Colin Powell recalls Joe Persico in today's Gazette

Gloversville native Persico's work, friendship recalled

Author died Saturday at 84

Bill Buell, Schenectady Gazette

GUILDERLAND — Colin Powell didn’t need a second meeting. As soon as he and Joseph Persico shook hands for the first time, something told the general he had found his man.“We had gone through numerous candidates and no one had clicked,” said the former U.S. secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was looking for a collaborator to write his autobiography in 1993. “I was actually getting a bit desperate. Then my agent said, ‘We have one more guy, this Persico guy,’ so I said, ‘OK, let’s meet him.’ Well, we hit it off pretty well. He became my collaborator, and it was one of the best choices I ever made in my life.”

More in the Gazette:   http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2014/sep/04/gloversville-native-persicos-work-friendship-fondl/

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2013 Tony Winner Christopher Durang in the Gazette

Bill Buell of the Schenectady Gazette profiles Christopher Durang who visits UAlbany today:

As a young boy, Christopher Durang had no interest in short stories or novels. His passion was to write for the stage.

“When I was 8 I announced to my mother that I was going to write a play,” said Durang, whose latest work, “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play.

“Well, I kept on writing them and they kept on getting made. I always wrote plays, and I don’t quite know why. I think it might have been because my mother loved the theater and was always talking about it.”

More in the Gazette:  http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2014/mar/08/durang-wrote-stage-early-age-talk-ualbany-tonight/

More about Durang's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/durang_chris14.html

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Pulitzer Winner Gil King Returns to Niskayuna High

Gil King, graduate of Niskayuna High School, returned to his hometown on Monday to talk with high school students. King, who visited the Writers Institute in September 2013, received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction for Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, The Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, an elegantly written account of the future Supreme Court Justice’s role in defending four black men falsely accused of raping a white woman in Florida in 1949.

Bill Buell of the Schenectady Gazette reports:

     [King] was thrilled that so many students seemed interested and excited by their interaction with a Pulitzer Prize winner.He conceded a similar situation probably wouldn’t have interested him when he was in high school.
     “Yeah, I would have checked out mentally of something like this back then,” he said. “But everybody seemed to be paying attention and that was nice. They asked a lot of questions, and some were very passionate and I love that. I was shocked. I can’t believe how much time I let pass in high school without paying attention to anything.”

More in the Gazette:  http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2014/mar/04/0304_king/

More about King's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/king_gilbert13.html

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"Essayist Douglas Bauer examines future exquisitely"

Douglas Bauer's new collection of essays about life and death and his Iowa farm boyhood is reviewed in his hometown newspaper, the eastern Iowa Gazette, October 27, 2013:

"While it’s common to wonder what happens after we die, it’s not as common — or as pleasing a discussion at a party, say — to speculate on how we will age and eventually pass."

"However, this question posed itself quite plainly to author and essayist Douglas Bauer when, in his early sixties, he found himself needing a series of routine surgical procedures. As he was waking up from the first of two cataract surgeries, Bauer received word that his mother passed away.This experience was the catalyst for Bauer’s moving collection of personal essays, 'What Happens Next?' (University of Iowa Press)."

Read more in The Gazette:  http://thegazette.com/2013/10/27/essayist-douglas-bauer-examines-future-exquisitely/

Read more about Douglas Bauer's event tomorrow, Tuesday, 10/28:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/bauer_douglas13.html

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Grayce Burian-- Love, Europe, Stage

Bill Buell contributes an article to the Schenectady Gazette discussing Grayce Burian's book about her 54 years of marriage to the late theatre scholar Jarka Burian.

"Writing it was a kind of healing, and I'm glad I did it and I'm glad I could do it," said Burian. "Just to have if for my family was important. Originally I had no intention of publishing it."

