Department of English

Note: Admission to this course is by permission of the instructor only. Applicants should
contact Jamie-Lee Josselyn at jjossely@writing.upenn.edu.

This is the 13th annual Kelly Writers House Fellows Seminar, which features visits by
very eminent writers as "Fellows" of the Kelly Writers House, the student-conceived
writing arts collaborative at 3805 Locust Walk. The seminar is taught by Professor Al
Filreis, Kelly Professor of English and Faculty Director of the Writers House, and will
include extended visits to the class by Edward Albee, Susan Cheever and Marjorie
Perloff. Cheever is a memoirist, novelist, and essayist, with a new biography of Louisa
May Alcott, and has written powerfully about her father, John Cheever. Marjorie Perloff
is arguably the most influential critic and supporter of experimental writing in the U.S.
and has written a memoir of her family's escape from the Nazis and the intellectual
legacy of that exile. Albee is widely considered to be, simply, the greatest living
American playwright.

Throughout the semester we will study the work of these three writers—and some of the
materials "around" them that make the particular contemporary context in which each
operates so compelling. Enrollment in the course is strictly limited. Students will be
enrolled only by permit of the instructor and are asked to send a one- or two-paragraph
statement by email to jjossely@writing.upenn.edu describing why they want to
participate in this project and what academic (or perhaps non-academic) experience
makes them especially eligible. Participants will write frequent short position papers; will
engage in team projects following up each of the Fellows' visits; will be involved in
interviewing the three Fellows; and will take a comprehensive final examination.
Participants must be available on three Tuesday mornings during the semester. The
Writers House Fellows program is made possible by a generous grant from Paul Kelly.