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 16^th, 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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Celebrating Motherhood as a Choice-- Katha Pollitt

Connie Schultz of the Washington Post reviews Katha Pollitt's new book on abortion: Pro. Pollitt visits the Institute on Jan. 29th.

Schultz writes:  Katha Pollitt may not appreciate my starting this review with her description of her own experience of motherhood, but this is my attempt to broaden her audience beyond the predictable cast for her small, powerful book. “People think of pregnant women as weak and vulnerable, but when I was pregnant with my daughter I felt as if I could put my hand in fire and it would only glow,” she writes in “Pro.” “I never felt alone: There were two of us, right there. I didn’t think of my child as an embryo or fetus. . . . I thought of her first as a funny little sea creature of indeterminate sex, and later, yes, as a baby, even though she was only a baby in my thoughts.”

To state what should be obvious, Pollitt, like most other women who support abortion rights, celebrates motherhood as a choice. The poet and columnist for the Nation is also one of the most eloquent champions for women’s reproductive freedom, and her latest book is a manifesto.

More in the Washington Post:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-pro-reclaiming-abortion-rights-by-katha-pollitt/2014/11/21/ba6498f0-52fb-11e4-809b-8cc0a295c773_story.html

More about Pollitt's upcoming visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/pollitt_katha15.html

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Mario Cuomo (1932-2015)

The New York State Writers Institute mourns the passing of Mario Cuomo, former New York Governor and a very dear friend of the Institute, who signed into law the legislation that created our organization in 1984.

Cuomo came to the Institute to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2009, his first public appearance in Albany since leaving the Governor's mansion in 1994. On that occasion, he shared the stage at Page Hall with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (pictured here).

More about his visit here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/cuomo_goodwin09.html 

The New York Times obituary:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/nyregion/mario-cuomo-new-york-governor-and-liberal-beacon-dies-at-82.html?_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/nyregion/mario-cuomo-new-york-governor-and-liberal-beacon-dies-at-82.html?_r=0

More photos from the 25th Anniversary here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/celebrate25.pdf

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Author Joe McGinniss Dies

Joe McGinniss, one of the creators and most influential authors of the "true crime" genre, is dead at age 71.

McGinniss visited the Writers Institute at UAlbany in November 2007 to present his true crime book, Never Enough.

Obituary in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/books/joe-mcginniss-71-dies-wrote-about-politics.html?_r=0

A remembrance in the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/03/postscript-joe-mcginniss-1942-2014.html

McGinniss also wrote the major nonfiction bestseller, The Selling of the President, 1968 (1969), a pioneering study of the role of marketing in Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign.

More about his visit to Albany:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/jmcginniss.html

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Elizabeth Floyd Mair interviews E. L. Doctorow in the Times Union

Q: Some critics might say that the focus of this novel is smaller and more confined than some of your earlier works, since it doesn't feature a large cast of characters but is just the voice of one man talking about his life. Yet to me it seemed vast anyway, because of the unexpected twists that Andrew's stories take. What's your sense of whether or not the story is smaller?

A: I would say rather that this novel is not formulaic fiction — it is not a linear narrative that has at its context a recognizable social reality — the world of business, say, or of domestic life, or of war. It is large on its own terms, as is an installation, or a cubist canvas that turns everything inside out.

More:  http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Seeing-through-another-s-eyes-5252956.php

Doctorow comes to UAlbany tomorrow, Thursday, 2/27:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html#doctorow

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Devil in the Grove to be a Major Motion Picture

Devil in the Grove, by Gilbert King (who visits Albany today), will be a Hollywood film from Lionsgate studios, which reportedly sees the film as a high priority.

Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, the co-writers of Ridley Scott's forthcoming biblical epic, Exodus, will write the script. Allison Shearmur, who produced The Hunger Games, is producing.

