Rachel Zolf
Rachel Zolf’s is a recent cross-border transplant from Toronto to Philly whose writing and other artwork tends to queerly enact how ethics founders on the shoals of the political. Her five full-length books of poetry include Janey’s Arcadia (2014), Neighbour Procedure (2010) and Human Resources (2007), all from Coach House Books. Her work won the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and has been a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards and the Raymond Souster Memorial Award, among other honors. Rachel has made art videos and written scripts for art videos that have screened at Art Basel Miami, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and elsewhere. She earned an MFA at The New School, where she conducted the first collaborative MFA in creative writing ever. She has taught English and creative writing at The New School, the University of Calgary, and University of Pennsylvania. She is Community Partnerships Developer at UPenn’s Kelly Writers House, where she coordinates student-led writing projects in community settings. She is completing a PhD in philosophy at the European Graduate School under the supervision of Judith Butler.
Awarded Grants
2016
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
Related grantees
Overview
Rachel will develop and pilot an eight-week writers workshop with incarcerated women at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Philadelphia. This non-hierarchical writing group will foster creative expression, critical thinking and community building as the writers respond to writing prompts drawn from published poems, memoirs, manifestos, etc. by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Rachel hopes to continue the writing group past the pilot stage and to eventually work with the women in the group to create a publication of their writings that they can share with their communities on re-entry.
