Institute in the Times Union's "Year in the Arts"

"What stood out the most, though, was the New York State Writers Institute's fall season. To name just of few of the visitors from one of the best Writers Institute seasons of recent memory: Nobel Prize-winning novelist J. M. Coetzee and novelist Paul Auster lead a seminar on Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" in the afternoon on Oct. 12 and shared a conversation that night; Pulitzer-winner Junot Diaz, who was also named a MacArthur "genius" grant winner just days before his Oct. 4 appearance, led a seminar and a reading; and National Book Award-winner Denis Johnson gave a seminar and had his new play "Des Moines" presented as a staged reading on Nov. 12."

So writes Steve Barnes in today's Times Union.  Read more in "2012: Year in the Arts"--
http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/2012-Year-in-the-arts-4146769.php#page-3

Read More......

New York Times 100 Notable Books

Numerous Writers Institute visitors are featured in this year's edition of the New York Times 100 Notable Books.

Recent visitors (who have discussed the new books featured on the list) include Lauren Groff (Arcadia), Shalom Auslander (Hope: A Tragedy), Junot Diaz (This is How You Lose Her), David Quammen (Spillover), and Robert Caro (Passage of Power).

Other past visitors with new books on the list include Colm Toibin, Nathan Englander, Sherman Alexie, Steve Stern, Richard Ford, Barbara Kingsolver, Dave Eggers, Toni Morrison, John Irving, Louise Erdrich, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Kevin Young and David Nasaw.

Read More......

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.

Read More......

Avalon: Sci-fi Film on Friday

Speaking of apocalypse, Junot Diaz, who is fond of apocalyptic sci-fi, might be interested in Friday's movie, Avalon, which was selected for our "The Future of Film" series by major film critic J. Hoberman. The series highlights what is happening to film in the 21st century. This computer-generated film in particular illustrates the rise of films that "no longer have need of an actual world, let alone a camera."

AVALON
October 5 (Friday)Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
(Japan and Poland, 2001, 107 minutes, color and b/w)
In Polish with English subtitles

Japan’s Mamoru Oshii pioneered the concept of a computer-generated world on film with his 1995 anime feature, GHOST IN THE SHELL, a major inspiration for 1999’s THE MATRIX. With AVALON, Oshii creates what Hoberman calls, “a new sort of cyborg entity, namely a digital-photographic fusion.” Made with a Polish cast and a Japanese crew, the film employs digital versions of vintage, sepia-tone photographs to create a battle simulation game set in Eastern Europe in the mid-20th century.

Read More......

Junot Diaz Hates Writing Short Stories

"Every writer is cursed or blessed with a unique creative metabolism: the distinctive speed and efficiency with which he or she converts the raw fuel of life into the mystical, dancing blue smoke of art. Junot Diaz's metabolism is notoriously slow. His fuel just sits there, and sits there, and maybe every once in a while gives off a tiny ribbon of damp smoke, until you start to worry that it all got rained on and ruined — and then, 5 or 10 years later, it suddenly explodes into one of the most mesmerizing fires anyone can remember."

Read Sam Anderson's interview with Junot Diaz in the New York Times magazine.

Diaz visits us for two events this coming Thursday, 10/4, 4:15 and 8PM in the Campus Center.

Read More......

Junot Diaz reviewed in the New York Times

"Junot Díaz writes in an idiom so electrifying and distinct it’s practically an act of aggression, at once alarming and enthralling, even erotic in its assertion of sudden intimacy...."

Read more of Leah Hager Cohen's review of Diaz's This is How You Lose Her in last Sunday's New York Times Book Review.

Diaz visits on Thursday Oct. 4th.

Read More......

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. :)

Read More......