tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81525062179761266972012-01-31T09:24:41.702-05:00An online diary of The New York State Writers Institute<p> The center for the literary arts in the State of New York</p>nyswihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03814091488087050260noreply@blogger.comBlogger3251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-34891048646001194512012-01-31T09:16:00.005-05:002012-01-31T09:24:41.723-05:00

Alan Lightman visits this coming Thursday to present his new novel about God, Mr. G:"As I remember, I had just woken up from a nap when I decided to create the universe.""Not much was happening at that time. As a matter of fact, time didn't exist. Nor space. When you looked out into the Void, you were really looking at nothing more than your own thought. And if you tried to picture wind or stars

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-37973573314154609872012-01-30T18:16:00.000-05:002012-01-30T18:16:00.075-05:00

Yinka Ibukun of the Associated Press writes about Nigeria's impressive literary diaspora.Featured authors include Teju Cole, who visits February 10 (Friday), as well as three past visitors to the Institute: Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie."The chaos of Nigeria's largest city of Lagos gets boiled down to prose as a narrator notes 'how unpretty' its sprawl looks, with 'its

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-53756510720793550052012-01-30T12:00:00.001-05:002012-01-30T12:00:05.689-05:00

Institute Writing Fellow and UAlbany Professor Lynne Tillman reconsiders Gertrude Stein in the New York Times Book Review this past Sunday:"Approaching Gertrude Stein’s writing critically is tricky. Because she strove to reshape literary conventions — syntax, language usage, narrative order and the sense of making sense — any comment on her choices may already be rebuffed in her poetics and

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-45763895736424594152012-01-30T10:37:00.004-05:002012-01-30T10:42:47.227-05:00

Karen Quamme of the Columbus Dispatch finds Alan Lightman's unholy mixture of science and religion a delight:"The novel might be too imaginative for readers who want to stick to the facts and too blasphemous for those who want their religion undiluted, but those who find science, poetry and religion a palatable mix will be delighted." More.Alan Lightman visits this Thursday, 2/2.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-82209185421388671622012-01-28T20:00:00.000-05:002012-01-28T20:00:01.599-05:00

When Margot Livesey was 9 years old, growing up motherless and lonely in Scotland, a book on her father’s shelf caught her eye: Jane Eyre. Livesey’s discovery of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece was transformative. The promised friend between the covers, a character whose indomitable spirit has consoled and inspired readers for over a century and a half, allowed ­Livesey to understand that “life is

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-91050332565279264972012-01-27T16:00:00.001-05:002012-01-27T16:00:02.658-05:00

Sam Pollard, director of Slavery by Another Name, received a two-minute standing ovation earlier this week at the Sundance Film Festival competition according to Cherie Saunders of the Eurweb Electronic Urban Report:"Sundance audiences are embracing the work (with one woman so overcome with emotion during a post-screening Q&A with Pollard that she was unable to speak)." More.The film will be

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-52510689052344509822012-01-27T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-27T12:00:04.618-05:00

Teju Cole, who visits 2/10, talks with India Realtime about why photography beats literature:"I probably get a deeper satisfaction of having taken a very good photograph than of having written something very good, a very good story. Maybe it’s because the element of magic is so present in a good photograph – luck and magic, but also hard work and being ready and all that.In the case of literature

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-63491772743456118922012-01-27T06:00:00.000-05:002012-01-27T06:00:06.921-05:00

Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, who visits 2/2, is interviewed in the most recent issue of The Atlantic:Q: "Mr. g" [the character of God in the novel] spends quite a while experimenting with consciousness, adding cells to an organism to see when it becomes conscious. What intrigues you about consciousnessA: For me, consciousness is the most interesting unsolved problem of science, and, in

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-25918702776039619282012-01-26T18:00:00.000-05:002012-01-26T18:00:01.901-05:00

"Margaret Fuller, a woman of great talent and promise, had the misfortune to be born in Massachusetts in 1810, at a time and place in which the characteristics of what historians have termed 'true womanhood' were becoming ever more rigidly defined. Well brought-up women like herself were to be cultured, pious, submissive and genteel. Fuller, by contrast, was assertive and freethinking. She was

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-37934457958164265642012-01-26T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-26T12:00:02.883-05:00

NPR reviewer Lucia Silver said last May, " If you only read one book this summer, make it A Moment in the Sun."The book's author is America's most influential independent filmmaker, John Sayles, who grew up in Schenectady, and who visits the Writers Institute on Monday, Feb. 27th. Two films by Sayles will also be screened as part of our Classic Film Series."Sayles has managed to create a work

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-76174158485052045282012-01-26T09:14:00.004-05:002012-01-26T09:27:42.929-05:00

"Fast-forward to the year 2100. Computers, writes physicist and futurist Michio Kaku [who visits 2/21] in Physics of the Future (Doubleday, 2011), will have humanlike intelligence, the Internet will be accessible via contact lenses, nanobots will eliminate cancers, space tourism will be cheap and popular, and we’ll be colonizing Mars.We will be a planetary civilization capable of consuming the

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-36784813545956704502012-01-25T12:50:00.003-05:002012-01-25T12:59:25.050-05:00

The UAlbany website has an interview with Sheila Curran Bernard about writing for documentary films, and on being one of a handful of filmmakers among thousands selected for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival."There are a lot of misconceptions about documentary writing. One is that documentaries aren’t written, because people tend to think of film writing in Hollywood terms, where a fictional

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-44455227648710739812012-01-25T09:10:00.004-05:002012-01-25T09:16:35.440-05:00

