Updike Redux with Audio

Let us take a moment to remember John Updike, one of the Writers Institute’s first visiting authors, a writer who created extraordinary literature from the ordinary stuff of American life.

Updike delivered the Institute’s inaugural Herman Melville Lecture on the Creative Imagination on Thursday, April 25, 1985 in Page Hall on the University at Albany’s downtown campus. The title of his presentation was “Creativity and Response.”

We are delighted to feature 24-year-old audio excerpts from the Updike event here on our website:

Introduction by William Kennedy.
Updike on editors, publishers and state funding for the arts.
Updike on the relationship among writer, reader and genre.
Updike's humorous take on the creative imagination.
An excerpt from Updike's 1959 story, "The Happiest I've Been."
Updike on sin.