits, and musical performances--and about 500 people visit the House each week. They work, write, and [collaborate](https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/lenya.php) in seminar rooms, a publications room, the "hub" office, a cozy living room, a dining room, a kitchen with plenty of space for conversation, [and "the Arts Cafe," the wonderfully open south-facing room that was originally the parlor](https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/artscafe.php). Writers House also has a strong virtual presence. Our ongoing [interactive webcasts](http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/webcasts) give listeners from across the country the opportunity to talk with writers such as Ian Frazier, Richard Ford, and Cynthia Ozick. And via our dozens of listservs and email discussion groups, we link writers and readers from across the country and around the world. Through its many programs and projects, the Writers House promotes the full range of contemporary literature, addressing writing both as a practice and as an object of study. The intrepid band of students, faculty and Penn staff who formed the Writers House in the fall of 1995 were committed to a form of literary communitarianism. The [mission statement](https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/mission.php) they wrote—it's really a declaration of academic independence—expresses this idealism. So far as we know, there is no other facility like the Kelly Writers House anywhere. There are [a few projects that are somewhat similar](https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/otherhouses.php) and we have tried to take stock of these. The administrative structure of Writers House reflects its mission. Writers House is uniquely self-run. What began in 1995 as a volunteer committee of 20 people, has grown into a wide network of people who sponsor and enact the Writers House Events. The [Writers House Planning Committee](http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/people/hub/) now consists of a 90-member volunteer group of undergraduate and graduate students, Penn faculty, staff, and alumni whose intellectual energy and collective spirit guides the House. The House also has a [growing staff](http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/people/staff/), including 15 student workers, a live-in resident intern, several part-time assistants, a Program Coordinator, and a Director, as well as a [Faculty Director](http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis); together these staffers oversee the daily activities of the House, working side-by-side with our wide network of volunteers. Renovations in 1996, funded through the generous support of the late Penn Alumnus and Advisory Board Chairperson Paul Kelly (C'62, WG'64), readied the Writers House for the 21st century. A two-story addition in 2015 added the Wexler Recording Studio, doubling our capacity for hosting featured writers and engaging conversations, made possible with support from Nancy and Jay Zises, Gary and Nina Wexler, Howie Lipson, with a major gift from Paul Kelly (C'62, WG'64). A total renovation and re-imagining of the Arts Café in 2019 transformed our main event space into a world-class technical program venue, thanks to a major gift from an anonymous donor, with additional support from Howie Lipson (W’86). Our class of 1942 Garden, originally renovated with a gift from that class year, was updated to include accessible access and tuned for out-door events thanks to a major gift from Cliff Eisler (W’79) and Bonnie Tannenbaum Eisler (C’79). From the very founding of the Writers House, we have counted on our community of Friends to make it possible through generous donations. You can find the list of our Friends on our [website](https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/support/friends.php), including those Friends in the William Carlos Williams Circle and the Emily Dickinson Circle. Many of our most important projects, programs, and prizes have been endowed by generous friends. Administrative support comes from The Provost's Office of the University of Pennsylvania. We are delighted to have received [recognition](http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/praise/) for what we do. The House was named "Best Reading Series" in the "Best of Philly 2000" issue of Philadelphia Magazine, and in November of 2000, our website was chosen as a [Yahoo.com "Pick of the Week."](http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/news/yahoopick110600.html) More important to us are the conversations and learning that the House and its ambience--physical and virtual--help foster. By bringing emerging and established writers into dialogue with each other, encouraging [collaborative learning](https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/lenya.php) and providing a welcoming and open space for writers and readers, we have helped secure the centrality of the literary arts at Penn and in Philadelphia. The [Kelly Writers House Archive](https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/archive.php) is housed in the Special Collections Department of Van Pelt Library at the University of Pennsylvania. If you wish to see any of these materials, visit the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. **Mission Statement** We, the members of the [Writers House Planning Committee](http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/people/hub/), believe that students at the University of Pennsylvania will benefit from the presence of a home in which creative writing activities are organized, promoted, and shared. In the past few years, many students have demonstrated their interest in writing by attempting to organize independent readings, meeting groups, and literary magazines. However, efforts have in general only been partially successful. Reasons for this include: inadequate means of promoting to the entire campus, confusion over location and lack of space for events, and lack of unity among separate organizations of writers. A central and established location for such a home will enable individuals and groups to 1) easily provide information regarding events to those that are interested in participating, 2) reserve space in which to regularly and consistently engage other writers in such activities, and 3) find a place in which disparate groups can work together with common goals and purposes. The Writers House, as we have envisioned it, is a place where students of the University of Pennsylvania may engage in self-directed, interactive learning. Its main purpose is to provide a supportive and accessible atmosphere where Penn writers of all kinds can share their works and ideas and enhance their writing skills together. Events of the Writers House are primarily initiated and organized by student [affiliates](http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/people/hub/) of the house. However, the house welcomes and encourages cooperation with other organizations and departments, within Penn and beyond, i.e. The Penn Creative Writing Department, community service groups and their sister schools, Philadelphia book stores and libraries. The Writers House will also make available a wide array of electronic equipment which writers will be able to use for their writing or publishing, thus encouraging these pursuits. In addition to being a *conventional location* for an exchange of ideas, it will also be an *unconventional space* where virtual realities, electronic texts, and electronic publishing will have a presence. One learns by watching others, and for those who have little knowledge of cyberspace and electronic highways, the Writers House will be the ideal place to discover. This project is a pilot program of the Provost's 21-Century Initiative. As such, it is modeled from the idea of a "college house," to which students have an affiliation, and within which their university "experience" culminates. Though non-residential, we have attempted to create the atmosphere of a "home," in which students can live and learn together. Affiliations with the Writers House complement and enhance students' academic experience at Penn, extending beyond classrooms into a community which creates and recreates, encouraging expression and encouraging its writers to define the nature of that expression for themselves. Affiliation with the Writers House contributes to the entire student experience throughout the duration of a student's involvement with the University of Pennsylvania. The presence of a centralized writing community will attract many potential students to Penn, providing a niche they can immediately enter regardless of their other educational goals. Once these students enter Penn, they will have a place to meet and interact with other, more-established students, who will help to orient them to life at this university. Furthermore, this orientation will center around a common interest in expression through writing, providing an attractive alternative to more purely social organizations, such as fraternities and sororities. While at Penn, these writers will have a place to come and engage one another, regardless of which path their classroom education takes. The Writers House does not affiliate itself with one particular major or school within the university. Therefore, it allows engineers, economists, and literary critics to share a common identity through writing, independent of their other academic identities. Throughout their college career, the Writers House will provide a network of other writers, at Penn and beyond, which will aid these students in developing their writing interests. Finally, when affiliates of the Writers House are ready to leave Penn and enter into the world of graduate studies or a career, this house will help them make that transition. It will provide both mentors (older students and visiting writers) and a centralized technology base with information pertaining to careers for writers. Students will be able to consult with advisors in their schools and majors and then come to the Writers House to find out how they can combine their options and interests in their futures. The students and faculty which have contributed to this project have brought with them incredible amounts of passion and energy. We feel this is reflective of a general trend among writers at Penn. Therefore, we look forward to the day we can open this home to the entire Penn writing community. Only then can we begin to unite the many more writers waiting to find such a home. Mission Statement written by Shawn Lynn Walker, with the help and suggestions of the Planning Committee.