Kathryn (Kitsi) Watterson teaches graduate and undergraduate fiction and nonfiction writing workshops, as well as literature courses that reflect an emphasis on race, class, and justice, such as “James Baldwin & The Issues of Our Times” and “Learning from the Harlem Renaissance.”  Most recently, she taught a seminar that considered race, class and punishment in the American prison system, in which students read literature on the penal system throughout history and exchanged ideas with prisoners in classes held inside two state maximum-security penitentiaries. She is the author of several award-winning books, three of which have been chosen by The New York Times as Notable Books of the Year. Her books include Not by the Sword: How a Cantor and His Family Transformed a Klansman (which won a 1996 Christopher Award); You Must Be Dreaming (basis of the NBC movie, "Betrayal of Trust"); Growing Into Love, and Women in Prison: Inside the Concrete Womb (basis of the ABC documentary, "Women in Prison"). Her short stories have appeared in a number of literary journals, including TriQuarterly, Northeast Corridor, Santa Monica Review and Peregrine.  Her essays and articles have been published in a variety of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer.  Prior to Penn, Watterson taught writing in the Princeton Writing Program and the Program for African-American Studies at Princeton University, where she created a writing seminar for students to learn and write about poverty and the effects of racism through direct experience.  She also directed an oral history project with community residents and university students which resulted in a still-waiting-to-be published manuscript, I Hear My People Singing: An Oral History of African-American Princeton, 1900-2000.  In Philadelphia, Watterson is part of the popular performance ensemble, PLP TheUnity (Peace, Love & Power), which honors the human spirit with improvisational, meditative, jazzy music utilizing African rhythms, drums, percussion, and wind instruments, spoken word and storytelling. Currently, she is completing a novel in progress and a short story collection.