Poetry News

Maury Povich (!) donates $1m to Kelly Writers House

By Harriet Staff

Maury Povich donated $1 million dollars to UPenn’s Kelly Writers House, an important hub of poetry and writing in Philadelphia, which hosts and organizes multiple readings a week. Povich’s gift won’t go to the poetry side of things, but will establish the Povich Fund for Journalism Programs:

In 2006, Povich and his wife, Connie Chung — a fellow reporter, anchor and talk show host — endowed a faculty position in Creative Writing, bringing in Dick Polman from The Philadelphia Inquirer as the first-ever Writer-in-Residence to promote and respond to student interest in journalism.

“On the basis of Povich’s generosity, we were able to bring in Dick Polman, who in turn brought in colleagues of his own from the world of journalism … and in a circular way, that fueled even more interest in students in journalism,” Filreis said.

Posted in Poetry News on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 by Harriet Staff.