Alan Lightman, who opens our series on Thursday, 2/2, interviewed on CBS News yesterday:"In my novel Mr g, God is the narrator and tells the story in the first person. After living with the voice of God for the year that I worked on the book, with the power to create time and space, matter and energy, animate matter and consciousness, now and then I had tiny flashes of what it feels like to be

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-90471757469106544442012-01-23T13:47:00.005-05:002012-01-23T13:57:40.191-05:00

Mary C. Henderson, who delivered the Burian Lecture at UAlbany in 2004, receives an obituary in yesterday's New York Times:Mary C. Henderson, a scholar of the theater whose interests as a historian and curator spanned centuries and as a Tony nominator and critic were up to the minute, died on Jan. 3 at her home in Congers, N.Y. She was 83.Read more.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-41065491030527259862012-01-23T13:20:00.006-05:002012-01-23T13:31:25.146-05:00

Teju Cole, who comes Friday 2/10, is among the nominees for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award.Also featured is James Gleick, who visited this past March. Other past participants in the Visiting Writers Series who make the list are Diane Ackerman and Yusef Komunyakaa.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-34602125615259139202012-01-23T07:00:00.002-05:002012-01-23T07:00:11.232-05:00

Physicist and media personality Michio Kaku, introduced as "one of the greatest minds of our time" in this January 3, 2012 CNN broadcast, gives his weather predictions for 2012.Among them: An increasing likelihood of strange weather, including freak snowstorms, droughts and tornadoes, not to mention solar flares that knock out the Internet.And here's an explanation of the reasons why global

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-15320699514593520562012-01-22T18:00:00.000-05:002012-01-22T18:00:04.669-05:00

Slavery by Another Name, written by Visiting Writer Douglas Blackmon, and written by UAlbany professor Sheila Curran Bernard, will be screened on January 30th at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC (where President Lincoln was assassinated).Blackmon and Bernard join us for a talkback after the Albany premiere on Friday, February 3rd in the Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-39412593002763376412012-01-22T12:00:00.001-05:002012-01-22T12:00:02.942-05:00

Adam Johnson, who visits Tuesday, February 14 to talk about his thriller-romance set in North Korea, talks to the L. A. Times about his background."A gregarious, linebacker-sized guy of mixed Northern European and Native American extraction, dressed in a white guayabera shirt, jeans and electric-green running shoes, he describes himself as 'probably the most un-Korean person in the world.' He was

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-86917664110034714712012-01-22T07:00:00.002-05:002012-01-22T07:00:02.203-05:00

"[Shalom Auslander] is scabrously funny, especially on faith and meaning, but his stories have a habit of breaking down. This is partly because his great subject, God's capriciousness, is a closed loop and as such can be difficult to frame as narrative. 'Pascal's last words were: May God never abandon me,' he observes early in the novel. 'A moment later, God did.' In such a universe, it's not

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-50648379050796861882012-01-20T21:00:00.001-05:002012-01-20T21:00:01.818-05:00

Michio Kaku, who visits February 21, talks about earthlike planets on "big think."Dr. Kaku addresses the following question:"A recently discovered planet named Kepler 22b apparently has a very, very similar composition to Earth, although I don’t think they have it exactly figured out yet. What do discoveries like this mean and what is the possibility of many other earth-like planets being out

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-64590114436313195482012-01-20T17:00:00.001-05:002012-01-20T17:00:03.356-05:00

Masha Gessen, who visits March 8, writes in the NYT about the peculiar institution of "internal passports" in her native Russia:MOSCOW — As of last Friday, I am an undocumented person in my own country. I cannot open or close a bank account, receive medical care at a state clinic, buy a cellphone, return a purchase to a store or enter into a contract, which my job requires me to do several times

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-90794959542595071382012-01-20T12:00:00.001-05:002012-01-20T12:32:59.953-05:00

From the WSJ's Scene Asia, Jan. 18:"[The Jaipur Literature Festival] attracts rising stars as well. Teju Cole, whose debut novel Open City found its way onto many critics’ best-of-2011 lists, sees the festival as a way to meet readers and inspire new ones. “You turn up to a city that you’ve never been to before, sometimes a town, and if it’s a well-organized festival, there’s an auditorium full

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-36661558589928051422012-01-20T11:31:00.002-05:002012-01-20T11:37:34.439-05:00

"When a physics heavyweight is mentioned in the same breath as Salman Rushdie and Italo Calvino, it is tough for a reviewer. Few venture into air that rarefied and make it out alive. But when the book is Mr g, a creation myth by physicist Alan Lightman, it is worth the risk."Read the review by Pedro Ferreira in the science journal, Nature.Lightman visits the Institute Thursday, February 2nd.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-71081924889974172502012-01-19T18:00:00.000-05:002012-01-19T18:00:05.853-05:00

The Hollywood Reporter posts an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip about the making of Slavery By Another Name, which premieres at Sundance on 1/23, before coming to a theater near you (the UAlbany Performing Arts Center) on 2/3."The documentary Slavery by Another Name will have its premiere Monday, Jan. 23, at noon at the Temple Theatre as part of the official 2012 Sundance Film Festival

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-12455531628366055742012-01-19T15:00:00.000-05:002012-01-19T15:00:03.705-05:00

Sam Sacks in the WSJ reviews The Orphan Master's Son, an epic novel about North Korea by Adam Johnson, who visits February 14th."We don't know what's really going on in that strange place [North Korea], but a disquieting glimpse suggesting what it must be like can be found in this brilliant and timely novel."More.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-9391081807095171432012-01-19T12:00:00.000-05:002012-01-19T12:41:38.512-05:00

