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Louisa Shepard
News Officer
lshepard@upenn.edu
English
Engaging in the election
Engaging in the election
In a collaborative English course taught by Lorene Cary in the fall, students shared their experiences with civic engagement by writing for publication, partnering with nonprofits like Vote That Jawn to share non-partisan information with other young first-time voters.
Lost and found: The art of translation
Lost and found: The art of translation
For faculty in the School of Arts & Sciences, translation is an art that allows us to communicate across cultural difference.
Rahul Mukherjee’s life in the screen
Rahul Mukherjee’s life in the screen
In two classes, the Dick Wolf Associate Professor of Television and New Media Studies looks at the big picture of our digital life.
Two Penn English faculty receive Creative Capital Award for writing projects
Two Penn English faculty receive Creative Capital Award for writing projects
Faculty Simone White and Marc Anthony Richardson each won a 2021 Creative Capital Award, and will receive as much as $50,000 for creative writing projects now in progress.
Joseph Earl Thomas’ memoir draws on family and fantasy fiction
Joseph Earl Thomas’ memoir draws on family and fantasy fiction
The Ph.D. student in English explores childhood and family in an award-winning memoir inspired by fantasy fiction.
Jay Kirk on writing, teaching, and his new nonfiction book, ‘Avoid the Day’
Jay Kirk on writing, teaching, and his new nonfiction book, ‘Avoid the Day’
Penn and Philadelphia are woven throughout a new book by Jay Kirk as he pursues the mystery of a missing music manuscript by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, traveling from Vermont to Europe to the Arctic Circle. Penn Today spoke the lecturer in nonfiction creative writing about “Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in Two Movements.”
Pandemic project: Odyssey-a-Day
Pandemic project: Odyssey-a-Day
Classics Professor Emily Wilson created a project where she filmed herself reading short passages from each of the 24 books of her celebrated translation of Homer’s “Odyssey,” complete with costumes, props, and voices.
What happens to a dream deferred? 60-Second Lectures on racial injustice
What happens to a dream deferred? 60-Second Lectures on racial injustice
In an effort to amplify the messages of the recent protests against racist violence, Penn Arts & Sciences created a special series: What Happens to a Dream Deferred? 60-Second Lectures on Racial Injustice.
On identity and poetic form: Ahmad Almallah’s ‘Bitter English’
On identity and poetic form: Ahmad Almallah’s ‘Bitter English’
Ahmad Almallah, a lecturer in English and Arabics, took over five years to write his debut poetry collection. But in many ways, the book is the result of a decades-long journey.
Literary characters as masks: A reflection on identity during a pandemic
Literary characters as masks: A reflection on identity during a pandemic
An English and visual studies double major, May graduate Amy Juang created five masks to reflect the identities of characters in novels she studied in a young adult literature course taught by Melissa Jensen.
Media Contact
In the News
Philadelphia Inquirer
Penn professor awarded MacArthur genius grant
Emily Wilson of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about being named a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. “I’m excited about the publicity it potentially brings—not to me personally, but to the fields of translation, poetics, history,” she said. “And I hope it’s a way to get other people to engage in those fields.”
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Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane (WHYY-FM)
Lorene Cary’s ‘Ladysitting’
Lorene Cary of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about her new memoir, “Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century.”
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NPR
‘Ladysitting’ offers candor and a singular take on a tale familiar to many
Lorene Cary of the School of Arts and Sciences has published a new memoir called Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century. The book explores complex family relationships and the history and effects of American racism.
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The New York Times
Bollingen Prize in American Poetry and nominees for the National Book Critics Circle and Edgar Allan Poe Awards are announced
Charles Bernstein of the School of Arts and Sciences has been awarded the Bollingen Prize in American Poetry. “I am overwhelmed at being in the company of my fellow Bollingen winners,” Bernstein said. “How great that ‘Near/Miss’ has been so warmly welcomed into the world.”
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The Atlantic
How James Baldwin’s writings about love evolved
Dagmawi Woubshet of the School of Arts and Sciences analyzed James Baldwin’s literary evolution. If Beale Street Could Talk “marked a crucial turn in how the author sought to characterize the most abiding theme and moral principle of his work: love.”
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PBS NewsHour
Brief but Spectacular: Imani Davis
English and Africana Studies major Imani Davis of New York City performed a #MeToo movement-inspired poem on the “Brief but Spectacular” segment of the “PBS NewsHour.”
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