Read more in Deadline Hollywood:  http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/lionsgate-acquires-pulitzer-prize-winner-devil-in-the-grove-seminal-civil-rights-case-for-thurgood-marshall/

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Chinua Achebe Dies

Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, giant of world literature, who visited the Writers Institute on October 15, 1998, has died.

Though he never received the Nobel Prize, his 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart, is the world's most widely read African novel.

See an excerpt from his talk here in Albany on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZNAMPsmS4I

Read a BBC obituary here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21898664

Read the New York Times obit here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/world/africa/chinua-achebe-nigerian-writer-dies-at-82.html?_r=0

NPR obit here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/22/175025166/chinua-achebe-nigerian-author-of-things-fall-apart-dies

Photo: Video still,  Achebe at the New York State Writers Institute.

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A Writer on the Edge-- Nathan Englander

"Author Nathan Englander says there is a thin line between the work of his craft — obsessively, compulsively tweaking and writing and rewriting — and full-on madness. For him, that line is publication. In the months since his latest collection of short stories was published, Englander has been traveling, meeting people who feel they know him because they read his book. He's comfortable with that."

Nathan Englander visits UAlbany tomorrow: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/englander_nathan13.html

Read more of Leigh Hornbeck's profile of Englander in the Times Union:
http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/A-writer-on-the-edge-4337366.php

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Husband Interviews Wife in Daily Beast

Anthony Swofford, author of the bestselling Marine Corps memoir Jarhead, interviews his wife Christa Parravani in today's Daily Beast.  Parravani visits UAlbany and the New York State Museum downtown today.

Tony: You just said that she feared being “too much” and she’s a big figure in Her. If in your twin dynamic she was too much, were you too little? You make it clear that there were obviously competing psychologies going on from birth. Tell me more about that.
Christa: We never allowed ourselves to be the same. Identical twins are like that, always trying to carve out individuality. It was as if the world wasn’t a big enough place for us to be similar, and that forced us into trying to be opposite. We were fiercely competitive. It was simple at first when we were children. Cara liked vanilla ice cream, so I liked chocolate. I liked pink, so she liked blue. It really was that severe. Cara loved to sing, so I couldn’t sing—

Tony: She had a good point. I’ve heard you in the shower.
Christa: Ha. Ha.

More of the interview:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/07/without-her-twin-christa-parravani-s-debut-memoir.html

More about Christa's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/parravani_christa13.html

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"Very Traumatizing to Write This Book"

"It was emotionally draining and sometimes very traumatizing to write this book. Particularly since I didn't know how to write a book — this is my first book — I had to write things over and over again to get them right. And some of those things were the ones that were the hardest emotionally."

Read more of Ellizabeth Floyd Mair's interview with Christa Parravani (who visits on Thursday) in the Times Union:

http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Double-vision-4317715.php#ixzz2MhNYuEdP

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An Embarrassment for the Pulitzer Jury

"Mr. Quammen... is not just among our best science writers but among our best writers, period.... That he hasn’t won a nonfiction National Book Award or Pulitzer Prize is an embarrassment."

So writes Dwight Garner this month in the New York Times.

Read the article here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/books/spillover-by-david-quammen-on-how-animals-infect-humans.html?_r=0

Quammen visits us tomorrow:

David Quammen, nature writer and author
October 18 (Thursday)
Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Reading — 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

David Quammenis one of America’s leading nature writers. His new book is Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic (2012), about his travels in the remote corners of the globe with field researchers investigating disease outbreaks in rats, monkeys, bats, pigs, and other species, with the potential to “spillover” to humans. Walter Isaacson described the book as “a frightening and fascinating masterpiece of science reporting that reads like a detective story.” A widely-travelled contributing writer for National Geographic, and the author of the column, “Natural Acts,” for Outside magazine for 15 years, Quammen has written several nonfiction bestsellers, including The Reluctant Mr. Darwin (2006), Monster of God (2003), The Boilerplate Rhino (2001), and The Song of the Dodo (1996).