Here's Janet Maslin on Shalom Auslander (who visits March 1st) in Wednesday's New York Times:"He brings to mind Woody Allen, Joseph Heller and — oxymoron here — a libido-free version of Philip Roth."More.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-35572683384620288722012-01-18T15:35:00.001-05:002012-01-23T12:01:37.299-05:00

Peter Fernbach participated in the Fall 2011 Advanced Poetry Community Workshop, with Rebecca Wolff, here at the New York State Writers Institute.  He says of his experience, "Valuable criticism is hard to come by: even writers, English teachers, and workshoppers get their cliche on. But, I thought we, as a group, were able to remain open enough to varying approaches and styles to keep the

tara emelyehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250431100372670373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-8047846252995239302012-01-18T09:30:00.000-05:002012-01-18T09:30:01.261-05:00

Teju Cole, who visits Friday, Feb. 10, discards plot in his acclaimed first novel Open City, and the critics don't miss it.Here's John Knight of The Millions:“Every work begins as an obvious metaphor,” John Berger writes. “The metaphor allows [the artist] to imagine the familiar world from above, and his own liberation from it.” Most novels move beyond metaphor toward something resembling a plot;

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-40755604041418182902012-01-18T00:30:00.000-05:002012-01-18T00:30:01.298-05:00

Alan Lightman, bestselling novelist and theoretical physicist who opens the Spring 2012 Visiting Writers Series on February 2nd, has applied his talents to number of genres, including musical adaptations of his bestselling novel Einstein's Dreams, as well as poetry, fables, essays, nonfiction and that least-studied of all literary genres: the planetarium show.Below is a Library Journal review by

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-45678439566225575962012-01-17T21:00:00.000-05:002012-01-17T21:00:02.389-05:00

Michael Janairo of the Times Union posted yesterday about upcoming literary events.It's mostly (but not exclusively) about us.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-54352298484123068442012-01-17T19:00:00.000-05:002012-01-17T19:00:01.600-05:00

Masha Gessen, Russian journalist who visits on March 8th, writes about a Russian filmmaker, Pavel Bardin (pictured here), who is creating a compilation of filmed statements by ordinary Russians for publication on YouTube. Article.MOSCOW — Every night last week, writers, artists, actors, ad men, office managers and assorted others climbed the stairs to the fifth floor of a converted factory

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-9099054330923277902012-01-13T14:56:00.000-05:002012-01-13T15:09:50.913-05:00

From the New York Times, Dec. 29, 1985:When Toni Morrison, author of the best seller ''Tar Baby'' and winner of a National Book Critics award for ''Song of Solomon,'' accepted the Albert Schweitzer Professorship of the Humanities at the State University of New York at Albany, she expected to lead the proverbially quiet life of an academic - teaching writing and writing fiction. Instead she found

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-12150113117241149562012-01-13T13:27:00.000-05:002012-01-13T13:50:14.491-05:00

Novels by February 2011 visitor Karen Russell, November 2012 visitor Tom Perrotta, and October 2003 visitor Jennifer Egan are under development for HBO series.Read articles about the forthcoming adaptations: Swamplandia!, The Leftovers, and A Visit from the Goon Squad.And let's not forget Bored to Death, by March 2006 visitor Jonathan Ames, cancelled after its third season in December 2011.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-56759847881603225402012-01-13T12:47:00.000-05:002012-01-13T15:11:09.653-05:00

Friends of our late friend Andy Rooney, cultural critic, political commentator and Albany native son, gathered yesterday at Lincoln Center to talk about the man and his legacy."Friends and colleagues from across the TV spectrum joined Andy Rooney's four children this morning at Rose Hall, bidding farewell to the CBS News essayist, who died November 4 following complications from minor surgery....

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-10154784730215444452012-01-12T14:41:00.000-05:002012-01-13T13:00:46.265-05:00

Together with his family, author and theoretical physicist Alan Lightman (who visits February 2nd) has created a charitable foundation to improve the lives of women and children in the third world.From the Associated Press, May 2008: "American Jewish family builds mosque in Cambodian village"When residents of this poor Cambodian village need something built, they call on the Lightmans.The

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-53143548999767370342012-01-12T14:12:00.000-05:002012-01-13T13:05:47.502-05:00

Teju Cole's Open City, has been featured on innumerable “Best of 2011” lists in major publications and media outlets, including the New Yorker, New York Times, NPR, Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times, Atlantic, GQ, Guardian, New Statesman and TIME magazine.Teju Cole visits Friday, Feb. 10th.The book has been described by many critics as Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man for the new millennium.James

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-49771475445635071942012-01-12T12:56:00.000-05:002012-01-12T13:08:42.382-05:00

Bestselling author Ellis Avery tells the Miami Herald about the pleasures of Margot Livesey's new book, The Flight of Gemma Hardy (2012).Livesey visits the Writers Institute and the Albany Public Library on Tuesday, March 20th."...[W]hat’s breathtaking is how Livesey makes the blessings that come Gemma’s way at the end strike us just as rawly as her suffering did in the beginning.”More.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-79739312967379340292012-01-12T12:40:00.000-05:002012-01-12T12:52:49.083-05:00

Last May at the Writers Institute, Ed Sanders presented his then-unpublished memoir, an eyewitness account of the birth of the American Counterculture, Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the F**k You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side.Capo Press published Fug You in December 2011.Here's a review from Ben Ratliff in the New York Times:"As a poet Mr.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-84727224383667734312012-01-12T12:18:00.000-05:002012-01-12T12:31:54.948-05:00

