Friday, September 25, 2015

Her All-Time Favorite Short Stories-- Ann Beattie

Ann Beattie, who visits this coming Tuesday, shares some of her all-time favorite short stories in a New York Times "By the Book" interview:

Among them: “Twilight of the Superheroes” and “Your Duck Is My Duck,” by Deborah Eisenberg; “Way Down Deep in the Jungle,” by Thom Jones; “Oxygen,” by Ron Carlson; “Nettles” and “The Albanian Virgin,” by Alice Munro; “The Fat Girl,” by Andre Dubus; “We Didn’t,” by Stuart Dybek; “Tits-Up in a Ditch,” by Annie Proulx; “Bruns,” by Norman Rush; “Escapes,” by Joy Williams; “Yours,” by Mary Robison; “The Dog of the Marriage,” by Amy Hempel; “The Fireman’s Wife,” by Richard Bausch; “The Womanizer,” by Richard Ford; “Helping,” by Robert Stone; “No Place for You, My Love,” by Eudora Welty; “Are These Actual Miles,” by Raymond Carver; “People Like That Are The Only People Here,” by Lorrie Moore; “Last Night,” by James Salter; “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” by Russell Banks; “Hunters in the Snow,” by Tobias Wolff; Rebecca Lee’s collection, “Bobcat.”

More in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/books/review/ann-beattie-by-the-book.html?ref=books&_r=1

More about Ann Beattie's 2 events with Peg Boyers this Tuesday, 9/29:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/beattie_boyers15.html

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David Denby's Superlative Review of Detropia in the New Yorker

David Denby reviews Detropia, which will be screened on Friday, 9/25, followed by commentary
and Q&A with director Rachel Grady.

"Detropia, a lyrical film about the destruction of a great American city, is the most moving documentary I’ve seen in years. The city is Detroit, and the film, made by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (who is a native), is both an ardent love letter to past vitality and a grateful salute to those who remain in place—the survivors, utterly without illusions, who refuse to leave. “Detropia” has its share of forlorn images: office buildings with empty eye sockets for windows; idle, rotting factories, with fantastic networks of chutes, pipes, and stacks; a lone lit tavern on a dark block. Yet the filmmakers are so attuned to color and to shape that I was amazed by the handsomeness of what I was seeing. I’m not being perverse: this is a beautiful film."

More in The New Yorker:   http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/09/10/good-fights-3

More about the event:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/grady_rachel15.html

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Monday, September 21, 2015

Detroit's Spectacular Decline on Film, Director Q&A

Film director Rachel Grady to speak following screening of her award-winning film DETROPIA, September 25, 2015

Documentary about Detroit was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance

ALBANY, NY (09/10/2015)(readMedia)-- Rachel Grady, codirector of the award-winning film, DETROPIA (2012), a visually-stunning exploration of the disintegration of the city of Detroit that David Denby of the New Yorker called, "the most moving documentary I've seen in years," will speak following a screening of the film on Friday, September 25, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. [note early start time] in Page Hall on the University at Albany downtown campus, 135 Western Avenue, Albany. Free and open to the public, the event is sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute in conjunction with UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice's Crime, Justice, and Social Structure Film Series.

More:  http://readme.readmedia.com/Film-director-Rachel-Grady-to-speak-following-screening-of-her-award-winning-film-DETROPIA-September-25-2015/11828634

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What is it like to collaborate with Stephen King?

Bestselling horror novelist Peter Straub will interact with audiences via Skype this coming Thursday, September 20th.

Straub will share the stage (on a large screen) with two of his friends at the literary magazine  Conjunctions -- editor and murder mystery author Bradford Morrow, and MacArthur Fellowship-winning poet Ann Lauterbach (who will appear live).

Elizabeth Floyd Mair of the Times Union profiled Straub this past Sunday:

Q: You have written two novels with Stephen King. How does that work? How do you actually write them together? Write alternating chapters? And how does it compare to writing novels on your own?

A: If you must have a collaborator in writing fiction, Stephen King is pretty much your ideal partner. I recommend him, like, highly. The dude is fast, strong, smart and, you know, sort of powerful and sort of humane at the same time, which cannot be said of many. And besides that, he's really funny. Flat-out funny, also grossout funny, a lot of the time.

More in the Times Union:  http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-features/article/Horror-writing-his-happy-place-6511583.php

More about the upcoming event:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/conjunctions15.html

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Poetry Prize Named for UAlbany Professor Len Slade

In the Times Union:  Leonard A. Slade Jr., a professor of Africana Studies at the University at Albany, has been honored with a national poetry prize named for him.

The Southern Conference on African American Studies has named its annual poetry prize the Leonard A. Slade Jr. Poetry Prize. It recognizes his literary contributions to The Griot, a journal published by the Houston-based organization since 1979.

The prize will be awarded to the person whom judges decide has published the best poem or poems in the journal that year.

"I'm very humbled," said Slade, who has contributed poetry to The Griot for more than 25 years. He came to UAlbany in 1988 after 22 years on the faculty of Kentucky State University.

More in Paul Grondahl's interview in the Times Union:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/National-honor-for-UAlbany-professor-and-poet-6512661.php

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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Debra Pane, Author and Teacher, Discusses School-to-Prison Pipeline

Debra Mayes Pane will deliver the keynote address of the UAlbany "Continuing Critical Conversations through Transformative Teaching and Learning" Speakers Series at 2PM on Friday, Sept. 18th in the Standish Room of the Science Library on the University at Albany uptown campus.

