It's Philly phact and Philly phiction, poetry and prose, past and present, literary luminaries and hidden treasures.
It's "A Celebration of Philadelphia Writers" - a two-day festival March 26 and 27 celebrating the city's rich literary heritage and its continuing tradition of producing outstanding novelists, poets, playwrights, journalists, essayists and screenwriters.
More than 60 writers with ties to the city, including such well-known figures as Steve Lopez, Diane Mc-Kinney-Whetstone, Chaim Potok and Sonia Sanchez, will give free readings, lectures and discussions at sites of literary significance such as the Edgar Allan Poe House and the Rosenbach Museum and Library.
As one might expect of an event organized by the Penn Humanities Forum, the University is well-represented among the celebration's participants. Among the Penn people scheduled to participate are journalist Buzz Bissinger (C'76, photo), author Lorene Cary (C/G'78), poet and Afro-American Studies Program director Herman Beavers, English professors Peter Conn and Wendy Steiner, and Pennsylvania Gazette editor John Prendergast (C'80).
In addition to the readings, the celebration features panels on the literary business, films, performances, and walking tours of literary Philadelphia.
-S.S.
A CELEBRATION OF PHILADELPHIA WRITERS: March 26 and 27 at various locations in Center City and University City. All readings and exhibitions are free; performance events, breakfast and luncheon discussions and walking tours charge admission. For a complete schedule of events, visit the Penn Humanities Forum Web site or call 898-8220.
Penn engineers and collaborators have developed a transparent, micro-engineered device that houses a living, vascularized model of human lung cancer—a “tumor on a chip”—and show that the diabetes drug vildagliptin helps more CAR T cells break through the tumor’s defenses and attack it effectively.
Tumor-on-a-chip offers insight into cancer-fighting cells in immunotherapy
Penn engineers and collaborators have built a living tumor on a chip to expose how cancers block immune attacks, and how one existing drug could make immunotherapy like CAR T more effective against solid tumors.
Professor of city and regional planning Erick Guerra recently published a book exploring the economic and societal impacts of American highways. He explains some of the pitfalls associated with an ever-expansive highway system, arguing that spending more on highways might not be the solution to the country’s transportation issues.
Penn urban planner Erick Guerra’s new book, “Overbuilt,” argues that additional spending on building more highways might not be the solution to the country’s transportation issues. In a Q&A, Guerra shares his insights.
Xin Sun prepares samples collected from the Eastern Tropical North Pacific aboard a research vessel. By adding stable isotope tracers to these vials, Sun and her team can track how different microbial groups convert nitrogen compounds into nitrous oxide, revealing how subtle shifts in oxygen and organic matter change the ocean’s chemistry.
Can tiny ocean organisms offer the key to better climate modeling?
In the shadowy layers of the Pacific, microbes decide how much nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas—rises skyward. New research from Penn’s Xin Sun offers an improved understanding of microbial ecology and geochemistry—key to forecasting global emissions in response to natural and man-made climate change.
Two X-ray plates from Arthur Goodspeed, believed to have created the world’s first X-ray image, were donated by his family to Penn’s University Archives.
It's Philly phact and Philly phiction, poetry and prose, past and present, literary luminaries and hidden treasures. 
