Writer Richard Russo on Public Funding for Education

“I’m a product of public education, government-backed student loans, and publicly funded institutions like the Gloversville Free Library. If you’ve lost faith in them, you’ve lost faith in basic democratic principles.”

--Richard Russo, Gloversville novelist, quoted in the New York Times in an article by Steven Greenhouse about a campaign to renovate the Gloversville Library, March 24, 2105

More about Richard Russo:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/moore_russo09.html

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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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Lorrie Moore has a new book

Charles McGrath profiles major American writer Lorrie Moore and her new book of short stories (her first in 15 years) in yesterday's New York Times.

From the article:  Lorrie Moore doesn’t much resemble a Lorrie Moore character. She’s shy and self-deprecating but not melancholy, witty but not jokey. Her conversation doesn’t bristle with wordplay or throwaway one-liners; there are no zingers. Two of her favorite expressions are “I don’t know” and, added to the end of a sentence, “Or maybe not.”

More:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/books/lorrie-moores-new-book-is-a-reminder-and-a-departure.html?ref=arts&_r=0

A Glens Falls native, Moore visited the Writers Institute in 2009 and shared the stage with fellow upstater Richard Russo (of Gloversville) to celebrate the New York State Writers Institute's 25th Anniversary.

More on their visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/moore_russo09.html

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