Cosponsored by UAlbany’s School of Public Health

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On the "Paradox" of Teaching Writing at MIT

Q: You teach creative writing at MIT. Isn't that like teaching astrophysics at Juilliard?

 

Junot Diaz:  It's more like teaching cooking in a state penitentiary.

 

More in USA Today:  http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/story/2012-09-05/junot-diaz-how-you-lose-her/57611976/1

 

Junot Diaz visits today.

 

Picture:  Cooking at the Arizona State Prison-Perryville Desert Rose Cafe, from the Arizona Republic.

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Alison Lurie offers comic relief in yesterday's Times Union

State Author Offers Comic Relief

by Paul Grondahl

ALBANY — If novelist Alison Lurie takes out her needles and yarn during the speechifying at the state author and state poet awards on Thursday at a Writers Institute program, take it as a sign that even the honoree is bored.

Knitting was Lurie's silent protest against the gasbags who droned on during English department faculty meetings at Cornell University, where she taught writing and children's literature for nearly 40 years.

More in the TU:  http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/State-author-offers-comic-relief-3878975.php

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New York State Poet & Author Inaugurated Tomorrow

Dear Readers, Writers, Teachers, Students and All Members of the General Public,

You are invited to attend the following free event:

NEW YORK STATE AUTHOR AND POET AWARDS AND READINGAlison Lurie, New York State Author 2012-2014 and Marie Howe, New York State Poet 2012-2014
September 20 (Thursday)
Reading — 8:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

 

Alison Lurie is celebrated for witty novels that examine middle class American life, particularly in small college towns inspired by Ithaca, New York. For her nuanced understanding and lifelike portrayal of social customs and relationships between the sexes, Lurie is widely regarded as the Jane Austen of contemporary American letters. Over the course of ten novels and half a century she has held a mirror up to people of her own generation as they navigate romance, marriage, parenthood, divorce, reconciliation, and advancing age. Her major novels include Truth and Consequences (2005), Foreign Affairs (1984), which received the Pulitzer Prize, The War Between the Tates (1974), and Love and Friendship (1962).

 

Marie Howe’s prize-winning poetry seeks answers to perplexing questions about life and death in ordinary moments and day-to-day experiences. As a teacher and poet, she searches for meaning and redemption in suffering and loss. She helped many come to terms with grief during the AIDS epidemic by writing compassionately about the loss of her brother to that disease, and by encouraging those impacted by AIDS to find their voices and be published. Her poetry collections include The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (2008), What the Living Do (1997), and The Good Thief (1988), which was selected by Margaret Atwood for the National Poetry Series. She also has received the Lavan Younger Poets Prize of the American Academy of Poets.

For more information contact 518-442-5620 or writers@albany.edu, or visit us online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/ . You may also wish to visit our blog at http://nyswiblog.blogspot.com/, or to friend us on Facebook. 

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Near-Riot in NYC Book Store for Junot Diaz

An appearance by bestselling writer Junot Diaz, who will visit us on 10/4, caused a near-riot in the Union Square Barnes and Noble yesterday. 1000 people showed up to meet the author in a space that only had capacity for 400. The NYPD was called in to assist with crowd control.

More in Colorlines.com:  http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/09/junot_diaz_nearly_causes_a_riot_in_new_york.html

The Assembly Hall, Campus Center, where he will speak at 4:15 and 8PM has an official capacity of 160. Feel free to weigh in if you think this is poor planning on our part. :)

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Our New Alison Lurie Page

Visit our new page for Alison Lurie, who will visit us on Thursday, September 20th to be inaugurated as New York's newest "Author Laureate," serving as New York State Author 2012-14 by executive order of Andrew Cuomo under the aegis of the New York State Writers Institute.

"Alison Lurie, is celebrated for witty and satirical novels that examine middle class American life, particularly in small northeastern college towns inspired by Ithaca, New York (where she has lived since 1961), and on the campuses of colleges inspired by Cornell University (where she taught from 1968 until her retirement as the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of American Literature in 1998)."