Sheila Curran Bernard, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, and UAlbany Assistant Professor of History and Documentary Studies, is the cowriter of a new film about AIDS in Africa, Inside Story: The Science of HIV/AIDS.The film premiered in South Africa on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2011 and premieres in the U.S. and Nigeria in 2012. It will be broadcast to nearly 300 million viewers

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-70958777547117447872012-01-12T10:01:00.000-05:002012-01-12T10:11:59.104-05:00

Douglas Blackmon, Pulitzer-winning author who visits the Writers Institute on February 3rd, is leaving the Wall St. Journal, where he is Senior National Correspondent, in order to head a presidential policy institute at the University of Virginia, where he will also be a lecturer in media studies.In Albany, Blackmon will discuss his new discuss his new documentary film, Slavery By Another Name,

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-13457896186384968432012-01-12T09:46:00.000-05:002012-01-12T09:57:51.461-05:00

NYS Summer Writers Institute Director Robert Boyers receives a Sidney Award for one of the "Best Essays of 2011" from New York Times columnist David Brooks for an essay about the peculiar physical magnetism of his late friend, the writer and "ladies' man" Charles Newman (pictured here), who died in 2006. The essay appeared in the online literary magazine, AGNI."The most beautiful man I ever knew

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-84176736925014813002012-01-12T09:34:00.000-05:002012-01-12T09:42:03.148-05:00

Moscow-based journalist Masha Gessen, who visits Albany March 8th to talk about her brave new biography of Vladimir Putin, writes about election-rigging in Russia in yesterday's New York Times.MOSCOW — A documentary video has just gone viral in Russia. A man and a woman — he a political activist, she a radio reporter — videotaped themselves entering an auditorium they say is located in Moscow’s

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-52619489762531951642012-01-11T14:24:00.000-05:002012-01-11T14:38:24.597-05:00

Paul Grondahl contributes an obituary of Albany journalist and Writers Institute friend Andy Viglucci in today's Times Union:ALBANY — Andy Viglucci was a newspaperman's newspaperman.His dad worked in the circulation department of the Knickerbocker Press and later operated a newsstand on lower State Street that sold a dozen dailies, cigarettes and sundry items while exuding an aura of excitement

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-78380568837225959442012-01-11T13:42:00.000-05:002012-01-11T14:18:10.563-05:00

Physicist and author Alan Lightman (who kicks off the Visiting Writers Series on February 2) contributes an essay to the December 21st issue of Harper's about the burgeoning interest among physicists in the "multiverse theory," the theory that there are an incalculable number of universes.He also addresses the mathematical impossibility of the fact that life exists, the rejection of intelligent

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-68055837918240881992012-01-11T09:27:00.000-05:002012-01-11T09:41:00.481-05:00

The New York State Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore will be in session July 2-27, 2012.Teaching faculty will include Elizabeth Benedict, Frank Bidart, Peg Boyers, Henri Cole, Mary Gaitskill, Allan Gurganus, Amy Hempel, Margot Livesey, Phillip Lopate, Campbell McGrath, Claire Messud, James Miller, Rick Moody, Victoria Redel, Joanna Scott, Danzy Senna, Darin Strauss and Rosanna Warren.Visiting

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-65691173050021585142012-01-10T15:52:00.000-05:002012-01-10T16:13:52.712-05:00

The New York State Writers Institute is pleased to announce its Spring 2012 schedule of free events.For more information, visit our website.The Spring 2012 Visiting Writers Series features emerging and established fiction writers of national acclaim, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and biographers, science writers, international poets, and renowned filmmakers. The younger set of novelists

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-28278987376637604402011-12-31T22:26:00.000-05:002011-12-31T22:47:12.101-05:00

Reflecting in yesterday's Times Union on the highlights of the local arts scene during the year past, TU Arts & Entertainment Editor Michael Janairo talked about his experiences as a student in a prose workshop offered by the Writers Institute and taught by Writer-in-Residence Jo Page."Our gatherings often called to mind what I think of as an archetypal image: ancient storytellers gathered around

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-16964542199875927512011-12-28T13:55:00.000-05:002011-12-31T22:14:50.062-05:00

Jack Rightmyer of the Schenectady Gazette posts his top ten book list for 2011.His choices include Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes by Institute Executive Director William Kennedy and recent visitor Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers. Honorable Mention goes to Heaven Up-h'isted-ness!: The History of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers and the High Peaks of the Adirondacks coauthored by Institute Assistant

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-79209551325183567792011-12-23T10:57:00.000-05:002011-12-23T11:06:16.610-05:00

The most recent issue of Atlantic offers a glimpse inside the homes and personal libraries of several of our visiting writers.Featured authors include Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein, Jonathan Lethem, Claire Messud and James Wood, and Gary Shteyngart.See the article.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-12276136557043248962011-12-23T10:17:00.000-05:002011-12-23T10:32:02.100-05:00

The New York Times tells which books a number of authors love to give and receive.Francine Prose, who visited in February 2010, favors artful objects like Robert Walser's Microscripts and Brassai in America.Former New York State Poet Billy Collins says, "Because I’m still an only child, I have trouble thinking deeply enough about other people to be any good at figuring out what they would like

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-23628873256239122502011-12-22T13:33:00.000-05:002011-12-22T13:48:10.972-05:00

