The Kelly Writers House hosted its annual Edible Books Party on Oct. 23, drawing students, staff, and community members together to compete for prizes.
The event honored the memory of late Penn student Blaze Bernstein, a member of the Kelly Writers House community known for his love for writing and culinary flair. Each year, the Blaze Fund supports the contest and its prizes.
Bernstein’s sister, College senior Beaue Bernstein, said that the Blaze Fund continues to support the event because of how much KWH meant to him.
“This was my brother’s favorite place on campus,” she told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “He loved creative writing and cooking and baking and chemistry — and all of the good things. And this place has all of those things, and it was very special for him.”
This year, nearly 30 entries filled KWH, one of the largest turnouts in the event’s history. Participants reimagined literary classics and pop-culture favorites in edible form, ranging from intricately baked cakes to clever puns on book titles.
Associate Director Alli Katz described the event as a reflection of what KWH does best.
“It’s about celebrating the two things that the Writers House loves best: food and books,” Katz said. “And so we make a call to our community near and far and say, ‘Bring us an edible book,’ and we mean a lot of things by that. It can be a piece of food from the book itself that really captures your imagination or a pun based on the books, like ‘Peter Pan’-na Cotta.”
The event is open to anyone on campus and in the broader Philadelphia community, with ingredient reimbursements provided to lower barriers to participation.
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Among this year’s winners were College senior Zoe Liu — a former DP staffer — and Wharton senior Anushka Kulkarni. They took home the “Best Pun” title for their creation, “Invisible Man(go),” a tropical twist on Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.”
“We have always wanted to do it, so senior year felt like the time to finally commit and take the case,” Liu told the DP. “There are a lot of really creative entries.”
Other winning entries included “Infinite Pest-o” by College senior and 34th Street Magazine staffer Jules Lingenfelter, which won “Most Literal”; “Brothers Karamatzah” by College first year and DP staffer Addison Saji and College first year Lillian Afridi, which won “Best Use of a Single Ingredient”; and “Diary of a Shrimpy Kid” by Skyla Rimple and Sophia Liu, which won the prize for “The Blaziest.”
One of this year’s judges was 2005 College graduate Jamie-Lee Josselyn, the associate director for recruitment and lecturer at Penn’s Creative Writing Program. Together with Beaue Bernstein, they evaluated the entries across multiple categories. Jocelyn said the event balances lighthearted fun with genuine artistry.
“We love a good sense of humor,” she said. “It’s always great to see students not taking themselves too seriously but yet also taking the work of food puns very seriously. So I really love the dual intensity and non-intensity of this event. It’s just a lot of fun, and it brings in people to the Writers House who don’t come all that often, which is also really nice.”
Jocelyn added that the Edible Books Party exemplifies KWH’s welcoming spirit.
“It is a place for anybody who loves writing in one way or another,” Jocelyn said. “This event is actually a great representation of how the Writers House functions, which I think is lovely.”
