I felt supported, but there was not really a community exactly. Andy Wolk appreciates the House's role as an informal extension of the classroom. Well, people might come over to my apartment and hang out. Or we'd meet in a bar and talk. It was really informal and pushed to the side to a certain extent, so the idea that the University says that there's a place where this could and should happen is great.
Writing is a very lonely profession.
We were like a high school graduating class, sticking it out only as long as we had to, then fleeing into the world, diplomas in hand. It would be unfair to suggest that Penn's humanities graduates disperse from West Philadelphia in like fashion, with nary a backward glance. But for many alumni in the arts and in publishing, campus visits are rare. While interviewing alumni for this article, I asked whether they had previously returned to Penn for alumni activities. J. Robert Lennon also answered in the negative.