The event is free and open to the public (space permitting).

Pane is the author of Transforming the School to Prison Pipeline:  Lessons from the Classroom (2013, with Tonette S. Rocco). She is also founder and director of E-SToPP-- Eradicating the School-to-Prison Pipeline Foundation.

Sponsored by a University at Albany collaborative of faculty and staff from the School of Education, Departments of Africana Studies, Anthropology, Economics, Educational & Counseling Psychology, Educational Theory and Practice,  Music and Theater, Philosophy, Political Science, Public Health, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, The Justice and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century Project (School of Criminal Justice), The Office of Sustainability, The University Libraries, The Institute for Teaching, Learning & Academic Leadership, The Office of Intercultural Student Engagement, UAS, UUP Albany, and The Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
 
For more information, contact Deborah LaFond, dlafond@albany.edu.


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Dr. Robert Putnam, Author of Bowling Alone, at UAlbany Tomorrow

The UAlbany School of Public Health in Rensselaer will host bestselling author Dr. Robert Putnam tomorrow. The event is free and open to the public.

MEET THE AUTHOR:  Harvard University’s Dr. Robert Putnam, the author of Our Kids:  The American Dream in Crisis, will speak at the School of Public Health on Wednesday evening, September 16th, at 5:00 p.m. in the main auditorium.  Dr. Putnam will sign copies of his books (including his equally well-known Bowling Alone) following his talk.  This event is part of the School of Public Health’s “All School Read” program which began last spring when students chose Our Kids to read over the summer and explore the issues when they returned to classes this fall.  Join us for a lively conversation about the growing inequality of opportunity in the U.S.  Light refreshments will be served.  Haven’t read the book?  You are welcome to come and join the discussion of the timely public health issues raised by Dr. Putnam.  Copies of the book will be available for purchase at a 20% discount from The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza.  Members of book groups and all interested individuals are welcome to attend.  Directions to the School of Public Health are here:  http://www.albany.edu/sph/map_directions.php

For more information contact the School of Public Health:  University At Albany Foundation, 1 University Pl, Rensselaer, NY 12144

(518) 402-0283

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Wednesday, September 9, 2015

A Writer's Path from UAlbany to Acclaim

Tom Junod, who visits on Thursday 9/10 and Friday 9/11, is profiled and interviewed by Paul Grondahl in today’s Times Union.

Junod recalls his professors at UAlbany, including Fred LeBrun, Eugene Mirabelli, Warren Roberts and Judith Barlow.

Tom Junod's jagged path from UAlbany to journalistic acclaim
By Paul Grondahl
Updated 6:44 am, Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The only journalism course that Tom Junod — one of the nation's most acclaimed journalists as a two-time National Magazine Award winner and 10-time finalist — ever took was Fred LeBrun's Journalism 101 course his senior year at the University at Albany.

His jagged career path offers an object lesson in perseverance, lucky breaks, the drive of an underdog — and the gift of great teachers who didn't try to fit his square peg of creativity into a round hole.


More about Tom Junod’s events tomorrow and Friday:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/junod_tom15.html
 
WRITER FOR ESQUIRE, UALBANY GRADUATE AND 11-TIME FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARD, TO DISCUSS HIS WORK
 
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015, 4:15 p.m. Seminar, Standish Room, Science Library Uptown Campus
 
Friday, Sept. 11, 2015, 7:00 p.m. Reading in observance of 9/11, New York State Museum, Huxley Theater, Downtown Albany

CALENDAR LISTING:
Tom Junod, journalist, UAlbany graduate, winner of two National Magazine Awards, and the record holder for nominations for that award (11 times), will present a seminar on magazine writing on Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 4:15 p.m. in the Standish Room, Science Library, on the UAlbany uptown campus, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany. The following day, Friday, September 11, 2015 at 7:00 p.m., in observance of 9/11 at the New York State Museum’s Huxley Theatre in downtown Albany, Junod will read from and discuss his famous article, “The Falling Man,” a 2003 meditation on AP photographer Richard Drew’s iconic image of a 9/11 victim plunging to his death. Free and open to the public, the events are cosponsored by the University at Albany, New York State Museum, and New York State Writers Institute.

For more information contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at www.albany.edu/writers-inst

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Friday, September 4, 2015

On 9/11, Tom Junod discusses his classic Esquire piece, "The Falling Man"

Friday, September 11, 2015
     

7:00 p.m. Reading in observance of 9/11 | The New York State Museum, Huxley Theatre, Albany

For Esquire’s 75th Anniversary in 2008, the editors of the magazine selected his 9/11 story “The Falling Man” as one of the seven top stories in Esquire’s history. Many of the stories he has written over the last two decades are still avidly read. On September 11 of each year, when Esquire posts “The Falling Man” online, the story gets hundreds of thousands of readers.

Here's the article (readers will need to subscribe for access):
http://classics.esquire.com/the-falling-man/

More about Junod's events (including his visit to UAlbany the day before, 9/10, which is also free and open to the general public:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/junod_tom15.html

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Tom Junod opens the Visiting Writers Series

One of America's most honored practitioners of magazine journalism, Tom Junod will return to his alma mater, the University at Albany, to meet with students and the general public on Thursday, September 10th. He'll speak again as part of a 9/11 memorial on Friday at the NYS Museum.

More about his events:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/junod_tom15.html

Here are some of Junod's articles in the Longform Archive:  http://longform.org/writers/tom-junod

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