"For her nuanced understanding and lifelike portrayal of social customs and the relationships between the sexes, Lurie is widely regarded as the Jane Austen of contemporary American letters. Over the course of ten novels and half a century she has held a mirror up to people of her own generation as they navigate their lives."   More.

Picture from The Guardian.

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Talking about us in New Orleans

Don't they have more important things to think about?

The Times-Picayune in all-suffering New Orleans carried the AP news story about our new poet and author laureates, Alison Lurie and Marie Howe, appointed by executive order of Governor Andrew Cuomo, and serving under the aegis of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany. http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/ny-names-howe-and-lurie-state-poet-and-author/a0444add860c4deda7f84febf0f54925

You are invited to attend the awards ceremony on Thursday, September 20:

http://nyswiblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/state-author-and-poet-to-open-fall.html

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State Author and Poet to Open Fall Writers Series

NEW YORK STATE AUTHOR AND POET AWARDS AND READING
Alison Lurie, New York State Author 2012-2014 and Marie Howe, New York State Poet 2012-2014
September 20 (Thursday)
Reading — 8:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

Alison Lurie is celebrated for witty novels that examine middle class American life, particularly in small college towns inspired by Ithaca, New York. For her nuanced understanding and lifelike portrayal of social customs and relationships between the sexes, Lurie is widely regarded as the Jane Austen of contemporary American letters. Over the course of ten novels and half a century she has held a mirror up to people of her own generation as they navigate romance, marriage, parenthood, divorce, reconciliation, and advancing age. Her major novels include Truth and Consequences (2005), Foreign Affairs (1984), which received the Pulitzer Prize, The War Between the Tates (1974), and Love and Friendship (1962).
Marie Howe’s prize-winning poetry seeks answers to perplexing questions about life and death in ordinary moments and day-to-day experiences. As a teacher and poet, she searches for meaning and redemption in suffering and loss. She helped many come to terms with grief during the AIDS epidemic by writing compassionately about the loss of her brother to that disease, and by encouraging those impacted by AIDS to find their voices and be published. Her poetry collections include The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (2008), What the Living Do (1997), and The Good Thief (1988), which was selected by Margaret Atwood for the National Poetry Series. She also has received the Lavan Younger Poets Prize of the American Academy of Poets.

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NYS Writers Institute and Governor Cuomo Announce...

Governor Cuomo Announces State Poet and Author

Albany, NY (August 29, 2012)

Governor Cuomo today announced the appointments of Marie Howe to serve as the 10th New York State Poet and Alison Lurie as the 10th New York State Author. Ms. Howe and Ms. Lurie will serve from 2012 to 2014.

"Marie and Alison represent the rich talent and diversity that New York has to offer," Governor Cuomo said. "Both of them have inspired New Yorkers all across the state, and their works are major assets to us all. They are truly deserving of this honor, and hopefully their great work will now reach a new and even wider audience."

Donald Faulkner, Director of the NYS Writers Institute, and ex-officio chair of the review committee for the Walt Whitman Award for State Poet of New York, said, "Seldom have I encountered a poet with such a sense of honesty, intimacy, and candor in her work. Marie Howe writes with refreshing openness about love, loss, and redemption. Hers is a voice that will continue to grow in its magic and sheer bravery."

William Kennedy, Executive Director of the NYS Writers Institute, and ex-officio chair of the review committee for the Edith Wharton Award for State Author of the State of New York, said, "Alison Lurie is a wise and masterful teller of tales that often center on marital strife, domestic disorder, and academic absurdity–comedies of manners of our time but with a deeply human strain. She is a superior prose stylist with a wickedly satirical talent."

For full press release go to  http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/08292012statepoetandauthor

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Shalom Auslander Rescheduled!

The Auslander events have been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 24.

4:15PM Seminar in the Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

8PM Reading in the Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

For a not yet updated page on Auslander, click here.

Auslander's events on 3/1 were cancelled because of snow.

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