On loving and losing a twin...

Christa Parravani's new memoir of her deceased twin Cara was just named Amazon's "Featured Debut" for March 2013, as well as a "Best Book of the Month."

Also a noted photographer, the Guilderland High School graduate posed in a series of photos with Cara shortly before her death. One of them (featured here) graces the cover of the book.

Parravani visits the Institute this coming Thursday:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#christa

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The Art of the Obituary

"Novelist, short story writer, and essayist Ann Hood loves obituaries. She says that they are a difficult form to write, since they must bring a character 'back to life' in a very compressed space."

Elizabeth Floyd Mair of the Times Union interviews Ann Hood about her new novel, The Obituary Writer (2013):  http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Telling-tales-of-two-lives-4298288.php

Ann Hood shares the stage with novelist Eugene Mirabelli tomorrow, Tuesday, 2/26:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mirabelli_hood13.html

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On Losing a Child

No writer has confronted the reality of losing a child more bravely than Ann Hood, whose 2007 novel, The Knitting Circle, and 2008 memoir, Comfort: A Journey Through Grief, seek meaning and healing where both would seem unattainable-- in the death of her five year old daughter, Grace.

Hood, who visits the Writers Institute on 2/26, explores grief and loss and paths to emotional survival in all of her subsequent work, including her new novel, The Obituary Writer (2013).

Here is a 2011 article from Salon, "What I never told anyone about her death":  http://www.salon.com/2011/05/17/ann_hood_daughter_mortifying_disclosure/

More on her visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mirabelli_hood13.html

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Praise for Ann Hood, Who Visits Tuesday

Bestselling author Ann Hood's soon-to-be-released novel, The Obituary Writer (Feb. 25, 2013) has earned high praise from some recent visitors to the NYS Writers Institute:

Andre Dubus III: “It is a rare novelist who can summon the creative nerve to plumb the depths of grief, but that's just what Ann Hood does here with such compassion and grace. The Obituary Writer is an unflinching exploration of loss and the love that somehow remains, one that both wounds and heals. This is a deeply engaging and moving book.”

Tom Perrotta:  “In this poignant and incisive novel, Ann Hood brings history back to life in the most intimate way, chronicling the love affairs and heartbreaks of two very different women in two very different times. Moving gracefully and persuasively between post-earthquake San Francisco and the early 1960s, The Obituary Writer makes unexpected connections between these two bygone eras, and in the process, manages to illuminate the present as well as the past.”

More on Ann Hood's upcoming visit with Gene Mirabelli, Tuesday, Feb. 26: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mirabelli_hood13.html

More on Dubus' 2008 visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/dubus_andre08.html

More on Perrotta's 2011 visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/perrotta_tom11.html

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Her Brother's Death, a Rebirth

Poet Marie Howe, whose brother died of AIDS in 1989, searches for paradoxical redemption and elusive meaning in death and suffering.

Howe, who helped many find their voice in poetry during the AIDS epidemic, will be inaugurated as New York's official State Poet tomorrow Sept. 20th at 8PM at Page Hall.

Here is a poem about her brother's death, one of many, from her bestselling collection, What the Living Do (1997):

The Gate

By Marie Howe

I had no idea that the gate I would step through

to finally enter this world

 

would be the space my brother's body made. He was

a little taller than me: a young man

 

but grown, himself by then,

done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,

 

rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold

and running water.

 

This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.

And I'd say, What?

 

And he'd say, This—holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.

And I'd say, What?

 

And he'd say, This, sort of looking around.

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Eugene Mirabelli in the TU

81-year-old novelist and UAlbany English professor emeritus Gene Mirabelli, the recent loss of his beloved wife and muse Margaret Black, his struggle with grief, and his new novel Renato the Painter are the subjects of a large profile on the front page of the Times Union's "Unwind" section.

Paul Grondahl writes:

"[Mirabelli] understands firsthand that life can change in an instant, whether in his own real-world experiences or the plot of his novels."  More.

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