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Jay Kirk on writing, teaching, and his new nonfiction book, ‘Avoid the Day’
Professor sitting outside with trees and a metal trailer behind him.

Jay Kirk, a lecturer in Penn's Creative Writing Program, just had a new book published, "Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in Two Movements." (Image: Julie Diana)

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
Professor Emily Wilson dressed in costume as three different characters in the Odyssey, one with a fringed scarf around her head, one with an eye patch and a fur headband, and one with a wig with long red hair.

Penn Professor Emily Wilson created a new project while at home during the pandemic, reading short passages from each of the 24 books of her translation of Homer’s “Odyssey,” complete with costumes, props, and voices. The characters included (from left) Helen of Troy, Polyphemus, and Calypso.

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
Screenshot of four people in a grid form, top left is Mary Frances Berry, top right is Margo Natalie Crawford, bottom left is Guthrie Ramsey, bottom right is Dagmawi Woubshet

Clockwise from top left: Mary Frances Berry; Margo Natalie Crawford; Guthrie Ramsey; and Dagmawi Woubshet. (Image: Penn Arts & Sciences)

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.

From Omnia

On identity and poetic form: Ahmad Almallah’s ‘Bitter English’
Ahmad Almallah stands in a bookstore holding a book.

Ahmad Almallah, lecturer in English and Arabic. (Image: Brooke Sietinsons/Omnia

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.

From Omnia

Literary characters as masks: A reflection on identity during a pandemic
student wearing a dark mask with pom-poms with words #IRunWithMaud

For the final project in a Penn English course on young adult literature, Amy Juang created masks for characters in five books. A double major in English and visual studies from Minneapolis, Juang graduated in May. 

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.
Penn junior Misha McDaniel named a Beinecke Scholar
Student standing in front of an outdoor fountain.

Misha McDaniel is a 2020 Beinecke Scholar. 

Penn junior Misha McDaniel named a Beinecke Scholar

English major Misha McDaniel has been awarded a 2020 Beinecke Scholarship to pursue graduate education. McDaniel is one of 18 Beinecke Scholars chosen from throughout the U.S., and the 13th recipient from Penn since the award was first given in 1975.
A time traveling Harriet Tubman, brought to life on stage
Lorene Cary stands in her office with a wall of bookshelves behind her

A time traveling Harriet Tubman, brought to life on stage

English faculty Lorene Cary’s first play features a time traveling Harriet Tubman who toggles between her 19th-century life and a present-day Philadelphia prison where she recruits soldiers to fight with her in the Civil War. Playing to sold-out audiences, “My General Tubman” is on stage through mid-March at Arden Theatre Company.