The Times Union's "Top Moments in the Arts" cover story feature (in its Preview entertainment guide) highlights a number of Writers Institute events of the past year.Among his top five picks, Joseph Dalton selects Bill Kennedy's reading of Chango's Beads on October 3rd. See the YouTube clip.Amy Griffin's top five include Gary Shteyngart's reading on February 17th. YouTube clip here.And Michael

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-80339455800550778152011-12-21T14:47:00.000-05:002011-12-21T14:51:57.974-05:00

photo:timesunion Marea Gordett explains that her poem,"Copernicus at Occupy", "stems from the Dava Sobel presentation at the Writers Institute on her book, A More Perfect Heaven. I was very taken by her phrase 'a cascade of diminishments' which I realized is central to her analysis, and I enjoyed working it into my experience at Occupy Albany." COPERNICUS AT OCCUPY How stark and broad a

tara emelyehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250431100372670373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-33501752101265310192011-12-21T14:36:00.000-05:002011-12-21T14:44:37.572-05:00

The Times Union's collaborative community history, The Story of Albany, began life as a website hosted by Paul Grondahl.It is now available in book form. You may purchase copies online, or as a download, or the old-fashioned way: the book will be on sale from noon to 2 p.m. Friday, Dec. 23, in the lobby of the Times Union, 645 Albany Shaker Road. Times Union Senior Writer Paul Grondahl, who wrote

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-14765857414403188632011-12-21T14:24:00.000-05:002011-12-21T14:34:45.157-05:00

Writers Insititute visitors who appear on the New Yorker's "Best of" list include Russell Banks, Julian Barnes, Don DeLillo, and Anne Enright.An author above, plus two others on the New Yorker list will be featured in our upcoming Spring 2012 Visiting Writers Series.... not to be coy, but we can't announce them yet!Read the list here.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-57605669580536483312011-12-20T10:15:00.000-05:002011-12-20T10:53:17.375-05:00

Grayce Burian, friend of the Writers Institute, reminisced about her friend Vaclav Havel, Nobel Prize-winning playwright and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003), who passed away this past Sunday, December 18th.Grayce's husband, the late Jarka Burian-- longtime Professor in the the Department of Theatre at UAlbany and America's foremost authority on Czech theatre-- spent a great

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-9346391520427157922011-12-19T14:39:00.000-05:002011-12-19T14:39:08.686-05:00

Anne Hohenstein participated in the fall 2010 advanced poetry workshop at the New York State Writers Institute, led by Rebecca Wolff.  Anne lives near the Hudson River, practices law in Albany and has published before, most recently in The Lyon Review.  She writes that, "The workshop brought necessary internal and external focus" and offers here "a short poem, a piece well-corrected in the

tara emelyehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250431100372670373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-76903361012724341512011-12-16T14:02:00.000-05:002011-12-16T14:02:19.002-05:00

The Writers Institute just wrapped up its fall Advanced Poetry Community Workshop led by Institute Fellow and Fence editor, poet Rebecca Wolff. Over the course of the next few weeks, we'll be sharing the words of some of the participating poets to highlight the talented and diverse community of writers in the Capital Region with which the Insitute is proud to work. Today's poet: Kathryn Poppino

tara emelyehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250431100372670373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-62746388048566830002011-12-14T09:53:00.000-05:002011-12-14T10:04:05.294-05:00

Richard Russo, friend of the Institute and upstate New York native, contributes a New York Times op-ed about Amazon's price comparison tool and the new assault on independent booksellers."I wondered what my writer friends made of all this, so I dashed off an e-mail to Scott Turow, the president of the Authors Guild, and cc’ed Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, Andre Dubus III, Anita Shreve, Tom

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-61687300647024996462011-12-12T16:06:00.000-05:002011-12-12T16:19:54.128-05:00

Audiophile, a magazine devoted to audiobooks, has bestowed an Earphones Award on Bill Kennedy's own narration of Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes. Here's the review that will appear in the next issue:CHANGO'S BEADS AND TWO-TONE SHOESThis eighth novel in Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy's Albany Cycle leaves familiar locales for 1957 Cuba. There, freelance journalist Daniel Quinn

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-46569376869326308792011-12-09T16:21:00.000-05:002011-12-09T16:34:54.183-05:00

Anything readable "wow" you in 2011? If so, let us know. We're primarily interested in new books in any genre, but if you've rediscovered something that deserves rediscovery, we're interested in that also.And if you'd like to divide your list into categories, feel free.Here are some suggested categories:Best FictionBest NonfictionBest Science WritingBest Book of PoetryBest Holiday GiftBest Beach

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-40127063828752479482011-12-09T16:08:00.000-05:002011-12-09T16:20:44.273-05:00

Bill Kennedy on the Bat Segundo Show today talks about turning down his friend Hunter S. Thompson for a job at the San Juan Star in 1959 (you may already know the story but fans of both never get tired of it):Correspondent: [Hunter S. Thompson] said, “He refused to hire me. Called me swine, fool, beatnik. We go way back.” But I also know that he wrote you a quite hubristic letter. How did you two

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-41508234495962170992011-12-09T15:51:00.000-05:002011-12-09T16:05:22.452-05:00

Our friend Maureen Dowd invokes Virginia Woolf and philosopher Max Picard in her discussion of the pleasures of silence and her review of the new silent film, The Artist, by French writer and director Michel Hazanavicius."As far back as half-a-century ago, the Swiss philosopher Max Picard warned: 'Nothing has changed the nature of man so much as the loss of silence,' once as natural as the sky

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-45075671864930262532011-12-08T15:38:00.000-05:002011-12-08T15:45:24.928-05:00

