Event

On Tuesday October 6th, the Kelly Writers House hosted “No Line Breaks,” a program that allowed KWH-affiliated students a chance to read their prose in front of an audience. KWH director Jessica Lowenthal introduced each of the five students: AYONT YOUNG (N’18), MEG PENDOLEY (C’16), KAITLIN MOORE (C’18), DAVID MARCHINO (C’16), and ALINA GRABOWSKI (C’16). Ayont, a sophomore who balances writing and her intense nursing schedule, read a poetic piece of personal fiction about family and religion called “Doublemint Gum.” Meg, an award-winning triple threat (she writes poetry, fiction and translations), read two fiction pieces - “Countersing” and “Stuck.” Kaitlin, a former Astrophysics major and author of two novels who includes her love of science in her writing, read two of her own pieces - a personal essay “Relativity” and a short story “A Million Broken Things.” David, a Philly native and “generous exhibitionist,” read two pieces on influential women in his life - one on Bubbles, an exotic dancer, and the other about his mother. Alina, an award-winning senior who “has a habit of being silent all class then being suddenly brilliant when she speaks up,” read an excerpt from her short story collection about set in Massachusetts and centered around a drowning. After the reading the students and their admirers ate a tasty reception that includes many trays of mac n cheese and bread pudding.

ALINA GRABOWSKI is a senior studying English and creative writing. She has received Penn's Clearman Cottage Residency and Phi Kappa Sigma prize for fiction, as well as a Grin City Collective Emerging Artist residency. Her stories have appeared in Peregrine and Cleaver Magazine.

DAVID MARCHINO is a Philadelphia native, majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Since coming to Penn, he’s worked as the social media content manager at Symbiosis Magazine, a creative writing tutor as part of Write-On, and is currently working with Mentor for Philly in effort to help prepare graduating high school seniors for post-secondary education. In 2014, he was awarded honorable mention in the Gibson-Peacock Creative Nonfiction Contest for his essay “Like a Good Man Should”, and this past summer he managed his own bi-weekly column “Testing: One, Two” in The Daily Pennsylvanian. This year he will be working with Professor Beth Kephart on his honors thesis.

KAITLIN MOORE is a sophomore in the College. Originally an astrophysics major, Kaitlin has since switched her focus to creative writing. As a result, Kaitlin likes stories that experiment with time, space, and superpositive cats that are both alive and dead. Kaitlin is the author of two novels and several short stories and essays. She has been published in 3Elements Review and Penn Filament, and was the featured speaker at the Penn Authors Forum last Spring. Kaitlin is part of a team of writers currently working on an officially—licensed Doctor Whoshort story anthology.

MEG PENDOLEY is a senior in the college majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing and a minor in Spanish. She is also Editor-in-Chief of DoubleSpeak, Penn's literary translation magazine.

AYONT YOUNG is a sophomore in the School of Nursing. Though nursing has a strict schedule, she has been able to find different ways continue her love of writing through workshops and creative writing courses. She hopes to never lose her passion for writing in the chaos that can be college, and continue to produce pieces that shows her growth as a person, as well as a writer.