The Kelly Writers House just got a bit brainier.
Last night, the Writers House celebrated a piece by Alicia Puglionesi, a The Daily Pennsylvanian opinion artist and this year's recipient of the Eisenberg Literary Journalism Fellowship.
Puglionesi wrote a piece of long-form journalism under the direction of Lee Eisenberg, a former editor of Esquire and Time Magazine and a 1968 College graduate and 1970 Annenberg School for Communication graduate.
Puglionesi, a College junior, chose to write about neurotheology, the study of the relationship between brain activity and spirituality.
She said that in light of public interest in neuroscience, sometimes called neurosensationalism, she had wanted to do a "more rigorous investigation of neuroeverything" through this project.
Eisenberg and History of Sociology and Science professor John Tresch joined her for the discussion at the Writers House.
Puglionesi read excerpts from her work, titled, "God on the Brain." In it, she explains some of the issues at work in the somewhat-controversial intersection between religion and science.
Afterward, Eisenberg, Treshe and Puglionesi discussed various issues pertaining to the content as well as the writing of the piece. They primarily focused on the problem of maintaining an intelligent writing style in a world that may be interested in less academic things.
Eisenberg currently teaches a course in Advanced Journalism at Penn in addition to mentoring the student selected for the fellowship, and is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Number: A Completely Different Way to Think About the Rest of Your Life.
The Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing sponsors the fellowship, which is designed to mimic the actual conditions of real freelance writing by awarding the author with $2,500 for a publishable piece or a $250 "kill fee" for one that is not up to par.
Puglionesi said that at first she had been "intimidated by the setup" of the Fellowship, but that working with Eisenberg was "really great."
Wharton and College junior Joyce Lee knew Puglionesi though the Philomanthean Society but "didn't know much about what she studied," Lee said.
Eisenberg has worked with many writers, but said that the work of Penn students thus far has been impressive.
"With almost no experience with this kind of writing, writing a 4,000-something word piece is pretty daunting," Eisenberg said. "But the [ones] we have gotten have been very gratifying."