Writing in the New York Times in 2004, the Capital Region's own Joe Persico talked about intelligence failures in the FDR administration in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbor, with comparisons to intelligence failures in advance of 9/11."THE president was receiving intelligence that an attack might occur imminently, probably not on the United States mainland, but abroad. Intercepted

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-80948775668633378312011-12-08T13:28:00.000-05:002011-12-08T13:40:32.361-05:00

James Gleick's book on computing technology, The Information (2011), is featured as one of Salon's five best nonfiction books of 2011. Gleick visited the Institute on March 3, 2011.Here's a YouTube video of Gleick's visit.Also on the list is Andre Dubus III, who visited in 2008.Here's a YouTube video of Dubus.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-67851371330200518212011-12-08T13:11:00.000-05:002011-12-08T13:26:43.316-05:00

Ken Johnson, who visited on November 7, interrogates the term "performance art" with regard to comedy in a piece that appeared last month in the New York Times."Comedy must at least be funny, and if it is not, it fails. Must comic performance art be funny? Can it be called art if it aims primarily for laughs? A lot of nonperformance art these days is humorous. Maurizio Cattelan’s work often is,

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-80238421060178823182011-12-08T13:00:00.000-05:002011-12-08T13:10:02.176-05:00

The New York Times has an article about how, in an age of e-books, publishers are attempting to sell physical books as giftable, displayable art objects, much as they were a century ago."If e-books are about ease and expedience, the publishers reason, then print books need to be about physical beauty and the pleasures of owning, not just reading." More.The article also makes mention of the "deep

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-86568143579281052022011-12-08T12:26:00.000-05:002011-12-08T12:58:14.231-05:00

In an eerie coincidence, Wayne Koestenbaum talked extensively on the Bat Segundo show, Monday Dec. 5, about Alec Baldwin's public humiliations one day before Baldwin was kicked off an American Airlines flight on Tuesday Dec. 6.Koestenbaum visited the Institute on October 20 to talk about his new book, Humiliation (2011).

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-60656732574589145242011-12-06T09:18:00.000-05:002011-12-06T09:31:14.832-05:00

Willard Sterne Randall, who visits today, writes of Alexander Hamilton's efforts to defend Manhattan against the British navy in the January 2003 issue of Smithsonian Magazine."On August 8, Hamilton tore open orders from Washington: his company was to be on round-the-clock alert against an imminent invasion of Manhattan. “The movements of the enemy and intelligence by deserters give the utmost

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-18707610361383500762011-12-05T15:48:00.000-05:002011-12-05T16:07:34.210-05:00

Recent NYS Writers Institute Visiting Author Karen Russell's Swamplandia makes the NY Times Top Ten for 2011 as well as Janet Maslin's personal Top Ten. Other books on Maslin's list include former New York State Author Russell Banks's Lost Memory of Skin, and Walter Isaacson's bio of Steve Jobs (Isaacson visited with a biography of Einstein in 2007).Michiko Kakutani's personal list includes

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-67160663928400029262011-12-05T14:43:00.000-05:002011-12-05T14:55:44.645-05:00

Paul Grondahl talks to two-time Pulitzer-winning biographer Robert Caro, who visits today, about his days as a young reporter covering the New York State Legislature in 1963."It was fascinating to see how state government worked," he said. "I learned a lot working under Newsday's chief political reporter, Dick Zander. What I discovered was that Robert Moses, who was not elected, had a tremendous

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-226797180101781972011-12-02T15:07:00.000-05:002011-12-02T15:19:55.652-05:00

Writing in the New York Times, Janet Maslin reviews a new biography of Kurt Vonnegut who served as New York State Author under the auspices of the Writers Institute from 2001 to 2003, and whose visit to Albany (speaking to a packed Page Hall) was a memorable occasion."Mr. Shields is not shy about using the words 'a definitive biography of an extraordinary man' to describe his book. And So It Goes

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-91122472316147784522011-12-02T14:45:00.000-05:002011-12-02T14:58:10.584-05:00

Bill Patrick, director of the NYS Summer Young Writers Institute at Skidmore, has a new book coming out: Courageous Learning: Finding a New Path through Higher Education, an exploration of the brave new world of adult education and online learning. The book was written with Excelsior College President John Ebersole.A launch party and signing will be held at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza on

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-74379867222147546172011-12-02T14:37:00.000-05:002011-12-02T14:42:22.028-05:00

UAlbany English Professor Martha Rozett sent us an e-letter about her new book, When People Wrote Letters: A Family Chronicle:I am writing to tell you about my new book, WHEN PEOPLE WROTE LETTERS: A FAMILY CHRONICLE. If you can, please come to my book signing on December 8th at Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza from 7:00 to 9:00 PM.Many of you have heard me talk about this project during the past

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-46682757588251620562011-12-02T13:43:00.000-05:002011-12-02T14:10:52.503-05:00

Ethan Allen is an inspirational (if malleable) figure for Vermonters in general, and particularly for self-styled "free thinkers" and individualists across the political spectrum, from tea party activists to "off-the-grid" hippies.Here's a review of Willard Sterne Randall's new biography of Allen on the Vt Digger blog by John McClaughty, VP of the libertarian thinktank, the Ethan Allen Institute:

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-85145109075528889742011-12-02T13:27:00.000-05:002011-12-02T13:36:34.955-05:00

Carl Rollyson talks up Willard Sterne Randall's Ethan Allen in the Wall Street Journal "Gift Guide: Best of Biography" last month. Randall visits Tuesday, December 6."With every publishing season hailing another biography of some already well-documented Founder, it was a pleasure to descend into the trenches of American history with Willard Sterne Randall. His absorbing and comprehensive "Ethan

