Event

The Writers House Salon takes the place of our annual "Writers House New York," held each fall since 2002 in Soho at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery. This year’s special virtual salon, held in support of the outreach and inclusion efforts of the Kelly Writers House will include readings by current students, alumni, and faculty, conversations about the student experience of the Writers House, and a collaborative close reading of a poem, led by Al Filreis.

As with every year, we are asking for a suggested $20 per person donation — this year every gift made will be a celebration of Paul Kelly. This donation is a tax-deductible contribution to the Kelly Writers House. You can donate in advance here or donate live during the event. If you are a prospective student or their family, we would like to invite to you attend as our guest.

PIYALI BHATTACHARYA's short stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, The New York Times, and National Geographic, among other publications, and her novel regarding un/documented South Asian immigrants in New York has been supported by fellowships from Hedgebrook and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is the editor of the anthology Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion, which received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Independent Publisher Book Award. She holds a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, an M.A. from SOAS—University of London, and an M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, where she was winner of the Peter Straub Award for Fiction. She is currently Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania’s Creative Writing Program.

SKYE LUCAS (C'21) is a recent undergraduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and a forever-student of Al and Jamie-Lee(!). After graduating Skye moved to northwest Montana to report for The Flathead Beacon, a local weekly newspaper owned by fellow alumna Maury Povich. For five months she wrote about happenings in the Flathead Valley, such as covering the increase in Ivermectin sales at local livestock and feed stores and grassroot efforts to secure employee housing in the tiny town of Whitefish, Montana. As random or out-there as this adventure may seem, it really wasn’t! The Kelly Writers House and Real Arts have been sending students to the Beacon for years, and Skye was lucky to continue that legacy. She hopes other students get to work alongside local journalists at the independent newspaper in the coming years, and is grateful for Mingo Reynolds, who encouraged Skye to take a chance on wide-open spaces.

WES MATTHEWS (C'23) is a Detroit-born, Philadelphia-based poet and essayist. His work has been published in 68to05, Scoundrel Time, Muzzle, and elsewhere. Wes served as the 2018-19 Philadelphia Youth Poet Laureate and received the Congressional Award for “outstanding and invaluable service to the community.” He is the recipient of the 2020 College Alumni Society Prize for his poetry and the 2020 Lillian and Benjamin Levy Award for his music criticism. Wes is a third-year student at Penn and works as a studio assistant at the Kelly Writers House.

HILLARY REINSBERG (C'11) is the Editor In Chief of The Infatuation and Zagat. The Infatuation's first hire, Hillary has overseen the editorial expansion of the restaurant review platform and its signature voice into cities across the U.S and U.K. She also played a key role in The Infatuation's acquisition of the legendary restaurant guide Zagat from Google. Previously, Hillary was an early member of BuzzFeed's news team, and as a writer and editor there covered everything from New Hampshire's election of the first all-female state delegation to viral trends on YouTube. While a student at Penn, Hillary was the first editor of Under The Button and also worked on 34th Street. She has been recognized on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list and has appeared on panels, podcasts, and television as an expert on food, restaurants, and media.

Register by email: rsvp@writing.upenn.edu 

Suggested $20 donation here