Leading World War II historian and Guilderland resident Joseph Persico has a new book, Roosevelt's Centurions (2013), about the war-time President's relationships with his various commanders and generals.
Persico is also the author of the words that are engraved for posterity on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D. C.: "Here we mark the price of freedom."
Paul Grondahl of the Times Union has an interview with Persico about the new book: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Revelations-about-Roosevelt-4585140.php
Persico, who ghost-wrote Colin Powell's My American Journey, last visited the Institute in 2004: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/persicojoseph.html
"William Kennedy finds it fitting that his novel Roscoe, a fictional reconstitution of Albany's legendary Democratic political machine, is going to be turned into an opera by local composer Evan Mack."
"'I think Roscoe would approve because he led a grand, operatic life,' Kennedy said of the title character, Roscoe Conway, the machine's fixer and bagman who wants to quit politics after 26 years of carrying out its chicanery."
"The novel is set in Albany on V-J Day, 1945. The New Yorker praised it for being 'thick with crime, passion and backroom banter.' The novel was published in 2002 and reached the New York Times bestseller list."
Read Paul Grondahl's article in th Times Union: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Kennedy-novel-to-become-an-opera-4580309.php#ixzz2VSxVbCpw
82-year-old Eugene Mirabelli, Professor Emeritus at UAlbany who presented his newest novel at the Writers Institute on February 26, 2013, has won the Literary Fiction Gold Medal in the 2013 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book awards.
This year the number one spot in the literary fiction category was a tie, and Eugene Mirabelli’s novel, Renato the Painter, shares top honors with Ned Bachus’s City of Brotherly Love.
The Awards program was created to highlight the year’s most distinguished books from independent publishers. Award winners are chosen by librarians and booksellers who are on the front lines, working everyday with patrons and customers. Some 125 books competed for the literary fiction Gold Medal. These books are examples of independent publishing at its finest.
More about Delmar resident Gene Mirabelli: http://mirabelli.net/
More about last February's event: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mirabelli_hood13.html