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-21855014629296775662011-12-01T14:18:00.000-05:002011-12-01T14:39:01.412-05:00

Oliver Stone is making an HBO film based on Robert Caro's biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses, The Power Broker. Caro will appear at the Egg on Monday, December 5.From ArtInfo on the Huffington Post:"Every robber baron is probably green with envy for the late Robert Moses, a powerful and polarizing force who shaped New York as we now know it, because Oliver Stone just signed on to

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-23516724763711427662011-11-30T15:06:00.000-05:002011-11-30T15:06:33.663-05:00

 Caro and Vonnegut in Sagaponack.  (Photo originally appeared in Hamptons Shorts, 1999) One sunny day in Sagaponack, renowned political biographer and seasoned interviewer Robert Caro—who comes to Albany, NY on December 5, 2011—had the tables tuned on him by none other than Kurt Vonnegut.   Their conversation, with Vonnegut posing questions to Caro (though it was supposed to be the

tara emelyehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250431100372670373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-86582428373420378912011-11-29T15:28:00.000-05:002011-11-29T15:28:20.497-05:00

Sixteen writers whose books were selected for the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2011 are former Visiting Writers at the New York State Writers Institute.  Among these, Karen Russell (Swamplandia!), James Gleick (The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood) and Tom Perrotta (The Leftovers) joined us during the 2011 season, while Michael Ondaatje (The Cat's Table) and Russell Banks (Lost

tara emelyehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250431100372670373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-62915319085292748542011-11-29T14:05:00.000-05:002011-11-29T14:11:19.825-05:00

HBO is developing a series based on author Tom Perrotta's upcoming novel "The Leftovers."Hourlong drama explores the Rapture and how the sudden disappearance of loved ones in a suburban town affects everyone left behind. Perrotta, who is writing the pilot, will exec produce with Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger.The author has Hollywood connections, having written "Little Children" and then adapting

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-78635399104975277932011-11-29T13:50:00.000-05:002011-11-29T13:59:03.061-05:00

Tom Perrotta, who makes two appearances in Albany today, dispenses some free advice on the "big think" website:Question: Should you always write what you know?Perrotta: I’m always wary of any kind of generalization like that. There’re some people who… I think somebody once said there are two kinds of writers, you know, that there’s somebody who lives home and somebody who stays home, and I’ve

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-18982335112207289942011-11-29T13:43:00.000-05:002011-11-29T13:47:36.560-05:00

Tom Perrotta visits the Writers Institute today for two events.November 29 (Tuesday)Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown CampusReading — 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown CampusTom Perrotta is the author of masterpieces of satirical fiction set in the American suburbs. His new novel is The Leftovers (2011), the story of ordinary suburbanites who are forced to

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-32572687986907158672011-11-22T14:17:00.000-05:002011-11-22T14:49:55.610-05:00

Mark Kurlansky, who visited in 2004, may have started a movement with his 1997 nonfiction book, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World.Perhaps we should all be eating cod with cranberry sauce.Jennifer Kennedy of About.com Marine Life cites and paraphrases Kurlansky on a page devoted to cod and the Pilgrims (here):"In a move that eventually led to their displacement, local Native

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-38686936878728738742011-11-22T13:54:00.000-05:002011-11-22T14:11:21.589-05:00

Tom Perrotta, who visits the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, 11/29, spoke to Terry Gross on NPR's "Fresh Air" in August about his new novel, The Leftovers...."I spent a lot of time thinking about contemporary Christianity, and obviously the rapture kept coming up," he says. "My first impulse was ... to laugh it off — it's sort of a funny idea, people just floating away. But I kept thinking: What if

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-56028253947839644142011-11-22T10:02:00.000-05:002011-11-22T10:09:41.258-05:00

Sunday's New York Times Business Day had an article about the preference of parents for print-and-paper children's books...."Print books may be under siege from the rise of e-books, but they have a tenacious hold on a particular group: children and toddlers. Their parents are insisting this next generation of readers spend their early years with old-fashioned books."This is the case even with

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-71786456540343985112011-11-22T09:36:00.000-05:002011-11-22T09:46:53.274-05:00

The literary magazine Ploughshares serves up a banquet of dysfunctional family literature for your Thanksgiving gathering in its November issue.Lydia Davis, New York State Writers Institute Writing Fellow, provides one of the appetizers:"If your taste for dysfunction veers toward the quietly lethal, I urge readers to pick up a copy of anything by Lydia Davis. 'Meat, My Husband,' which appears in

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-53919815840132444832011-11-22T09:22:00.000-05:002011-11-22T09:33:19.146-05:00

Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker's new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2011) is being discussed everywhere.Pinker visited the Institute to talk about his book How the Mind Works in 1997.From the Christian Science Monitor:In his latest book The Better Angels of our Nature, Steven Pinker argues that the world has never been a safer place to live in. Looking back

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-39864678379189622812011-11-21T22:23:00.000-05:002011-11-21T22:38:23.158-05:00

Unbeknownst to most Albany residents, one of Spain's major writers lived among us from 1966 to 1972 (and, as it happens, spent an inordinate amount of time hanging out at Stuyvesant Plaza because he didn't own a car). In Spain, Gonzalo Torrente Ballester's image appears on postage stamps; while in the U.S., it is difficult even to find his literary works in English translation.UAlbany celebrated

