ModPo’s home is Kelly Writers House—can you help?
I love my affiliation with ModPo and this is the time of year when I take time to reflect on what’s good and sweet in my life. ModPo is good and sweet, for sure!
Rare is it that a week goes by when someone from the ModPo community isn’t asking us how we are able to provide all the ModPo resources for free—that is, without any charge or cost to participants. All this and no charge to participants!
Well, we love answering such questions.
The answer is, in short: ModPo’s home is the Kelly Writers House, which is itself an actual house, a home for writers of all kinds, and the Writers House makes everything you find in ModPo possible. The recordings to which we link; the equipment that enables us to host the weekly live webcasts; the studio where we make most of our videos; the stipends we are able to offer our beloved TAs; the honoraria we pay guest poets who visit us; and of course the lovely, newly renovated Arts Cafe space—these are among the actual costs of ModPo. ModPo happens because the people of the Kelly Writers House are fully supportive of this crazy idea of offering a course in poetry to anyone, anywhere, and so we just keep doing it.
The Kelly Writers House and ModPo share a simple but powerful vision: literary discussion should always be free and available to anyone, regardless of their access to the university and their inability to pay a fee. The Writers House receives a small share of support from the provost of the University of Pennsylvania, but 83% of the costs incurred by what the Writers House does come from funds donated by many friends of the House.
So if you do appreciate what ModPo offers, I hope you’ll consider supporting the Writers House. It’s easy to make a gift online, just by clicking HERE. If you want to help us, but would rather make your gift another way (such as by check), please let us know by writing us at modpo@writing.upenn.edu.
From our House to your house, wherever you are, we send greetings of the season,
—Al
