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Dick Polman

Office Hours

Tuesdays 12:30 to 2:00 PM at 3808 Walnut Street, room 304

Dick Polman is the Maury Povich "writer in residence," a full-time member of the CPCW faculty, as well as a political columnist and daily blogger forThe Philadelphia Inquirer. He spent 22 years on the Inquirer writing staff; most recently, as the national political writer from 1992 to 2006, he covered four presidential elections and dozens of Senate and House races nationwide. At other times, he was a foreign correspondent based in London; a baseball writer covering the Philadelphia Phillies; a general-assignment feature writer; and a longtime regular contributor to the newspaper's Sunday magazine, where he wrote long-form pieces about everything from Nazi war criminals to the comeback of the condom. Prior to the Inquirer, he was a metro columnist on the Hartford Courant, and was the founding editor of an alternative newspaper, the Hartford Advocate. Dick attended George Washington University, where he served as managing editor of the college newspaper, and graduated with a BA in Public Affairs in 1973. He first came to Penn in 1999, when he audited classes during a one-semester fellowship, and he started teaching at Penn part time in 2003. Dick and his wife, Elise Vider, live in Center City. They have a son, who works at Comcast in Center City, and a daughter who is a web designer in San Francisco.

Courses Taught

spring 2025

ENGL 3408.301 Long-Form Journalism  

fall 2024

spring 2024

fall 2023

ENGL 3408.301 Long-Form Journalism  

spring 2023

ENGL 3408.301 Long-Form Journalism  
ENGL 3417.301 Political Journalism  

fall 2022

spring 2022

ENGL 160.301 Long-Form Journalism  

fall 2021

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Storytelling  

spring 2021

ENGL 160.301 Long-Form Journalism  
ENGL 161.301 Art of the Profile  

fall 2020

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Storytelling  

spring 2020

ENGL 160.301 Long-Form Joournalism  

fall 2019

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Storytelling  

spring 2019

ENGL 160.301 Long-Form Journalism  
ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

fall 2018

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Storytelling  

spring 2018

ENGL 160.301 Long-form Journalism  
ENGL 161.301 Art of the Profile  

fall 2017

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Story-Telling  

spring 2017

ENGL 160.301 Long-form Journalism  
ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

fall 2016

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Storytelling  

spring 2016

ENGL 161.301 Art of the Profile  

fall 2015

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Story-Telling  

spring 2015

ENGL 160.301 Long-Form Journalism  

fall 2014

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Story-Telling  

spring 2014

ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

fall 2013

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Story-Telling  

spring 2013

ENGL 160.301 Long-Form Journalism  
ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

fall 2012

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Story-Telling  

spring 2012

ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

fall 2011

ENGL 158.301 Journalistic Story-Telling  

spring 2011

ENGL 160.301 Long-Form Journalism  
ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

fall 2010

spring 2010

ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

fall 2009

ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

spring 2009

fall 2008

ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

spring 2008

ENGL 161.301 The Art of the Profile  

fall 2007

spring 2007

fall 2006

spring 2006

spring 2005

spring 2004

spring 2003