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-15775494471443881702011-11-21T22:01:00.000-05:002011-11-21T22:15:18.703-05:00

Popular historian David O. Stewart, who visited the Writers Institute in 2007, and delivered the History Department's Fossieck Lecture, picked three books of American history for Thanksgiving reading on NPR's "All Things Considered" this evening:"With Thanksgiving hard upon us, now is a good time to think about our past. History writers can tell the best stories from centuries of human

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-42530624616718877732011-11-18T12:26:00.000-05:002011-11-18T12:37:39.053-05:00

Roger Ebert proclaims Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, which will be screened tonight at 7:30PM at Page Hall (free and open to the public) the best film ever made about filmmaking.Read the full Chicago Sun-Times reappraisal from May 28, 2000, here."8 1/2 is the best film ever made about filmmaking..... The critic Alan Stone, writing in the Boston Review, deplores Fellini’s 'stylistic tendency to

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-43964381242254847392011-11-17T16:03:00.000-05:002011-11-17T16:13:24.134-05:00

Tony Horwitz, who speaks at the New York State Museum tonight, talked Tuesday on the PBS NewsHour about his new book on John Brown's raid."I think we still struggle to understand how it is that Americans who shared a common language and culture and for the most part religion came to slaughter each other by the hundreds of thousands in the 1860s. And I think John Brown and his raid on Harpers

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-78552268609555804542011-11-17T14:35:00.000-05:002011-11-17T14:48:53.672-05:00

Eliza Griswold (who visited September 27) contributes an article about fracking in Pennsylvania to this coming Sunday's New York Times Magazine."In Amwell Township, your opinion of fracking tends to correspond with how much money you’re making and with how close you live to the gas wells, chemical ponds, pipelines and compressor stations springing up in the area. Many of those who live nearby

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-86279859826231145202011-11-17T09:27:00.000-05:002011-11-17T09:38:35.415-05:00

"William Kennedy, a Miami Book Fair standout," writes Chuck Strouse of the Miami New Times."Also here this week are dozens of other important American writers, from John Barth to John Sayles, Chuck Palahniuk to Calvin Trillin, and Harry Belafonte, Jim Lehrer, and Michael Moore. Though Kennedy isn't the biggest name, his story [Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes] is among the most intertwined with

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-21734979241150321442011-11-17T09:16:00.000-05:002011-11-17T09:25:35.049-05:00

The November edition of the HVWG Newsletter is out.Events include a celebration of poet, publisher and peace activist Dan Wilcox on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 1:30PM at the Main Branch of the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Ave., downtown Albany, sponsored by the Friends of Albany Public Library. Free and open to the public.

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-24394736174487240512011-11-16T21:24:00.000-05:002011-11-16T21:43:47.729-05:00

Check out the original American 1963 trailer for Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, which will be screened (at full length) on Friday, November 18 at 7:30PM in Page Hall on the downtown campus as part of the New York State Writers Institute's Classic Film Series."... a delightful piece of filmmaking full of imaginative flights of creative delirium and accomplished with wit, verve, style, grace, and a

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-82431132508819818682011-11-16T12:53:00.000-05:002011-11-16T13:01:49.114-05:00

Kirstin Downey, Washington Post reporter, will talk about her biography of Frances Perkins, the female architect of FDR's New Deal, a major historical figure now largely unknown to the public.November 18 (Friday)Discussion — 4:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown CampusKirstin Downey, Award-winning journalist for the Washington Post, will make an appearance at the 2011

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-21458767609194918552011-11-16T12:26:00.000-05:002011-11-16T12:44:19.989-05:00

In his frequently hilarious and occasionally disturbing book about the modern legacy of the Civil War, Tony Horwitz (who visits tomorrow) spends a great deal of time with hardcore Confederate reenactors:"There's something in me that wishes we could really go the whole way," he said. "I'd take the chance of being killed just to see what it was really like to be under fire in the War." He paused,

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-29630729739597009692011-11-16T12:08:00.000-05:002011-11-16T12:19:19.869-05:00

Tony Horwitz, Pulitzer-winning journalist, will present his bold retelling of John Brown's anti-slavery raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, tomorrow at the New York State Museum, free and open to the public.November 17 (Thursday)Reading/Discussion — 7:30 p.m., Clark Auditorium, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center.Tony Horwitz, the featured speaker for the 2011 Researching New York Conference,

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-68050496594768185552011-11-16T09:13:00.000-05:002011-11-16T09:19:42.747-05:00

"When pressed to characterize Brown as an American hero or an American terrorist, Horwitz refused. 'He was neither,' he said. 'Or both. He was a complicated man.'"The Washington Post Arts Blog covered Tony Horwitz's book release party last Saturday for Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War (2011). More.Horwitz speaks tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 17, at the New York State

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8152506217976126697.post-68430146097100130722011-11-15T16:10:00.000-05:002011-11-15T16:27:52.849-05:00

"I happened to have been visiting a friend in the park on the other side of the park, and we heard the engines, and we heard the screams and rushed out and rushed over where we could see the trouble was. We could see this building from Washington Square, and the people had just begun to jump when we got there. They had been holding off until that time, standing in the windowsills, crowding, being

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"Spaniards also held a thanksgiving, 56 years before the Pilgrims, when they feasted near St. Augustine with Florida Indians, probably on stewed pork and garbanzo beans.""The early history of Spanish North America is well documented, as is the extensive exploration by the 16th-century French and Portuguese. So why do Americans cling to a creation myth centered on one band of late-arriving English

Mark Koplikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13316775444425356526noreply@blogger.com