Grayce Burian is a retired theatre scholar herself, and a key figure in the Capital Region's theatre community. Through the Jarka & Grayce Susan Burian Endowment, she supports the annual Burian Lecture Series on the Theatre, cosponsored by the NYS Writers Institute and UAlbany Department of Theatre.

Picture: Grayce with filmmaker John Sayles at the Writers Institute, February 2012.

Full article here:
http://olivedev.dailygazette.net/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMailGifMSIE&Type=text/html&Path=SCH/2013/10/13&ID=Ar04000&Locale=&ChunkNum=0

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Rejected by 35 Publishers, Gilbert King

“I also want beginning writers to know that you need some good luck to be successful. This book was rejected by 35 publishers, mostly because my first book didn’t sell very well.”

Gilbert King, Niskayuna native and Pulitzer-winning author of Devil in the Grove, talks to Jack Rightmyer of the Gazette about writing, Thurgood Marshall, boyhood dreams of being a baseball player, and more.

Article in the Gazette:  http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2013/sep/21/marshalls-legacy-inspires-book-niskayuna-native/?free

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Heaney Obituary in the Associated Press

"He was a wonderful raconteur. There was so much local enthusiasm for his work...." --NYS Writers Institute Director Donald Faulker, quoted in the AP obituary for Seamus Heaney (with contributions from Bethany Bump of the Schenectady Gazette).

More here:  http://www.dailygazette.net/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=U0NILzIwMTMvMDgvMzEjQXIwMzAwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

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Central Park Five in the Schenectady Gazette

Sara Foss of the Gazette writes an article in conjunction with tomorrow's UAlbany screening of Ken Burns' Central Park Five, followed by a Q&A with co-directors Sarah Burns and David McMahon.

"Sarah Burns learned about the case in 2003 while working as an intern for Jonathan Moore, one of the attorneys representing the five young men wrongfully convicted of the jogger’s rape and assault. Burns wrote her undergraduate thesis on the case, and followed it with a book titled “The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding.” But the project wasn’t over....  “I couldn’t let go of this story,” Burns said. “I was so curious about it.”
More in the Gazette:  http://www.dailygazette.net/standard/ShowStoryTemplate.asp?Path=SCH/2013/04/04&ID=Ar03301&Section=Life_and_Arts

More about the event:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#central

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Christa Parravani in the Schenectady Gazette

"Her. That’s what Christa Parravani’s identical twin sister, Cara, used to call her. The two shared almost everything: looks, fears, interests, hopes. And when Cara died of a heroin overdose in 2006, at the age of 28, Christa’s world was ripped apart. Grief-stricken, she spiraled into a self-destructive depression. Like Cara, she abused drugs and attempted suicide. Unlike Cara, she survived. Parravani tells her harrowing story in her new memoir, “Her,” which goes on sale Tuesday and was named Amazon’s 'Featured Debut' for March."

"In Her, Parravani credits Guilderland High School and the guidance of caring teachers with helping her and Cara succeed and cultivating their interest in the arts."
For more highlights of Sara Foss's profile of Christa Parravani (who visits UAlbany on Thursday), visit http://www.dailygazette.net/standard/ShowStoryTemplate.asp?Path=SCH/2013/03/03&ID=Ar00901&Section=Local_News

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Junot Diaz Likes Character Flaws

Jack Rightmyer of the Schenectady Daily Gazette interviewed Junot Diaz on Sunday. The Pulitzer-winning fiction writer visits the Institute this coming Thursday.

“Characters who have all the answers and know exactly how to live and how to always do the right thing give off very little heat in a story,” he said in a recent phone interview.

“Most of us love ambivalence,” he said, “and my character Yunior is one of those dicey cats that will at times turn off and offend readers. He often makes the wrong choice, especially in relationships, but I still thought writing about him would be worth the risk because he’s an honest cat and there’s something refreshing about that.”  More.

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Gazette's Best Books of 2011

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 Director Suzanne Lance.

You can access the first page of the Gazette article here, but you need a subscription to access the full article.

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